We had a super morning in St. Brendan's Park. Our Junior and Senior Infants played their junior match against Roscomroe NS. They were all brilliant in getting stuck into the game and trying their best. Our 1st to 6th class played the Senior game also against Roscomroe NS and they were outstanding. It was a tough battle from start to finish but they all worked as a team and they were very proud lifting the winning trophy. Well done boys and Girls !

Our Senior Infants to 4th class enjoyed a brilliant days Athletics in Crinkle Athletics Field today. Our boys and girls were competing with 8 other schools in what was a very well organised event. The boys and girls ran 60m races, 300/400 metre races, took part in relay races and did the ball throw. Well done Boys and girls.

The Senior Room had a great day out in Lough Boora today. Thanks to Sorcha Doyle our Heritage Expert for joining us. Sorcha set up lots of hands on activities for the boys and girls from pond dipping to making harvest knots. The boys and girls really enjoyed their day out.

Many thanks to Peter and Stephen from Ferbane Firestation for visiting our school. The boys and girls enjoyed learning about the importance of Fire Safety.

The Junior Room had a great day in Lough Boora. The children were busy learning all about bogs and biodiversity. Thanks to Sorcha Doyle our Heritage Expert for setting up lots of fun activities for the boys and girls.

This year we had two students put forward for the 'Student Enterprise Awards'. Anna who was the youngest student ever to be presented with this award sells flowers every week in the local market. Anna picks flowers from her garden and arranges them into beautiful bunches ready to sell in the market. Tiana was also put forward for this award for baking beautiful cookies and cakes. Tiana set up her own cake sales in school. Her fellow students were delighted to buy an extra Friday treat. Well done girls.

​The children of Broughall NS have been engaging in both GAA and Acro-Dance this term.
Caoimhe our GAA coach has been doing fantastic work with all the boys and girls in all classes,
for the past few weeks. While she has been concentrating on hurling / camogie coaching with all
to date, she will also be engaging in some Gaelic Football Coaching after Easter. Deirdre our
Acro-Dance Coach, also did excellent work in completing a four week programme of Acro-Dance
with all classes. Acro-Dance is a combination of Acrobatics and Dance and it was wonderful to
see our children show off all their acrobatic and dance moves.

​Well done to our 4 th – 6 th class who took part in the FAI 5-A-Side soccer competition in
Tullamore on the 12 th of March. In total the boys and girls played 4 matches. They won one
match and all the other matches were tight affairs. Many goals were scored on the day and by all
accounts the goal celebrations were just as impressive as the goals! Well done boys and girls.

​Congratulations to Hazel, Mia, Aonadh and Conor who all received the Sacrament of First Penance
on the 28 th of February. The Ceremony was beautiful. Many thanks to Fr. Meade for all his help and
support in preparing the children. We wish the children all the very best on the 11 th of May, when
they will celebrate their First Holy Communion. 

As a school we are taking on a project all about bogs. We invited Sorcha Doyle, a Heritage Expert on bogs to our school for the day. The children learned so much about bogs. We are now looking forward to our trips to Boora with Sorcha to learn more about our local bogs.

As we are in spring we can see new life all around us, we like to take this opportunity to teach the children about different life cycles. Our first lifecycle that we will be looking at is the lifecycle of the frog. We have frogspawn in the classroom and the children are very excited to see the frogspawn develop and grow into frogs. This is a great way for the children to learn about the life cycle of the frog and give them a greater appreciation and understanding about the environment where they live. 

In class we enjoyed learning about money while playing monopoly. We have changed the board games so that all the game is using euro and suitable for different abilities. It was great to see them adding money and giving out change while having lots of fun.
We are also learning about fractions and an enjoyable way to get a visual concept of fractions was to make pizza and divide it into fractions when it was cooked. We also used this lesson for procedural writing and the children wrote / drew the procedure to making a pizza, but most of all the children enjoyed eating the pizza. 
In Science we are busy learning about electricity in class. The children have enjoyed building circuits and learning what is needed to complete a circuit. As a class we are in the process building the Boora Wind turbines. We are using recycled materials to build the project and we will use our circuits to make the blades move.

​Well done to the Senior Room children for making their own pancakes in school on Pancake Tuesday. The Junior Room children enjoyed choosing their own toppings to put on their pancakes. Well done boys and girls!

On the 7th of February the Senior Room visited Birr Theatre to attend a Science show entitled “Where Is The Air?” which introduces the children to 1. Air and 2. Pressure. The Mad Scientist used giant wind bags, vortex generators and even a hovercraft to help the children understand the power of air.

The Senior Room created lovely pieces of Art on St. Brigid’s Day.

​The boys and girls in 5th and 6th class are taking part in the Vex competition again this year. The VEX Robotics Competition is presented by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation. Each year, an exciting engineering challenge is presented in the form of a game. Students, with the guidance from their teacher, build an innovative robot to compete in competitions. The boys and girls have been working hard with Ms. Toohey in getting their Robots ready for the competition.

We were delighted when Pat and Mick called to the school today with the bodhrán to get the boys and girls warmed up for the big game on Saturday. KK Abú!

Our school is a hive of activity at the moment with rehearsals for our Christmas Show ‘No One Wraps Like An Elf’ in full swing. The Christmas Show is a big event in our school and the children always look forward to performing it to family, friends and the community. 

The boys and girls were so excited to welcome the Corvini Circus to the school. They loved every minute of the show and it was great to see them having so much fun.

​On Thursday the 23rd of November boys and girls from 1st – 6th class had a great day at the Inter Schools Athletics competition in Drumcullen GAA grounds. The boys and girls were delighted with their medals.

On Tuesday the 24th of October pupils visited Feighery’s field where they saw where the pumpkins are grown.  They had the opportunity to see first-hand how a pumpkin grows.  The pupils then got to pick out their own pumpkin.  They had so much fun carving out their pumpkins.  It was great to see the older children helping the younger ones.  All children were very proud of their finished pumpkins.  We are very grateful to Alan Feighery for supplying each pupil with a pumpkin.
 

Well done to our boys and girls who had a great day at the Inter Schools Athletics competition in Drumcullen GAA grounds. The boys and girls were delighted with their medals.

For Maths Week 2023, 3rd class – 6th class engaged in a Maths Pattern Workshop in Birr Castle. Where they learned how Mother nature is one of the greatest teachers in terms of mathematics. The children learned how leaves on a plant love their own personal space and will grow with a certain distance between the neighbouring leaves. This is called Fibonacci. When growing off the branch, Fibonacci can be viewed in their stems as well as their veins. The more they grow outward, the higher the Fibonacci sequence is visible. We also see this in pinecones, seed heads on flowers and in petal patterns.
The children also learned about dendrochronology which is the scientific process of dating a tree. In temperate climates like ours, many trees grow one ring around the trunk of their tree. If the tree is cut horizontally across the trunk, these rings are clearly visible and can be counted to estimate the age of the tree. Good growing and moisture conditions within the year can result in a wider ring while a drought can result in a narrower ring – showing us the rate of growth corresponding with growing conditions that year. The children had a great day out and it was great to see the children learning and thinking about patterns in a different way.