Togher N.S.

Happy Easter

The children have been very busy this term, preparing for the Discovery Science Award, taking part in World Maths Day, continuing their Nature studies and a myriad of other activities. Some of the children are preparing for their First Holy Communion, and yet others are preparing for Secondary School!
We have great work going on in the garden, being done as part of a LEADER funded project. We’re also taking part in Agri Aware’s Incredible Edibles project, where the children are growing lettuce, potatoes, strawberries, cabbages and scallions.
A big thank you as always to all the Parents who work voluntarily within the school, you are greatly appreciated.

Wishing you all a very enjoyable Easter.
Enjoy the Holidays! See you all on the 20th of April.
From the Principal, Staff and Parents’ Association of Togher N.S.

Enrolment of Children for September 2009

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 Enrolment Day on Friday 24th April for prospective parents, and there will be preschool sessions to introduce new children to the school.
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

Yet again this school year, the children in 5th and 6th Class have been working hard on many Science projects. They have been studying electricity and working with electrical currents. They have studied magnets, and made magnetic cars. They have made white light and taken their own fingerprints. There have been many interesting, hands on experiments going on.
They have also been studying the human body, and have even made blood in the classroom!!! Whilst studying the lungs and the breathing system, the children set up an experiment to measure lung capacity. They found that the average lung capacity in their class was around 3.6 litres.
All classes have carried out various experiments, and have worked hard at Science. Children in the Middle classes have done various experiments with levers, mirror imaging, and have been taking fingerprints too. 2nd Class did some very interesting experiments with dancing raisins!
The Junior classroom have learned a lot about bridges. They were given the task of designing a bridge capable of supporting the weight of 3 coins. They also investigated balance. Much fun was had by all—balancing on one foot, trying to get up from a chair without moving your body forwards.

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.
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! Last year Togher NS received an Excellence Award, and we hope to repeat that success this year.

Microbe Magic!!

We had a visit from a scientist from UCC’s Biosciences Institute in March, who gave a talk to 4th, 5th & 6th class about the immune system, and how our body fights infections to stay healthy and strong. The presentation was called Our Bodies’ Protectors—keeping fit4life. This one hour class was interactive and enjoyable, and included some experiments that the students could carry out themselves.

Lifetime Lab

Keeping up the Science theme, on the 3rd of February, 4th, 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 took part in lots of hands-on practical activities, encouraging discovery and investigation.
They did lots of experiments with electrical currents. They made batteries from lemons, electric fans, and even electric cars, which of course, they had to race around the lab!!

Greenwaves

Also, in the natural sciences theme, we are taking part in the Greenwaves Signs of Spring programme again this year. 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.
The children in the Junior classes have been studying the lifecycle of the frog. They’ve been monitoring some frogspawn, watching the tadpoles develop.

6th Class

Our 6th Class students are gearing up for their move to Secondary School in September. They are going to several different schools. Some are going to MICC in Dunmanway. These children visited the school, and sat their Assessment tests in March. Some are going to St Fachtna’s in Skibbereen, and they had an Interaction Day, where they met other students and got a taste of school life there. Yet others are going to Ardscoil Phobal Bheanntrai.
We wish them all the very best of luck wherever they go! We’re certainly going to miss them here!

Pancake Day

Pancake Day was great fun here at Togher! Roger kindly (crazily?!?) volunteered to come along and make pancakes with all of the children. Great fun and tasty pancakes!! Though a bit dangerous for your intrepid secretary, having pancakes tossed above her head as she typed away on the computer!!!
(I let them off … they gave me pancakes!!!)

School Garden

We are grateful to John Murray and Michael Hurley for the wonderful work they have carried out in the garden, under the LEADER scheme. They have removed all the rotten wooden blocks and replaced them with concrete ones. They are now making beds so that the children can sow the cabbages, strawberries and lettuce they have planted indoors. We are glad to report that many of the seeds are germinating. We have planted the 2 potatoes we received from the Department of Agriculture in their grow bags. So time will tell which classroom will produce the best crop this year. Thanks also to the Parents Association for their help with this project and a special word of thanks to Patrick O’Regan for his voluntary work. Sarah Hodkinson is once again coordinating the garden project. She has just planted more potatoes and onions with the children.

Incredible Edibles

The Incredible Edibles Project is offering a whole new fun farming experience! An Irish fruit and vegetable growing kit has landed on the doorstep of every primary schoolfor the Incredible Edibles growing challenge, and our schoolno The initiative, developed by Agri Aware, allows schools to grow crops of potatoes, lettuces, cabbages, scallions and strawberries in the classroom. As well as learning about growing fruit and vegetables, children from 2nd class up have been given a “5 a Day Diary”. It’s full of interesting information on nutrition, vitamins, minerals, healthy eating, etc. There are also some recipes, so who knows??! Your children may treat you to lunch over the Easter holidays!!!

Sports News

West Cork Table Tennis Schools Cup 2009

This is one of the largest schools table tennis competitions in the country, and many of the children went along to MICC earlier this month to represent Togher. We did very well and came home with several gold, silver and bronze medals as well as a trophy for our senior mixed team. Well done to all of the children who took part.

Football and Rugby Training

Football training has begun! Charlie, from Nemo Rangers, is once again coming down to coach. We will be participating in Sciath na Scol this year again. We will be putting forward a Mixed team, 4 boys and 3 girls. We will be playing the Model School, Castledonovan, Reenascreena and Dromore N.S. Two teams will go forward to the final in Dunmanway on May 28th.
Justin Brooks from Dunmanway Rugby Club is coming in to do rugby training with 2nd to 6th class. This is greatly enjoyed by all the children.
Finally, we would like to say thank you to Joan and Jim Collins 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.

