St. Brendan's Boys Primary School

HSCL Pumpkin Carving —Thanks to the parents who helped our 4th class have a great Halloween art activity– Mile buiochas to Ms Treacy for organising and Mercy Primary for having the boys over! Great to see so many parents turn up to lend a hand.

Fire safety at Halloween .5th and 6th classes got an information chat about bonfire and firework safety at Halloween from our community Garda Grace Heffernan. It was an excellent talk with many questions from the boys. There were some hard photos of injuries that can occur from fireworks and bonfires so we ask all our boys to stay safe this HALLOWEEN

The parents association are holding a HALLOWEEN DISCO in the Marian Hall on Thursday 1st November . 7.00-8.30pm This is a fundraiser with Mercy Primary so please come along and support. €5 / €15 family

Gaelic Football team

A great season for our schools Gaelic Football team. The boys really bought into the idea of playing the game for September and October and we had huge numbers 70+ playing the lunchtime league with Mr Crofton. The panel of 31 boys then training each week under guidance of Mr Kennedy and great to see such good numbers from 6th class this year playing.
They started off the campaign with a good win over Dromakeenan and then also won against a weakened Banagher side and young Gaelscoil Tullamore side to reach the final in St Brendans park. The boys really had it put up to them by a strong Banagher team with a goal only in it at half time. That’s when the men stood up and led by some outstanding performances by 6th class they eased away with 5 mins to go. The honour of lifting the cup fell to Adriano Szoma as captain.
Thanks to Mr Kennedy for his passion and dedication to the team– the school staff who supported the team as various matches and attended in great numbers at the final and to the great parents for support as each match too Full report in this weeks midland tribune and we also hope to write our school magazine after mid term with some reports—

October wellness 2018
Each year we try to run a wellness programme for all the boys in the school. This year was another great one with lots of class and whole school activity.
Central to this year was DANCE . The boys from Junior Infants to 5th class really loved the 5 weeks of modern dance with Lisa Hogan of “Dance it Out Ireland”. We finished off the programme by with a performance afternoon in our school hall. The hall was packed , the beats were hopping and the dance moves were unreal . Most pleasing of all was that all boys took part regardless of ability , interest or coolness– they performed with a smile which showed enjoyment of dance and added to their general wellness ! Dance it Out are holding a dance workshop and dance disco for Halloween in the school hall and also are going to run a 6 week after school dance programme for any boys or girls from Birr– See facebook for further details.
Tom Wells of Scholar and warrior studio also did a workshop on karate and self-defence for all classes in October. Tom is running classes each Thursday at 6.30pm in the school hall for any boys who are interested.
Kayak level 1 training course– Our 6th class boys got a fantastic opportunity as they each earned certs from The Irish Kayak Association of Ireland for level 1 kayak skills. The OEC organised through the excellent Yanni and he had the boys out paddling the Shannon and overcoming their fears and anxiety in no time at all. It was great to see the boys excel at this activity and all really enjoyed the outdoors—maybe as a future alternative to FORTNITE!
Our Parents Association also organised a ZEEKO on line safety programme for boys / staff and parents. This programme will be rolled out after mid term in school. Again the school must remind parents that your childs on line internet / social media actions and behaviours are your responsibility and it will have serious consequences for them into the future. The parents who attended the talk found it very informative and a useful tool for them to support their children into the future.
Finally we welcomed FRED THE PARTY PROFESSOR back to the school for a great show of magic and music !

Catch and kick football
8 teams of 80 boys from 3rd—6th took part in this fun league each lunchtime. We are down to semi final stage now with 4 teams remaining– great to see boys try football for the first time and enjoy it so much.

Kayak level 1 training course– Our 6th class boys got a fantastic opportunity last week as they each earned certs from The Irish Kayak Association of Ireland for level 1 kayak skills. The OEC organised through the excellent Yanni and he had the boys out paddling the Shannon and overcoming their fears and anxiety in o time at all. It was great to see the boys excel at this activity and how many attend the OEC centre.

Pictured are boys who received certs for 100% attendance last school year – 2017/2018 – Well done to the boys and their families.

Cross country athletics—
school teams 2018 / 2019

Mr Cunningham took teams from 3rd-6th class over to Tullamore harriers for this school event. Trials for each class were held in school beforehand and 4 boys from each class went forward to represent the school.All ran well with medals coming home with ——
Danny Dwyer—1st in 6th race
Kevin Pardy– 7th in 6th Race
Sixth class team 2nd overall in Offaly
Dylan Carroll –5th in 4th class race

Spanish boys
We also welcome 5 spanish pupils to our school for 12 weeks. The boys come as part of a homestay programme to Birr supported by the school BOM. This is a great opportunity for our pupils in the school to meet other pupils and ways of learning and perhaps pick up a bit of Spanish!  They have settled well and we wish them ( Ignatio / Ferran / Borja / Mateo and Jorge ) and their Irish host families well for the coming weeks ahead. Great to see the boys engage with school life wholeheartedly and represent the school in both football and athletics this month already.

New artwork for our fresh new hall

Over the summer we had our school hall repainted and fresh carpet laid down. With support from the parish we commissioned some artwork to bring a sense of soul and community to the fresh walls. In September we were delighted to unveil some new artwork especially created for our school hall by local artist and past pupil Mr Frankie Gallagher. Fr Tom Hogan attended for our start of year prayer service along with some of our retired ( and fresh looking ! ) staff . The boys played lovely music for the ceremony and loved the new art works which depict boys learning at school / St Brendan our school saint and a painting of Jesus caring for all in the world – thank you Frankie and Fr Tom. Pictures are also some boys from senior classes in full uniform along with Fr Tom Hogan, Mr Frankie Gallagher (Artist) Mr Michael Donegan ( Former Principal) Mr Niall Crofton ( Current Principal).