Togher N.S.

Welcome back to another year in Togher NS!! We hope you all had a very enjoyable Summer Holiday, despite the weather. At least we had some sunshine in the end.
Best wishes to last year’s 6th Class pupils, good luck in Secondary School. And congratulations to our past pupils on their great results in their Junior and Leaving Certs.
Following on from a successful year last year, we are off to a very good start again this year, with several national competition winners in our ranks already!! Congratulations to all the poets amongst us!
As always a huge Thank You to all the Parents who have given so willingly of their time. We are truly grateful. We could not do without you. Happy holidays to you all.
From the Staff & Pupils

Halloween Party for Junior Classes

There will be a fancy dress party for the Junior Classes on the last day of term! Bring in fancy dress if you have it! And the rest of the school …. Beware!!!! There are sure to be scary witches and monsters around. You have been warned!

Heritage in Schools
Spinning and Weaving

We recently had a visit from Geraldine O Sullivan, who gave the children a demonstration of spinning and carding wool using spinning wheels and drop spindles that have been used in Ireland throughout the ages. The children then did some weaving by themselves, and created some lovely, colourful pieces.

Bats

In keeping with the time of year, on Friday 16th October, Conor Kelleher of the Heritage in Schools programme came to school to talk to the children about bats and their environment.
Conor has studied bats for over 20 years, and gave an illustrated talk on bat life history worldwide, ecology and particular emphasis on Irish species and their conservation. He brought along some specimens too, for the children to see.
Conor has visited our school before, and he and his bats are always very popular!
Many thanks to the Parents’ Association who helped to fund this project.

European Building Competition

Congratulations to all the children who took part in the European Art Project, where they constructed, with Katrins help, models of European Buildings. They came joint first with the boys school in Dunmanway, and won some great arts and crafts materials for the school.
The children created a Crannóg, the Louvre, the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall, Dutch Windmills, the Rock of Cashel, the Gûell Palace and the Eden Project. The models were amazing, and the prize was well deserved!!

Panto Trip

This year’s panto trip will take place on Friday 18th December. It’s Jack and the Beanstalk this year, so it’s sure to be lots of fun.
Because the cost has increased again this year, the Parents Association has volunteered to pay some of the transport costs.

Fancy dress

If you have any costumes or dressing-up clothes, hats, accessories or bags, that you no longer need, we would greatly appreciate it if you would donate them to our Infants Class for their dressing up box.

National Council for
Curriculum and Assessment
Learning and Growing
Celebrating 10 years of the Primary School Curriculum (1999)

For the tenth anniversary of the curriculum the NCCA invited schools to share some of their successes with us. They invited schools to contribute captioned photos and school stories of the curriculum in action. They received hundreds ofimages and some great stories thata snapshot of how children's learning is taking place in primary classrooms throughout the country.
We are delighted that the four photos we submitted are published on the CD. The photos, representing 10 years of the Primary School Curriculum, included children learning Science, History, cooking and Art.
One of the photos chosen by the NCCA featured two of the children, dressed in Viking garb at one of Michael Moylon’s Heritage Visits.
We will soon receive a CD copy of the all photos and stories received from schools. These are now published on-line at www.ncca.ie/learningandgrowing if you’d like to see them.

Films In Schools

Congratulations!!!
Again!!!!

We are delighted to announce that our FÍS film Only Fools and Nurses was chosen by The National Council of Technology in Education to receive a national award. This award ceremony took place in Dublin. The FÍS project really was an amazing experience for the children, and we continue to build on our success of previous years with the films, The Crabbit Old Woman and The Fairytale Oscars.
Well done to all the children, who did such amazing work. Particular thanks is due to Victor for all his hard work on the project, from filming through to editing!

Sports News
SWIMMING LESSONS

We have just completed this year’s 6 weeks of Swimming Lessons, and it was greatly enjoyed by all. Well done to all of the children who made progress up through the grades. Isn’t it great to be in the deep end!!!

Football and Rugby Training

Football Training has commenced, so we are hoping for some fine days, so the children can get outside and get working on their football skills for next year’s Sciath na Scol tournament.

Table Tennis

Table Tennis classes have started again, and already we have winners in the school. Well done to our 1st place winner in the recent Table Tennis Tournament in Goleen. Several of the other children, also did very well.
Table Tennis will resume in mid-November for middle and senior classes. Further information will be available then.

Reading Scheme
Info for Parents —Thursday 15th October

All parents were invited to a get together at school on Thursday 15th of October, where they discussed the reading scheme, and saw all the new books which the school has just bought. A sincere thank you to all the parents who attended the meeting.
It was also an opportunity for parents to meet Angela Murphy, the Rural co-ordinator for DEIS, who is here to support both the school and the parents in helping children learn.
We would also like to remind you that Angela is in the school every Thursday and Friday. She is happy to make an appointment to meet any parent who was unable to attend the meeting, or any parent who would like to further discuss the initiative. Just send a note to Angela, and she will contact you.

Senior Class visits Dunmanway

On the 2nd of October, the Senior classroom went on a tour of the Heritage Centre in Dunmanway. There was an amazing amount of information on Dunmanway Parish available to read there. Some of the information was beautifully presented on framed charts. The pupils read many interesting facts, including information on Togher Castle, the rules for teachers in the 1800’s (things have changed a bit since then!), and Dunmanway Parish.
The children also went to Dunmanway Library, where they met with Michael Smith, the author of “Ice Man”, which is a book about the explorer Tom Crean. The children found this particularly interesting, as they have been studying explorers in class.

Sam Maguire Parade

There was an excellent turnout from the school for this year’s Sam Maguire Festival opening parade. The children carried banners for various County teams. A huge crowd attended the parade, which was very well run. The children all enjoyed themselves.

Londis Story Writing Competition

We recently had a whole class of winners here at Togher NS! Last year’s senior class entered a story writing competition, sponsored by Londis, called Write Up My Street, where school-going children were invited to write stories based on their views of what is important to them in their local area. The winning stories were published in a book called There is No Community Like My Community. All proceeds from the book will go to the children’s charity Barnardos.
We had one individual winner from last year’s 6th Class too, whose poem Sing All Day Long was chosen. And the whole class won a place in the book with their poem A Tale To Tell, in which they described the class community. We were the only school in the country who had two winners!
Peter, the owner of the Londis shop in Dunmanway, and Leo Jones of Londis, visited school on the 16th October, along with photographers from the local press, to celebrate the success of all the students. Last year’s 6th Class were invited, along with their parents. It was great to them all, and hear their tales from Secondary School.
Thanks to the parents who took time out of their busy day to come along to this celebration. Thanks to Peter for supplying all the treats for the occasion. And a special thanks to the members of the Parents Association who served the tea and washed up afterwards. Many congratulations to all of the children.

Parents Association News

New Committee

The AGM of the Parents Association Committee was held recently and a new committee has been elected.
It was great to see so many parents attend the last meeting. You are all very welcome, and we look forward to seeing you.

Christmas Craft Fair

Once again, we are planning to hold the Christmas Craft Fair. This will be our 10th year.
The Craft Fair will be held in The Parkway Hotel on Sunday 6th December. If you know of anyone who might like a stall, please ask them to contact Siobhan on 086 401 2797 as soon as possible.
If you would like to help out, either with the planning stage or on the day, it would be gratefully appreciated! Please come along to the next meeting. Many hands make light work and all assistance, no matter how small, is truly appreciated.

Old Mobile Phones

We are making good progress with collecting old mobile phones, but we still need more! Thank you for making such a great effort, and please keep up the good work.

School Books
Library Books

We are always delighted when any books you may find at home belonging to the school are returned!!