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More Halloween Fun
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Halloween Dress up and Pumpkin Competition
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Maths Week
The children celebrated Maths week last week in school. We had great fun exploring Maths in our school environment through Maths trails and at home too. We also made sure to play some great games. Children had the opportunity to engage online with quizzes and all the classes had the chance to participate in activities together. Thanks again to all the students who sent in pictures of their Maths projects. |
Monaghan Book Festival
Students in the senior room had great fun during the Monaghan Children's book festival. As part of the festival, we got to visit the new Monaghan Library Campus for an author's read through with Nicola Pierce and her new historical fiction novel, 'The Journey of the Famine Girls'. We also engaged in an webinar hosted by the library with Tom Vaughan, author of the Hercules book series.
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Bowling Bonanza
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Cumann na mBunscol
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World Mental Health Day
Today was World Mental Health Day, and Rang a hAon and Rang a Dó did lots of mindful activities to celebrate. We learned about how important deep breathing, fresh air and exercise are for our minds and so we ate our lunch outside in the sunshine, did some yoga and worked in pairs on an autumn colours scavenger hunt! We had lots of fun! |
Fun with Mrs Ferguson This week both junior and senior infants got the opportunity to go out to Mrs Ferguson's "lab". The junior infants were sorting colours and doing some fine motor activities, while the senior infants were busy beating Mrs Ferguson at 'sounds bingo'. They had a ball! |
Swimming Brothers
Congratulations to brothers Daithí and Rián who represented our school in the Swim Ireland Schools' Competition. Daithí won a gold and two silvers and Rián won three golds, as well as a trophy for best boy swimmer. We are all so proud of the two boys. What a great way to start our summer holidays. |
Slán le Mr. Grundy We wish Mr. Grundy a very long and very happy retirement. The children and staff gave Mr. Grundy a lovely send off with songs, videos, cake and gifts. ( Including a jumper because he only has 4!) You can watch the children's video here. youtu.be/rMzyBkCHxGs Then we all joined together for a PARTY. Mr. Grundy was left in no doubt that the children and staff would miss him. Then the children gave Mr. Grundy and the Sixth Class a lovely guard of honour as they made their way out of the school for the last time. Our new principal, Brian Greenan, is certainly lucky to be coming to such a happy, friendly and warm school. |
Slán le Mrs. Lavery
Today we said goodbye to Mrs. Lavery. She has been covering Mr. Grundy's administration days for the past four years. We will miss her but we know her new school are so lucky to have her. We wish her all the very best. Our staff and pupils presented Mrs. Lavery with a small token of appreciation. |
ICE CREAM VAN
Thank you to Eoin from McMoo's Ice Cream who visited our school. All the pupils and staff enjoyed an ice cream provided by our Board of Management to congratulate them on a great year's work. |
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Five small schools joined together to have a huge fun and sports day in Ardaghey Community Centre and Grounds. Garron NS, Clara NS, Clontibret NS, Drumacruttin NS and St. Michael's all joined together. There were 147 children and lots and lots of adults to keep us all safe. The day was a huge success and it was great for the pupils from different schools to mix together and to make new friends. |
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Sponsored Walk ' This is Me' This year the theme for our sponsored walk was 'This is Me' and the pupils got to show off their interests and hobbies. The sponsored walk is the PTA's biggest fundraiser and the money raised today will go towards providing resources for the children in the school. Well done to pupils, Allanah, Conor and Hollie who each won a prize for their costumes. |
Our New Junior Infants Induction Day
We welcomed our 7 new Junior Infants to the school on Monday 27th May. The children got to meet their new classmates and their teachers. And the pupils' parents got to have a cup of tea and meet each other. Our SET, Mrs. Ferguson took the opportunity to show some children her farm set and our SNA, Tommy, got his hair done by some of our new pupils. We can't wait to welcome the 7 Junior Infants on August 29th. |
First Holy Communion
Well done to our wonderful 2nd class who received the sacrament of First Holy Communion today. The boys and girls looked so well and performed their readings, prayers and hymns beautifully. Thank You to Canon McGinn for the beautiful, relaxed ceremony and to the pupils from the school who volunteered for the choir. And of course thank you to Mrs. Donnelly and the parish choir for singing so well. After Mass we all went to the Ardaghey Community Centre to have some tea and treats. |
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Clones Athletics Well done to our brilliant individual and team runners who participated in the Primary School Athletics on Thursday 23rd May. Our runners did so well with Ryan taking 1st and Lauren qualifying for a final. We had a huge crowd of parents, siblings and supporters as well as the class teachers. |
Music Generation Showcase.
