In Ms. Burke’s Second Class, the boys and girls have been very busy, in particular in the subjects of S.E.S.E. – History, Geography and Science.

In Science, we were investigating magnets. Our conclusion lesson involved Geography where the children drew maps of Ratoath. They used paper clips as cars. They then drove the car (paper clip) around Ratoath by using a magnet underneath their map.

In History, we were looking at games in the past so Ms. Burke brought in what she would have played as a child. There were 7 stations – foosball, rubber rings, memory, target, elastics, x’s and o’s and squares. Everyone in room 8 had so much fun, including Ms. Burke!! Have a look at the photographs showing these activities!

A very well done to all the students in Fifth and Sixth Class who put their names forward to be on this year’s Student Council. The students worked very hard in their presentations, making election posters and coming up with new ideas for the school. Maith Sibh!

Céad Míle Fáilte go dtí ár Naíonáin Shóisearacha nua! Our new Junior Infants are settling really well into school life making lots of friends and they are enjoying learning new things! Well done boys and girls!

Last week was Active Week and what a week it was! We had fantastic weather and more importantly we had so much fun. Statements like “This is the best week ever!” were heard on numerous occasions!! Thank you to The Active Committee and all the teachers involved in making the week such a success, in particular to Ms. Dennehy, Ms. McCarthy and Ms. Ward. Have a look at just some of the activities the kids were up to.

Next week is Active Week in the school. The children can wear their tracksuits every day and it might be a good idea to give them an extra drink. Please put suncream on your child and give them a hat.

On Thursday it’s “Wet Day” so please provide your child with a swimming hat. Your child should wear their own clothes in on this day and bring their tracksuit and a towel with them as they will get soaked and will need to change afterwards.

Each day the children can be collected at the normal time from the school. The only exception to this is for fourth, fifth and sixth classes on Tuesday, where they will need to be collected or walk home from the G.A.A. pitch in Ratoath.

We hope to have a wonderful week. Below are the events happening for each class level.

Junior and Senior Infants

• Tuesday 5th June            Parachute Day
• Wednesday 6th June      Fun Day
• Thursday 7th June          Wet Day
• Friday 8th June                Orienteering Day

First, Second and Third Classes

• Tuesday 5th June            Water Safety Day
• Wednesday 6th June      Athletics Day
• Thursday 7th June          Wet Day
• Friday 8th June                Orienteering Day

Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Classes

• Tuesday 5th June            GAA Day
• Wednesday 6th June      Athletics Day
• Thursday 7th June          Wet Day
• Friday 8th June                Orienteering Day

Best of luck to our Boys’ Senior Football Team who take on St. Declan’s N.S., Ashbourne in Páirc Tailteann, Navan in the Cummann na mBunscol Meath Division 1 Shield Final tomorrow, Saturday 26th May at 5.30pm. All support would be greatly appreciated on the day to cheer our boys on.

The children from First Class to Sixth Class had a special treat today when they got to watch a performance of The Secret Garden. The Sixth Class children had a “back stage” session with the cast afterwards who gave them lots of inside information on the performance which has left them very excited for their own performance of Matilda in June!

Last Friday, the 27th of April, we had our annual sponsored walk and run. In the “run” up to this, the children have been working very hard on “The Eur-Run” challenge. Have a look below to see how each class level is progressing.

• Junior Infants 59km
• Senior Infants 299km
• First Class 818km
• Second Class 622km
• Third Class 1356km
• Fourth Class 1402km
• Fifth Class 1562km
• Sixth Class 925km

Each class will continue to reach their assigned destination by the end of the year.

For our sponsored walk and run, Junior Infants to Fourth Classes walked different routes around the village while Fifth and Sixth Classes headed up to Fairyhouse and ran the racecourse. The total distance of this racecourse is 2.7km. Below are the results from this run.

