St. Brendan's Boys Primary School

HSCL
Lovely presentation of flowers from our Parents Association St. Brendan’s Boys School, Birr to Ms Ann Hennelly as she has completed her 5 year contract as our Home school liaison teacher shared with Mercy primary – Ann did amazing work in the role and provided great support to families in both schools
– Ann return to class in Sept and wished the new HSCL Paula Carey well as she begins her 5 year contract in September – Presenting the flowers to Ann on behalf of PA was Karen Mooney ( former chairperson of PA ) who herself was attending her final school end year mass as parent after 14 years of her boys attending our school

End of year school mass celebration
We held a lovely end of school year mass outside on the front grass last Thursday. Fr Arnold came to school to celebrate the mass with our boys and a huge crowd of parents and family members. The theme of the mass was “ Give thanks” and it was lovely to be able to gather as a school community together outside in the cool shade of the trees and be thankful for all that the boys bring to our lives. Our Chairperson Pat Teehan spoke and thanked all for a wonderful year at our school. Thanks to all who were involved in the service especially Majella and her wonderful choir with music who brought happiness to our hearts.
It was lovely to have our school chaplain Fr Arnold Rosney present the Aidan Rosney cup ( His late brother) last week at our mass also to the proud winner Ryan Kelly.

Offaly Cumann na mbunscoil hurling final
Date 21st May 2024
Venue – St Brendans Park

St Brendans PS / Gaelscoil na Laochra faced off against Dromakeenan in the Hurling final.
Both teams came into this match unbeaten and the pressure was on the boys as they went for a famous 4-in-a-row. The atmosphere was fantastic as both sides followed the piper around the field to the cheers of their supporters. The ball was thrown in and both sides tackled and blocked with great energy. St B / Gna L took the lead with a great point from inside forward Joey after 3 minutes. Then on 5 minutes a great ball into the forward line was collected by Conall who dispatched the ball to the net. Dromakeenan then found their groove and got a goal on 8 minutes followed by a free. After 10 minutes it was all square 1-1 to 1-1. Then a free from Ryan Kelly who followed up with a lovely 65 and a point from play pushed Birr ahead. Dromakeenan showed great resilience in scoring next. Birr were starting to win the middle third with lovely scores from forwards Cathal and John with Michael and Harry supplying some great ball. Backs were steady with Billy , Ryan Molloy and Nathaniel very solid and keeper Sam hitting some great puckouts.
Halftime and chance to breath- Birr led 1-5 to 1-2
Second half and Birr came out flying with Tadhg winning great possession. Cathal scored a point to be quickly followed by a goal from Tadgh and goal machine Conall. Birr were now rampant and Justin found himself in a free role and kept giving great ball inside. Scores followed from John , Cathal , Ryan and sub Shane. Dromakeenan kept fighting but the senior Birr players were now dominant and the subs who came on brought new energy to the team also. Final whistle sounded and supporters from St Brendans and Gaelscoil na Laochra ran on to congratulate their players on a fantastic second half display and a great win!
The captains received the Fr Vaughan cup from Mr Joe Cleary. Proud captains Cathal Mooney and Michael Conneely thanked their coaches especially Mr Kennedy and also the referee, Cumann na mbunscoil / Dromakeenan and Birr GAA. Then the boys returned to the school via Pilkingtons shop to celebrate.

Summer newsletter-2024

June 2024

Visit of YOU TUBE Award winner—Luke Lynch

Delighted to welcome back past pupil Mr Luke Lynch to the school on foot of his recent YOU TUBE award for 100,000 subscribers –
( he now has over 250,000 to his channel ! ) fnafboi1278
Luke spoke to the 5th and 6th class boys about his channel , his award , the equipment he uses , the long hours of content creation and editing , the issues with copyright , how to get paid by YOUTUBE and finally how he deals with success and how he deals with negative and hate comments in such a positive way –
The classes were spellbound by this as lots already know of channels or have their own accounts. Thanks Luke for being such a positive role model and inspiration and we hope to have you back when you reach 1 million!!

Grandparents day 2024 was a lovely occasion at our school hall. It has always been a success in giving the opportunity to parents and grandparents to come into our school to see the boys of 2nd and 4th classes sing a few tunes and enjoy some tea / cake – well done to the classes and their teachers and SNAs who prepared them with Ms Killeen – Massive thanks to our HSCL Ann Hennelly and Betty Hogan for setting up the hall with tea coffee and buns so beautifully. Finally thanks to our audience who came in such great numbers ( over 100 in the hall ! ) and we are glad you all enjoyed it.

Fantastic win in the Offaly Cumann na Mbunscoil final today against a young and determined Dromakeenan team -full match report to follow well done to all 33 boys on the training panel and the 30 that togged out today with 26 getting on to play – Thanks to Mr Kennedy as head coach and all the staff who supported with the team / with the early hot lunches for team / with the supporters at the match and with covering classes today -Real team effort and much appreciated to achieve days like this and memories for a lifetime ! Birr Gaa

School will support a no- uniform ( rainbow day ) this Friday . Boys and staff asked to bring donation of €1/€2 which goes to LOFFA but the main focus really at our school will be developing awareness and understanding around autism – see picture ( SEEING THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY) ❤️