Well, what a year it’s been! We kicked off in September with a big school inspection, which went very well – the senior classes (that’s us!) were especially praised for our high standards in reading and writing. You can read the whole report on the Department of Education website, www.education.ie.
In English this year we read several novels together. I think the ones we enjoyed most were Holes by Louis Sachar and Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. We did a lot of art and creative work based on the novels, but above all we read them to the end! We also learned and studied some great poems – Pangur Ban, by an anonymous Irish monk, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost and First Men on Mercury by Edwin Morgan (really deep discussions on this one!) were all particularly interesting.
Maths is a huge subject in 5th and 6th – we did everything from Venn diagrams to the use of the protractor, taking in p, long division and improper fractions along the way. And let’s not forget the mystery of x !
In Gaeilge our favourite activity was definitely Tag Focloir, which combines a chasing game with practicing Irish vocabulary in a painless way. We also read a novel, Madra Meabhrach, in which a school-going dog is bullied by his fellow-canines for following his dreams of learning to read. But all turned out for the best when Reics unexpectedly became a hero…
In SESE we learned about many topics, especially:
• Minibeasts (great excitement when our first butterfly hatched out from its chrysalis!),
• Ancient Rome (including a really interesting visit to the National Museum to see the Roman artefacts there),
• Marco Polo and other famous explorers,
• The Philippines (our assignment for Intercultural Week),
• The forces of gravity, friction and inertia – we all built Lego vehicles and held a competition to see which one would go furthest before friction brought it to a stop.
• The geography of Ireland – we all became experts for a while on this, with very high scores on the tests!
• The Second World War…and much, much more.
Apart from our Museum trip we had a few other excellent outings, notably a night in the Gate Theatre to see A Christmas Carol and a visit to the Ark for a great workshop on pop-up cards. Well done to everyone on their excellent behaviour and work on all the trips.
Art is a favourite subject in this class and we had many lovely displays during the year – our work on natural landscapes, our reflection paintings and our paintings of the Philippines are a few that come to mind.
In music we learned some songs – Morning Has Broken, Oh When the Saints, Shenandoah and more – but also worked hard on the recorder, with several of the class now quite proficient. We played Mozart’s Andante and Bach’s Passion Chorale for the final Lenten service, and gave a lovely rendition with two-part harmony of The Lord Bless You and Keep You at the Roman Catholic children’s Confirmation ceremony.
P.E. this year was a lot of fun, with expert football coaching from Lourdes Celtic coaches Dave, Julie and Louise, great swimming lessons in term 2 in Templeogue College pool, and a complete change of mindset with Friday morning yoga sessions with Annette in the last term. In between, we played a lot of bench-ball, rounders, and other games.
Like the rest of the school, we gained hugely from taking part in the Green Flag activities, and are very proud of our second green flag. It was our job to captain the green teams, and to judge by the number of homework passes we won, we didn’t do too badly! We also really enjoyed the marvellous InterCultural Day and are delighted with the success of the Breakfast for Haiti. We do realize that we are very lucky in our own lives, and want to help others that are not so fortunate.
We enjoyed our few weeks with student teacher Miss Halpenny, and our days with our regular substitute, Miss Hogg. We wish 6th Class all the best for the next stage in their school careers.

Goodbye for Now!!