Fifth Classes

• 1st  James Kelly 11.57
• Joint 2nd  Cara O’Sullivan, Kate Raftery, Sarah Forde and Ciara Coroner 12.11

Sixth Classes

• 1st: Lee Gallagher 11.43
• 2nd: Liam Fraser 13.00
• Joint 3rd: Hugh Kehoe and Jacob Mulcahy 13.10
• 1st Girls home: Laura Kelly and Lily Nannery 13.15

Well done to everyone who took part. We had a great day! Thank you to the Parents’ Association who supplied each child with an apple and a bottle of water. Thank you also to the children and their families for gathering sponsorship money for our school.

As part of renewing our Active Flag this year, our school is accepting the challenge to “Run around Europe.” We are very excited about this and have named it the “Eur-Run.”

Each class level has a target destination. Have a look at the destinations and distance each class level will “run to” as a collective group. It will be an accumulation of the distance each child has run. The class teacher is monitoring the progress of his/her class on a record sheet. The distance completed by each class is also displayed on a banner outside their classroom door. Have a look at the progress the children have made so far.

Remember our Sponsored Walk for Junior Infants to Fourth Classes and a Sponsored Run for Fifth and Sixth Classes will take place this Friday, the 27th of April.

Congratulations to Conor, in Fifth Class, who represented St. Paul’s in the Spelling Bee Meath county final.
Following a school based competition between all the children in Fifth and Sixth Class, Conor was the last student standing after spelling all of his words correctly. This meant Conor would represent St. Paul’s in the county final, which was held in our school. Conor had the support of his class in the PE hall  and did extremely well, getting to the second last round. Well done Conor!

We are delighted to have raised €1,487 on Daffodil Day, which was donated directly to the Irish Cancer Society. Many thanks to everyone who donated money, and a special thank you to our Student Council who worked very hard selling pins, daffodils and raffle tickets on the day.

There was great excitement in school today when we had our annual visit from the Easter Bunny. He had lots of fun visiting all of the children and he even left a little treat for the children to find in an Easter Egg Hunt!

Played in the National Indoor Arena, Blanchardstown, the boys and girls U-11 teams and the boys U-13 team represented Meath in the Leinster Finals. Our U-11 girls were first into action. Playing with great determination and no little skill, they defeated Corduff NS in the semi-final 4-2. This set up a contest with Rush NS, Dublin in the final. The girls rushed into an early lead, one which held all the way to the end and were crowned Champions of Leinster with a victory of 5-2. The U-11 boys also faced Dublin opposition in the form of St. Attracta’s NS where the boys raced to a 6-0 victory. Spirits were high and with the U-11 Girls having achieved Leinster glory the boys were determined to bring home the second gold of the day. The boys were pitted against a very strong Rush NS team in the final. This was a thrilling contest where both teams faced a flurry of attacks displaying great skill and determination. Our boys responded brilliantly and claimed a well-deserved victory with a final score of 7-5. Next up was our U13 Boys with an encounter against Rush NS, Dublin in the semi-final. This game was a very close affair, with our boys matching their talented opponents. While the boys were narrowly defeated on a score line of 7-5, they can hold their heads high. The boys bounced back from their semi-final defeat to beat St Attracta’s NS in the playoff following an intense game which resulted in extra time to separate the two teams. However, our boys responded brilliantly and claimed a well-earned 3^rd place in Leinster with a 6-5 victory. It was a proud moment as all the St Paul’s teams were presented with their winning shields and medals.

The PE Hall was transformed into a colourful art exhibition last week! Well done to all of the boys and girls who produced such wonderful pictures! There was lots of variety in the pictures, ranging from unicorns to flowers to football matches to portraits to animals and much more! The children, staff and parents really enjoyed the opportunity to come and visit the PE hall and view everyone’s art work! Thank you to our Parents’ Association for providing tea and coffee on the Wednesday night.