We had so much fun at our showcase on Wednesday 22nd May. The children sang and played beautifully and we had a terrific audience of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters. Thank you to Rachael for all her hard work and thanks to Music Generation for organising such a fabulous day for us. You can see us singing and dancing here. youtu.be/pxJJNVjagYE?si=B5s0zZy1CNqGQ5iM |
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When the weather gets good, we get picnics.
The weather was so lovely on Friday that Ms. King thought it'd be a great idea to take our lunch outside. We hope to do this a lot more as we get closer to summer. |
Microsoft Dreamspace Ambassadors
Well done to our 5th class who achieved a Platinum award at Microsoft's headquarters in Dublin. Our pupils took on responsibility for looking after all the ICT in the school. They also delivered training in Micro:Bit coding, internet safety and other aspects of ICT to the other students in the school. This is a terrific achievement for our pupils. Thank you to our newest student, Dympna, who travelled with the 5th class and Mr. Grundy. |
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Work of our Hands
Everyone has different talents and skills. In St. Michael's we like to celebrate peoples talents and so each year the Senior Room have a 'Work of Our Hands' project. The pupils make or create anything that is of interest to them and bring it in to share with the class. If you click this link you will some some of the fabulous things our pupils made. youtu.be/tnLMQVA9FA0Work of our Hands Video.
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VEXRobotics- Róbó Bartholomew 3rd. Congratulations to our Senior Room who built our robot 'Róbó Bartholomew the 3rd' to take part in the VEXRobotics competition in Corcaghan, organised by John McArdle on behalf of Monaghan County Council . The pupils won two trophies. Best Robot and Highest Score. You can view a video of their success here. |
Monaghan Fire Service
The Senior Room were delighted to welcome Gary and Paddy from Monaghan Fire Service to the school. The two firefighters gave the class lots of good advice about preventing fire in the home and what to do in case of a fire. The encouraged the Senior Room pupils to bring the message of Fire Safety home and we've every confidence that the children will br talking at home about Escape Plans and checking smoke detectors. |
Vikings in Rackwallace
Although the Vikings never came to Rackwallace when they first raided Ireland, we did have a Viking in our school last week. Historian and archeologist Dave Swift visited us as part of the 'Heritage in Schools Scheme' to talk to us about life in Viking times and to show us examples of Viking clothes, jewellery and weapons. The pupils were enthralled and learned so much from his visit. |
Our Newest Pupil
The community of St. Michael's give a very warm welcome to our newest pupil Róbó Bartholomew the Third. Róbó is a robot who has been built by the pupils in the Senior Room. He has also been programmed to take part in the VEXRobotics Challenge You can see Róbó in action here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SUyZ1uNqwc |
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Tráth na gCeist Rinne Ms. McCague Tráth na gCeist iontach siumúil dúinn. Go raibh maith aici. |
KPMG Children's Book Awards Our Senior Room pupils have signed up to be a Junior Jury for the KPMG Junior Book Awards. They will be reviewing, A Hare Shaped Hole and Alice's Garden. Our good friends in Monaghan Library gave our pupils a gift of copies of the two books for each pupil so they could read them and review them. Thank you to Karen McCague from Monaghan Libraries for visiting our school and giving our pupils the books. |
Blessed Carlo Acutis
We were delighted to welcome Fr. Anthony to our school. Fr. Anthony brought a relic from Blessed Carlo Acutis to our pupils and spent time telling them the story of Carlo's life and his works. Fr. Anthony then blessed each of our pupils with the relic. Thank you to our past pupil and good friend, Francis Meighan , for organising the visit. |
Radio Stars.
