Today is St. Bridget's day, which is traditionally marks the beginning of spring in Ireland. Hip, hip hooray, it's Spring! Let's hope the weather gets a bit warmer!
We are doing the Stay Safe programme in school this term. The children are talking a lot about friendship and what it means to be a good friend. Our assemblys are following the themes of the Stay Safe programme too so we can discuss the important messages as a whole school community. Today's assembly was on the theme of friendship.
Rev. Alison asked us the question 'How good a friend are you?' We talked about what makes a good friend and how we can be a good friend to each other. Alison told us the story of 'Ruth and Naomi' from the Bible, which tells a great story of friendship and strength. We reflected on our own friendships in school.

This week in Assembly 3rd and 4th class performed a poem for us all about the counties of Ireland. We were all very impressed with their memories! Super job!














​All the staff in St. Peter's N.S feel it is important for us to celebrate children's achievements and positively affirm good behaviour. This week we started 'pupil of the week' awards. These awards can be given by any member of staff for nice manners, good behaviour, great effort or anything we feel we would like to positively affirm and promote in our school. See below the children who were awarded the first pupil of the week awards. Well done to you all!

What a treat we had this week! Junior Infants and Senior Infants treated us to a wonderful performance of 'Cuigear Fear' this week. They used rhythm sticks and their wonderful voices to impress us all. They were absolutely fantastic!









​This week we also awarded the children who attended school every day between Midterm and Christmas. All the children with full attendance received their excellent attendance certificates.
Have a look at all the children with super attendance last term. Hopefully we can keep this up and continue to improve this term!

​Miss Blennerhassett

​Happy New Year everyone!

It was really fantastic to see all the bright, smiling faces returning to school after the Christmas Holidays. All the children seemed to have a wonderful time over Christmas and had lots of wonderful stories to tell. It seems Santas was good to all!

This Friday we welcomed Alison back to our Assembly. Alison spoke to us all about new beginnings, forgiveness, asking for forgiveness and Baptisms. She explained to us all about Baptisms, how they can happen at different times in people's lives and what Baptisms mean.

We also discussed the significance of the beginning of a new year. We all have lots of new years resolutions however as we discussed these we realised that many of our resolutions surrounded the idea of trying new things. We realise that when we try new things sometimes they don't always work out the way we hope they would first time and therefore we can often make mistakes. We all shook each others hands, wished each other a happy new year and hoped we would all make lots of mistakes in 2019! At first we thought this was very funny and there were lots of giggles!! However, we realised that mistakes can be a good thing as they help us to learn and to grow.

5th and 6th class performed for us in our first assembly of the year. They have been busy learning about World War 1 and they learned a poem as part of their lessons on the topic. Although they only had 4 days to learn the poem (and it was quite long and tricky!!) they did an amazing job and we were all super impressed! Well done 5th and 6th class!

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Wishing you all a very happy, wonderful New Year.

Miss Blennerhassett

 Hi All,
We have had an extremely busy week in St. Peter's N.S. and it has been full of generous 'giving' from all the children. Firstly we had a session with Goal - earlier in the year the children raised €150 for Goal on Jersey day. This is a great amount of money from our small school. Big thanks to Ms. Coyle who arranged the talk from JI-2nd and the workshop from 3rd-6th for this week. Have a look at the post below to see what the children got up to! During Assembly, the younger children taught the older children what they had learned in their talk with Goal and the older children explained some of the activities they did in their workshop. It was lovely to see them reflecting and learning from each other!
Secondly, Wednesday was our final day for bringing in the Team Hope Christmas shoeboxes. Our little school has made a massive donation of 65 shoeboxes to the Team Hope this year! This is a fantastic achievement and means that 65 more children will receive a present this Christmas thanks to the children's generous donations. They should feel very proud!







​In assembly Rev. Eugene spoke to us all about WW1 and the importance of remembrance. There is an exhibition in Dunboyne Library 'From Dunboyne to the Trenches' running from the 10th-23rd of November. It sounds like it is really worth a visit.
It was Junior and Senior Infants' turn to showcase some of their work in Assembly this week. They taught us all about Owls, showed us the story 'Owl Babies' (one of my personal favourites!), the lovely owl artwork they created and taught us about when owls sleep and what they eat. They also worked together to say a fabulous poem all about Owls. The children in Junior Infants and Senior Infants were super brave this week as they each said a fact about Owls on their own. It can be a bit scary to speak in front of Assembly so we are all very proud of them! Well done! 

Mura Tierney from GOAL came into St. Peter's National School today to show us the good work that GOAL does across the world. She gave a slideshow to Junior Infants to 2nd Class showing all the different things GOAL provides to countries that are struggling with weather disasters or war such as shelter, food, medicine, education and food. She did a workshop with 3rd to 6th class to show the causes and effects of global hunger and focused on the country of Ethiopia. The children had great fun role playing different scenarios that people there face on a daily basis.

Such a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of the Midterm Break! A big well done to 5th and 6th class who managed to decorate the Church grounds with their very own Pumpkins, making the whole affair a whole lot more spooky! A big 'Thank You' to the PTA for providing the sugary goodness! Have a look below to see all the spooky characters that came to school on Friday!

