Togher N.S.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The children have been very busy this term, filming their songs and sketches, preparing for the Discovery Science Award, entering handwriting and art competitions, and a myriad of other activities. We are taking part in the badge making competition for St Patrick’s Day. The winners’ badges will be on display in the Library window from March 15th onwards. Good luck to all the children!!
Easter may have come early this year, but despite the short school term we’ve just had, there has been a lot going on!

A big thank you as always to all the Parents who work voluntarily within the school, helping out with the garden, After School Classes, sport, and so much more.

Wishing you all a very enjoyable Easter.
Enjoy the Holidays! See you all on the 31st of March.
Happy Easter
From the Principal, Staff and Parents’ Association of Togher N.S.

Enrolment of Children for September 2008

Enrolment forms and Information Packs are now available from the school, for families wishing to enrol their children in the school. These packs may be collected at any time.
We will hold an information meeting for prospective parents, and there will be preschool sessions to introduce new children to the school. The dates for these will be available after the Easter break.
Please can you let any other families you know, with young children, who may wish to enrol them at Togher NS, that the forms and information packs are now available from school.

Science News

Since the start of this school year, 5th and 6th Class have been working hard on many Science projects. They have studied starch, flames, and electricity, amongst other topics. There have been many interesting, hands on experiments going on.
Other classes have also carried out various experiments, and have worked hard at Science.
As well as being part of the Science strand of the curriculum, this work has been well documented in reports, by the children and the teacher, and a photographic record has been kept of all the experiments.
All of this work will be collected together and presented in a report to the Discover Primary Science programme, in hopes that we will win (yet another!!) award.

Discover Primary Science is a flagship project run by the Discover Science & Engineering (DSE) awareness programme. DSE is managed by Forfás on
behalf of the Office of Science & Technology at the Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment. The programme aims to develop creativity in our children, show them how important science is to our everyday lives and more importantly how much fun it can be!

Lifetime Lab

Keeping up this term’s Science theme, on the 19th of February, 5th & 6th classes visited Lifetime Lab, on a science field trip.
Lifetime Lab runs environmentally themed workshops for primary schools, where the children learn about themes such as water and energy, through an investigatory and experimental approach.
The children got hands on practical activities, encouraging discovery and investigation.

Greenwaves

Also, in the natural sciences theme, we are taking part in the Greenwaves Signs of Spring programme. Come on everybody!! Get out there spotting frogspawn, primroses, Horse Chestnuts, Hawthorn, swallows, and ash trees!
The children are recording the temperature every day, as part of this project.

Irish Dancing

The children have just completed a 6 week course in Irish Dancing with Olive. This was part funded by the Board of Management and the Parents Association.

Arts and Crafts News

The children have been busy with lots of arts and crafts work with Katrin. They have worked with paper and metal, and have created many beautiful things.

Easter Club

Roger Earl, School Completion Programme Co-ordinator, is organising a one-day Easter Club for 4th, 5th and 6th Classes, at school on:
Wednesday March 26th.
Starts—9.30am
Ends—3.30pm
Please ensure you have returned your form to school, if you wish your child to take part.

Year of the Potato

Yes, it’s true! This is indeed the International Year of the Potato!!! Every primary school in Ireland has been given some seed potatoes to plant, and the school with the greatest yield of potatoes will receive a prize of money they can spend on their own garden.
We only received 2 seed potatoes, one of which has been planted by 5th and 6th class, the other by 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
5th & 6th class are cooking some dishes, using the potato as the main ingredient.

Publicising Our Success!

As you know, 2007 was an incredibly successful year for Togher NS. We had winners in 3 national competitions … Our film in the FIS awards, the Grace Nolan competition, and the Christmas Card design in the Greyhound Art competition. To celebrate these successes, there was an article in the Southern Star and a display in the Library window. We also had an article about our organic garden published in the HSE’s Health Promoting Schools Newsletter.
Well done to everyone who worked so hard towards these achievements.

Celebration

In order to celebrate our successes, early in next term we will hold a film night, where the FIS films will be shown, and also films of songs and sketches the children have been working on. Parents are invited, along with last year’s 6th Class, who were very important participants in the 2007 FIS competition.

Sports News

Table Tennis News—West Cork Schools Individual Championship

Well done to everyone who played in the first ever West Cork Schools Individual Championship on Monday 25th February in Goleen. There were 66 entrants and we had 3 children in the semi finals of the main event and a gold and silver medallist in the Plate event.
The competition was divided into Over 10s and under 10s, boys and girls. In the Over 10 Boys, we had a 3 place in the main event, a Silver, and a 3rd in the Plate event.
In the Over 10 girls we had 2 girls in the semi finals who came joint 3rd. One girl came joint 5th in the main event, and another won gold in the Plate event.
In the Under 10 event, we had 5 players, 3 boys and 2 girls. Two boys came 5th and 9th, with another coming 3rd in the Plate event. Two girls came joint 5th. Well done to all who took part.

