On Thursday 21st, we celebrated World Down Syndrome Day by wearing odd socks to school! We were colourful, innovative and imaginative and we raised some money for a very worthy cause.

The Cumann na mBunscol Hurling season starts on Tuesday March 26th. This year the buachaillí will play in Roinn 3. They will take on the boys from Ballyfin, Portlaoise ETNS, Killenard, Rath, Gaelscoil Phortlaoise and Scoil Bhríde, Knockmay.

The cailíní will play in Roinn 2 and will be pitted against Paddock, Killadooley, Portarlington and Derrylamogue.

We wish them all the best!

On March 15th, we joined with other schools around the country in the Global Citizenship School campaign to cut down on the use of single-use plastic. We decided not to wear plastic accessories to school to celebrate our national holiday. Instead, we sang, danced, crafted and played music and entered into the true spirit of St Patrick’s weekend.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh go léir!

Rang 2 celebrated the Sacrament of Penance in Ratheniska Church on Wednesday 13th March.  The celebrants were Fr. Paddy and Fr Eddie. The children attended the ceremony with their parents and enhanced the occasion with some lovely hymns. We are grateful to Mrs Stapleton for preparing the children for the occasion.

 24 boys and girls from 6th Class received the Sacrament of Confirmation in SS Peter and Paul’s Church in Portlaoise on Saturday 9th . Following the ceremony, which was celebrated by Bishop Denis Nulty and the priests of the parish, the pupils spent the rest of the day enjoying their time with family and friends.  A huge thank you to Mr Conway for preparing the boys and girls for their big day.

We  celebrated World Book Day in many classes on March 5th.  3rd Class and Rang 6 got together and re-read some favourites from their infant years. They then set about  adapting and recreating the stories with a twist.They used their IT skills to publish the stories using the Ipads and Adobe Spark. It was a great learning experience for all.

Juniors and 6th Class got together to create some crafts based on the theme of  transport.  As we were learning all about reducing, reusing and recycling, we used cereal boxes, plastic bottles cardboard tubes etc. We enjoyed the process of planning and creating and our final products made us realise that it’s more fun to reuse some materials instead of simply throwing them in the bin!

There were many happy faces today as several classes explored the procedure of making pancakes. Despite having made some at home already this morning, the older boys and girls set about perfecting their culinary skills and making and tossing the perfect pancake. Honey, chocolate sauce, maple syrup and the tried and tested sugar and lemon were spread and everyone agreed that Pancake Tuesday is indeed a special day!