St. Patrick's NS clogh

Activities

We have a varied schedule of activities to keep our students stimulated both mentally and physically throughout the academic year.

Cumann na mBunscol - GAA

Senior classes participate in the Cumann na mBunscol hurling and football schools’ teams. We have experienced great success and continue to do so with both boys and girls teams.

Swimming

Every January, First to Sixth Class commence swimming lessons in Graiguecullen Swimming Pool for a period 10 weeks. Supervised by school staff, the children thoroughly enjoy the PAWS in the Water programme that is facilitated by our fantastic swimming coaches. For additional information on the PAWs programme, visit Water Safety Awareness (teachpaws.ie).

Chess

Chess is one of the oldest games in the world. It teaches strategic thinking, logic and it’s fun too! In our school the children have the opportunity to learn chess strategies, tactics and rules as well as be involved in an in school chess tournament which runs throughout the year.

GAA Coach

Thanks to the Kilkenny GAA County Initiative, which was trailed from April-June 2022, we now have a weekly GAA coach who practices GAA skills with all class groups. Basic skills applicable to each class group are practiced in each session, ending with a mini-game in the older groups.

Handball

When First to Sixth Class all go swimming, Junior and Senior Infants get their own coaching session with our own local handball coaching legend. Not only do the Infants love having the whole yard to themselves, but they get 10 weeks of handball coaching which helps develop their hand-eye co-ordination and gross motor skills.

Tag Rugby

Affectionally renamed ‘Tadhg Rugby’ by the children in honour of our fantastic coach, we are lucky to have a Tag Rugby coach from Athy Rugby Club, who works with all class groups in the final term of the school year. Senior classes also get to participate in a schools Rugby Blitz hosted by Athy Rugby Club. 2022 was our first opportunity to participate and 5^th & 6^th Class were great ambassadors for St. Patrick’s.

The Daily Mile

All classes from Junior to Sixth participate in the Daily Mile. Ms Cullinan’s room have been doing this since 2016 with the rest of the school following their excellent example and joining in since 2019.

Six Bricks International

‘Six Bricks is a concept designed to excite and motivate young children in the classroom to attain the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for success in later life. To help the formation of a young learner’s brain, developmentally appropriate early experiences and relationships are vital. In order to grasp concepts, children must be given time to manipulate concrete tools. They need opportunities to use their whole body to explore and aid their development of ideas, curiosity and imagination’.

(Care for Education www.carefored.co.za/six-bricks)

Six Bricks Activities
The Six Bricks activities are short, simple exercises, many of which only take a couple of minutes to do. They are not a curriculum but they are designed to support all areas of development in the curriculum. They help to wake up a child’s brain and get them moving, thinking and remembering.

Care for Education has developed over 250 activities for Six Bricks which cover various aspects of child development (± 3 - 12 years) with some of these activities available on the LEGO® Foundation website.

Music Generation

Building on the success of our string program last year, for 2023/2024 we have implemented both the Music Maker and Vocal programme in the school. First-Third are completing the Music Maker programme, while Fourth-Sixth are completing the Vocal programme.

School Garden

We have a school garden and polytunnel since 1996 and have been actively growing plants, vegetables and flowers. Behind the polytunnel itself is a large area for biodiversity - this is vital to help save our pollinators – the Busy Bees

All class groups participate at various stages of the year in growing and caring for our budding plants. The school garden and polytunnel is fantastic as we not only learn about food and plants and the food chain but gardening is great for our overall wellbeing. We have carrots, potatoes, spinach and different varieties of lettuce planted and growing in the polytunnel since returning to school this September. (we’ll forward some picture for this too)

As a school, we are delighted to have registered for the Grow at School programme with GIY (Grow It Yourself) Waterford. We are looking forward to the new growing opportunities, this fabulous initiative will bring.

Savings Club

The savings club will commence in October and will run until the end of May annually.

The Jim Buggy Writing Award

In 2013, we instigated the Annual Jim Buggy Literary Award.

Jim Buggy emigrated from Clogh in the 60’s and settled in Tasmania, moving in latter years to Australia.

Jim passed away on February 6^th 2013.

Jim was a prolific poet who kept a deep affection for his place of birth, Clogh.

His family contacted the school wishing to commemorate him maybe by planting a tree. Retired Principal, James Walsh suggested they present a perpetual trophy for poetry in his honour.

From this grew the Jim Buggy Award. The plaque is made from huon pine, native to Tasmania and the family made a donation of AU$1000 to be used for development of literacy in the school.

Each year the winners name is inscribed on the Jim Buggy Literary Award Plaque and they receive a trophy.

St. Patrick's NS

Boneyarrow, Clogh,

Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny

R95 YP5W

Ireland