Directional Language in Junior Infants

Junior Infants have had lots of fun recently learning all about directional language. They have taken part in lots of hands on activities which incorporated directions and directional language but also lots of creativity, problem solving and engineering in the mix too!

One activity they took part in was to create mazes from our Lego boards and lego to create a clever maze for which a ball or marble needed to make its way through. The children had to work bery patiently in groups to design their own mazes and had to think with an engineering mind to over come problems such as:

• -How do we get the ball to take the path we want it to take?

• How do we stop the ball from bouncing over the lego walls?

• what happens if we make the ball roll faster/slower?

• What happens if the path isn’t wide enough for the ball?

• what happens if we use a dice instead of a ball?

We took some pictures and videos to share of some of our creations! See if you can spot any of the clever booby traps that were included in some of the mazes!

We also put our directional language skills into use with some coding by exploring directions with our school set of BeeBots and BeeBot mats! BeeBots are really clever computer robots that need to be programmed to move. However, if you programme them wrong and give them the wrong directions they will get lost on their town maps and wont make it to the desired location! The children were so good at their directions in Junior Infants however that all the Beebots are accounted for and a search party wasn’t required to get any of them back to the charging dock!

Acorn Picking with the Nature Trust in Ballygannon Wood Rathdrum

Today 1st class were invited to take part in some acorn picking as organised by the Nature Trust in Ballygannon wood in Rathdrum. We began the day with a cosy bus ride to Ballygannon where we had fun chatting to our friends about the trip ahead. When we arrived we had a little snack before we were taken on a guided tour of the woods. We were given identification keys to show us some of the trees/berries/nuts we might see on our journey. We had great fun exploring the woods.

When our guided tour ended we had fun drawing pictures of our most exciting finds during the day before we enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate. The boys and girls would like to say a huge thank you to the Nature Trust for your invitation for today, we had a fantastic time!

Harvest Offerings

On Friday we had our Harvest school service where the children brought in donations of non-perishable food for charity. We donated the food to the Local Lions Club. We wish to say a huge thank you to the school community for your kind donations on Friday.

The classes each made their contribution to the service, which was attended by lots of parents and grandparents, by focusing on where the food we eat comes from.

Katie-George Dunleavy visits Nun's Cross NS

We were delighted to be visited by the super talented paralympic cycling and current World Champion Katie-George Dunleavy who kindly paid us a visit to show off her unbelievable medals. We all gathered in the church and welcomed Katie with an original song ‘Katie-George you’re the best!’ which was written by 3rd class and their teacher, Ms Honner.

Katie-George spoke to us about all the hard work she puts in with her training to enable her to compete at the highest level and we were very impressed to hear that she is already eyeing up the next Paralympics! We were also blown away to hear about her serious injury which she had in the lead up to the paralympics. Thankfully, it didn’t result in her having to pull out from competing. What a brave athlete. Following this the children were given the opportunity to ask Katie-George some questions. We learned that she enjoys porridge for breakfast, she sometimes gets noticed when she’s out in public, and she trains every single day! We also learned that Katie-George did not win every race or competition she ever entered. She spoke to us about the times she lost, and she told us this is where she learned the most about herself and her sport. This is a hugely valuable lesson for us all to learn, we can’t always win everything, but it's important to always keep trying and working, even when it’s difficult, hard work pays off!

After all of our questions were answered, each class got the opportunity to take their picture with Katie-George and we even got to hold and pose with her medals. What an inspiring day! We would also like to say a huge thank you to Maija for facilitating this visit, it meant the world to us.

Wicklow Invitational Cross Country Relays

Last week a group of 40 students from 3rd - 6th class went to Avondale to participate in the Wicklow invitational cross country relays. Teams were made up of 4 boys or 4 girls and pupils from 3rd and 4th class ran the 4 x 200m and pupils from 5th and 6th class ran the 4 x 400m race. The children made us superbly proud on the day, running incredibly well to help their team mates and pass the baton as quickly as possible without giving up. Take a look at some of the action below!

The Vikings and Under the Sea in 3rd class

Third class enjoyed learning about the Vikings and Under the Sea in September. Have a look at their great theme-based work!

