On Monday we were delighted to welcome coaches Jennifer and Beverly who are encouraging all young children around the county to play hockey. They arrived for a half an hour hockey session to speak to the children about joining their local club and show the children some basic hockey skills. Some of the pupils have experience playing hockey while others were new to the sport. Overall the session was very enjoyable. Thank you Jennifer and Beverly for taking the time to visit us.

‘Walk to School Week’ took place last week as part of the Green Schools programme and as walking to school is a little difficult for some of us here in The Glebe, we decided to put in place a number of activities instead during school to up our number of steps each day. In advance the Green Schools Committee gathered together and came up with ideas for the week ahead. On Monday the children walked all around the school yard and listened to some walking themed songs. On Tuesday the children went on a local walking tour of the village, as it tied in nicely with our geography lessons at the moment. We are learning about the local area and habitats, so we brought our i-pads and took photos of businesses, amenities, tourist attractions, nature etc. We then created a visual map of Aughrim for visual art. We also went to the Action Park on Wednesday and picked some blackberries. Then we went on an autumn walk on Thursday and to complete our week of activities the children walked to the local playground and got to enjoy using the facilities. We were happy with the extra exercise and hope to get out and about more often while at school this year.

Today the children enjoyed grouping up with various pupils to take part in our ‘Buddy Day’ station activities. Some of the stations included; Lego, Art, Language Games, I-Pads, Reading, Collaborative Colouring and Jigsaws. Each station was 20 minutes in duration. This allowed the pupils to mix and spend time with one another before we get our summer holidays.

This year we were blessed with a sunny day to make our way to Wildlands, Moycullen for the school tour where all children enjoyed some fun activities. To begin the day, each of our classes participated in the Fun Walls where the children challenged themselves to climb to great heights. The Junior classroom then got to do Bushcraft, where the children learned all about surviving the outdoors by creating a fire and building a shelter. The older children in the Senior room took part in an archery activity and worked on their hand-eye co-ordinary skills. The playground facilities completed our lovely day with the children playing in the sand and going on the swings and slides. It was a fantastic tour which we will no doubt return to in the coming years.

This term is a very busy one for us as the children in the Junior room and Senior room have gymnastics each Tuesday with our new coach from School Fitness Ireland. The children are learning a range of new moves concentrating on balance and co-ordination. In the Junior room the students are also taking part in hurling lessons which is new for many of the pupils, while the Senior room have started swimming lessons.

Here in Aughrim we are working on ecological projects throughout the year and learning to be climate change friendly. The children were involved in creating this videoclip with Reverend John to highlight the ways we can reduce our carbon footprint and live more sustainable lifestyles. Please watch the YouTube clip to see our wonderful work.

The second class pupils decided to write up a newspaper article this month all about our Aistear theme ‘The Garden Centre’. We hope you enjoy reading it.

We are in the paper!!! The article, as seen below, highlights some of the important ecological projects the pupils are involved in within the school. Recently the children planted twenty fruit trees in the rectory garden which were kindly donated by two different charities; DCs for Bees and Trees on the Land. The article was published in the Connacht Tribune and Ballinasloe Life in the past week. Well done to all the pupils, staff and gardeners involved.

This month as part of our aistear theme the children have been learning all about wildflowers. We decided to go for a walk around the action park to see what wildflowers are growing here on our school grounds. The children were pleasantly surprised to have found as many as they did.