Trocaire Visit

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Trócaire Visit

Trócaire is the overseas development agency for the Catholic church of Ireland. It was set up in 1973 as a charity to express the concerns of the ICC for the suffering of people living in the poorest regions/country. Today Trócaire works with the churches and local organisations in over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Trocaire too responds to humanitarian crisis in countries where natural disasters or conflict/war have put people’s lives at risk. They take care for women’s rights, help families grow crops and access clean water. They also cater for all human rights.

Letter to Mairead McGuinness

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 Kiltiernan N.S,

Kilcolgan,

Co Galway

Dear Mairead McGuinness,

My name is Ross and I’m a 6th class pupil at Kiltiernan NS.

In our school we are in the process of completing the ‘Blue Star’ Programme. It is a project set up so kids would learn more about the EU and how it affects us.

So far we have done many different things across all subjects, in our quest for EU knowledge. We have learned about everything from the geography of the EU and how the parliament works to the cuisine and delicacies enjoyed by EU citizens. We even hosted a special day to celebrate the food where we sampled the dishes. The food day in particular was my favourite. I made Patatas Bravas a potato dish from Spain. We were paired up with the people who chose a dish from the same country. We were assigned a table and we were told to decorate it the best we could because the best table would get a prize and we love our prizes down in Kiltiernan. The following day the tables were plastered with pictures, balloons, banners and even moustaches over in France!

Another one of my favourites was when we were assigned to write a biography of a famous European Inventors, I chose Leonardo da Vinci. I was fascinated by his inventions and sketches. He sketched helicopter and tank prototypes, years before anyone else! He really was a man ahead of his time.

I don’t know if you’d remember but you’ve actually visited our school before back in early 2014.You were touring South Galway at the time and came to our school which was greatly affected by the floods of that year. In the visitors book you wrote that you’d come back to Kiltiernan one day and we’d like you to follow through with that promise!

I, on behalf of Kiltiernan N.S. would like to invite you to our school to talk about the goings-on in the EU. It would be the final piece of our project so we’d love to see you.

Kind Regards

Ross O’ Donnell

On behalf of the pupils of Kiltiernan N.S.

 

Trócaire

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Trócaire visit

On the 31st of January we had a visit from Aisling who worked with Trócaire. She was telling us how they help people where they have crisis like climate change refugees and women empowerment. We played a few games. My personal favourite was where we were divided into groups of 5 and you had to debate to keep your species alive. My group got rice but unfortunately we didn’t win but we didn’t lose either. Later she talked about fossil fuels affect different countries and how the Dáil signed a contract to raise the price of some fossil fuels. At the end she took some questions and she answered most of them. I really enjoyed the experience.

 

By Diarmuid 5th Class

 

Helen Butler Visit

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Helen Butler Visit

On the 19th of January our school was very lucky to have a visit from Helen Butler who is a youth worker affiliated to the N.P.C. She came to talk to us about the transition to secondary school. The day started off when we had to write down the positives and negatives about secondary school.

After that we got into groups of four and thought of rules for the day including to be respectful and to listen. Soon after we played a warm-up game called bomb. Suddenly we got into groups again and we did a section on rules like safety, behaviour and learning.

Then we did a section on bullying. She read out a piece about a scenario and put up solutions on the wall. But there was also an open corner. You would go there if you had another solution.

Finally at the end of the day we got a sheet and we wrote down what we thought of the day. We also got a certificate of completion at the end of the day.

Now I am way more confident about going to secondary school. That was the best school day EVER!!

Grace

5th class

Trocaire visit

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What they do

Trócaire supports individuals and communities in over 20 developing countries to live with independence and dignity. In Ireland, the charity raises awareness about the root causes of poverty and inequality.

Where to find Trocaire

Trócaire works with local and church partner organisations in over 20 countries to deliver humanitarian assistance and long-term support to communities.

You can watch videos about Trocaire

How trocaire help

Trocaire help poor people with no food or water, to help them raise money to get the important things.

 

By Luke 5th class

Letter to Mairead McGuinness

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Kiltiernan National School

                                                                                                                                  Kilcolgan

                                                                                                                                 Co. Galway

                                                                                                                                 2nd March 2017

Dear Ms Mairead McGuinness

My name is Emma. I’m a fifth Class pupil in Kiltiernan National School. Since September we have been working on the Blue Star Programme.

As part of the programme, we have completed PowerPoints on EU countries, fact files on EU countries, artists and inventors, historical EU events and we researched how the parliament works. Recently, we all cooked foods from EU countries and brought them into school for everyone to try. I made Cypriot kebabs called souvlaki. As part of the programme we are asked to invite an MEP to our school to talk about your job and the daily life of an MEP.

So as part of the Blue Star Programme, Kiltiernan National School would like to cordially invite Ms Mairead McGuinness, to come and visit our school to talk about your job and the daily life of an MEP.

We would also like to remind you that you have been at our school before in 2014, when you were touring south Galway for the flood relief. I remember that you wore your green wellies!

