School News Term Two: 7th January- 16th March 2016
Important Dates to note for this term
Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday :Tuesday 9th February
Ash Wednesday: beginning of Lent : Wednesday 10th February
Mid-Term
Thursday 18th and Friday 19th February
Friday 26th February: School closed for the general election
Mother's Day: Sunday 6th March
Saint John of God Feast Day: Tuesday March 8th . Mass at 10.30 in Saint Joseph and Saint Benildus Church on Friday, March 11th
Flag raising ceremony : Tuesday 15th March
Easter
School closes with a half day Wednesday March 16th and reopens Monday April 4th
School closed Thursday 17th March - Friday 1st April School reopens Monday 4th April
Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday :Tuesday 9th February
Ash Wednesday: beginning of Lent : Wednesday 10th February
Mid-Term
Thursday 18th and Friday 19th February
Friday 26th February: School closed for the general election
Mother's Day: Sunday 6th March
Saint John of God Feast Day: Tuesday March 8th . Mass at 10.30 in Saint Joseph and Saint Benildus Church on Friday, March 11th
Flag raising ceremony : Tuesday 15th March
Easter
School closes with a half day Wednesday March 16th and reopens Monday April 4th
School closed Thursday 17th March - Friday 1st April School reopens Monday 4th April
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16/3/16: Term two has flown by and was packed full of activities which you can check out further down this page. Thank you to all the girls and their teachers for all their hard work especially over the past few hectic weeks. We wish every girl and their families a Happy St. Patrick's Day and a Happy Easter. Enjoy the holidays and we will see you all well rested for the summer term on Monday 4th of April.
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16/3/16: Congratulations to the winners of our Easter Raffle. Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket.
Small Eggs: Aoibh Waring (5th), Eva Counihan ( 3rd), Ellen Connors ( 4th), Leah Kapeove ( J.I), Sophie Sheehan (4th) and Isabelle McCarthy ( 4th).
The winner of the Butler's chocolate hamper was Emma Kennedy from 5th class.
Junior Infants: Miss. Dowling and Mrs. Hanrahan Easter Egg Hunt 16/3/16
16/3/16: Congratulations to every girl in the entire school on completing their W.A.S.P active card over the past four weeks. Every girl received their certificate this morning. Don't forget to keep active over the holidays.Active week is coming up the last week of April.
Proclamation Day :15/3/16
What a special day we had today which all kicked off with every girl getting ice-cream from Mrs. Morris and Claire. After our small break we all gathered in the hall to celebrate Proclamation Day and the raising of our national flag. Father.Liddane, Sister Úna, Sister Ann, Mrs.Walsh ( a former principal) , The Board of Management and the parents of the oldest and youngest child in the school all joined us to celebrate. Third class opened proceedings with a brilliant rendition of 'The Foggy Dew' on the tin whistle. Then Mrs.Morris spoke and told us as gaeilge what we were celebrating and why. Father Liddane gave us all special blessing and then a girl from each class came up to the stage to tell us what each class had done to celebrate the 1916 Rising. All the projects and artwork are currently displayed around the hall. Two sixth class girls then read out the proclamation they had written for the next generation detailing what our hopes are for the next 100 years. If you scroll further down this page you will see a link to this document.Then we were in for a real treat as sixth class performed a 1916 documentary written by Ms.Sheane. It was brilliant and so insightful and as the girls performed it so well they made it really clear for anyone to understand all the events leading up to the Easter 1916 Rising. We finished in the hall with a rendition from fifth and sixth class of Mo Ghile Mear.We then all went outside to the front of the school where the oldest girl - Lily Joy and the youngest Isabella Doyle with the help of Ms.Sheane raised our national flag. We were all so proud and it was a very emotional moment with even a few beeps coming from passing cars. Lastly to finish our ceremony we all sung our national anthem Sinne Fianna Fáil. A huge thank you to all the girls and their teachers who worked so hard on all aspects of the ceremeony. There are lots of photos to browse through in the gallery below.