On Wednesday 24th January, St Paul’s NS competed against Mullaghbuoy NS, Dundalk to debate the motion “Ireland is the best country to live”. The children of St Paul’s NS proposed the motion while the visiting team opposed it. Both schools were represented by six students from 5th and 6th classes. The six students who represented St Paul’s were Cormac as Captain, Hannah as second speaker, Oscar as third speaker while Shaun, Sarah and Isabel acted as time keepers on the day. As Captain, Cormac introduced the other speakers and outlined what they would be talking about. He himself spoke passionately about the culture, mythology and importance of the Irish language. The second speaker, Hannah, referred to the advantages of our climate, our geographical location and the validity of having English. She also highlighted the OECD results on how happy Irish people are in the world. The third speaker, Oscar, presented facts on the tourist industry and the success of the Irish food industry and how many Irish products are being sold world-wide. There was a lot of whip lashing from the opposition team as facts about the health crisis, employment figures, crime rates and the impact of the recession on Ireland were emphasised. However, after a long conference, the adjudicators announced St Paul’s NS as the winners. The proposition arguments carried the motion that “Ireland is the best country in the world to live”. The debating team will take part in the semi-final of the competition on Tuesday, February 27^th against St Kevin’s GNS, Kilnamanagh, Dublin. They will be debating the motion “Boys’ or Girls’ schools are better than Mixed Schools”. Fingers crossed they will succeed in the next round.

All four of our Olympic Handball Teams qualified for the Meath County Finals in Gormanstown College last Tuesday 13^th February. The teams have been working hard, training twice a week in preparation for these games. Their hard work and dedication paid off with each team winning a Meath County Medal. Each team had to play a semi-final match in Gormanstown College to make it to the Finals.

The U11 Girls got the school off to a winning start playing a fantastic semi-final and beating Yellow Furze NS to secure their place in the final. A thrilling encounter followed in the final against Skryne NS where after full time it was a drawn match which resulted in extra time. Both teams gave it everything which saw both sides score wonderful goals and extra time ended level again. It was then decided that both team would play for Golden Goal and St. Paul’s were lucky to get The Golden Goal and be crowned Champions of Meath.

The U11 Boys continued the winning steak by sealing their place in the final by a win over Skryne NS in the semi -final. The boys had a tough task ahead of them meeting Yellow Furze NS in the final. However, the boys team showed great determination and skill to win the match and be crowned Champions of Meath.

The U13 Girls Team played a fantastic, high energy semi-final against Yellow Furze NS displaying great skills but were unlucky to lose 3-2 in the last minute of the match. However, the girls picked themselves up and played excellently against Robinstown to win and come 3^rd place in Meath-a great result.

The U13 Boys Team played a fantastic semi-final against Wilkinstown NS to secure a place in the final. The boys then had to take on Yellow Furze NS in the final. The boys showed great skill and determination but were unsuccessful against a very strong Yellow Furze Team. The boys finished 2^nd in Meath- Well done Boys!

The U11 Boys and Girls Olympic Handball Teams and the Senior Boys Olympic Handball Team have all made it through to the Leinster Finals coming up on the 26th February at the National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown. We are all very proud of the children of St. Paul’s NS for how they perform and represent the school at all the events. A very big ‘Thank You’ to all the teachers who give up their time to train the teams throughout the year. We wish all three teams continued success as they continue on their Olympic Handball Jouney.

The Health Promoting School Team had our first ‘Funky Fruit Friday’ last Friday on January 12th. We are encouraging everyone in the school to bring in some fruit on a Friday that they wouldn’t normally eat. It’s all about trying something new, different and a little bit funky. On Friday we saw so many different types of fruit such as coconut, pineapple, blueberries, figs, kiwi and cherries. Some people even funked up their fruit by cutting it into unusual shapes, we even had a Mexican apple!

There are so many different ways of making fruit fun and funky, we are so excited about ‘Funky Fruit Friday’ and we can’t wait to see more every Friday in St. Paul’s.

The Health Promoting Schools Committee.

The children in Second, Third and Fourth Class were very lucky to have a visit from Nurse Kerry Wardick, who spoke to them about the importance of hand washing. Kerry had some very interesting facts for the children and we were shocked to hear that 50% of males and 25% of females don’t wash their hands after going to the toilet! Kerry reminded the children of when we should be washing our hands and how we should be doing it. The children used a UV box to compare how clean their hands were before and after washing – the results were amazing! As a result of Kerry’s visit the children and staff are on a mission to keep our hands clean and stop any germs from spreading. Thank you for the visit Kerry!

