The children in Junior Yard were delighted this month when they arrived to see a brand new climbing frame. The climbing frame takes up a section of the wall and has been a huge hit since its installation. Some of our Media Team members decided to find out more about it. They met with Mr. Fingleton and also some of the lucky students who have already had a chance to try it out!

The new climbing wall was Mr Fingleton’s idea. He got it from a company called ‘Small Walls’. They made it and came to install it. He thinks it is a great addition to the Junior Yard and will keep the children occupied. The children seem to be enjoying it so far.

There are some rules to the new frame for safety. You must climb sideways so as to never interfere with someone else. There can only be two climbers per panel at a time for safety. You can make it more difficult by only choosing to touch certain colours or avoid some. The black panel with colourful holds is really striking and stands out in the yard.

I spoke to all the Junior classes who simply think it is AMAZING!!

Autumn leaves           

Deep in the woods under the trees, 

if you look straight up you’ll see colourful leaves,

some leaves are yellow some leaves are green,

some leaves are bright and bold, some can’t be seen.

Some leaves are strong others are fragile

squirrels leap through the trees looking so agile,

hedgehogs on the ground spiky and small

look up at the trees so giant and tall,

Deep in the woods under the trees, 

if you look straight up you’ll see colourful leaves.

By Alice Byrne

Reading with the juniors.

At St Annes we love to read, we also like helping others to read, especially the new Senior and Junior Infants! After a long wait, 6th class finally gets their turn to read to the younger members of the school. Helping them to expand their reading skills is an amazing experience that I and many other 6th classers are very grateful for. Reading with them is a giant responsibility, we must be calm and quiet while we read with the kids and we must be gentle and encouraging.

It is a great benefit for the Seniors and Juniors to have, I remember when I was their age and 6th class came to my classroom to read with me and my class and now it feels so great to finally be reading with them. Just hanging out with the 6th class in school is so special, it makes them feel cool and grown up too.

Library back up and running and our outdoor classroom.

In St Annes the Senior and Juniors aren’t the only ones reading. Our library has finally reopened after covid 19 and we are excited to be back. Our librarians Evelyn and Tanya are working hard to keep our library in tip top shape. Each class has their own time slot for when they go to the library to take out and return books. As well as our library reopening our outdoor classroom has opened up too! Having the outdoor classroom is a great opportunity to get more time in the great outdoors while learning. The classroom is a peaceful and fun experience with a lot to offer on the educational and outdoor front.

Trip to lexicon library 

6th class visited Lexicon library in Dún Laoghaire for a science workshop. The theme was “Bright Sparks-the hair-raising story of Electricity”. In this workshop we learned about how electricity was discovered by accident and we repeated this very first electricity experiment. We then made our own batteries using readily available items. We also looked behind the scenes of batteries and investigated what batteries are actually made of. In the Library we used copper coins, gold coins, tinfoil, paper clips and zinc nails and measured them with a voltage measurer. The batteries were not any higher than 0.85 volts altogether so everything was safe but also very exciting. The children really enjoyed this experience and we hope to go on exciting trips and workshops again. 

Assembly is back!

Our school assemblies are back in action after a long covid-19 restriction break. Ms. Treacy’s 5th class started senior assembly off and sang ‘lig mé saor’ (wake me up by Avicii)- a great start to our first assembly back. It’s great that covid is a thing of the past so we can continue to get back to normal. 

GAA September

The St Annes GAA teams have started up for the new 2022/2023 season! Mr Allen will be running both the boys and girls GAA football teams. People from 4th class and up can play for the team. Both the boys and girls teams have already played a match each with the girls team winning 26-1 and the boys sadly losing by 1 goal. The hurling for both teams will be starting up soon and soccer starting up in early 2023. Hopefully both teams win this year, and good luck!

A big welcome to our new teachers at St Annes

As well as welcoming the Juniors, we’re welcoming four new teachers, Ms Johnson, Mr Higgins, Ms O’Crowley and Ms Mc Creedy. By trying to get to know our teachers a bit more we thought it would be good if we interviewed them and got to know them. We thoroughly enjoyed interviewing them and found it very interesting and fun.                                             

Author’s corner 

The tree journey 

All the tree wanted was a home. Not a fancy thing or anything but he was more so looking for a family that comes with a home. He was not picky, far from it. He was stuck in the outdoor area of the supermarket with all the other trees. He was not liked by them; the tree in question was not very tall which is why the other trees made fun of him. 