Easter Art 2016
St.Patrick's Day Art 2016
Éadaí Bruscair ó Rang a Sé: 14/3/16
13/3/16: With only three days to go until the Easter holidays we are still very busy. Tomorrow after months of hard work sixth class will be holding their 'Éadaí Bruscair' fashion show. All the outfits modeled by the girls were made by the class from recycled materials and junk. The commentary will also be 'as gaeilge'. Then on Tuesday we have 'proclamation day' where we will raise the Irish flag presented to us last October. Sixth class have a 1916 play to perform for us and fourth , fifth and sixth have a special song to sing.Other classes have designed posters and done projects on the Rising which will be displayed in the hall. The Board of Management and Parents Association have also been invited. All the classes will have a little party in the afternoon following the ceremony.Check back here on Tuesday for lots of photos. Finally don't forget our Easter raffle for a chance to win a fabulous Easter hamper full of Butler's Easter eggs Tickets are only €1 and are on sale every morning before school starts. All proceeds will go to Trocaire.
10/3/16: Many thanks to Ms.Sheane for organising Golf Ireland to come to visit the school today. The girls from third to sixth class participated in a workshop where they got to learn some golfing skills. Golf is a great way of keeping active outdoors and maybe after today some girls may decide to take it up.
9/3/16: Today saw the turn of third and fourth class with two teams participating in the Basketball Blitz in the Mercy gym. There was stiff competition from many other schools but the girls put on a great display which saw fourth class the winning through. Congratulations to the girls on the fourth class team.Many thanks to Mrs. Jephson for her hard work preparing the girls and to Ms.Butler for accompanying the girls t the competition.
8/3/16: Seán from The Art Hand was back with us for our last session today. We finished sticking on all the treasure to our whole school mosaic.Every teacher also brought in a piece that was special to them to place on the mosaic. The finished product looks stunning.Now it will be left for several weeks to dry ( I still can't believe p.v.a glue holds it all together !). Seán will return after the Easter holidays when 'The Magic Tree' will have it's big final reveal. Only the teachers know where it will be placed in the school. Thanks to Seán for such a great experience and to Ms. Flynn for organising it all.
8/3/16: Thanks to everyone who recently voted for Jude Lee from sixth class in the Doodle for Google competition.Unfortunately Jude didn't win but still had a great day yesterday visiting Google headquarters in Dublin where all the finalists gathered together for the announcement of the winner. Well done Jude for getting so far. Ms.Sheane said the highlight of her day apart from enjoying the day with Jude was seeing Padraig Harrington there with his son. Although she wasn't brave enough to ask him for a selfie !!!!
7/3/16: A team from fifth and sixth class participated in the Basketball Blitz held in the Mercy gym this afternoon. There was a great effort from the team as they reached the final but unfortunately they were runners up. Many thanks to Ms.Hartrey for accompanying the girls and to Mrs.Jephson for organising the teams and for all the practice with the girls.
7/3/16: Sixth class accompanied by Ms. Walsh enjoyed a very cultural morning in W.I.T's College Street Campus. They were in the chapel to hear a recital from two pianists from Belgium.Afterwards they participated in a music and art workshop. Great fun was had by all.
4/3/16: Finally the the day we had been waiting for arrived. After gathering huge amounts of treasure, Seán from The Art Hand was back and the sticking for our mosaic began. Our Magic Tree is slowly starting to take shape.Each class took turns to go up to the art room and every girl was given a tub of treasure to stick onto the mosaic. We have the moon and dark night sky completed. Seán will be back on Tuesday when we hope to compete the mosaic. Then it will need several weeks to dry so hopefully our final unveiling will take place after the Easter holidays.
Mother's Day 2016
Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mum's in S.t John of God. We hope you have a wonderful relaxing day and are thoroughly spoiled. The girls have been working hard on lots of beautiful creations - so we hope you enjoy them. Check out the slideshow below for some photos their fabulous artwork.
