Latest news
Green Flag for Biodiversity
Scartaglen National School were delighted to be awarded a Green Flag for Biodiversity by An Taisce Green Schools. Biodiversity looks at steps which can be taken in schools to increase awareness of the importance of native plants, animals and habitats, and to increase species-richness in a locality. Mrs. Doody along with our Green Schools Team have been working very hard over the past two years to achieve this. They have installed an outdoor classroom, planted lots of trees and created wildflower meadows and bug hotels, they even went litter picking in Fenit! We also had a Green Schools Action Day to promote awareness of Biodiversity which was a great success. A huge thank you to Mrs. Doody and the Green Schools Team for all their hard work.
Cycle Right Programme
The 5th/6th Class students took part in the Cycle Right Programme over the past 4 weeks. They learned all about cycling safely. Bikes were brought in each week so they could practice their cycling skills. The course ended with a cycling trip around Scartaglen village! Thanks to Ms. C. O’ Leary for organising.
First Holy Communion
Congratulations to Cian, Fiadh, Daniel, Sophia, Aoibhinn, Ronan, Pádraig, Zoe, Paddy, Abigail, Ava, Seán, Jimmy, Daniel, Jake and Lucia on celebrating their First Holy Communion in Scartaglen Church on Saturday 27th April. The ceremony was celebrated by Fr. Seán Horgan with music by the school choir. Many thanks to everyone who helped to make this day such a memorable occasion. The children enjoyed a wonderful party on returning to school. A special thanks to Ms. McCarthy and Sarah for all their hard work preparing the children and organising the lovely party. Thanks also to Ms. O’ Leary and Aoife for working with the choir for the ceremony.
6th Class Confirmation
Congratulations to Sé, Fionn, Matthew, Liam, Caoimhe, Sean, Ciara, Connie, Frank, Brian, Loren, Mark, Olly and Brígh in 6th Class on celebrating their Confirmation on Wednesday 10th April in Castleisland. It was a lovely ceremony celebrated by Bishop Ray Browne. The Bishop spoke to the children about embracing the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Thanks to everyone who made the day a really special one. A special word of thanks to Ms. Ciara O' Leary for all her work preparing the children. You can view a photo of the class on the school Flickr page.
Comfy Clothes Day
The Student Council in Scartaglen National School organised a “Comfy Clothes Day” in aid of Kerry Hospice Foundation. There was a fantastic response with €500 being collected by the students. There was great excitement on the day with the students wearing a wide selection of their comfy clothes. From crocs to slippers and robes to hats they all got into the spirit of this great initiative. Their “Comfy Clothes Day” even featured in the local media!
Green Schools Action Day
Every child took part in our biodiversity action day on 24/2/24. Each class took part in a different activity. Juniors/Seniors did a minibeast hunt with 5th/6th Class. They found bugs like woodlouse, worms, slugs, spiders and lots more. 1st/2nd Class planted sunflowers and made sunflower art. 3rd Class measured the height and age of trees. 4th/5th Class did litter picking around the village. 5th/6th made bug hotels using plastic bottles. We also had a visit from the staff of Killarney National Park. They brought bats, badgers and lots more. Thank you for all the effort dressing up for the action day. We hope you enjoyed the day! Thanks to Mrs. Doody for organising. Written by the Green Team: Harriot, Fiadh, Sorcha, Adam, Emma and Olly.
FAI Soccer
Well done to all the boys and girls who took part in the FAI soccer competition in Tralee recently. We entered two boys’ teams and one girls team. All of the teams played really well with one of the boys’ teams reaching the final of the competition. It was a great day out. Thanks to Mrs. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Moroney and Katie for all their coaching and accompanying the teams.
Pancake Tuesday
We were all treated to a wonderful day on Pancake Tuesday. The Parent's Council provided pancakes for every child in the school. There were a variety of toppings on offer including strawberries, bananas, nutella, marshmallows and maple- syrup. A huge thanks to the Parent's Council for this special day which is certainly one of the highlights of the year for the pupils! A particular word of thanks to Moira Hughes for delivering all of the food and to all of the parents and helpers who worked really hard all day.
