Togher N.S.

Summer Term Begins

It may still be raining lots and the sun in short supply but nothing can dampen the spirits here at Togher!! How else to finish off a fantastic (and fantastically busy!) year than to carry on achieving great things?!? We have just completed a huge Science Programme which we hope will garner us an “Excellence In Science” award; we are busy filming this year’s FIS entry; we are participating in Football Soccer and Table Tennis tournaments; we’re gardening (especially potatoes for which we hope we’ll get yet another award!!)... The list goes on!!
It’s been an amazing year with National Award Winners coming thick and fast. A huge well done to everyone because we believe that everyone is a winner here at Togher!!!!

Enrolment of Children for September 2008
Preschool Sessions for New Children

Just a reminder that Enrolment forms and Information Packs are now available from the school for families wishing to enrol their children in the school.
Preschool sessions to introduce new children to the school will commence on Friday 23rd May from 9.30am until 11 o’clock and will continue each Friday morning until 20th June.
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.


Diary Dates :
Bank Holiday Weekend school closed on:
Friday 2nd May
Monday 5th May
Tuesday 6th May
School closed on:
Monday 26th May
June Bank Holiday school closed on:
Monday 2nd June
School Tour:
Wednesday 25th June

Science News

Work has been completed on the Discover Primary Science Excellence in Science programme and our Discovery Log which is a very detailed report on all the Science work done has been sent off for judging in Dublin. The finished Log was most impressive filled with photos of and reports from the children. Hopefully you had a chance to see the Log at our open evening and we’re sure you’ll agree the children did some amazing work. Here’s hoping that we will win (yet another!!) award.

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.

Visitor from UCC

Last term 5th & 6th Class had a visitor from the Science Dept of UCC who gave a very informative talk on the digestive system. Right up their street!! All about the bugs in our bodies!! Yuck!!

Nutrition is the Key

During April our local SupaValu arranged for a Nutritionist to come in and talk to the children about the importance of healthy eating. As an extra treat SupaValu also gave us a big box of fruit!!

Arts and Crafts News

The children have been busy with lots of arts and crafts work. The younger children made models of Native American homes complete with tepees and campfires. 5th & 6th Class made paper aeroplanes of all designs and had a bit of a flying competition in the yard.

Confirmation

Congratulations to the seven children in 5th & 6th Class who had their Confirmation on the 14th of April. A great day was had by all and the sun shone for them!

Holy Communion

Three children are busy preparing for their Holy Communion. They know their prayers and are finishing off their lovely work books. The priest has been in to see them. The class had a discussion with him about the Alb and he explained the meaning of the different colours. He told them he’d be wearing a white Alb on their special day. The Communion takes place on the 10th of May.

Music and Acrobatics in the Classroom

All of the children (and the staff!!!) were delighted earlier this term when the “oldest performing family” in Ireland McCormick’s Corvenieo Family Entertainers came for a visit. They brought with them a huge variety of musical instruments like trumpets accordians trombones drums of many descriptions and many more. There were also acrobatics foot-juggling rope spinning and roller balancing acts.

NPC Table Quiz

Once again this year Togher was represented at the NPC’s Table Quiz. Two teams entered. Well done all of you!!

Seachtain na Gaeilge
Irish Week

During Seachtain na Gaeilge schools are encouraged to use Irish in the classrooms and not just in Irish Lessons! This year the children entertained each other with sketches songs and plays all performed in Irish and many written by the children themselves. 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.

Celebrating our Successes
An Open Evening for Parents

Our Film Night was a great success. The room was filled to the very brim with parents and family of most of the children in the school. We all enjoyed the film the children had made—Togher’s Got Talent which featured singing sketches (in Irish and English) tin whistle performances and even a very scary haka from the Middle Classes—a traditional Maori war dance taught to them by our Kiwi rugby coach.
What a lot of talent for a small school.
We were also treated to another screening of The Fairytale Oscars the 2007 FIS competition winner. All the children who took part in FIS 2007 including last year’s 6th Class were presented with Certificates to mark their great achievement in winning a National Award.
Also on show were photos of the Excellence in Science experiments and parents were able to look at the Discovery Log.
Parents were also able to read the report sent in to the HSE on the Health Promoting Schools project and not forgetting … our Year of the Potato scrapbook!!
All in all a great night and a real celebration of a great school.

Sports News
Hooray!!!! Togher are West Cork National Schools Table Tennis Champions!!!

A huge Well done to everyone who took part in the West Cork National Schools Championship on the 23rd of April in Dunmanway. And an especially big congratulations to the girls team who are this year’s West Cork National Schools Champions. This is the first time ever that Togher has won in the past we’ve always come second. It was really close against Bantry in the final. Bantry were the holders of the Championship and they fought to the bitter end with it all coming down to the very last match to decide this year’s winners. The girls have won us yet another trophy for our cabinet!!
All of the children did incredibly well coming 2nd and 3rd in their divisions. And all the participants came home with medals.

