Dear Parent/ Guardian,
A sincere thank you for your dedicated and continued work in adhering to our Covid-19 control measures in the school. We have been very successful in our fight against Covid and this is in a huge way due to the great work done by you and your family in complying with the control measures. We appreciate also that many families have taken extra precautions to keep our school safe. Thank you for your consideration, responsibility and respect for our whole school community.
As always, there is a great Christmas spirit in Kilmurry N.S. with lots of festive things happening! There are lots of sightings again this year of Santa’s robin and even rumours of a zoom call with Santa himself!
We hope you enjoy reading this Christmas Newsletter and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram.
Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise daoibh go léir!
New Website
We have launched a new school website: https://www.kilmurry-ns.ie. Here you can find our enrolment form, policies, calendars, newsletters and learn more about the initiatives we have going on in the school.
12 Days of Kindness
This year the Student Council have created a ‘12 Days of Kindness’ programme for the count-down to the Christmas holidays. They have included acts of kindness for both school and home as follows:
| Date | Action |
| 6th December | Listen to teacher |
| 7th December | Sweep the floor/ pick up toys |
| 8th December | Freeze on the whistle |
| 9th December | Do the best you can |
| 10th December | Bring plates and cups to the sink |
| 13th December | Follow classroom rules |
| 14th December | No shouting at brothers and sisters |
| 15th December | Use kind words eg please and thank you |
| 16th December | Use polite greetings |
| 17th December | Include classmates in games |
| 20th December | Stack the dishwasher |
| 21st December | Set the table for dinner |
Drop Off Tables
We have a table at both the Front Door and the Infant’s Door for parents to drop off forgotten lunches, hurleys etc.
For 3rd -6th class pupils, please leave on the table at the Front Door.
For Junior -2nd class, please leave on the table at the Infant’s Door.
Don’t forget to check out our new Instagram page – You can follow us to see pictures of our work and the fun things we get up to in school. You can find us at kilmurry.ns or by clicking on the link: https://instagram.com/kilmurry.ns?utm_medium=copy_link
Gaisce Award – Bulbs for Bees
We have been working with Kilmurry Tidy Towns to apply for the ‘Bulbs for Bees’ Gaisce Award. Raphael tells us more:
‘In the month of October, at the top of the yard around the Astro-Turf Supporters’ Wall we planted bulbs of many sorts for a rare sort of bee. We had volunteers from the Tidy Towns Committee (Carmel, Deirdre and Monika) to make this possible. The bulbs are already growing their roots probably due to global warming. Students in 5th and 6th have also given a hand by bringing out their rulers and measuring the size and length of the planter boxes. A while after that we started planting the bulbs with our volunteers. All students again from 5th and 6th Kilmury NS came outside and broke up the soil and planted the bulbs. We went through a few challenges along the way but after a while we made it possible.’
By Raphael
Scarecrows
As part of our STEAM initiatives, 3rd-6th classes have had great fun creating their own scarecrows. Céire tells us more:
In October, we were making scarecrows. There were five different scarecrows made. We started by bringing in materials like a wooden frame, some straw and clothes. Then, when the time came, we went out to the front of the school and started building. It was great fun to build our scarecrows while having fun with our friends. We went out about twice a week to work on the scarecrows. Then it was time for judging! We did our own vote, just for fun, which ‘Elliot Kaf-Gro’ by Sarah, Dougie, Sean, Ceire, and Ronan won. Juniors and senior infants picked the scarecrow by Cian, Calum, Colum, Isaac and Renata. First and second picked the same scarecrow. Third and Fourth picked Patch by Mary, Heidi, Aishling, Emily and Clodagh!
STEPS -Engineering Project
STEPS Young Engineers Award competition encourages 3rd and 4th class pupils to explore the world of engineering by developing an engineering project that would help improve their local community.
With the help of our past pupil, Cathal Roche, 3rd/4th class designed some excellent projects and presented them via zoom to Cathal. Noah tells us more:
‘This year 3rd and 4th class took part in STEPS. What is STEPS? STEPS is when you learn about engineering and you make your own engineering projects. Schools from all over the country take part. When you have your project done a judge comes in to view them. Our judge was Cathal Roche who is a past pupil of Kilmurry National School. Cathal also told us lots about engineering. We had great fun creating and designing our projects.
Thanks to Ms Collins and Cathal Roche.’
Christmas Videos
Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions we will not be able to have our traditional Christmas Concert this year. Instead, classes have recorded Christmas videos which we will share with you via Seesaw or email. We would ask that you respect the privacy of the pupils by not sharing the videos on social media.
Enrolment for New Junior Infants
Enrolment for 2022-23 is now open. Please contact the office on secretary@kilmurry-ns.ie or 061 367623. The enrolment form can be downloaded from our school website where you can also view our annual admission notice: www.kilmurry-ns.ie
Intel Mini Scientist
Well done to Ms Gleeson and 5th/6th class on the excellent mini scientist projects. Céire tells us more:
‘This year we took part in Mini Scientist. We went into groups of a few people and started brainstorming ideas. We had six groups with six different ideas. We then started typing our project books and planning experiments. Then over midterm, some groups met up to farther discuss ideas. We were given our days to present, and then we were putting the finishing touches on our projects. We had three different days to present. ‘How does 24 hours of no sleep affect our bodies?’ by the Sleepless Scientists, Joe, Zack Sheedy, Aishling and Heidi won and they are going on to compete against other schools. Good luck to the Sleepless Scientists!’
Author in Junior Infants
Thanks to author Mary Murphy for her zoom readings and workshop with the Infants. Great fun was had by all! You can see Mary’s books at https://www.marymurphy.ie/home
Lego Coding
Lego Coding gives children a fun introduction to coding and engineering. Thanks to Ms Coughlan, we have managed to get the loan of some Lego Coding boxes from Clare Education Centre. Larry tells us more about it:
‘On Friday we went down to meet Ms. Coughlan to do some Lego coding. Firstly, she showed what was in the box by showing us the sheet that came in everyone’s box which showed all the components in the kit. Secondly, we filled out some information in the workbook. Thirdly we got into the fun stuff when we built a snail which we coded to change different colours. Lastly, we made a fan that would spin around using one of the motors included. To summarize we had a lot of fun doing this.’
Guided Reading
Our Guided Reading with the Roald Dahl novels has been a big success! Thanks to the Parents’ Association for supporting us in buying the novels. Noah and Kielan tell us more:
‘Every morning in school we go to a different classroom for our guided reading. There are four different stations in the room. There is a teacher at each station and we all have a Roald Dahl novel. Work is planned out for each group. Teachers work with each group on activities and it is lots of fun. The title of our books were James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Magic Finger, the BFG, Fantastic Mr. Fox. We have a chapter each night to read at home. This was a fun way of learning about all these novels. Afterwards, we got to take an AR quiz on the novel.’
Mural
Thanks to the support of local artist Shona McGillivray, 3rd/4th class have completed the mural on the yard wall. The yard is now alive with our native animals! You can check out the pictures of the mural on our Instagram page and you can find more of Shona’s work at https://shonamacgillivray.com. Kielan tells us more about their work:
We have created a mural on the school yard wall. Local artist, Shona MacGillivray helped with the outline and 3rd and 4th painted it in. We had to draw it on a piece of paper and then we got to transfer it on to the wall. It took us a long time because of the bad weather. On the wall we drew a mammoth, an Irish elk, planets, jellyfish, lizard, basking shark, seahorse and many more. It has really brightened up our school yard!
By Kielan
Thank you for your ongoing cooperation and support. Have a lovely Christmas and see you in 2022.
Is mise le meas,
Kevin Clohessy
Principal