First Confession
Congratulations to all of the boys and girls in second class on making their First Confession in Scartaglen. Thanks to Fr. Sean Horgan for a lovely ceremony and to Ms. McCarthy for all her work preparing the students.
Credit Union Quiz
Congratulations to both our Junior and Senior Quiz teams who participated in the Credit Union quiz in Tralee recently. Our senior team performed really well but narrowly missed out on qualifying for the next round. Our Junior team came second overall and they now progress to the next round. Well done to Frank, Sé, Fionn, Liam, Luke, Cillian, Jamie and Sé.
URC Trophy
We were delighted to be visited by the United Rugby Championship trophy in the school recently. Munster won the competition in 2023. We got to hear some information about the trophy and also get some photos with it.
Castleisland Basketball Blitz
We had six teams taking part in the Christmas Blitz this year in Castleisland. We had three senior teams and three junior teams taking part. All of the boys and girls played really well over the course of the five days. We were delighted to have three teams in the finals with the Junior Girls and both Junior Boys and Senior Boys taking part. There was huge excitement in the hall for the finals. The Junior Girls were narrowly defeated in an extremely close game. Both the Junior and Senior Boys won their finals. Scartaglen N.S. would like to give a huge thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to coach the teams.
Christmas Jumper Day
Scartaglen National School were delighted to take part in the Christmas Jumper Day in aid of the Children’s Health Foundation. This charity supports the Children’s Hospitals at Crumlin, Temple Street and Connolly. Every child in the school had the opportunity to wear their Christmas jumper (or hat!) to raise money for this great cause. A grand total of €370 was raised. Thank you all for your tremendous generosity.
Christmas Carols
We had great fun the day of the Christmas holidays singing Christmas carols for all of the school community. It was a wet day but the beautiful singing certainly brightened up the day and it was a great way to get everyone into the festive spirit. Thanks to all of the teachers for preparing the songs with the students.
Dragon's Den in Scartaglen N.S.
4th, 5th and 6th Class had a Dragon's Den as part of their Junior Entrepreneur Project. They worked in small groups to come up with business ideas to pitch to the Dragons. They had to come up with a business plan as well as a presentation. It was a great experience. Thanks to Mr. Moroney, Mrs. O' Mahony and Sarah for being the Dragons on the day and to Ms. C. O' Leary, Ms. N. O' Leary and Ms. Fitzpatrick for all their hard work preparing the teams.
Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal
Scartaglen N.S. took part in the Christmas Shoebox Appeal organised by Team Hope. We were delighted with the huge response. 100 Christmas shoeboxes were packed with a wonderful variety of goodies that will be sent to children in poor countries around the world. There was great excitement when the boxes were loaded to be taken to the local depot. A big thank you to all who supported this very worthy cause and to Ms. O' Leary for organising the appeal.
Scholastic Book Fair
We held our annual book fair in the school recently. Each class had an opportunity to stock up on books before their Christmas holidays. We love seeing the children reading and there is always great interest in all the latest books that are available at the book fair! We were also delighted to welcome parents to the Book Fair. Due to the fantastic response the school now has an allowance of €1140 to purchase even more books for the classrooms and library. Thanks to Katie, Sarah and Aoife for all their work over the two days of the fair.
Tin Whistle Lessons
All of the students in the school have been taking part in music lessons for the last number of weeks. We hope all the boys and girls have enjoyed learning new songs and performing them on the tin whistle. Thanks to Sheila for all her enthusiasm teaching the students. Thanks also to the Parent’s Council for funding the lessons.
Halloween in Scartaglen N.S.
We had great fun for Halloween in Scartaglen N.S. All of the boys and girls dressed up in their Halloween costumes for “Trick or Treat for sick children”. A total of €370 was raised for the Children’s Health Foundation which supports Crumlin, Temple Street, Tallaght and Connolly Hospitals. Thank you all for your generosity. There was also tremendous excitement as the Parent’s Council hosted a Halloween Disco for the students in the Heritage Centre. A huge thanks to the Parent’s Council for organising this event.