One day a bird came down and landed on the tree. They became great friends and the bird never left him. On the 7th of December there seemed to be a lot of families in the supermarket buying trees. A Lot of trees were sold but not our tree. All the other trees were making fun of him and saying that no family wanted a tree as small as him. His bird friend felt sorry for him and decided to fly into the store to find him a family. He spotted a boy. The boy noticed the bird too. He wanted to follow the bird and was tugging at his mom to follow the bird. She wouldn’t, so the boy followed by himself. His mother followed in panic. The boy followed the bird all the way to the tree. He loved the tree instantly. He pleaded with his mom to get the tree and she agreed. Once they got home with the tree the mother and son noticed that the bird was still in the tree and they all spent that lovely Christmas together. 

By Megan Quinn 

Christmas plays 

Most classes are doing Christmas plays this year and we are happy to have parents back in the school to see these plays. The junior infants are doing a nativity play. They are all very excited. They all have wonderful costumes and have learned their lines. They are very excited about their first Christmas play. A highlight of their show for them is the Reindeer Hokey Pokey. Here are some pictures of Ms. Aivalikli’s class 

By Haley 

Carol Singing for Shankill Day Care Center

An interview with Ms Maguire who was one of the teachers involved with the carol singing. By Sian 

How long have you been singing Christmas carols? 

This is our first opportunity to get a small choir together since the covid restrictions and we really enjoyed it. We only formed the group this month and they did great! 

Do you like singing at such events ? 

Yes, I love singing for the community and I think it is a great opportunity for the children to do something really positive in the community. 

What made you decide to do it? 

We were invited and we were delighted to do it! 

What made you like singing? 

I just loved singing myself as a child and I joined lots of choirs when I was young. I still sing in choirs now and love giving children the opportunity to sing. 

Do you play any instruments? 

Yes, I play piano and a little guitar. 

What songs do you like to sing? 

Definitely Christmas music like this carol service but also Irish music and pop. 

Did everyone enjoy the service? 

Yes I think they did. I think it can bring back a lot of memories to a lot of people about their own choir experiences and songs they may have learned along the way.

Christmas Art by Andre Price 

Mr Ryan’s 5th class made christmas tree art. Each child got one tree and they had to tessellate it many times to make a big tree and then decorate it.

Ms Kelly’s 6th class made shape art using cut up strips of paper to form another image. In this case a christmas tree. 

Ms D’Arcy’s 4th class made a winter scene with paint. They firstly made a background with different shades of blue. They added a tree and some robins and then each child added their own touches to it.

Mr Higgins 2nd class got very creative and made stamps out of folded straws and dabbed it in a circle to make a wreath. They added red paint for berries and felt red bows for added detail.

Ms Olson’s junior infant class turned themselves into elves using colourful cards in different ways to make their bodys and printed pictures of their faces. They used a contrast of dark cards for detail and colorful background to make this unique nativity scene.

Last year our school received a big makeover and I interviewed some of the contributors. First I spoke to  Maria about the new floors. She said that the carpets were very old and the tiles had begun to get dirty. She said “We have about 10 of 20 rooms done and we hope we can finish the rest. We did all the work during the lockdown and Summer holidays.” She said that they plan to be finished in the next 4 to 5 years. The floors are made of Marmoleum and we have over 100 colours to choose from.

I then went to Ms. Darcy to ask her about the painting of the Corridors. She said her favourite part has to be the gorilla. Mr. Fingleton chose the Jungle theme because it would contain lots of colour. Ms. Darcy got lots of 6th class pupils to help with the painting. She explained that it was hard work for each small detail but it lightened up the corridor and went better than planned.

I went to interview Mr. Hackett who painted the yard because the school had room for improvement. He said “We chose to do waves in the Solas yard because the Solas yard looks like an island from above. It has made people happy. It took about 4 days to do but in total about 19 hours of work” He told me it was rough but he is very happy with the final product.

Finally, I interviewed Mr. Dunne about the junior yard.  “We decided to do bubbles because bubbles are fun and who doesn’t like fun!” he exclaimed. He continued by saying that he believes it lightened the mood and everyone loved it. He told me he personally loves the design and how fascinated the juniors were at first. He explained how he did it to me. “I used a big stencil to add detail to them and it worked well!”

by Danny Foley