Our brilliant 6th Class featured on the Joe Finnegan show on Northern Sound on Wednesday 31st January. You can hear their interview here. about 15 minutes in. https://www.northernsound.ie/podcasts/the-joe-finnegan-show/podcast-the-flying-of-the-flag-230028 You can read about their respect for our national flag here. https://www.northernsound.ie/news/ardaghy-pupils-set-example-for-national-flag-229998 |
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Credit Union Quiz We had a great evening in Threemilehouse on Friday 26th January. Our four teams and their manager performed very well. Some of the questions were very tough but our pupils were well able for them. Well done to our Senior Room pupils. And 'THANK YOU' to the parents and brothers and sisters who came along to support us. |
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Shadows Our Science topic in the junior room this week was shadows. We had great fun learning how to cast a shadow, objects that are opaque and making our own shadows. Look at the fantastic designs! |
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Our Indoor Gardening Day.
We had planned to plant bulbs in all our planters and pots around the school on Friday. But it was very frosty and very cold. Ms. King said 'why not do it inside?' so we moved all the desks in her room and the older pupils brought the planters inside and we planted lots and lots of bulbs. It was great fun. Ryan and Niamh helped us wash our hands when we were finished and Sam and Darragh swept up all the soil and then hoovered Ms. King's room so it was as neat as ever when we were finished. Gardening is a lot warmer when we do it indoors. When you're watching the pictures keep an eye out for the two people with the perfectly themed t-shirts. |
Do you recognise anyone here?
One of the suggestions that came in for our birthday celebrations was to display school photos from down the years. Mr. Grundy and Dympna ( with some help from our pupils) have been busy with a spirit level and a metre stick hanging old photos. If you fancy trying to see yourself, or if you have a photo you could add to our display please call in. |
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Working on our Mural
Our 90th birthday mural is taking shape thanks to our good friend Éimhin. Each of the pupils voted for their favourite books and we are turning our steps into a pile of books. This is a big undertaking. The pupils designed the book covers and then sketched them onto large sheets of paper. The Sixth Class volunteered to transfer the designs onto the steps. The next step will be to paint our book covers. We just need some good weather! |
Our Active Pupils In our school we like to be active. Our pupils take their out of school activities seriously and sometimes bring in awards or trophies to show us how they've done. We are always glad to celebrate our pupils' successes. |
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What a difference 4 hours makes.
Bernard was painting our school over the Hallowe'en. When he finished we wished we'd thought of painting the shelves in the front hall. Bernard said 'leave it to me' and himself our past pupil Ben, spent 4 hours sanding the shelves and painting them. Don't they look brilliant! We are so lucky to have such helpful parents and past pupils. |
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Microsoft Dreamspace Ambassadors.
Well done to our four 5th class pupils who have been chosen as Microsoft Dreamscape Ambassadors. The pupils attended online training last Tuesday and a this week taught the rest of the class how to code using Micro:Bit. We are lucky to have such 'tech-savy' pupils in our school. We are also lucky to have such top of the range ICT equipment. |
It's not all work , no play in the Junior Room As you can see, the new tent Miss King bought is a big hit with the Junior and Senior Infants. She has even been asked by the senior pupils if they can use it! Our classroom library is also a much loved part of our classroom. The children love to go down when they are finished their work to read a book and relax on the bean bags. |
Friday morning maths stations All the children in junior and senior infants love Friday mornings because it means they get to 'play' in maths. Have a look at the junior infants learning about matching and the senior infants learning all about forming their numbers. |
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Our Wonderful Parents.
Mr. Grundy spent all Sunday in school this week. But this time he had company. Shortly after 9:30am some of the daddies and mammies came to put up a 'ball stop' to stop the ball going over the wall into Martin's field. While they were doing that another daddy was measuring the lunchroom ready to begin with another big project we are undertaking. We really are so lucky to have such supportive parents in our school. well done to Miss King who arrived at 3:00pm just as we were packing away! |
Local Author
Thank you to local Monaghan author Colm McElwain who visited our school to tell the Senior Room about how he goes about writing his books. The children had so many wonderful questions for him and he answered each one. He also performed an amazing magic trick which we're still thinking about. We are looking forward to reading 'Orson the Great' in class over the next few weeks. I hear Monaghan library have some copies............... if they haven't all been snatched up by our pupils. Rocks are also selling copies of this great book. |
Our Exciting Mural Art Project.