3/3/16:Miss. Crowley's first class had a fun filled morning making brownies. As we didn't have an oven Lynn was a star and found us a recipe that involved using the microwave. The girls worked in four groups so we had lots of lovely brownies and even the teachers got to taste some. There was an amazing smell of chocolate drifting down the corridor all morning and lots of laughter to be heard. The brownies turned out to be a great success despite some eggs and flour missing the bowl but that was all part of the fun. By lunchtime we were on a bit of a chocolate high! Check out the gallery below for some photos.
3/3/16: Happy World Book Day everybody! Fourth class enjoyed a trip to The Book Centre to hear a storyteller and they also had a chance to spend their World Book Day tokens. The whole school also participated in D.E.A.R- Drop Everything and Read. The older classes paired with a younger class and they spent some quality time reading after big lunch. We love books and reading in St. John of God and every girl now has a token so they can buy a special book published just for this brilliant day.
22/2/16: Storyteller Eddie Lenihan visited us today all the way from Co. Clare.He told us brilliant traditional Irish stories all about fairies that he had gathered over the years.Many thanks to Ms. Fitzgerald for organising Eddie's visit.
16/2/16: Second class have another major milestone tonight in this their very special year. The girls will make their First Penance tonight in St.Joseph and Benildus Church. The girls have been working extremely hard and we wish each of them and their teacher Mrs.O'Neill all the best.Many thanks also to Father Liddane, Sister Una and Mrs. Morris for their help in preparing the girls.
16/2/15: Mrs.Golden has been busy researching different programmes which would involve us getting out and active and help us achieve our active flag.Next week sees the launch of WASP-the Waterford Active Schools Programme. This programme lasts for four weeks and involves both the children and their parents.It is funded by the Health Service Executive. The difference between this and last weeks 'We do P.E for Homework' is that all physical activity be it dancing or basketball etc that takes place in school can also be counted.As well as the various activities the children take part in outside of school. The aim is to increase awareness in families of the importance of being active and make activity a natural part of daily living resulting in families being more active, more often.
We are encouraging you to do at least 30 minutes activity and your child to do at least 60 minutes activity at least five days a week. It doesn't have to be all at once , it can be done alone or with others and it can include any activity : dance, school PE, club sport, walking etc. It's all about getting active. Your child will have a record card which needs to be initialled by you to confirm activity by yourself and/or your child. All the teachers will give out Wizzy stickers ( the WASP mascot) for your child's record card. The aim is to earn as many Wizzy stickers as possible. The class teacher also takes part in the programme. ( Does yard duty count???!!!!!) On completion of the programme each child will receive a certificate of achievement.
Why take part?- For fun ! For healthier, fitter children, parents/guardians and families.
To find out more check out the WASP section of the Waterford Sports Partnership website for ideas, resources and updates on the programme from around the city and county. www.waterfordsportspartnership.ie
Many thanks in advance for your co-operation and enthusiasm for this programme.
15/2/16: Sixth class have written a new Proclamation 're-imagining the constitution' as part of the activities designed for schools to engage in leading up to the Easter 1916 celebrations. It will be read out as part of the flag raising event on the 15th of March.The girls have written an excellent proclamation very relevant for the times we live in today. Why not read here and see what you think.
13/2/16: Don't forget the Parents Association are having a no uniform day as a fundraiser on Wednesday 17th February. All girls are asked to bring in €2. Many thanks.
Valentine's Day Art 2016
12/2/16: Well done to every girl in the school who completed the active homework this week set by Mrs. Golden and the active committee. No homework/reduced homework for all next week. Mrs. Golden and her team have more great active ideas coming your way soon.
12/2/16: Well done to every girl in the school who completed the active homework this week set by Mrs. Golden and the active committee. No homework/reduced homework for all next week. Mrs. Golden and her team have more great active ideas coming your way soon.