Football—Sciath na Scol

This year’s Sciath na Scol play offs will take place on Friday 16th May at the GAA Pitch in Dunmanway. Twenty children have been chosen for the panels a girls team and a boys team. They’ve been training hard with the coach from Nemo Rangers though the wet weather earlier this year stopped play quite often. Any parents who might be able to come along on the day would be very welcome!
The Final will take place on the 29th of May and here’s hoping we’re successful again this year.

Togher N.S. - Cork Champions in the F.A.I. Schools 5 a side

There was great jubilation at school last week when our soccer team was crowned County Champions in Section A of the F.A.I. Schools 5 a side soccer competition 2008.
The Togher N.S. team came through qualifying rounds having played Little Island N.S. Gaelscoil Droichead na mBandan and Shanballymore N.S. The final was held at the Cork Corinthians Grounds Cork on Wednesday April 30. The boys are no strangers to County Championships having being crowned Cork Chess Champions last year.
The final was played on a league basis with Togher N.S. coming out on top. They had a magnificent victory over Little Island N.S. 2 - 1. They drew with Whitegate N.S. 3 - 3 and played superbly to triumph over Glenville N.S. with a score of 4 -1. The five boys played brilliantly with splendid defending great goal keeping and the forwards doing their utmost to score.
The victorious Togher team celebrated in style when they were announced as the champions who travel to Shannon on May the 14. Here they will represent Cork in Section A of the Munster Finals. The boys thanked their coach.
The FAI have treated the boys to tickets for the Cork City V Sligo game in Turners Cross on May 9. To further enhance the evening they have been invited onto the pitch before the game commences and they will be introduced to the spectators! The FAI will also give these boys a training session before the final.
The Munster finals will be held at Park Rangers in Shannon on Wednesday 14 of May. We wish these boys the very best of luck representing Cork.

International Year of the Potato

As well as looking after their special potato plants the children of 5th & 6th Class have been getting in to all things potato related in the last month or two. They have planted potatoes out in the school garden they have written poems and stories about potatoes and about the Famine. They have studied potatoes in relation to History Geography and Science. They’ve made posters about potatoes and pictures using potato printing!!!
The children have also been cooking with potatoes! The cooked champ colcannon and Spanish omelette.

As you can see we’re keeping a photographic record of all this work and of our special potato plant’s growth. All of this is going in to a School Scrapbook which will be sent to Agri Aware at the Dept of Agriculture Fisheries and Food.
In June the children will harvest their crop wash and weigh the potatoes and submit the final weight and a picture of their crop in their scrapbook. The scrapbook will then be judged and eight national winners will be picked. Could this be yet another national award for Togher!!!

Swimming Lessons and Cycling Safety Class

6 weeks each of Swimming Lessons and Cycling Safety Classes have been booked for the coming school year and will commence in the second week of the September term. All children do swimming and children from 3rd to 6th Classes will do the cycling.

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.

Our Winning Year Continues…
Pride In Our School

Last month saw two more National winners for the school. A student from 5 Class and one from 6 Class were both winners in Irish Pride’s Pride In Our School essay competition. There was a huge response to this competition and very high quality entries were received from schools across the country but both of our student’s essays really excelled. Both students received €100 Elverys gift vouchers for their outstanding submissions.
The goal of the competition was to instill a sense of pride in the children of Ireland and to help them realise the amazing accomplishments and achievements made by their schools on a daily basis.
It is very apparent from the essays that the children have tremendous pride in our school!!!

Scoilnet Star Site

Scoilnet the portal for Irish Education has just named our website a Star Site. The website is full of great stuff—examples of the children’s work details of all the school activities etc.
Well done to our resident IT wiz who has done such a fantastic job with the site.
Visit it at www.iol.ie/~togher and see for yourself what a star site it is.

St Patrick’s Day Crazy Badge Competition

Well done to all our winners and there were lots of them in the Crazy Badge competition. A fine display of Togher N.S. work was to be seen in the Library window over the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Dunmanway. We had 10 winners in all. Well done all of you!

Health Promoting School

Organic Garden

Seed planting has begun again!!! So far we’ve planted sunflowers tomatoes basil lettuce cabbage leeks runner beans parsley and of course potatoes!!!
The Action Plan and Report have been submitted to the Health Service Executive who were most impressed! To quote: “congratulations on all the work that you have completed. We are truly delighted with the efforts and commitment that you have put in to the HPS initiative in your school”. They have also agreed to give us a small amount of funding (€150) towards our expenses on the project. We hope in the next school year to receive full recognition as a Health Promoting School.
Well done to everyone children teachers and parents for all the hard work you have put in to this project.

Films In Schools

Everyone’s been very busy over the last few weeks filming this year’s FIS entry. The film this year is an adaptation of a poem—The Crabbit Old Woman. It tells the story in the form of flashbacks of an old lady in a nursing home who feels that she is treated as “just another grumpy old woman” but who has a wealth of life experience and stories to tell. There have been some great costumes on show and amazing make-up. Many thanks to our makeup expert for all her help with this and for making her own 11 year old daughter look like she was in her 80s. Great fun was had by all when we filmed the wedding scene in the church. It brought tears to many an eye!! Of course that could have been caused by laughter!! Our officiating “priest” gave a very interesting sermon!!!
We can’t wait to see the finished film.