Our artist friend, Éimhin, came to our school to see if we would like to do an artistic project with him. We voted to do 'something about books' because we all love reading. After thinking about it and talking to our teachers, we decided to put a mural on the steps of our school so they'll look like a pile of books. We were planning today. We can't wait to get started. |
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Maths Stations with Mrs. Ferguson. Our Junior Infants had lots of fun sorting and matching today. Thank you to Mrs. Ferguson for the great fun at our Maths Stations. |
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Making the Most of our Resources.
Our pupils get to make the most of our excellent ICT resources and our super Special Education Teacher, Mrs. Ferguson, as they engage with literacy in the Senior Room. Ms. King kindly volunteers her time to help the older class. |
Our School is celebrating our 90th Birthday this year.
Keep an eye out for some of our celebration ideas. The theme of our celebrations is: '90 years at the heart of the community; 90 years in the community's heart'. We are proud to be Ardaghey's Community School. and if you have an idea for something we could do let us know. |
Learning from the Extremes Animation
Please click here to view the video of our brilliant local history project. |
A Great Day Out.
Thank you to our friend, Ross Mac Donald, who gave our whole school a great day out. Ross took us to see the lake which is the source of the water for Stranooden Group Water Scheme. We checked water samples for signs of life and learned which invertebrates like clean water and which can tolerate 'poor' water. After that we went to Stranooden Group Water Treatment plant and saw the work that goes into making sure we have plenty of good, clean water coming from our taps. Thank you to Paddy and Ethan who drove us around the back roads and down lanes without getting lost. Poor Mr. Grundy hadn't a clue where we were. |
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World War 1 and 1916 in the Senior Room.
Thanks to our friend and historian, Dave Swift, we had a great presentation on World War 1 on Wednesday and then a brilliant presentation on 1916 on Thursday. Dave brought lots of artefacts from the time and we were able to handle the helmets, hats, belts, hand grenades, guns and gas masks. It was a great way to learn about this terrible period of history. Thank you to Heritage in Schools who part sponsored Dave's visit. |
Local History Project. Our 'Learning from the Extremes' local history project is going really well. Lots of community members are sending in resources and calling in with stories. Our good friend and neighbour Francis, called in to answer lots of questions about our local area. Francis was very impressed with the level of questions and the amount of research our pupils had already completed. |
Cross Country Running
Well done to our runners from the Senior Room who came 3rd in the Monaghan Athletics Schools Cross Country. The children braved very cold and wet conditions and it was great to see so many of our pupils complete the course. Some runners only decided to run on the morning of the race and can feel very proud of themselves. So many parents and grandparents came to cheer us on. 5th Class pupil, Ryan, was first in the Small Schools Boys' race which is an amazing result. We were delighted when we got back to school to see that Ms. King and Mrs. Ferguson had the heat on full blast and lovely hot chocolate and marshmallows waiting for us. And then Daithí and Rián's parents sent in sweets, crisps and goodies to celebrate our run. Thanks to everyone. |
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Lunchroom We are lucky in our school. We all get to eat our lunch in the lunchroom. All the pupils, and some teachers, join together to eat and chat. If the younger pupils need help opening a lunchbox or a banana there is always a teacher or older pupils to help. ( Just don't ask Ms. King to peel an orange!) |
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Change of staff.. This morning, Miss King got to rest her voice. Some students asked could they call out the words in Irish. It's great to see such enthusiasm. |
Drama Workshops We had so much fun on Tuesday when our 'Creative Schools' coordinator came to visit and conducted two drama workshops with the classes. Mary had so many brilliant games and activities. Even the teachers were getting ideas from her. We are hoping she comes to visit us again. Hopefully all these tips will pay off when we take to the stage in June. |
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Our Runners
Thanks to Ben and Ryan's mum we have a culture of running in our school. Many of our pupils run with different clubs in Monaghan. On Sunday 12th February three of our 5th and 6th class pupils took part in the All-Irelands. Well done to all three and especially to the new National Champion. |
Scientists calling ..
