St. Brigid's Day with Ms. Goggin's Rang a hAon
Scoil Iosaef Naofa – Open Night
Thursday 9th February 6.30pm to 8.00pm
Anyone interested in enrolling their sons in Junior Infants or 1st Class in Scoil Iosaef Naofa for September 2012 and subsequent years are invited to attend. Enrolment forms will be available on the night.
Scoil Iosaef Naofa at Christmas.
Class Concerts: As usual classes are putting on their class concerts in the school hall for parents, families and pupils on the week of the Christmas holidays! A lot of hard work has been put in to these by pupils and staff. Thanks also to parents for helping out with costumes!
Cathedral Evening Prayer Services for Advent: Six of our sixth class pupils have been taking part in these prayer services during the Sundays of Advent. They are Cian Roche, Gilbert Haberlin, Matthew McCarthy, Olan Farrell, Killian Hackett & Andrew O’Reilly. A very special word of thanks to Sr. Emmanuel for preparing them.
Stamps for the Missions: As usual, at this time of year particularly with all the Christmas cards arriving by post and the New Year cards on the way, we ask people to hold on to the used stamps and send them into Mr. McSweeney’s Rang a Sé. Please ensure that some of the envelope is left around the stamp. We collect used stamps on a weekly basis in the school and deliver them to the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, in Limerick, who use them to raise funds for the missions.
Concern: As usual, at this time of year we raise funds for Concern. This year we are holding a raffle. We have been raising money for Concern since 1989 so we have raised quite a substantial amount over the years. This is due, of course, to the generosity of the people of Cobh.
Comórtais na Nollag
Here are the results of our annual Christmas Competitions. We had a great number of entries and it proved very difficult to pick out winners in each category!
Ranganna Naíonán: ‘Draw a Christmas picture’ Darragh Ahern, Tyler Higgins, Cian O’Connor, Thomas Devery & Alex Finnegan.
Rang a hAon & a Dó: ‘Design A Christmas Card’ Conor Mackey, Dylan Higgins, Joseph Kelleher,
Seán Devlin & Eoin Cullimore.
Rang a Trí & a Ceathair: ‘Christmas Poem’ Tadhg Scannell, Conor Clancy, Jack O’Sullivan, Kuba Kupidara & Eoin Hovells.
Rang a Cúig & a Sé: ‘What I Wish for the World this Christmas’ Cian Roche, Olan Farrell, Gilbert Haberlin, John Gardiner & Dan Sheehan.
Here is a selection of the entries
What I Wish for the World this Christmas
My wish for the world this Christmas is that at some point in our lives that we will all be able to live in love, wealth and peace. It is my wish that there will not be names put on people that we think are different or are not like us. I wish for a world where all the people are treated with dignity, respect and equality—no matter who you are, what colour skin you have or who you love. I wish the world would be free of hunger and starvation. That all children around the world would have a life filled with love and fulfilment of their dreams. A world where the health of our planet is considered as precious as our own lives. I wish for the end of recession in the world. And I hope everyone a Merry Christmas.
Cian Roche, Rang a Sé
What I Wish for the World this Christmas
This Christmas I would like
Lego and a bike, an x-box and a wii for me.
Chocolates and sweets is what my fancy meets,
I want it to snow, that’s all I know!
Well… now that I think about it,
I wouldn’t really like Lego or a boke,
X-boxes are expensive and a wii isn’t really for me
Chocolates would just melt
And sweets are full of sugar.
So spread that special feeling
Give a gift and get the receiver’s feelings reeling.
Put spare change in the charity box
And make sure your granny doesn’t give you socks!
Olan Farrell, Rang a Sé.
An Nollaig
On Christmas Eve everyone sleeps
As the man comes round house to house
With his bag filling each turn
As children hope Santa will come,
For in the morning they’ll have fun
And they’ll run around with their presents,
On the Day if Christmas.
Jack O’Sullivan, Rang a Ceathair
The Meaning of Christmas
Christmas is about being at home
With your family and loved ones.
Not making your sister cry for breaking her comb
And fighting over toy guns.
Christmas is about Jesus’ birth
When he was born on that day in a stable full of hay
His mother Mary and his father Joseph
Had come a long way to Bethlehem.
So turn your eyes this Christmas
To the child who was born.
He came into the world
Only to find sorrow and mourn
To forgive us of our sin
No other way but to open your heart to him.
Remember this Christmas
Toys will please you but
They don’t last forever but the love of our Saviour
A gift that lives forever is the
Brightest star that shines on our tree.
Conor Clancy, Rang a Trí
An Nollaig
Santas and snowmen and hot mince pies,
Robins and reindeer light up the skies.
An angel and ornaments placed on the tree,
Shining brightly for all to see.
Christmas pudding, that’s the one for me!
With cream on top! Oh, yum, yum, yum.
Festive lights and mistletoe,
Presents wrapped up in a big red bow.
Come on all, set your spirit free,
This is what Christmas means to me.
Eoin Hovells, Rang a Ceathair.
We would like to wish all those associated with the school a happy and a holy Christmas. Beannachtaí na Nollag agus na hAthbhliana oraibh go léir.
New School Calendar!
The new school calendar for 2012 is now available in the school. It retails at a price of €8. This has been produced by the Parents’ Council and is a must for next year! Get your order in as soon as possible!