Cumann na mBunscol Final
We were all delighted for our Boy’s Football team as they won the Allianz Cumann na mBunscol 4/5 teacher county final in Austin Stack park this week! Thank you all for the amazing turnout as the Scartaglen community got behind the boys and gave them tremendous support on the night. It was the first time a team from the school has won the competition in 12 years. Well done to Jamie, Thomas, Tadhg, Sean, Fionn, Connie, Brian, Olly, Zak, Sé, Nelius, Moss, Mark, Diarmaid, Liam and Eoin. The score in the final was 6-10 to 3-3. A special word of thanks goes to their coach Mrs. Eileen Fitzpatrick for all her work coaching and preparing the boys for the matches. Thanks also to Katie for supporting and accompanying the team.
Junior Infant Class of 2023
We are delighted to welcome our new Junior Infants to Scartaglen National School. We are sure they will be very happy in our school. Click on the image or the link below to see some lovely photos of their first day in school!
Strickeen Mountain
As part of our Active School Week all of the students from 3rd to 6th Class climbed Strickeen mountain in Killarney. It was a fantastic achievement for all involved and we all enjoyed the amazing views from the top!
news from the classrooms
Junior/Senior Infants (Mrs. Doody):
Junior Infants are copying their news from the whiteboard and writing it into our copies! We love drawing our pictures afterwards!Senior Infants are busy learning about money and buying lots of items in our shop! We are learning all about what happens on the farm and all the farm animals in Aistear. We love going to the outdoor classroom when the sun is shining and taking part in football in the astro turf!
1st/2nd Class (Ms. McCarthy):
Summer in the classroom brings with it such fun and excitement as we embrace this busy season. The corridors are full of colour as our seaside Art creations proudly hang on the wall. We used our procedural writing skills to outline the steps in creating our Art piece. We also wrote the procedure for our colour changing science experiment. Next we will be learning how to write letters and postcards which will be useful if we go on any Summer adventures. Exploring capacity in Maths has allowed us to keep cool outdoors while we experiment with water and various size containers. Our gymnastics and football PE lessons have also brought us outdoors. We have learned how to describe our uniforms as Gaeilge when learning about m’éadaí scoile. We were so proud of second class when they made their First Holy Communion and since then we have been learning about how we can spread the word of God. We can’t wait for all the fun activities that this season brings!
3rd Class (Mr. Johnson):
We have been learning about the topic of area in our maths lessons. We measured the area of our desks, classroom, the astroturf pitch and the school yard. We are glad of the good weather because we can do some of our lessons outdoors now. We have been looking at procedural writing in English- we wrote instructions for carrying out science experiments. We’re now working our way through our class novel, ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’. We’re using our dictionaries to find the meanings of new tricky words we’re coming across. Sna ceachtanna Gaeilge, táimid ag foghlaim mar gheall ar siopadóireacht. We learnt some sea shanties in our music lessons and we are currently learning about the history of workhouses in Ireland. We were surprised to learn that the county council building in Tralee was a former workhouse.
4th/5th Class (Ms. Fitzpatrick & Ms. O' Leary):
The sale of our ‘Creative Cards’ for our Junior Entrepreneur project has gone really well. Our card collection is now sold out and our shop is closed! We would like to thank everyone that supported our business and hope that you get great use out of the cards! We hope to choose a charity to donate some of our profits to in the coming weeks. We have really enjoyed the whole experience so far! We have also been working hard during our Spanish and Cycling lessons over the past weeks and look forward to putting our new skills to use.
5th/6th Class (Ms. O' Leary):
5th and 6th Class have been very busy this term with their Junior Entrepreneur Project ‘Candy Kingdom’. We held four very successful pop-up shops selling our sweet bags. After the second pop-up shop we managed to repay our business loan to the school and decided to reinvest the remainder of our money. We made and sold over 500 sweet bags and made a profit of over €800. We have decided to use some of our profits to supplement some of our school tour, we will donate a portion of our money to charity and plan to have a pizza party at the end of this term. We also completed our class book and submitted it for publishing. We are really looking forward to receiving our copies of ‘Stuffed Bellies Cookbook’. We have also just finished taking part in the Cycle Right training programme. We spent three weeks learning all about the rules of the road and how to cycle safely on the road. On the fourth and final week of the programme to put our skills to use we went on 4km cycle around Scartaglen, we really enjoyed it.
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School year 2018/19
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