We hope you are able to make it and we look forward to seeing you.

 

Yours Sincerely,

Emma

Kiltiernan National School.

Order of Malta

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Order of Malta talk

On the 20-1-17 Maura Lyons did a talk on the Order of Malta. Maura is a cadet officer for the Order of Malta Craughwell. Maura is a medical scientist during non officer days. In  the Order of Malta Craughwell,we meet every Monday from 7:15-8:15. Maura explained where you would see the order of malta ambulance. We also learned how to do C.P.R ,tie bandages and also put people in recovery position. The Order of Malta started when tourist travelled to Jerusalem by boat and became ill. St Gerard came up with the idea of the orderof St John to care for ill people on the boat. The Order of Malta trainers compete in competitions in order to gain badges for your uniform. At competitions you have to scan the scene you come across and say if it is safe or unsafe. If the scene is safe then you go over to your patient. The first thing Maura told us to do was call 999/112 then you have to see what’s  wrong with your patient followed by trying to help your patient and so on. After all that she told us what the meaning of F.A.S.T was.It means face arms speech and time. We learned how to use a panic button.

Engineers Week

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This year Engineer’s week is running from March 4th to March 10th. The aim of engineer week is for everyone to learn all about what engineers do and for some people it might inspire them to become an engineer.

In Kiltiernan we have already had a visit from Rory, an electronic engineer. He showed us what is inside an Xbox, tablets, ipads and so on. I found it very interesting for us to learn all about his job as an electronic engineer.

We also had another visit from Jerry, a software engineer who works for HPE. He showed us a PowerPoint presentation where he showed us pictures of his work and his daily routine in his job also as today was also international women’s day he had a slide all about a very talented engineer from Galway. He answered all of our questions. It was a very interesting and informative visit.

Ms. Leech has also organised another visit from Mat, Sean’s dad and we are all very excited to meet him and to see what it is like to work as an engineer.                                                                      

Engineers week is always an exciting week in Kiltiernan N.S. and we always have some very interesting engineers who come in to talk to us and who knows maybe one day I might decide to be an engineer.

By Hannah

6th class

Junior Room Blog

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Since the start of 2017, we in the Junior Room have been as busy as little bees. In January, we had birthday spins on the chair for Sophia, Emma, and Sarah. We recovered well from Christmas and really enjoyed performing our Nativity in the church. If you have not seen it yet, it is available thanks to Pat Heffernan on the following link:
http://tinyurl.com/j72e22p
We had visits from Maura from the Order of Malta and a lady from Trocaire who filled us in on the important jobs they do for the community.
Our Fab February birthdays are Eoghan and Daniel. Our Write a Books were sent off to another school and we read some books written by Junior and Senior Infants from different schools. We had lots of fun writing our books and are delighted to be able to call ourselves published authors once again. We are very proud of our books and we learned a lot in the process.
Already in March, we have been as busy as ever. We had a taste of Europe in our classroom with food from Italy, Spain and more. We nibbled on breadsticks and crackers from Italy, had mango and pomegranate and of course, some Madeira cake which sounds like it should come from ahem, Madeira! Yummy!
Thanks to Rory Divilly, Gerry Fahy and Matthew Cunningham for coming in to talk about their work for Engineering Week.
We have a visit from Mary Dillon who is doing a Heritage Workshop with us in March and we will be continuing to learn about Biodiversity in our school habitat.
Book Week is from the 13th until the 16th of March. We will see local author Pauline Scully and her daughter Meghann who writes blogs and DJs on Spin South West so we will be full of questions and new information.
We also are looking forward to our drumming workshop which is a planned activity in Book Week. Our favourite part of Book Week is the Buddy Reading which we do every day. It is a great way for us to get to know the older boys and girls in Kiltiernan and the buddy reader is always a buddy to us.
Senior Infants will have their Early Intervention Testing (formally known as MIST) in Maths and English at the end of March. First Class will be tested in May.
Happy birthday to our mad March Hares Matthew, Sheila, Grace, Keelyn, Cian and Síofra.
Happy Easter everyone!

The Blue Star Programme

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Blue Star Programme

Since September our school have been working on the Blue Star Programme. We have had lots of fun completing PowerPoints on EU countries, EU artists and inventors, to learn about the culture of EU. We all made a European dish to bring in for everyone to taste. We also researched the foundation of the parliament and how it works. The goal of the programme is to teach everyone to understand and know how the EU affects our lives through projects and activities.

We have completed a series of tasks and projects in order to complete the programme. We are also asked to invite a local Irish MEP to come and visit our school to talk about what it’s like to be a member of the European Parliament.

At the end of the year we are also asked to have a European day to showcase our projects that we have completed during the year.

I really enjoyed completing the projects to go with the Blue Star Programme and I think everyone enjoyed making EU cuisine from EU countries and I enjoyed tasting everyone else’s dishes.

 

 

 

By Emma, 5th Class