Letter writing workshop with Plunkett Press

A number of weeks ago our 4th & 5th class were invited to a letter writing workshop in Ashford village which was run by Plunkett Press. The children learned all about how letters are printed, they had great fun writing their own letters and posting them to their own special someone.

Creative Day 2024

Creative Day was a alive and well this year as the children in Nun’s Cross got stuck into a variety of creative activities. The activities were lead by teachers, parents and children and each one gave the children an opportunity to explore a new avenue of creativity! A huge amount of fun was had on the day and everyone went home full of enthusiasm and with their creative juices flowing! Check out our activities below! If you have any ideas for our next Creative Day make sure to let us know! Check out the slide show below, or scroll down for more details on each creative station!

We were delighted to welcome in Carla for creative day this year. She comes from a family of mosaic artists and we were delighted to have her in sharing her creative trade with the children. They all really enjoyed working with the tiles and created some beautiful pieces!

We had some sports creations on the day too which were lead by some of the students in the senior end. We were delighted to see their leadership and creativity in action. They created some fun games for the classes to try out and a huge amount of fun was had. Along the way, some of the classes added their own ideas to the games too so no game was every the same!

A form annual favourite is tie dying and it was a huge hit this year too. The children worked very hard to create original tie die pieces and we cant wait to see how they turn out when they are dry! Thank you to some of our wonderful paste pupils for returning for the day and helping out with this station. Their experience of the day over the past few years shone through and they were a huge help, especially to the younger children.

Each class had a space in the busy timetable to create their own individual creations which will be sold on a creative stall on our annual Family Fun Day. The children have worked very hard creating, painting and sculpting. We wont give too much away ahead of Family Day but its safe to say you need to be sure to get to the creative stall early!

Mrs Pearse led her very popular jewellery making class and many children in the school came away with beautiful individually create beaded bracelets! We are sure you will agree that they are beautiful!

Our Computer managers front he senior end of the school took the lead, once again, with a coding station. They have worked tirelessly with our suite of iPads and Laptops to make sure they were up to scratch for all the wonderful activities the boys had created for each class this year. The junior classes had great fun learning how to programme the Bee Bot Robots while the older classes really enjoyed some programming on Scratch!

Once again, Creative Day was so much fun. Thank you to everyone who got involved. We already cant wait for next year!

5th & 6th class No Lunchbox Day

On Friday Ms Mulholland’s 5th and 6th class had their No Lunchbox Day to raise money to cover the tour to Emerald Park. An amazing effort was made by the class in planning an exciting line up of entertainment alongside some delicious foods and tasty treats. Children in all classes left their lunchboxes at home for the day and their lunch was provided for them by 5th & 6th class. The menu had lots on offer, including hotdogs, veggie dogs, deli rolls and fruit skewers, and once a healthy lunch was eaten there was an array of baked goods including cookies, brownies, flapjacks, rocky road, cupcakes and ice lollies. Music was provided on the day by Molly, Jack and Isaac who had some really cool dance moves on display. Additional activities which were provided for included hair braiding, bracelet making, nail painting, face painting and shooting some hoops. Take a look at some of the action from the day below!

Active Week 2024

Cumann na mBunscoil GAA Champions in Nun's Cross

Yesterday, two teams departed the school for Bray Emmets GAA to participate in the Cuman na mBunscoil finals. One team of 6th class boys and one team made up of 4th & 5th class boys, each playing in separate groups, both did us extremely proud. The boys played some fantastic football, but even more impressive was their kindness and the team spirit they showed which gained them great praise from other teachers, referees and indeed spectating parents.

Our 6th class boys played 3 matches, meeting St Peters from Bray, Gaelscoil Cill Mhantain and Greystones Educate Together, winning them all and topping our group’s table and making it to the final. In the final we played Greystones Educate Together, and we emerged victorius with a scoreline of 13 points to 3. This team of boys have won our first ever team silverware which we are immensely proud of, such an amazing achievement.

Bike Riding

Hugh Arthur from Boardsports and Outdoor Ireland was in doing some cycling with our junior classes today. We were absolutely blessed with lovely weather to make it even better!

