The end of 2023 was a very busy year for the St. Paul’s Garden and our Garden Committee!

Following on from the success of our Hazel tree planting to mark Tree Day, we planted our very own orchard right here in the grounds of St. Paul’s! We planted 5 fruits trees – 3 apple trees, 1 pear tree and 1 plum tree. These fruit trees were kindly donated to us by DC’s for Bees Orchards in the Community Project. We are very much looking forward to making many visits to the orchard and watching the trees grow and bear fruit for many years to come.

Many thanks to our Garden Committee for promoting our new orchard across the school and encouraging our classes to go out to visit it!

Safer Internet Day took place recently on the 6th February. Our IT committee were working very hard that day to promote internet safety in our school. They visited classrooms to share their top Internet Safety tips and produced the wonderful display that you can see in the photo above. Well done to everyone involved.

Congratulations to our Junior and Senior Quiz Teams who had a successful night recently at the Credit Union Quiz in Ashbourne. Have a read of their reports below…

The night started off by getting to the Ashbourne House Hotel at 6.45pm as the quiz was starting at 7 O’ clock. Firstly I met up with my team which consisted of me, Victor, Liam and Riley. The quiz had 10 rounds of six questions for the junior teams and 12 rounds of 6 questions for the senior teams. Our junior team consisted of Nicholas, Evan, Kalan and Siúan. The first three or four rounds were quite easy with questions like ‘What is the capital of England’? However, midway through round five it started to get hard. Thankfully after round five we had a break and we got a bar of chocolate, a drink and a bag of crisps. After the break we got straight back into it with round 6 as the questions were really hard. After a few more rounds we started to get nervous. When we answered the last question in round 12 we knew that’s all we could do. But then we found out we have to go to a tie breaker with two other schools. When we finished the round they announced that Saint Paul`s Ratoath were first place. We were over the moon! We walked up to receive our trophy and an envelope with 25 euro in it. Our junior team also had done really well placing 3rd place.
Written by Adam Walsh, 6th Class 

Just before seven o’clock on Friday the 26th of January I arrived at the Ashbourne House Hotel for the Credit Union Quiz. I was the first one there. The members of the junior team were Kalan, Evan and Siuán and the members of the senior team were Victor, Adam, Liam and Rylee. The first few questions were really easy. Then they started getting pretty hard. Finally the break came. After the break the questions were really hard. The senior teams had to go to a tiebreaker. The junior team came 3rd place with 41 points. The senior team won with 54 points. I had great fun.
Written by Nicholas Clarke, 4th Class  

The day started off very early arriving at the school at 8:20am as the bus was leaving at 8:30am. When both Under 13 teams arrived we got on the bus and headed to Gormanstown College. As soon as we got to the sports hall in Gormanstown we got warmed up as our first game was at 9:30am against Yellow Furze. The game went really well as we won 7-5. Our next game was not for another hour and a half. The game was against Bohermeen. It was a tight game but we dug deep and scored a late goal to win 4-3. The next game was against Scoil Eoin Baiste. We knew if we were to win we would be in the final. After a great performance we won 7-0. After that game we watched Yellow Furze against Bohermeen as the winner would play us in the final. It was a great game but Yellow Furze scored a late goal to send them into the final to play us. Just before the game we went down to a spare hall to warm up. As soon as the game started we were under a lot of pressure. At half time Yellow Furze were leading 5-3. Early in the second half we scored two goals to draw level but then completely against the run of play, Yellow Furze scored a goal. After the goal they just kept us pinned back and then they scored another two goals before the end. After the game we were all devastated. Then after a few minutes we went over to collect our medals.

Written by Adam Walsh & Ciarán Pentony, 6th Class 

On the 6th of February the girl’s handball team travelled to Gormanstown for the Meath Handball Tournament. The first match they played was against Yellow Furze. It was a
very physical and close match but after a good fight our girls came out on top with a score of 5-3 in their favour. The second match was against Bohermeen. This match proved to challenge the girls more and unfortunately after a good fight they lost 4-3. This meant their chance of going through wasn’t great. In their 3rd and final match of the group stages they played Carnaross. In this match the girls really pulled their socks up and produced a much better performance and won 11-2. After a long wait of anticipation they found out that they made it through to the final, and they were to replay Bohermeen. It was an eventful match with 2 penalties, 2 yellow cards and lots of frees. But the girls gave it their all and pulled through and after a tough battle they won with a score of 7-4! It was a great day out and the girls will be training very hard for the Leinsters!
Written by Ellie O’Leary, 6th Class 

On the 6 th of February the handball girls went to Gormanstown to play the Meath Handball Tournament. First, the girls had to play Yellow Furze. The girls put in a great effort and pulled out a win of 5-3. A while later the girls had to play Bohermeen. The girls put in another great effort to play their best but lost 4-3.This was going to make it very hard for the girls to win the tournament. Finally the girls had to play Carnaross. The girls had to score as many goals as possible because it might have had to go to goal difference. They really pulled their socks up and won 11-2. After a long stressful wait the girls found out that they had made it to the final! They then had to play Bohermeen. The girls put up a great fight with two yellow cards, two penalties and loads of frees. The girls managed to pull out a 7-4 win! It was an amazing day, and we are already looking forward to Leinsters!
Written by Katie O’Brien, 6th Class