Orienteering in Kennedy Park: Fifth and Sixth Class 11/2/16
10/2/16: The Junior Infants theme for Aistear this week is caring and sharing: There were four different groups. The girls rotate the activities Monday to Thursday. Today group one were making rice krispie buns or as one little girl told me 'krispie rice buns'. Group two made cute Valentines Owls which involved plenty of cutting and sticking. Group three worked together caring and sharing building lots of fabulous things with lego and blocks. Group four were putting their writing skills to good use writing a friendship recipe. Check out the lovely photos below.
10/2/16: Deirdre from Dogs Trust paid us a visit this morning with her canine companions Sadbh and Cónán. She was here to tell us all about keeping safe around dogs and how to approach them. We also talked about the various things dogs need to keep them healthy, active and happy. The girls were great at answering her questions and told Deirdre dogs need food, a nice bed, long walks, toys and lots of love. Deirdre told us the story of Patch the first dog to come to Dogs Trust over six years ago .Now there are over 200 dogs in Dogs Trust in Dublin waiting to find their forever home. We really enjoyed the visit from Deirdre.She left us all a sticker, bracelet, an information sheet and certificate.
Happy Pancake Day from First Class: Miss.O'Connell and Miss. Crowley 9/12/16
8/2/16: Congratulations to junior infants, second and third class and their teachers Miss. Dowling, Mrs. Hanrahan, Mrs.O'Neill and Ms.Fitzgerald for a truly successful grandparents day. The hall was full to capacity as lots of grandparents came to visit our school to celebrate Grandparents Day which falls during Catholic Schools Week. All the girls sang songs - The Grandparents Rap, You are my Sunshine and You've Got a Friend in Me. Each girl had also made something special to present to their grandparents. After Father. Liddane had spoken and the girls had sung their songs everyone enjoyed a cup of tea and plenty of delicious cakes and treats.The grandparents were then taken on a tour of the school and the classroom.It was a great opportunity for the girls to show their grandparents all the brilliant work that is always ongoing in St.John of God. Everyone had a great time and really enjoyed themselves. Many thanks to Claire and the parents who organised the teas and coffees. There are heaps of photos in the slideshow below. Why not see if you can spot yourself.
8/12/16: Ms.Fitzgerald had fabulous painted windows for Christmas and now third class have updated them with pictures that symbolise everything third class enjoy in school. Well done girls .Brilliant artwork.
8/2/16:Voting is now open.Please vote for Jude all this week.Jude Lee is in the top 15 entries for the Doodle for Google competition. This is an amazing achievement as there were so many entries. Go to www.google.ie/doodle4google to take a look at Jude's doodle. She is in group three and just click vote. Please vote as often as you can. We would love for Jude to win.Many thanks.
8/2/16: Mrs. Golden and her active flag committee have been busy again thinking of new ideas which will help us get active and achieve our active flag. This week every girl will receive active homework. The girls spend some time doing anything active outside of school : swimming, walking, skipping, athletics , dancing anything at all. All activities and their length must be recorded on the sheet here and brought back to school next Monday 15/2/16. If a girl completes the active homework there will be no homework/reduced homework the week beginning the 15th of February. So what are you waiting for girls? Go out there and get active!
4/2/16: Mrs. Golden's senior infants were busy today working away on their 'magic tree' creations for Seán from the art hand. He will be back next week to see how we are getting on. Hopefully by then we will have lots of treasure collected for our mosaic.
3/12/16: Congratulations to he girls who took part in the annual Credit Union Quiz held in the Tower Hotel on Monday night. Sadly luck was not on our side but there is always next year. Pictured below are Ciara O'Shea, Jodie Cooke, Isobel McCarthy, Laura Signoralli and Moya Doyle from Ms.Butler's foruth class, Kate Nolan, Emma Beadle, Aoife Aspel, Emily Seol and Lucy Ustiani from Ms. Hartrey's fifth fifth class and Moya O'Shea, Lucy Guinan, Sheenagh Whelan, Olivia Heyes and Lily Joy from Ms. Sheane's sixth class.
