STEPS - Work with an engineer for a day

The senior room were delighted to welcome an engineer to the classroom to learn first hand the interesting projects they work on. See some of what we learned here.  The Engineers Ireland STEPS programme, funded by the SFI Discover Programme is a not-for-profit strategic outreach programme that promotes interest and awareness in engineering as a future career to school students through a portfolio of projects. 

IMG_1430JPG

Farmyard in your Schoolyard

The squeals of excitement could be heard all around Eglish today as Farmyard in your Schoolyard rolled in. Goats, sheep, guinea pigs and 'Big Red' the rooster kept us entertained for hours. Thanks so much. We are delighted to support local business.

IMG_1686JPG

Primary Language Curriculum

Junior Room are working hard with the new Primary Language Curriculum. This month we are working on vocaubulary, phonics, phonological awareness and early writing and reading skills. PHEW! No wonder we are tired in the evening. 

IMG_1685JPG

Fisheries Workshop

The senior room were delighted to welcome Inland Fisheries Ireland for an enlightening workshop about the rivers and waterways around us. This is part of the 'Something Fishy' programme. 

IMG_1687JPG

Fresh Air Club Continues

Have you heard about the new outdoor education experience offered at Eglish Ns under Forest School Principles. We call it Fresh Air Club and it's serious fun!IMG_4763.JPG

Wormery

WORMS! WORMS! WORMS!

Check out our wormery in a recycled 5 Litre water bottle. We are not sure where they went to after the weekend though!!

Fresh Air Club

Our Fresh Air Club is up and running for the Spring Term. Based on the principles of Forest School our children are learning all about our extensive school grounds and the flora and fauna that we share it with. All that and we are also having a lot of fun. 

Planning for a Better Tomorrow

IMG_4775.JPGWe are so excited to have had the opportunity to create a better future for the generations of children who will attend Eglish NS. We have planted 100 trees for you. Though they are small now, they, like dreams, will grow and flourish. Sincerest thanks to each and every family who came to plant trees in this special event.

Drama Success

We've done it again. Our newest Irish play 'An Cailín Nua' has brought even more success to our school, winning all the county competitions for best play from an English speaking school outside the Gaeltacht. All the pupils of Eglish Ns from 1st to 6th class were involved in this creative drama set in our very own school 'Scoil na hEaglaise'. Watch this space to find out when we are performing again.

Thank you to Luke Ming Flanagan for visiting our school

Luke Ming Flanagan visited our school to talk to us about his role as an MEP.  He also spoke to us about his schooldays and our bogs.  He answered our students' many questions and inspired our students with his answers. Our students sang 'Galway Bay' proudly for him and also delighted him with the song 'Somewhere in Europe'.

Luke Ming.jpg

 

Poem of Farewell written by a student, Courtney

Eglish


I did not expect to leave so soon

All the time in Eglish, I was over the moon.

The new skills gained I can never measure

The friends I have gained I will forever treasure

The support I've been given

It made me more driven

To achieve my best

And forget the rest.

I have blossomed to a beautiful rose

And now I strike a confident pose.

I wish to thank you from the bottom of my hear

How all in Eglish has helped give me a fantastic start.


Thank you Courtney and we wish you well in your new school

Head Gardener 2017

image1.jpgWe are delighted to announce one of our Senior Infants as Head Gardener 2017. With tireless work, he weeded, planted, moved and made sure the sensory garden and the polytunnel were in ship shape for our end of year celebrations.  Well Done

GO Games

The Middle and Senior Room Students are delighted to meet up with children from local schools in the Go Games Series. Thanks to Ger for organising.

Dog's Trust

Aoife, from Dog's Trust, visited with informative workshops on keeping our dogs healthy and caring for them.

We learned 

  • Chocolate is like poison to Dogs
  • Use the X Factor if a dog is jumping up on you and you don't like it
  • Use 'Safe hands' when approaching a dog 

Thanks Aoife and Dog's Trust.

