Togher N.S.

“There’s no Community like MY Community”

‘WRITE UP MY STREET’
The Londis Writing
Competition

It seems it has long been a Togher NS tradition to produce great writers, and national award winners, and this year is no exception!! Two of our 6th Class girls, were successful in having their poem, Our Paradise, published in the Londis Write Up Your Street book, which is published each year in aid of the Barnardos Children’s Charity. The poem describes the beauty of the Shehy Mountains near our school. This is the second year in a row that entries from the school has been chosen for the book.
We are very, very proud of our poets!! There were 70,000 entries and just 32 published, so well done girls!!!
There is a copy of the poem here, for you all to enjoy!!

Our Paradise!

Do you want to find my place?
My little paradise that’s full of grace.

Well, my place is in Cork West,
Near the Shehy Mountains ,Oh! They’re the best.

Glaciers carved the mountains out,
Giving us valleys and lakes all about.

Coniferous and deciduous trees,
Cover the landscape in graceful ease.

There are peat bogs and forest walks,
And the people here just love to have talks.

In the spring the flowers bloom,
So many colours, they explode with a boom!

Blue bells, Honey suckle and Daisies too,
Plenty here for me and you!

Beautiful flowers everywhere,
Animals that graze, foal and mare.

Streams, Rivers, Lakes and Loughs,
Maybe you’ll spot a hare or fox!

Tucked away, near a mountain side,
A community place, filled with pride!

People here are proud of where they live,
Old people, Young people, help they’ll give!

We really appreciate all the things they’ve done,
To keep our heritage, otherwise we’d have none!

When the snow drops came tumbling down,
It looked like a white blanket was covering our town.

When the roads were covered in ice,
We had to sprinkle salt once or twice.

People helped and looked after each-other,
Neighbours, Doctors, Nurses and Mothers

Little valleys close together,
Community spirit, oh how clever.

We are all different in our own way,
Adults like to work and children like to play.

So don’t forget to have a look,
On a map or in a book.

Because you’ll find us right here,
Whether you’re from far or near.



Last year we were the only school in Ireland to have 2 pieces published in the ‘Write Up My Street Book’. (We have several copies of this book in school if any parents would like to borrow it).
This year we were asked to write on ‘The People, The Place and The Pride’. We decided to enter the competition even though we thought the topic was quite challenging. However we regarded it as an opportunity to study the Geography, the Archaelogical remains and Flora and Fauna of this locality. We managed to send off a number of entries. Congratulations to all the children in 5 & 6 classes for the huge effort they put into writing for this competition. Well done to all the children for their great efforts at writing during the year. Many managed to write great stories and poems and we enjoyed reading them.

The winning stories were published in a book called There is No Community Like My Community. We were the only school in the country to have two winners chosen and published.

There is no Community like our Community Winner 2009

Now listen, hear! We’ve a tale to tell,
About our community and we’re really swell.

We’ve come from countries far and near,
And now we’re happy, together here.

We’re here in Togher, the whole class,
Coming together to tackle this task.

Challenges we face as a great big team,
We love to participate, not just dream.

During the year our community spirit,
We certainly believe has earned some merit.

‘I need some help I can’t do this’
Oh please, oh please, can you help me Miss?

Just carry the five, subtract the one,
Add them together, and then it’s done!’

We wrote stories, essays, painted pictures too,
All on display for people to view.

‘Oh look at those projects, oh look at that chart!
My oh my, what beautiful art!’

We work together to get things done,
While making sure the work is fun.

We play some games, while learning still,
This makes working, quite a thrill.

We wrote a script, performed a play,
We made a film, very good, we’d like to say.

Thousands of maths, we had to complete,
We received a cert, no mean feat.

Our science teacher, a nutty professor,
With lots of experiments, we try to impress her.

In the contest, we came close to first,
And got a trophy to quench our thirst.

Incredible edibles, seeds to grow,
All digging, weeding, planting in a row.

Our school garden, you’d love to see,
We’re so happy, also snail, slug and bee.

We cook, we bake, make some pie,
It smells so good oh me! Oh my!

When it’s ready, we’ll give a shout,
We serve, we share, and we dish it out.

We worked together as a group,
And made some lovely pumpkin soup.

We shared it out to all our friends,
We wished that day would never end!

And the football,Oh! How hard we tried,
We lost in the end, but never cried.

Praise and encouragement is what we screamed,
And when we did, the players beamed.

We didn’t get a prize, or a shiny medal,
But we learned to achieve and work together.

We helped each other to work with clay,
And made a wonderful display.

Jars, bowls and coffee cups,
Sculptures of elephants, and even pups.

Younger children we helped along the way,
Reading with them nearly every day.

We tied their laces, found their ball,
We ran to them when we heard them call.

Now we must tell you about some weekends,
We went to help, and soon made friends.

We helped people with special needs,
Joined together to do good deeds.

We played with our new friends in rain and sun,
We learned that giving can be so much fun.

All year we praised, paid compliment,
All of which were truly meant.

When someone was sad, hurt or down,
We comforted, talked and removed the frown.

Our accents are different, Our backgrounds too,
But in the classroom we’ve learned what a community can do.

We hope that you can clearly see,
Our classroom community, obvious as can be.

Our motto is “Believe and we can achieve,
And as a community we’ll succeed”

We know we’ll take our learning on,
And we’ll always remember that together we’re strong.

We’ve been writing together for some time,
And we’ve written a poem, we made it rhyme.

We’ve been together for almost a year,
And we know when it’s over, we’ll shed a tear.

Each of us here can say the line,
There’s no community quite like mine.