​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.
 

On Wednesday the 18th of October Junior Infants – 2nd Class had a great day out at Birr Castle Demesne. We took part in a Biodiversity Workshop where the children learned about many different habitats such as the river, woodlands, lake, and grasslands which all support different varieties of plants and animals. During the workshop we visited these various habitats around the Demesne, talked about the unique characteristics of each habitat and what species live in the habitats.
As the weather was nice we spent the day there. We went on a nature walk, identified different trees and fed the ducks. We would like to thank the Board of Management for fully funding this trip.
 

Tuesday the 17th of October was a special day in our school. Management and players from the K/K team who won the senior hurling county championship, paid a visit to our school. They brought with them the all important Sean Robbins Cup. The K/K players and management were so good as they posed for pictures with the boys and girls. We wish K/K the very best as they embark on their journey in the Leinster Championship when they take on Naomh Eanna of Wexford, in three weeks time. Hopefully they will be visiting our school shortly again, with more silverwear. K/K Abú!
 

Our children get the opportunity to access a wide range of sports in our school.
In September all children took part in the ‘School Futsal in the Yard programme’. The focus is on soccer games and the aim of this programme is to set up small group training sessions with the children to encourage all children to get involved. This programme was run by the FAI.
The children also took part in the ‘Fast Feet’ programme. We thank Johnny Corboy (Offaly Sports Partnership) for coming in and working alongside our teachers in the delivery of the programme.
Well done to all our boys who represented our school in the recent Cumann na mBunscol football blitzin Coolderry. As always, the boys put their very best foot forward and represented the school with pride.

​As a school we were delighted to start the new school year off with the official opening of our new school carpark. We would like to acknowledge the efforts of all the staff in Offaly County Council, especially John Mitchell, Birr Municipal District Senior Executive Engineer and his team, who worked tirelessly to provide us with such a top-class car parking facility. The school is most grateful to Birr Municipal District Elected Member, Cllr. John Leahy, who guided us along every step of the way, from applying for Clár funding for the project, to then helping us consult with Offaly County Council in providing for the car park.

You are all very welcome back after the summer break.  In particular we extend a warm welcome to our new Junior Infants.  May they enjoy a positive experience in St. Kieran’s NS. 

There was a lot of excitement in school today. The rain couldn'teven dampen our spirits as they took part in our Easter Egg Hunt. Happy Easter everyone!

As part of our stay Safe programme we visited Ferbane Firestation. The children really enjoyed the experience and the staff at the firestation were wonderful in how they worked with the boys and girls.

The boys and girls have worked hard together to create a beautiful mosaic. They wanted to fit in as many things that symbolise our local area e.g. St. Cormac's Well, the Silver River, the Wooden Bridge and the bullrushes and bog cotton. Well done boys and girls.

We hope everyone enjoyed the St. Patrick's Day Parade as much as we enjoyed taking part in it. Thanks to everyone who made this possible. The boys and girls really enjoyed the experience.