The children from Junior Infants up to 2nd class were riding bikes, with some beginners starting on the balance bikes before many making the move up to cycling pedal bikes almost independently. Many children brought their own bikes to school today for the session. The children were absolutely delighted, practicing their pedalling, balance, steering and changing direction. We look forward to Hugh coming to visit again next week for another junior session. After that he will be working with our 3rd to 6th class students for a few weeks also.

6th Class Trip to the Aviva

Yesterday our 6th class enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin as part of the Aldi Play Rugby tag event. We were thrilled to be invited to play a tag rugby tournament on the pitch many of our heroes play on. It was a fantastic opportunity.

Our children represented Wicklow along with 19 other schools from across the country.

We began our day with a warm up on Landsdowne Rugby Club’s pitch. We then took our place in the tunnel entering the Aviva where we waited for our name to be announced before running into the stadium. We were then taken for our team photo along with the amazing James Ryan. We were absolutely awe struck. He even refereed one of our matches, and pulled a tag from one of our players when playing against them! We then made our way to pitch 3 where we played 4 7-a-side tag rugby matches. We played against Grange NS, Straidbilly NS, Castledawson Primary School and Four Roads NS. The children played so well and made us extremely proud throughout the day both on and off the pitch. We also got a tour of the dressing rooms where we saw the Six Nations Championship trophy AND we got to chat with Paul O’Connell. The children returned home with autographs to beat the band - boots, jerseys, bags, flags, socks, and even our sheep mascots!

One of the highlights of the day however was the fun we had playing with Kevin the carrot. We want to say a huge thank you to Aldi who provided a delicious lunch to each of us. Great memories were made which will never be forgotten.

Paired Reading with 2nd class and Senior Infants

Today 2nd class and Senior Infants made the most of the beautiful weather and did some paired reading together. The children chose a story they liked from their library and read the story together.

Inspired by this lovely experience, 2nd class are working on writing and illustrating their very own books which they hope to read to their partners this coming week.

National Minor Schools Swimming Competition

On Sunday 24th of March one of our 6th class pupils competed in the National Minor Schools Swimming Competition. This is the first time one of our students has qualified for this competition so we are extremely proud to have such an excellent swimmer among us. On the day 800 swimmers from over 400 schools competed. Charlotte competed in the 100m individual medley and also in the 50m butterfly. Recording personal best times for BOTH races on the day was a tremendous feat which we are incredibly proud of. Well done Charlotte!

Easter Egg Hunting

This morning on our way into the school we were blown away with the wonderful bright bunting and beautiful decorations which greeted us at the school gates. We knew there was something different about today, the Easter bunny had visited! Our classes each took turns at visiting the yard to see if they could find any eggs. To our delight there was an egg for everyone.

The children are so grateful for their eggs and they had such fun on the egg hunt today. What a way to begin the Easter Holidays!

World Down Syndrome Day 2024

We were delighted to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day today in Nun’s Cross.

We held a special assembly and the whole school community gathered to learn all about Down Syndrome. But more importantly we learned about how we all have an important role to play in understanding, accepting and being kind. Everyone had their crazy socks on show, their posters flying high and even sock hats were blowing in the wind! We all learned some new Lámh and today we focused on learning to sign ‘I am your friend’.

There was cake a treats to celebrate our amazing friends who have Down Syndrome and the its safe to say that the children all had a blast.

We would like to extend a massive thank you to all our school community who dug deep and contributed so generously to our day. We raised a huge €440 for the Down Syndrome Center who work so hard to support all our wonderful Down Syndrome children and adults and their families.

Seachtain na Gaeilge 2024

Seó faisin sa Naíonán Sóisearach

Nead seacláide i rang a dó

Gníomhaíochtaí trí na Stáisiún i rang a dó

Ealaín trí na Seanfhocail i rang a dó

Well Being week Celebrated in January

Here are some photos from our well-being week which we celebrated in January.

Boys FAI Primary 5's in Greystones

On Wednesday 13th of March our 5th & 6th class boys participated in the FAI Primary 5’s in Greystones. After months of self-preparation and a small number of coaching sessions from Hugh Brady, we were going with high hopes of getting through to the AVIVA for the all-Ireland finals. The boys played really well, scoring some really amazing scores throughout the competition and working really well together as a team. We even had a scout enquire about one of our players! The competition was very high on the day and unfortunately we missed out on progressing past the group stages.