 We celebrated World Book Day in St. Laurence’s on Friday, May 28th.
World Book Day is traditionally held in March but due to Government restrictions we were unable to celebrate it on the actual date. We marked the day in true style! The children made a huge effort to dress as their favourite characters from stories, novels and comics. The day certainly highlighted the great love for reading around the school. We were hoping to have an outdoor parade in both buildings but the weather had other ideas! According to the seanfhocal, ‘Is olc an ghaoth nach séideann do dhuine eigin’ (It is an ill wind that blows no good for someone) and despite the rain, we were able to have a parade on zoom! It meant that all the classes could see each other dressed up. Maith sibh go léir! Exciting News! Amber Flag On the 6th of May 2021, St Laurence’s N.S was awarded an Amber Flag for our efforts to promote positive mental health and well-being in our school. It is well documented that positive mental health and well-being enables young people to lead fulfilling lives. Home and family are recognised as the primary source of nurturing and support for children. However, mental health and well-being are recognised as everyone’s concern. It involves the whole school community, parents/guardians and the many others involved in day to day life of the child. Positive mental health for children is part of their overall health and is inextricably linked with well-being. In order to promote positive mental health and well-being we decided to take part in the Amber Flag Initiative. This involved the whole school community coming together in order to create a safe, positive, and healthy attitude towards our general physical and mental health and well-being. Our Aim: To Promote Positive Mental Health at School What is the Amber Flag?
The Amber Flag initiative is an initiative run by Pieta House which recognises the individual efforts of primary and secondary schools, youth reach, third level institutions, community groups, clubs and companies to create healthy, inclusive environments that support mental wellbeing. What are our goals & Objectives?
Amber Flag Goal 1: Mental Health Awareness Day This year we had a home school Mental Health Awareness Day were we encouraged the children to take part in many mindfulness activities. The majority of the activities were screen-free. Date Achieved: Wednesday 17th of February 2021 Amber Flag Goal 2: Fundraising Activity We had an extremely successful, fun and festive Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 11th of December. The children and staff all wore Christmas jumpers and enjoyed watching some Christmas movies with treats. We raised grand total of €1409. Date Achieved: Friday 11th of December 2020 Amber Flag Goal 3: Wellbeing Week – Promoting Positive Mental Health and Awareness Upon returning to school buildings it was decided to hold a Wellbeing Week for the benefit of the children’s and staff’s wellbeing. The aim of the week was to promote positive mental health and awareness. Each day of the week had a different theme; Healthy Body, Healthy Mind Monday, Thankful Tuesday, Random Acts of Kindness on Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday and Friends on Friday. Whole school activities took place on each day including sending thoughtful messages on postcards to reading buddies, guided mediation, journaling, extra PE lessons and planting Friendship flowers. A mindful moment was relayed over the intercom daily allowing the children to pause and reflect on each theme. The children really enjoyed all the activities throughout the week. Date Achieved: Monday 19th of April 2021 to Friday 23rd of April 2021 Our school has an Amber Flag Committee made up of teachers and students. The Amber Flag Team was busy during the past few months planning and organising lots of activities to promote positive mental health in our school and help improve our overall wellbeing.
We celebrated Science Week this year from April 26th - 29th and a lot of fun was had in both buildings.
Many different experiments were carried out in all classrooms such as making volcanoes and explosions, making slime, making butter, using magnets, checking heart rate and investigating forces! A lot of STEM challenges were carried out both at home and at school where children built rafts, built bridges, made parachutes and built towers from spaghetti and marshmallows! Lots of classes went outdoors and engaged in a 'Five Senses Hunt' or 'Science Hunt' and both buildings took part in a 'Science Table Quiz'. In the Junior Building all classes had to navigate the crime scene and investigate who took 'Sammy Science's' lunch!!! Ms. Foley kindly shared with us daily videos of her chicks hatching much to the children's delight! We were all very surprised when two black chicks were born! We were also very lucky to have a visit from Robyn's (Senior Infants) mother. She brought in her six tortoises for the three Senior Infant classes to see. She gave a little talk about the tortoises and it must be said we learned a lot! There was also of course a daily science riddle and many classes got to watch fascinating experiments by Phil Smyth (RTE Hub) and some videos from ESB Science Blast. 3rd class had an informative talk on animal welfare with the DSPCA and 5th and 6th had a virtual experience with the National Museum of Ireland on 'Cool Fossils and Facts'. A very enjoyable week was had by all!  Established in 2005, the Junior Juries is a unique programme for schools and libraries, designed to encourage awareness and enjoyment of the annual book awards. All young reading groups from across the country are invited to take part in Junior Juries. Participating classes and book clubs make their own selection of suitable titles from the books shortlisted for the awards in March. At the end of this process each group is asked to collectively vote for their favourite book. The winner of the KPMG Children's Books Ireland Award will be announced in May as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin. We celebrated Seachtain na Gaeilge from Monday, March 15th to Friday, March 19th.
A ‘Siúlóid Dúlra’ (Nature Walk) was held in our lovely school grounds. ‘Lá Glas’ (Green Day) was celebrated where children were encouraged to dress in the colours of Lá Fhéile Pádraig – green, white and orange. A virtual parade took place in the Junior building too! Knowledge was tested in a ‘Tráth na gCeist’ (Table Quiz) and plenty of ‘cluichí teanga’ (language games) were played in the classroom. Some classes took part in 10@10 as Gaeilge, keeping the children fit and healthy! A ‘Tóraíocht Taisce’ (Treasure Hunt) was organised for all of the children and St. Patrick himself must have blessed St. Laurence’s with the lovely sunshine for the week of Seachtain na Gaeilge! 'Monkey Maths is very busy monitoring the monthly maths puzzles and challenges that the children are working on and posting in our school maths postboxes!!!! Well done to all of you working so hard :) !!!' Maths week was celebrated this year from Monday October 12th to Friday October 16th where the children had great fun engaging in mathematical activities and games throughout the week, even with the Covid 19 restrictions. The children put great effort into having a very fun week.
Children participated in maths games in their classes, maths stations, answered mathematical puzzles and riddles as well as participated in various outdoor maths trails around the school. On Friday, all children had to dress up in clothes that had a mathematical theme and there were some very imaginative costumes. A very enjoyable day and week for all! |
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