On the 27^th of April the Under-13 Boys’ Olympic Handball team travelled to Gormanstown College for the All-Ireland tournament. At 10am the boys played Kildare Town ET and they played excellently to take a 7-2 win in their first game. It was a superb way to start the winning spree. In our second game at 10:40am we beat Fermoyle NS to keep the morale high. Although we put some pressure on ourselves when we drew with Oranmore who had come all the way from Galway. Luckily our attack was on form with Liam Wade and Martynas Rumsas keeping the scoresheet high, which helped the team make it through to the semi-final. In midfield, Conor Gibson, Sean Ward, Jeremiasz Weglowski and Louis Connolly were digging deep as the hard work was non-stop. In defence Oscar Hennessey, Leon Dempsey and Dylan McMahon weren’t letting any shots get in on the superb goalkeeper James Pullen.

We beat Rush NS in the semi-final and progressed to the final where we would once again face Oranmore. Sadly, by the half time whistle, we were down 4-0 but in the second half we got 3 more goals. Unfortunately we just didn’t get over the line by the final whistle and the game finished 4-3. In the end, we had come second in the whole of Ireland!!! Everybody in St. Paul’s is extremely proud of our performance and we are very grateful to Mr. O’Donnell and Mr. McNally for all the hard work they put in throughout the year.

Written by James Pullen 

We’d a super Book Week in school this week. The children enjoyed browsing through the books and discovering new authors and genres of books. We were lucky enough to have two authors, Alan Nolan and Seosamh Ó Maolalaí, visit the children and read them some stories. We finished the week off with a dress up day where the children dressed up as their favourite character from a book. The school gets back 60% of the money spent in the Book Fair which we look forward to spending on new books for the class libraries and the main library. Thank you to everyone for your support during this week. 

It was lovely to have so many Grandparents visit the school last Wednesday for Grandparents’ Day. We had over 400 visitors including Grandparents who came all the way over from Holland and our oldest Grandparent who recently celebrated her 100th birthday. The children loved having the opportunity to show their Grandparents their classroom, teacher, friends, schoolwork, artwork and lots more. Everyone left the school with a big smile on their face that day. Thank you to our wonderful Parents’ Association who provided tea and coffee on the day. 

The children in Fifth Class had the opportunity to visit Kilmainham Gaol last week and they really enjoyed it. They learnt lots of new facts about Irish history and enjoyed exploring the gaol.

The Easter Bunny was busy in the school this week delivering and hiding eggs for all the boys and girls. Have a look at some photos from the day.

HOW WE FOUND OUT:
Last Wednesday Cian told the class that we were going to the Irish Wheelchair Association and that we would be playing basketball in wheelchairs. The whole class were very excited. Cian told us that we would be going on the 20^th of March, four days from then! It was the same day I had chess club, but I was happy to miss it and go on the tour instead.

GETTING THERE ON THE COACH:
On the 20^th we had to get the coach at 11.40am. By then we had done Maths, PE and had some food. Then it was time to get on the coach. Everyone had to have a partner and my partner was Ciarán. We got on the coach and went to the Irish Wheelchair Association. It was a 40 minute drive there and back.

WHAT WE DID WHEN WE GOT THERE:
When we got there we went into the big basketball court and everyone got in a wheelchair. The first game we played was “Build Up”. Cian was the fastest out of all of us at this game.

The next game we played was a course around the basketball court and the objective was not to let the ball fall out of your grasp. The next game we played was a real game of basketball. There were four teams at the start and then there was one big match. After that match we got to do what we want for a bit and then that was it.

GOING BACK ON THE COACH:
When we were leaving all of us got some treats. Most of us had them all gone before we got back on the coach! On the way back we talked about the fun we had during the different games. When we got back to school we went straight into class for our bags and then we went home.

REFLECTION:
It was a great day out with my class and it was amazing to see how hard it is to play basketball in a wheelchair. You need a lot of upper body strength to wheel the chair. Going to the Irish Wheelchair Association gave me a better understanding of how hard it is to go around in a wheelchair all day. I now know what Cian must do every day and I’m so proud of him and to be his friend.

Written by Riley Hearns, 5th Class