Football, Soccer and Rugby Training

Football training has begun! Charlie, from Nemo Rangers, is once again coming down to coach, with one of our parents giving extra training sessions. Special thanks to him for giving us so much of his time on a voluntary basis.
And many thanks to another parent, who has kindly offered to train the soccer team, which will participate in the Cork County Small Schools League. We are very hopeful this year, as we have 2 pupils on the West Cork Soccer team, and 2 others made it through to the final selection! We are so proud of all our great sports people!
A coach from Dunmanway Rugby Club is coming in on Wednesday afternoons and is doing rugby training with 2nd to 6th class. This is greatly enjoyed by all the children. Oh, and it’s very muddy, which just seems to add to the fun!
Finally, we would like to say thank you to our kind neighbours, and to Togher Soccer Club, for giving us the use of the football pitch. It really is appreciated by everyone at school.

Heritage in Schools

We have some very interesting experts coming into school in the next few months, as part of the Heritage in Schools scheme:

Environmental Education
Waterways

On June the 6th, Stephanie O’Toole from Streamscapes will visit the school again. This will involve a field trip to the local stream, where children will identify water invertebrates, plants and birds. The emphasis is to promote an understanding of all life being part of a cycle and how each part of a cycle affects the rest. Stephanie is always a very popular visitor here, and this year she intends to extend her talks to include the lifecycle of butterflies and local birds.

Interactive History

Another very popular specialist will be returning in September—Michael Moylan. Michael has a unique style when it comes to teaching Irish history ….
It usually involves broadswords, armour and lots of laughs!! He really does bring History to Life!!!

Herb Craft and Corn Dollies

We have two visits booked, June and September, with Melanie Lorien. She is a Professional Corn Dolly maker, an organic gardener and former Woodland Conservation Ranger. She is also versed in folklore and storytelling.
In her Summer visit, she will be talking to the children about herbs. She will explain the myriad uses we have put herbs to over the years, such as for dyes, culinary and medicinal herbs, as well as for beauty. The sensory aspects of the different plants will be explored. She will also help us to plant our own herb garden.
In November she will focus on Corn crafts—Corn Dollies, Harvest Knots, Straw Boys hats, etc. Not only will she help the children to make their own Harvest Knots, she will give talks on the uses and folklore associated with this craft. All of the Heritage in Schools visits are funded by the Parents Association.

Library Visit

The children from Infants and 1st Class had a little treat on the 7th of March. They went along to Dunmanway Library, where they were told all about the library and the books available. There was story telling, colouring and lots of fun. They also got the chance to do a little shopping while they were in town!

Fire Safety

On March 10th, an officer from Dunmanway Fire Brigade came to school to give a Fire Safety talk to the children. It was most informative & interesting.

Parents Association News

This time of year is usually pretty quiet for the PA! We rest up after the Craft Fair! It’s fun too, because we start to spend the money that the hard work put in to the Craft Fair raised! As you’ll see in this Newsletter, we’re funding the Heritage specialists, transport for school trips, and dance classes. We’ve also paid for text books and readers for the school, as well as games for the Junior classes.
The next PA meeting will take place on Tuesday 1st of April at 8pm. All are welcome!!

Confirmation

Confirmation will take place for seven of the children in the school on the 14th of April. They are busy preparing now, with lots of help from Mrs Keane.
First confession will take place in Togher Church on this coming Thursday, the 13th of March, at 7.30pm. Children are asked to be present at 7.20pm.
All children are welcome to sing in the choir, and anyone who wishes to do so should come along to the church at 7.20pm too.

School Tours

This years school tours will take place on Wednesday 25th June. Infants to 4th Class will be going to the Let’s Go Activity Centre in Douglas, while 5th and 6th are off to Trabolgan. The Parents Association have kindly offered to fund the transport on the day, to keep the cost down.

Guide Dogs for the Blind

One of the parents, who works for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, has very kindly agreed to come and talk to the children about his work. If we’re very lucky, he may even bring one of the Guide Dogs with him!

Chess

We have entered the County Chess Competition again this year. Let’s hope that we’re as successful this year as we were last year. Good luck to all involved. Watch this space for details!!!

Health Promoting School

Organic Garden

Seed planting has begun again!!! So far, we’ve planted sunflowers, tomatoes, basil, and of course, our special potatoes!!!
The garden is dug and ready for planting.
We are truly grateful to our neighbours for allowing us to use their garden.
Remember—Donations of pots/tools etc are greatly appreciated!!
We hope to (finally) get recognition soon, for all the hard work that has gone in to the Health Promoting Schools programme.
An article all about our organic garden was published in the Spring edition of Ár Sláinte, which is the HSE’s Health Promoting Schools Newsletter.
Well done to everyone, children, teachers and parents, for all the hard work you have put in to this project.

SuperValu Kids in Action

Continuing in the “healthy” vein, we are once again collecting the SuperValu tokens for the sports equipment. Last year we were able to get some good games equipment for the children. We already have quite a few tokens, but the more the better!! So, keep sending them in please!