All Ireland Junior Football Winners Visit the School

Members of the victorious Limerick Ladies Football team visited the school on Friday.

 

Megan O’Shea, Orlaith O’Donoghue and Louise Ryan brought the West County Cup to Herbertstown NS and gave some great advice and tips to the children. All three are members of St Brigid’s Ladies Football Club and links were made between the girls who play football in the school and their chances of one day playing in Croke Park. Megan said “when Limerick last won this cup in 2010, I was looking on in Croke Park just like some of you were.”

 

The pupils asked questions, sang ‘Limerick, You’re a Lady’ and the school’s musicians performed Amhrán na bhFiann.

 

Megan, Orlaith & Lucy stayed on to allow time for the children to lift the cup and take photographs. They are great ambassadors for their club and county.

 

Experiments & More

Science Week

 

Third/Fourth class looked at the use of arches in construction through studying the strength of eggshells. The class used maths books to test the strength of 4 egg shell halves. An amazing 14 books were stacked on the shells before they broke!

 

1st Class pupil makes ‘catch-in-cup’ game at home for Science Week.

 

Third/Fourth Investigate Capillary Action

2nd and 3rd Class Become Engineers for Science Week

Mr. Gubbins’ class became architects and engineers for science week when they looked at how bridges are built.

First, they learned about the longest suspension bridges in the world – some of them nearly reaching an amazing 2km in length! Next, they created a list of words that describe a strong bridge, including: ‘sturdy’, ‘supported’ and ‘stable’. Then it was down to work!
In groups, the girls and boys task was to create a bridge across their desks that a toy car could drive across. They were given points for teamwork, the strength of the bridge, and the overall bridge design. Some fantastic problem solving and cooperation was seen by all the groups and, although some bridges didn’t go exactly to plan, lots was learned about what makes a bridge strong and safe. It was great fun!

GAA 5 Star Centre

What is the GAA 5 Star Centre?

The GAA 5 Star initiative aims to support and recognise Primary Schools that provide pupils with 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous Gaelic Games activity per week in a manner that ensures the children will experience fun, friendship, fairness and ultimately improve their fitness.  Recognition as a “GAA 5 Star Centre” is awarded to Primary Schools that undertake to deliver a programme of Gaelic Games activity that is age-appropriate and meets the developmental needs of children within the school.

 

Herbertstown NS is one of  a number of schools accepted to pilot this new initiative from the GAA and so far this year we have been making progress on a number of areas. For the next 6 weeks, 3rd & 4th class and 5th & 6th class will be focusing on the ‘Have a Ball’ and ‘Strike It’ elements of the initiative.

 

Here are some photos of the pupils taking part in some activities earlier today.

 

 

Science Week in Full Swing

Science Week is in full swing in Herbertstown NS!

 

In the Senior Infants/1st classroom the boys and girls have been busy exploring materials and their properties.

In third/fourth class the pupils investigated how sound travels through different materials. The experiment involved using a clothes hanger and string to tap off objects and observe the sound made. The pupils then repeated this while holding the string in their ears. The experiment produced some interesting results!

 

Third/Fourth also investigated the buoyancy of objects in fresh water vs salt water.

Star Awards – October

Congratulations to our Star Award winners for October! One pupil from each classroom was selected by their class teacher and the award winners were presented with certificates at today’s assembly. They were also given a night off homework for their efforts!

 

A new award was added at this month’s assembly. The award, decided on by Ms O’Dwyer and Mrs. Brosnan, is presented to pupils for a particular act of kindness or to pupils who have completed an exemplary piece of work in school. Well done to the first two recipients of this award.