This past few weeks, the junior room have focused on our locality and working in Ireland. First class learned about Alexander Graham Bell (the man who invented the telephone) and the work of a scientist. Today, we decided to roll the two topics into one lesson and create our own 'phone'. We had a fantastic time talking to each other through a string and paper cups. |
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Magnificent musicians This week, Rachel had a real treat for the children. She brought in boom whackers to demonstrate the various pitches. Thanks to a very observant first class boy, we were actually able to provide more boom whackers that had been found amongst all the school resources. Everyone had great fun and Miss King went home with a headache.. |
Battle of Clontibret We are lucky to have our school so close to the site of one of the most important battlefields in Irish history. The Battle of Clontibret of 1595 was one of Ireland's few victories in the battle against the English in the Elizabethan era. Historian, Dave Swift, came to visit our Senior Room with lots and lots of artefacts of the era and told us all about the battle and why it was so important. |
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World International Rubbish-y Car Challenge
Today the Senior Room attempted to build cars. This was part of their STEAM ( Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths) work. The challenge was to use the kit ( kindly provided by Monaghan Libraries) to build a car that could travel. The lesson was going well and then the element of competition crept in and a challenge was issued. The naming of the challenge took some time and some imagination. The competition was now on to see whose car would travel the furthest. In the end there was a clear winner, who is pictured with his specially commissioned trophies. The school phone is ringing constantly with calls from Formula One teams offering positions to our engineers. |
Spórt agus spraoi
We have lots of fun in irish lessons each day. Usually, Miss King calls out the words but today, we decided it was time that the children called out the bingo words. Bingo has become a firm favourite in this class!! |
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Work of Our Hands We all have gifts and talents. In St. Michael's we like to give the pupils a chance to show their abilities. Each year we run a 'Work of Our Hands' display where pupils get to make something that interests them. This year we had a painting, some musical tunes, and so many more. Rather than name them have a look at our slide show. |
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Our Greenfingered Pupils. On Thursday some of our pupils came to school in their gardening clothes and spent a few minutes weeding our school yard. Previously, some of our pupils planted Yellow Rattle in our school's wildflower meadow to keep the grass down and to give our wildflowers a chance to grow. Well done to all our gardening pupils. |
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Famous Author (virtually) visits St. Michael's N.S.
The pupils in the Senior Room had a 'virtual' visit from a world famous author, Robert Muchmore. Robert has sold over 15 million books but still found time to chat to us about his inspiration and the amount of hard work that goes into writing and publishing a best selling book. The visit was arranged by Karen McCague from Monaghan Library. Thanks Karen. |
Mé Féin
The children in the junior room know how much Miss King loves Irish. This month's theme is 'Mé Féin'. Every child from junior infants to first class can now name several body parts in Irish. If you ask the children how they learned this, they'll say 'by playing games'. They aren't wrong!! Have a look at the craic we all had during our Gaeilge lesson. |
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Maths Fun
Senior Infants had great fun jumping up and down the number line today. They were learning how to add/subtract numbers and solve Miss King's word problems. |
Music Generation Here is a link to the video of the children's performance in Ardaghey Community Centre on Monday 30th May 2022. We are delighted to announce that Rachael is back! She was here on Thursday September 15th with her friend Mikey and we had a great time singing. |
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Stone Age Builders in 3rd and 4th.
When the pupils in 3rd and 4th heard that the Stone Age builders who built Newgrange used 'corballing' to make the tomb they wanted to try this building technique themselves. They borrowed some of the Ardaghey Community Childcare's blocks and got to work. You can see the results of their efforts in the slideshow. Well done to them all. ( but I wouldn't want to be depending on any of these buildings to keep the rain out!) |
Science in the Senior Room What do you get if you add an alkaline to an acid? If you're not sure ask anyone in the Senior Room. They added an alkaline bath bomb to an acid vitamin C tablet in a test tube and watched as the test tubes shot into the air because of the carbon dioxide that was produced. Well done to our young scientists. Here is a link to our experiment: SCIENCE |
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