It has been a very busy week here in St. Peter's N.S. as it has been Maths week. We have been doing lots of different Maths activities this week and looking at Maths in a different way.

On Tuesday 5th and 6th buddied up with Junior and Senior Infants and played Maths games in the hall. The older children helped the younger children to solve the problems. It was brilliant to see how patient 5th & 6th were and how helpful they were in explaining to the infants what to do and how to do it!

​On Wednesday 1st and 2nd went to the hall and completed some NRich puzzels - they were quite tricky! But, by working in teams they managed to solve the problems. Well done 1st and 2nd class.
3rd and 4th class also played numerous Maths games in the hall including higher and lower with giant playing cards, chess and calculation stations.

On Thursday 5th and 6th and Junior and Senior Infants returned to the hall to make shape art! They used lots of different art materials to make strange and wonderful creatures. They are fantastic! Ask your child to tell you about their creature and what shapes they used to make it!

1st and 2nd class took Assembly this morning and showcased all the fun work they have been doing all this week for Maths Week. Well done 1st & 2nd class.

​All of these activities were extra to the already on-going Maths lessons and extra Maths challenges set in class by teachers this week. Such a great fun! We have some fine Mathematicians in our midst in St. Peter's National School - that's for sure!
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 H​i all,

In Assembly today we had two visitors from Team Hope, Michelle and Caoibhe. They told us all about the wonderful work they do at Christmas time for the Shoebox Appeal in order to help vulnerable children overseas. Giving a shoebox to a child less privileged is a fantastic thing to do. Last year, Team Hope managed to send 264,636 shoeboxes to children in countries in Eastern Europe and Africa.  This year, St. Peter's National School would like to help and raise this number so even more children can have a nice present to open at Christmas.

Michelle and Caoibhe explained to us the type of things we could put in the shoebox - including the four W's - something to 'Wear', something to 'Wash' with, something to 'Write' with and something to make the child go 'Wow'. They brought in lots of sample shoeboxes to show us. Many of the things in the shoebox we all have lying around our house - we don't need to buy new things to fill our shoeboxes. The leaflet with all the information will go into each child's schoolbag on Monday. Please make sure to have a look and see if this is something you might like to take part in. All shoeboxes are welcome to be stored in the library in school from whenever they are ready. The shoeboxes are going to be collected by Team Hope on the 9th of November - so this should give you something to keep you busy over the Midterm Break!
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​Finally, today was the last Assembly before the Midterm Break as next Friday is the Spooky Walk! So, today we celebrated our Attendance Awards. Many children in each class have achieved 100% attendance between the 30th August and today! This is a brilliant achievement and should be celebrated. Each child with 100% attendance received a certificate. Well done!

Have a great weekend!

​Ms Blennerhassett

​Hi everyone!

The weeks are just flying by - I can't quite believe we are half way through October already! The days are just running away from me so here are two assemblies for the price of one!

5/10/18
We have been working really hard on our listening skills in St. Peter's N.S and this week in Assembly you could have heard a pin drop! Well done everyone! Rev. Eugene told us the story of the Good Samaritan. Eugene reminded us to be kind and helpful to everyone and to think of those who may need our help. The children were brilliant at coming up with lots of different ways of showing kindness and helping others.  Joanna was in with her guitar this week, which was great! The children are brilliant singers and lifted the roof of the Oak Centre this week!

It was 3rd and 4th class turn to showcase their work in assembly. They taught us all so much! The children showed us the different lines and angles they were learning about in Maths, the Ancient Eqyptian Sarcophagus death Masks they designed in Art and learned about in History aswell as Ancient Eqyptian Hieroglyphics. We all heard a synopsis of the story of Tír na n-Óg which they had been learning about in History and performing Drama activities on also. 3rd and 4th class had also been learning about different native and non-native trees, they showed us some of the leaf rubbings they had made and also presented Winnie with a tree for the garden! So lovely! 3rd and 4th class put a lot of work into showcasing their work in assembly. It was really impressive to see their organisation and team work in ensuring they had all the props they needed. Well done! Have a look at their blog page for more pictures of their work!

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12/10/18
This week we welcomed back Alison, our Parish Curate. Alison spoke to us about the 'impossible.' We listened to Mark 10: 25-27

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." 

Alison reminded us that prayer can help us to focus our minds on what we really want and with focus we can make 'possible' what once seemed to us 'impossible'. 

It was 5th and 6th class turn to show us what they have been learning. They performed a brilliant poem 'as Gaeilge' for us. Every single member spoke clearly and remembered all the words. It was fantastic for the older children to showcase to the younger children where their Gaeilge language learning can take them in just a few years!

5th and 6th class also took part in their first Orienteering event this week. They had a super time and represented our school brilliantly. Myself and Ms McGovern were very proud with the determination and positive attitude the children displayed throughout the day. Brilliant work 5th and 6th! A quote from a child in the class 'It was great, we had no phone, no technology, just our brains!' I think that brilliantly sums up the positivity of the day! Have a look at the 5th and 6th class page for pictures of the event!

It was also Goal Jersey Day, all the children were invited to wear their favourite Jersey to school and donate 2 euro to Goal. We took a fantastic photo of all the children delighted in their Jerseys! Currently, the final amount raised for Goal is being counted - we will let you know how much we raised! Well done everyone!

Ms Blennerhassett