Cork Pops Concert
Recently, Mrs. McCarthy-Halley’s Rang a Trí were treated to a live orchestral concert in Cork City Hall. The concert, Children’s Music Hour, was presented by Cork Pops Orchestra conducted by Evelyn Grant of Lyric FM. The boys learned about the instruments of the orchestra and they were introduced to the music of classical composers like Beethoven, Rimsky Korsakov and Strauss. The boys listened to music ranging from pieces like ‘The Thunder and Lightning Polka’, ‘Symphony No. 15’ by Beethoven to popular pieces like the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. The theme of this year’s concert was ‘Imagination—thinking about and reflecting on music in a creative way’. The orchestra played songs that celebrated the imagination and were fun to sing. Songs like ‘Imagination’, ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and ‘Pure Imagination’ were sung by the boys with great enthusiasm. The class teacher was assisted on the trip by Ms. Doherty and Ms/ McCrossan-Donnachie.
Hallowe'en FUN!
Annual School Walk
Sunday 16th October
Welcome to our new Infants!
Tuesday 30th August was a historic day for our school when we welcomed our first two Junior Infant classes since 1936! There was great excitement when the boys arrived with their parents and other family members. They are in the capable hands of their teachers Ms. O’Donovan and Mrs. Studdert.
The Croke Park Agreement
As part of the Croke Park Agreement covering workers in the Public sector, schools were required to work one extra hour per week. This amounts to 36 hours in a full school year. When this agreement came into affect we were required to work 18 extra hours for the school year 2010/2011. It was intended that these hours would replace school development planning days and curricular in-service days which heretofore had lessened the amount of days children had spent in school. The staff of Scoil Iosaef Naofa have fulfilled their obligations under the Croke Park Agreement. We worked most Mondays from 3pm to 4pm and also worked from 5pm to 8pm on one particular day. Under the agreement schools were given various options as to how best they would utilise these extra hours. We focussed our efforts on school development planning and curricular planning. A lot pf preparation was needed for the enrolment of junior infants, the infant curriculum and policies which would reflect the new reality of junior infants in our school. We also worked on curricular areas which needed our attention having completed our Whole School Evaluation last year. As part of next year’s extra hours the staff of Scoil Iosaef Naofa will be returning to work on Monday 29th August while the children return on Tuesday 30th August. This extra day will be used by the staff to plan for the implementation of recommendations in our Whole School Evaluation. (Tony Kenneally, Principal)
Scoil Iosaef Naofa raises its Fourth Green Flag!
There was great excitement on Wednesday 13th April when the school raised its fourth Green Flag. This was awarded to the school for the Travel Module. Principal Mr. Tony Kenneally thanked all those involved including Mr. Barry (Green School Co-ordinator), Mrs Studdert, Mr. O’Driscoll, former principal Mr. Michael Farrell and the Green School Committee. A music video called the ‘Walking Song’ was premiered which was sung to the air of ‘These Shoes were made for Walking’ and everyone joined in with the singing! Local wildlife expert and great friend of the school, Mr. Jim Wilson, spoke about our fantastic achievement and then unveiled the flag!
Pictured is the Green Team with Jim Wilson, Mr. Barry & Mrs. Studdert.
New Principal at Scoil Iósaef Naofa
Mr Anthony Kenneally has taken over as Principal of Scoil Iósaef. A native of Ballyphehane, Cork, Tony was appointed to the staff of Scoil Iósaef in 1982 on completion of his Teacher Training in St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. He was educated at Scoil Chríost Rí, Coláiste Chríost Rí and UCC. Tony Holds a B.A. from UCC (1981) and a Masters in Applied Educational Studies from the University of Hull (1996). Tony is deeply involved with the Presentation Brothers and is currently a Director of the Presentation Brothers Schools’ Trust. He is interested in all sports and is Chairman of the Cork Schoolboys’ League. He is married to Kate, loves reading, history and politics and says he is looking forward to the challenges ahead as Principal of such a great school as Scoil Iósaef Naofa.
‘Sam’ comes to Scoil Iosaef Naofa!
There was great excitement in the school on Tuesday 25th January when the ‘Sam Maguire’ was brought to the school by four members of the local GAA Club – Jim Cronin, Colm Damery, Nick O’Callaghan & Damien Byrne. Everyone got in to the spirit of the occasion by dressing up in the Cork colours. It has been a long wait since Cork last won the All Ireland Football Final - we hope to see the cup back in Cobh again at the end of this year! Many thanks to Cobh GAA for bringing the cup to the school.
Spórt sa Sneachta
Volcanic Ash comes to Scoil Iósaef Naofa by POST!
Everyone in the school got a surprise recently when we received some lava rock and volcanic ash from our twinned school in Iceland! These actually came from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano which has been causing all the havoc over the last number of weeks. Our twinned school is in Siglufjordur, northern Iceland, but a sister of teacher Gudny Robertsdottir acquired the pieces for us. They were then sent on by post and arrived here to the school on one of the days that the ash cloud was covering part of Ireland! The pupils inspected the rock and the ash and found that the ash itself was a hard, crystal-like, glassy substance. It was easy to understand what damage a whole cloud of it would do to aeroplanes. Here is a photo of the volcanic ash.