3/2/16: Well done to the whole school. Our first W.O.W - Walk on Wednesday was a great success.
3/2/16: In Aistear this week junior infants are working on the theme of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and families. They read and discussed the story and they learnt a song about it. They followed instructions and made porridge. They all had a taste and thought it was delicious. They coloured and sequenced pictures of the story in groups and retold the story to the class. They manipulated play dough to make Goldilocks and the Three Bears, bowls of porridge and the woods etc. They also made cards for their families. Have a look through the photo gallery below.
3/2/16: Miss. Crowley's first class had a great time exploring all things magnetic. We took walk around the school to see what materials and objects were attracted to our magnets and those which were not. We carried out a few experiments in our classroom to see whether a magnet could move a paperclip through various objects such as a plate, schoolbag, copybook and a few other items .Finally in groups we had great fun constructing a maze with simple school objects. But the task was we could not move our paperclip with our hands or by using the magnet. The groups were pretty quick to discover they could move their paperclip by placing their magnet under the table and then directing the paperclip through the maze.It's obvious from the photos below the girls had great fun.
2/2/16: Ms.Hartey's fifth class enjoyed a talk from the One World Development Centre this morning with the help of some transition year students from the Ursuline and De La Salle.
1/2/16:On St .Brigid's Day six girls from the Ursuline who are in transition year came to talk to Ms.Hartrey's fifth class about banking. They're known as ' The Pretty Little Bankers'. The class learned about debit cards, bartering( swapping) , withdrawing cash,bills, cheques and lots more. One of the things most people didn't know a lot about was what ATM means and it stands for automated teller machine. Many thanks to the girls from the Ursuline for such an interesting talk.
1/2/16: As it is the first day of spring first class took a walk around the school to see could they spot any signs of spring. They were delighted to see lots of buds on the trees and flowers are beginning to shoot up from the soil. Here are some pictures of what the girls saw.
1/2/16: Happy St. Brigid's Day.Saint Brigit of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland (Irish: Naomh Bríd; c. 451–525) is one of Ireland's patron saints, along with Patrick and Columba. Irishhagiography makes her an early Irish Christian nun,[3] abbess, and founder of several monasteries of nuns, including that of Kildare in Ireland, which was famous and was revered. Her feast day is 1 February, which was formerly celebrated as a pagan festival (Imbolc) marking the beginning of spring and the lambing season.
29/1/16: Today was an exciting day for the school. After much organisation and planning from Ms.Flynn and Mrs.Morris Seán from the Art Hand in Bunmahon came to our school. Seán launched a whole school project which when completed will look stunning and will remain in our school for a long time to come. We are creating a whole school mosaic and each and every girl ( and the teachers) will play an active part in its construction. Seán held sessions today with all the classes. He first asked us what kind of artist we thought he was? We got lots of interesting and varied answers.We finally discovered he loves working with mosaic. He showed us examples some of the artwork he has created.They were very impressive. He then revealed the theme of our school mosaic and it is 'the magic tree'. Excellent discussion followed and we agreed as the tree is magic it doesn't have to look like a 'normal' tree. The girls were full of lots of inspirational ideas. So our next task is to bring in lots of 'treasure' - beads, buttons, marbles, old jewellery, pebbles, shells the list is endless. But the objects must be hard as soft objects wouldn't work well for this type of art work.Each teacher will have a special basket or box in their classroom dedicated to the treasure. When Seán returns in two weeks time he wants to see what we have collected .Our treasure will form our school mosaic. Seán encouraged us to think more about what our mosiac could look like.So over the next two weeks the girls could draw the tree, write a story about it or even a poem. For those of us who are very creative a dance was mentioned! Needless to say we all had a great day and are excited about the weeks ahead. We hope to have the mosaic completed by our Easter holidays and on display for all parents and visitors for our school to see. The location of the mosaic will remain a mystery - for now. I for one am eager to see the end result.