Local Nature Walk

We visited Bannerton's Woods to see the carpet of bluebells last week. We sat in silence and heard the beautiful birdsong and buzzing insects.image31.jpegimage51.jpeg

Teachers in Residence

Ms Moore has been taking part in the Teachers in Residence with Curum at NUIG and together with the Senior Room pupils we have been learning all about Parkinsons' Disease and the medical devices that can be used to treat it. Check out the jelly brain and simple equipment we used to study how to make medical devices.

 brain.jpg

Díolacháin - Budding Entrepreneurs in Eglish

We held our annual 'Díolacháin' on December 16th.  Many of the Senior Room made their own crafts and /or came up with their own innovative ways to make money.  Students who came up with their own idea for their stall got to keep 85% of the money they made.  It was a fun day for all and very fruitful for many.

img_9613.jpg

 

 

Showing empathy for the victims of the recent earthquake in Amatrice in Italy

We held 'Earth Day' at the end of September to raise money for the victims of the recent earthquake in Amatrice.  On this day, we brought in €2 each to wear our old clothes, clothes we could comfortably plant, weed and explore the beauty of the earth in.  We had special lessons in which we learned about and sang about the beauty and power of the earth.  We were reminded of what we can do to look after and protect it.  img_7869.jpg

All in all, we raised €150 which the Erasmus Plus delegation from our school brought to Faenza, Italy with them in October and presented to our partner school there to be put towards the rebuilding of the school in Amatrice that was destroyed in the earthquake.  Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered.  It feels good to help others.

img_8430.jpg

Changemaker School

changemakerschoolslogo.jpg

Very proud of the demographic make-up of our school, we actively foster and create a safe, supportive environment in which ALL of our students feel cherished, stimulated and proud to be the best version of themselves. For us it's about mutual respect.

We see a huge opportunity, through nurturing all our students’ self-worth and self-confidence for us to challenge any existing prejudices in society and move beyond them.  We aim to empower our students to be ‘Changemakers’, role models for their brothers, sisters, cousins and neighbours.  Through encouraging creativity, we help every child find their passion and interest and develop it.  This year our students wrote, produced and acted in their own Irish play.  Making and selling their own crafts at our annual ‘Bring and Buy’ Sale, entrepreneurial skills are developed.

We frequently and actively celebrate diversity in all its forms, always reinforcing that ‘We are all, more alike than different’.  Erasmus projects give us a deepened sense of how small our world is.

Through School Self Evaluation, Oral Language was identified as most in need of focus and attention.  With one third of students assessed as having a Speech and Language Difficulty, another big dilemma was the apparent reticence of students from the Travelling Community to share information about their backgrounds.  Concerned also about how much time many students seemed to spend passively on Technology in their free time, to the apparent detriment of their communication skills, here lay the challenge and here lay the opportunity. 

We are a small school with a big vision, a vision of all our children communicating clearly and confidently, expressing coherently their thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams, listening empathically to one another, developing keen skills of evaluation and using technology as the tremendous tool that it is to enhance their presentations but not being mastered by technology. 

Using the ‘LET’s Stand’ (Listen, Evaluate, Talk, Stand) programme  we encourage, enable and empower students to stand and present in front of an audience a minimum of 10 times a year, in every year of their Primary School Education.  Each child speaks on topics relevant to their lives, all the while developing, step-by-step specific Public Speaking skills.  Peer and Teacher feedback and evaluation is positive and specific.  We get excited about topics that excite our students.  ‘LET’s Stand’ targets the development of children’s Oral Language, Confidence and Public Speaking skills at a time when they, themselves most want to talk. This also feeds into the development of positive mental health practises. 

History boasts plenty of examples of great orators who have changed the world by standing up and speaking out.  We are creating confident, communicatively competent orators for the future.  Positive, powerful and passionate advocates for themselves and their communities.

Encouraging our students to talk has been easy because they want to be heard.  Slightly more difficult is creating the safe, supportive environment in which this can happen.  By spending the time initially on clearly outlining and explaining the simple, respectful rules for ‘Listening’, ‘Evaluating’ and ‘Speaking’, the rest more easily falls into place. 

Discrete Oral Language time can be used for student presentations while many projects are easily linked to other curriculum subjects.  Assigning preparation of oral projects for homework is a great way of getting the parents and extended family involved, promoting further increased communication and sharing of stories and culture at home.  It’s homework that is not confined to being completed around the table.

Our staff conscientiously model the skills we aim to develop in our students.  We actively listen to them.  Working as a team, individual members of staff take the lead in their preferred areas of interest and create real opportunities for students to do the same.

We realise that not simply teaching, we are moulding the young minds of rural Ireland, cultivating confident, clearly communicating leaders who can and will change the world for the good of us all.

Changemaker School

History boasts plenty of examples of great orators who have changed the world by standing up and speaking out. We are creating confident, communicatively competent orators for the future.

Read more

Changemaker School

History boasts plenty of examples of great orators who have changed the world by standing up and speaking out. We are creating confident, communicatively competent orators for the future.

Read more