Rackwallace N.S.
047 - 85282
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Our school website is regularly updated by the school staff. 
If you see a photo of your child you would like; please email us and we'll email the photo back to you. 
Our school calendar is available HERE. 
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For copies of our most recent newsletters click here. 
Admissions Policy. 
Our school's Admissions  Policy and   Annual Admissions Notice are available in our School Information above. 
( or if you click the highlighted words they will bring you to the documents. )




​Swimming Championship
Thank you to brothers Daithí and Rián who represented St. Michael's N.S. Rackwallace 
in the
All Ireland Schools' Minor Swimming Championships
in Dublin this weekend. 
This is the first time our school has ever competed in this competition and we are so lucky to have these two boys wear our jerseys with pride
at such an important event. 

Congratulations to Rián on coming first
in the 50m backstroke.
Congratulations to Daithí who knocked
6.42 seconds off his personal best and came an astounding 12th in his competition. 
​
An amazing achievement from two of our pupils  
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Donation of Books
Thank you to Eimear Duffy who very kindly donated over
50 books to the Senior Room library. 
Eirmear's  generous donation has built up our library so much
that we'll soon be looking for extra bookshelves. 
If any one else has books their children have grown too big
​for we are always glad to accept donations, 


Spring has Sprung 
As a part of their SESE programs, all children in the junior room were learning about the signs of spring.
The children were so excited to get to run around the school on a 'spring hunt'. The children documented all the different aspects of spring time. 
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Mathematicians in St Michael's!
All children in St Michael's NS  show great enthusiasm when doing their work. This was proved even further when Miss King looked at the Senior Infant maths copies. While  Miss King was teaching the other classes in the room, these 5 pupils took it upon themselves to complete sums in their maths copies. Just look at their tremendous work!
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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. 

A Successful Weekend in the Senior Room

Our Senior Room pupils came to school on Monday with a lot of metal. 
From an Ulster Champion and Ulster Silver Medalist at Swimming. 
To football stars. 
And not forgetting the successful Glaslough Road Race Winners. 
It was a great weekend of sports successes. 

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Our New iPads
Thank you to Ms. King who has spent the past two weeks getting our iPads up and running. 

There was a lot of setting up and figuring out 
but thankfully they are working brilliantly now. 
Our Learning from the Extremes grant has made such a difference to our small school. 
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Phonics was so much fun today. 


​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!) 



​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. 
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​Postcards for the Principal

The Junior Room were learning all about the post and Ms. King had a clever idea. 
The children made and wrote cards to the principal. 
Mr. Grundy was so lucky to receive 20 postcards with lovely messages. 
On the front of the card each child drew a picture of a time Mr. Grundy had helped them. 
Mr. Grundy will treasure these for a long time. 

Pancake Tuesday
We have a tradition in our school where each year the staff make pancakes for the pupils. 
This year we had lots of pancakes to make but the staff didn't mind. Lauren helped with toppings. 
We each had 2 pancakes and they were delicious. 
The sixth class pupils got to have the 7 pancakes that were left over because this is their last 
Rackwallace Pancake Tuesday
Thank you to all the staff who provided this tasty treat. 


​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. 
Maths stations 
It's been a busy few weeks. The children in junior and senior infants have been learning  all about the numbers 5
and 9, how to weigh, how to use a   balance scale and how to combine numbers. You can see the fun they had below.
Did you notice Mrs. Ferguson's great invention? And adding up machine. 

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..


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​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. 


Easons Spelling Bee
Well done to our Sixth Class pupil who beat off stiff opposition to become our
St. Michael's Rackwallace Spelling Champion. 
She will go on to represent our school in the next round of the 
Easons Spelling Bee. 
She won a prize of a fabulous dictionary. 

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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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ICT Grant
Well done to our deputy principal, Ms. King, who has secured a place for our school on the Learning from the Extremes Pilot Programme. 
This EU scheme has provided a grant of €10,000 which our school will use to update our existing ICT infrastructure and to up-skill our staff and pupils to better prepare them for their digital futures. 
Ms. King spent a long time preparing our application and together with our staff and the wider community is planning for an exciting project in the new year to make full use of our new resources. 

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​New Running Tops

Our beautiful new running tops arrived today and we can't wait to wear them when we compete in the cross country and track and field in the new year. 
Thank you to our generous sponsor. Tommy Martin. 


​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. 
Our Artist Friend, Grace. 
Grace comes to our school each Monday to show the children fun artistic techniques. The children look forward to seeing her each week and are producing wonderful masterpieces under her watchful eye. 
​Thank you Grace. 
Our Successful Student
Congratulations to our brilliant Sixth Class student on winning a national title in the 40th National Dairy Show in Cork this weekend. She beat off stiff competition to come 1st in the YMA young showmanship league class in calf-walking. 
Her sister, a past pupil, won a 1st in her age group as well. 
We are all very proud of you. 
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Artist in Residence
One of our very talented 1st class pupils brought this masterpiece
​into school today to show us. 
Well done!
​ Grace's Art lessons are having a great impact on our students. 



​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. 
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Our New Furniture. 
Thank you to our parents and our grandparents
​we installed our new furniture on Saturday afternoon. 
The children are already making good use of it
and were a lot more comfortable at lunch today. 

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Start of Year Mass
Huge thanks to Canon McGinn who celebrated a really beautiful mass with our pupils and their families on Friday 30th September. 
Canon McGinn and the school had decided to have 'Community' as the theme for the mass and this was certainly well demonstrated in the large number of parents and grandparents who turned out to pray with us. Thank you especially to Mrs. Donnelly who, in addition to playing at the mass, had come to the school to help prepare our singers. The children sang and read beautifully and were a credit to their families and their school. 
Community was also evident in the celebration afterwards in the Community Centre. The children and adults enjoyed a feast provided by the parents and grandparents who had been baking scones and buns. 
Following the mass one of our grandparents presented the school with a large donation which she had raised at her birthday. Marie Curley, pictured with three of her grandchildren and Mr. Grundy,  had asked for a donation to the school in lieu of gifts for herself. Marie's generosity is a great example to the young people in our school and will help provide treats and fun activities for the children. 

Texas Stand Off
Each week the pupils in the Senior Room  compete in the World's Most Difficult Tables Challenge. 
The Texas Stand Off. 
The winner receives a trophy. 
If one person wins the trophy three weeks in a row the trophy is named after them. 
It was called the Self Trophy until today. 
Here is a photo of the first ever winner of the
​Greenan Cup. 
​Well done to all the participants. 
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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.



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​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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​The Library Lounge
Miss King's library corner is back in full swing.  The  children in the junior room love finishing their work and spending time curled up on a beanbag with a good book.  Have a look at the new infants making use of the space. 
 

Maths stations
The children love to see Mrs Ferguson coming in on a Friday morning to do Maths stations. Last Friday, the new junior infants had their first lesson with Mrs Ferguson and as you can see... thoroughly enjoyed it!! They were learning all about sorting by colour, size and the type of objects. Following the theme of colour and after their lesson,  the children got creative with their artwork.  Evidently, we have some aspiring artists in the junior room!




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

Photos on our website. 
In order to keep our website current we regularly delete articles and photographs.
​Remember if you would like a copy of any photo of your child that featured on our website simply contact the office. 

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