29/1/16: Such fabulous art has been on display in our school throughout the month of January. I had great fun going around the school photographing all the wonderful artwork. I think the junior infants owls and another owl from sixth class may be my favourites. Why not take a look through the gallery and see what catches your eye?
Sport Changes Life
On Thursday the 28th of January, Katie and Jasmine came to visit our school. They are both basketball players from America. They told us to follow our dreams and do what we love. They came to Ireland for the Sport Changes Life programme. They now teach children how to play basketball at the Mercy Secondary School Hall. It is open to everyone. Unfortunately, they are leaving Ireland at the end of summer. We loved hearing their stories about how they started playing basketball. We also loved hearing their American accent! We enjoyed their time at our school. We wish them every success in the future and we want to thank them for taking the time to come to our school.
On Thursday the 28th of January, Katie and Jasmine came to visit our school. They are both basketball players from America. They told us to follow our dreams and do what we love. They came to Ireland for the Sport Changes Life programme. They now teach children how to play basketball at the Mercy Secondary School Hall. It is open to everyone. Unfortunately, they are leaving Ireland at the end of summer. We loved hearing their stories about how they started playing basketball. We also loved hearing their American accent! We enjoyed their time at our school. We wish them every success in the future and we want to thank them for taking the time to come to our school.
27/1/15: The school is having a clothing recycling drive on the 12th of February. We hope to raise money for school funds. Please click here for full details.
27/11/15: Grandparents Day which is always a lovely occasion will take place on Monday February 8th. Junior Infants, second and third class are all taking part. The grandparents of the girls in those classes will soon receive an invitation. Check back here for lots of lovely photos on February 8th.
27/1/16: UPDATE: Jude Lee is now in the top 15 entries for the Doodle for Google competition. This is an amazing achievement as there were so many entries. So now we need everyone to vote for Jude. From the 4th of February onwards you can view Jude's doodle. Go to www.google.ie/doodle4google to take a look. Then on February 7th voting begins. Please vote as often as you can. We would love for Jude to win.Many thanks.
22/1/16: Dawn has now moved on to line dancing with the classes from first to third.All the girls are loving the new form of dance lessons.Even after one session they are brilliant. Miss. Crowley wanted to join in to only for all the copies she had to correct !
15/1/16: Don't worry we haven't gone all quiet. As this has been our first full week back at school every class has been working super hard. January is a real working month before we start to get excited about Valentine's Day and Mother's Day etc. But Miss. Crowley's first class are very excited to be starting their eight week session of swimming lessons with Ms.Fitzgerald's class.It will be their first time swimming in school and they all can't wait to get started. Don't forget to check back here for more news in the coming weeks.
15/1/16: Sixth Class Logo Project: Sixth class researched lots of different logo's. Each girl presented a logo and shared some facts about it to 3rd, 4th and 5th class.The classes came down to the hall to listen to the presentation. It went very well even though some of the girls were nervous. But every sixth class girl was great and got up and spoke with confidence. All the girls found the topic really interesting. Have a look through the gallery below.
15/1/16: Congratulations to Jude Lee from sixth class who was a top 75 finalist in the Doodle for Google competition.This is a fantastic achievement to be selected from the hundreds of entries. I think you'll agree Jude's doodle sums up the fact that Ireland really is magic. Well done Jude.
7/1/16: A warm welcome back to all the girls and their teachers after the Christmas holidays. We hope you all had an enjoyable, relaxing break ( despite the awful weather). Term two is very short this year but as ever we will endeavor to fit in as much as possible. There is lots to look forward to including Pancake Day, Valentines's Day, Mother's Day, St.John of God Day, St.Patrick's Day , Easter and on the 15th of March we will be raising the national flag which was presented to us back in October. ( I hope I haven't forgotten anything !!!). Of course there will be lots of learning as well in every classroom.Don't forget to check back here on a regular basis to see what we are all getting up to.