St. Paul’s held our annual Christmas Fair on the 3rd of December. As always, it was a huge success and we raised in excess of €12,000 for the school. A huge thank you to our fantastic Parents’ Association for organising the event and to all the families who came to support it.

Many thanks to all the children and their parents who very kindly donated food items for our St. Vincent de Paul Hampers. We were able to make up 48 hampers in total, which will be collected this afternoon and distributed to families in the area before Christmas. Thank you!

Our boys mini sevens Gaelic footballers recently took part in the local area blitz. Our boys defeated Coole NS and Ratoath SNS in our group stage. With only one team qualifying for the next round, the final game of the day was a winner takes all tie against Rathbeggan. Following an exciting and very close game of football our boys persevered and were rewarded by winning the game. As a result the boys qualified for the county final day in the Meath Centre of Excellence at Dunganny. Here the boys faced a very strong grouping. First the boys took on Gaelscoil na Boinne of Trim and came out victorious. The boys then had the task to take on Kilcloon NS. The boys played terrific football and led for most of the game. With a minute to go and a point down the boys never gave up. Unfortunately, having hit the crossbar in the final minute the boys were unlucky on this occasion and Kilcloon NS were one point winners. The boys did very well to make it to the finals day, being only the second St. Paul’s boys football team to do this. We are extremely proud of how the boys represented themselves and the school. Also a big ‘thank you’ to the boys of Sixth Class who were overage and came to our training sessions to give the mini sevens team a good training session. We look forward to starting up Football in the Spring again.

Our boys and girls competed in round one of the Olympic Handball Meath League in Gormanstown College on the 20th November. All teams have been working hard, training twice a week in preparation for these games. Each team had to play a number of matches in Gormanstown College. All four teams are doing very well and will continue their plight to qualify for the semi-final stage of the competition. The next qualifying day is taking place in Gormanstown College in January. We wish them all the best in the latter stages of the competition.

There was great excitement in school last Friday when we discovered that Jingles the Elf was back! He had sent us a post card earlier in the week letting us know that he was on his way, so we were all busy keeping an eye out for him. He has already been a little mischievous on his return by causing quite a mess with some toilet paper in the main lobby of the school! Hopefully he won’t get up to any more tricks!!

Jingles had a letter for us when he arrived which informed us that he will be reporting back to Santa on everything he sees! Fingers crossed that it will be all good things that he’ll be reporting back on!

Many thanks to all the families in the school who donated shoe boxes for our annual shoe box appeal. This year we collected 335 shoe boxes for Team Hope and 164 shoe boxes for the Dublin Inner City Homeless Appeal. Thank you!

As always, Book Week was another huge success this year. The children had lots of opportunities for extra reading time and discovered some new and exciting books in the Book Fair. Clifford dropped by to say hello to the children in Junior and Senior Infants. The children taught him some funny dance moves and in return Clifford read them a lovely story. Ms. Smyth did a storytelling drama workshop with the children in First and Second Class. The children used different props to tell some extremely creative stories. The storyteller Jack Lynch entertained the children from Third to Sixth Class with various funny and interesting stories. As well as all of this, we raised €5,000 which will be spent directly on new books for the school. A huge thank you to everyone involved in making it such a successful week! A special thank you to our former pupil Lauren Kelly for designing the beautiful banner for Book Week.

Have a look at all of the fantastic costumes from Hallowe’en dress up in St. Paul’s today!
We hope everyone has a wonderful midterm break and remember to stay safe! See you all back on November 6th!

Congratulations to all of the students in Fifth and Sixth Class who took part in the Student Council Elections. The final candidates made fantastic presentations to their class mates before the official election took place! We look forward to discussing all of their ideas with the newly elected student council.

Welcome Back! We hope everyone had a lovely Summer and are ready for a busy and fun filled school year. Our calendar has been updated to show holidays and closure for the coming year.