World Maths Day

World Maths Day is one of the world's largest global educational events which aims to lift numeracy standards in a fun way. A unique feature of World Maths Day is that it ran for 48 hours, once it was March 4th somewhere in the world. Pupils from Togher N.S. were very busy with Mental Maths during the big day. Each Maths game lasted for 60 seconds and the pupils were pitted against three other participants of similar ages from all around the globe in real time. Pupils also logged in at home. Maths was never such fun! Our total score for World Maths Day 2009 was 57,056 mental maths questions completed. What a performance!
World Maths Day statistics:
204 Countries represented
12,647 Cities/Towns participating
38,058 Schools participating
1,952,879 Students participating
452,681,681 Questions correctly answered Congratulations to all.

Paired Reading

Thanks to all the parents that came to the recent paired reading meeting. Paired reading with your child is a valuable experience, which develops confidence in readers of any age.
For anyone who could not make the meeting, or new parents, the school will repeat it in the final term.

Children’s Paired Reading

During the term 6th class girls and 2nd class have been involved in a wonderful paired reading project. Both classes have really enjoyed this project and benefited in many ways.
The boys in 6th class and 1st class boys have now begun a similar project.
All of the children look forward to the 10 minutes 3 days a week shared time.
Apparently, the 6th class boys enjoy reminiscing about their time in the junior classroom!!
The 6 Class girls wrote a little book for their reading partners.

Celtic Book Fair

In March we had another visit from the Celtic Book Fair. There were many fun and interesting books for children from Infants up to 6th Class, which all the children enjoyed perusing and buying.
It is always good to encourage children to read, and you don’t need to spend money to do it! The local library in Dunmanway has a great children’s section, from which they can borrow 4 books at a time. We would encourage all parents to take their children along and join!!

Seachtain na Gaeilge
A Week of Irish!

During Seachtain na Gaeilge, schools are encouraged to use Irish in the classrooms, and not just in Irish Lessons! This year, the children enjoyed Ceilí dancing and singing traditional Irish songs. They also entertained each other with simple plays they wrote themselves, all performed in Irish. The little ones really enjoyed it all. It was a very successful week. It excited the children’s interest in Irish much more than simply reading it in a book could do.
Slán anois

European Countries Project Morning

The children in 4th, 5th and 6th Class recently completed individual projects on a European country of their choice. There was a great selection of countries—Czech Republic, Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Greece, England and Ireland.
The children put in a huge amount of work on their projects, which were full of interesting facts and great pictures. They each brought in items from their chosen country to the Project Morning, and they taught each other about the country by talking about their project and showing their examples of products from that country. Many of the children brought in food—cheese, olives, and bread—to share with the class. It was a very enjoyable morning for the children, (and the teacher also learned a lot!!!)

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. The children in the Junior classes have made great progress with Irish dancing. They have now mastered “The Walls of Limerick”. Watch out Michael Flatley!!

Parents Association News
NPC Quiz

Three girls from 6th Class traveled to the Silversprings Hotel in Cork earlier this month to represent the school in the National Parents Council Table Quiz. They were pitted against schools from all over Munster. The girls did very well, especially considering that there were only three on their team, and four on all of the others!
Well done girls!!

Table Tennis Classes for Parents

In response to popular demand, Table Tennis classes for parents will start after the Easter break. Details of these classes will be sent out soon.

Togher Defibrillator Group

The next meeting of the Defibrillator group will be on the 7th of April at 8.30pm. Anyone interested in doing the First Aid training should come along to this meeting. They should bring along €20 towards costs.

The next PA meeting is on Tuesday 21st April at 8pm.
d d d d d d
Thanks to the Parents Association!

Many thanks to the Parents Association for buying new library books and Science equipment recently. We really appreciate all the hard work you do for the school.

Heritage in Schools

Environmental Studies

The children have been continuing with their year-long Nature Study project. Stephanie O’Toole, an expert in Environmental Education, has visited the school three times already, and will visit another twice before the end of the school year. The children are studying several different local habitats during the Seasons of the year. The habitats include a stream, hedgerows, woodland, and meadowlands.
The children are carrying out a “Four Season Survey” of their chosen habitats. They are keeping nature diaries, where they will look at the changes in the habitats as the seasons progress. The Junior Classes are really loving this project and are regularly going out on Nature walks to see the changing of the Seasons.
There will also be links with local history, as well as the Celtic Year.
The children are really enjoying this project and have a great time with Stephanie, who is most impressed by the level of their knowledge of the natural environment.
Many thanks to the Parents’ Association who helped to fund this project.

Bronze age metalwork

The children are taking part in an ongoing Bronze Age metalwork project with local artist Marie Brett. They have been learning the techniques of repousse and chasing with aluminium and copper, using a variety of tools. The children each made their own sheet metal piece of work, based on Bronze Age artefacts, and they produced some beautiful pieces.
As well as the hands on work with metal, Marie brings in many other subjects from the curriculum. For example, Science, Geography, History, English, SPHE.
Marie will hopefully be spending another two days with the children later this year.

First Holy Communion & First Confession

Four of our children are busy preparing for their First Holy Communion. They received the Sacrament of Penance in a lovely ceremony in St. James Church, Togher on Wednesday 25th of March. Fr. O’ Leary administered the sacrament in the presence of their parents, family and teacher Ms O’Connell.
They will receive their First Holy Communion on Sunday 10th of May.

School Tour

This years school tour will take place on Monday 22nd June. The children will be going to the Let’s Go Activity Centre in Douglas. The Parents Association have kindly offered to fund the transport on the day, to keep the cost down. Just a reminder—the balance of the cost per pupil (€31) will be due after the Easter break!!