Sonas, Spraoi and Sásta had a fantastic day in Maghu’s Castle in Kilimagh on Thursday the 30th of May. We arrived at 10am and the children showed great excitement as they delved into their indoor play. The children explored indoor mazes, a rope bridge, large ball pit, a fun booster cannon game and a large slide. We also had access to a newly opened state of the art sensory room including light projectors, fibre optic strands, mirrors, music, a colour changing fish tank and bean bags.

Afterwards we headed to their party room where the children had a feast of chicken nuggets, sausages, chips and ice-cream. After much energetic play and a delicious lunch we headed to the Town Theatre and watched the animated movie ‘Moana’.

We had a wonderful day overall and everybody behaved brilliantly and enjoyed themselves. We want to thank Mrs Colson, Ms Munnelly, Ms Ruane, Margaret, Lorraine, Fiona, Yvonne, Michelle, Esther and Claire for taking care of us today.

What a day Rang 5/6 had in Dublin for their school tour. From start to finish the day offered us lots of fantastic experiences. The weather forecast hadn’t been great, but the sun came out to welcome us to the capital on many occasions!

We had an early start at 8.30am but the excitement on everyone’s faces was a sign of all the great times ahead we would have. Our first stop in Dublin brought us to the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman, Niall Muldoon. We learned all about the Children’s Charter of Rights, had a cinema experience, group workshops and chill-out time on their fabulous buddha bags. As ever our students were a joy to have with us and were very impressive in their input into the session. Our facilitators Aoife and Stephen were very impressed by the children’s knowledge and interesting questions regarding children’s rights, and commented on the excellent levels of manners and enthusiasm.

We then headed off to our second destination St. Patrick’s Cathedral to board the hilarious, exciting and informative Viking Splash Tour. Sitting in the open-topped 1940’s amphibious vehicles used first in the D-Day landings in Normandy, our tour guides imparted vast knowledge on some of the most famous historical sites around the city. With the Bórd Gáis theatre in sight, we parked at the Grand Canal Basin and our guides passed out the life jackets for the next treat of the day…our buses took to the water and we continued our sightseeing of Dublin, all the time entertained by our guides. Back at base in Christchurch, we all agreed on one thing for sure…that this was so much fun!

Croke Park is a familiar stop for many, however we rarely get to look behind the scenes. The children were treated to a tour of the grounds and facilities. We got to see the player’s lounge, dressing rooms, warm up area and we even got to climb the hallowed steps to collect Sam! Once we had raised the famous cup, we took on the vertigo inducing Skyline tour. After climbing 140 steps, we were led on a bird’s eye tour of some more famous sights of the city, with lots of informative facts and tales from our tour guides. We saw Mountjoy Prison, Poolbeg, Christchurch, The Four Courts, Glasnevin Cemetary, the Olympic torch sculpture and much more. At 44 metres in the air we had an amazing view of the city and the grounds, along with the added excitement of the sky-high walk.

All that was left was our journey home with a yummy treat along the way! We got back to school at 10.00pm and were still all full of beans as we could not have asked for a better day, and as always our children made us so proud with their good humour, manners and sense of fun.

This certainly was a day to remember!

Comhghairdeachas to our Second Class students who earleir received their First Holy Communion in St.James’ Church Charlestown. It was a very special ceremony with each of the children participating wonderfully and adding to the ceremony.

A very special word of thanks to Mr.Clarke for all his hard work in preparing the children so well, Fr Johnston and Fr.Doherty for a lovely ceremony and their continuous support to the children, Ms.Connaghan for all her work in preparation and today with her beautiful choir, to Michelle and Helen who ran the adoration preparation programme ‘Children of the Eucharist’ and finally míle buíochas again to Helen and Joseph McCafferty for their beautiful artwork which decorated the church.
After the ceremony we all visited the Pastoral Centre where we enjoyed beautiful treats served up by our First Class parents. We thank them sincerely for their time and hard work on the morning and in preparation. Again, it added so much to this special occasion.

Finally thank you to all our Mum’s and Dad’s and family members who were there to support our wonderful Second Class. We are all so proud of the children. We hope each of you enjoyed this special day!

Comhghairdeachas to the Ms.McDonagh’s 5th Class and Mr.Rushe’s 6th Class students who received the sacrament of Confirmation at St.James’ Church earlier.

Míle buíochas to all our parents, family members and to the children’s sponsors who played such an important role in lead up and during today’s ceremony A very special word of thanks also to Ms. McDonagh and Mr.Rushe who prepared the children so well and to Mrs McCafferty for all her hard work in ensuring the church looked beautiful. This was a real team effort.

Thank you to Fr Johnston who confirmed the children. It was our privilege to have Fr Johnston officiate and share this special celebration in the children lives. We thank him for a lovely ceremony. Thank you also to Fr.Doherty who assisted and again added so much to today’s ceremony.

Finally, it was really lovely to share this special day with our neighbours and friends from Barnacúige NS, Clooonlyon NS and Tavneena NS. We are grateful to all the local schools for their support in ensuring today was a great success for all.

We hope everyone enjoys the rest of this special day!