St. Brendan's Boys Primary School

The Edmund Rice Awards took place this year in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. 5th Class students from the Presentation Monastery in Killarney, Co Kerry, and from St Brendan’s Primary School in Birr, Co Offaly, gathered to remember and celebrate Blessed Edmund Rice. The Birr students engaged in a lively and poignant retelling of Blessed Edmund’s life, and spoke about how his memory still inspires their school today. The Killarney students’ presentation gave a fascinating insight into the history of their 178 year-old school, and, once again, how Blessed Edmund Rice’s values still blossom in the community to this day. Br Andrew Hickey presented each student with a certificate, and congratulated them on the work they have done. The boys then got a lovely lunch and played games together including the popular “catch the pig” The Awards will return next year. Thanks to Ms Ward and the excellent boys who represented the best of what our school is about.

Each term as part of our efforts to get boys to attend school as much as possible we award certificates. For Term 2 of this school year (Xmas– Easter) a fantastic 34 boys had 100% attendance (16% of the school) and were presented their certificates at our assembly so well done to the boys and their families– They also got a homework pass ! Also 13 boys got attendance improvement certs for improvement shown this term.
Attendance teams are a school initiative written in our school attendance plan developed by our hardworking staff to encourage boys to attend school more regularly. The winning team for this term (Team 2) had average attendance of 53.1 days PRESENT out of 56 days. The boys earned the reward of a trip to TEARAWAYS and some nice lunch / snacks . Keep up the great work everyone

All roads led to Marian hall Birr last Wednesday night 9th March as St. Brendan’s Boys Primary school staged their historical production and tribute to 1916. Heritage has a major influence on the school and so they were delighted to have Michael Donegan ( Former Principal) back to write and direct the first half of the show. Current principal welcomed the huge crowd to the free show and thanked the people of the parish for their continued support of the school. He also thanked the parish for use of their fine hall and to hall caretaker Martin Walsh for his support with the show. The stage looked fantastic with set designed by local artist George Dempsey and painted by pupils from the school with lights and sound by Phil Walsh kindly organised by parent Pierre Greijmans. Then the boys took over !

Boys from 6th , 4th and 3rd classes took the audience of over 600 on a journey from the glaciers of Ireland up to the famine. Classes came on for scenes in magical costumes to a rocking soundtrack as they retold Irish History through the first farmers , celts , , Christians , Vikings ,Normans, Plantations, Penal laws and suffering of the famine times. All through this they had a commanding performance from the director ( Jack) and the story kept great flow through the narrators (Paul and Jack).The audience were on an emotional roller-coaster from laughter at the ABBA dancing Vikings to sorrow with the famine dead. Then came the interval with tea/ coffee provided by parents association and shop.

The second half began with 120 boys on stage playing a tin-whistle medley of Irish traditional and republican songs and a booming version of Fields of Athenry. The 5th class under Ms.Ward and placement student Eoin Pilkington then held the audience spell-bound with their version of “Triumph of Sorts” written by local principal Damien White. Drums and rifles were to the fore as Padraig Pearce ( Darragh) led the rebels to the GPO where the proclamation was dramatically read aloud to the audience with drum beats bellowing. It was special to see the proclamation being read aloud by pupils born in other countries but who now see themselves as Irish. This is really Ireland in 2016. Music and song interspersed this part with Banna strand and foggy dew being sung with a highlight of grace being sung by 5th class accompanied by the talented Ms.Pilkington and Ms.Ryan.
Thanks were expressed to all through the booklet on the night for all the elements that go into a show of this scale with funding support from Offaly Arts Council and Birr Lions club. Mr Crofton thanked the audience and community for allowing the boys the opportunity to perform on stage and to celebrate 1916 in this manner. Michael Donegan was thanked for his time, energy , passion and inspiration to the show and he then spoke of the pride he has in the school , the boys and the school community which is such an integral part of Birr. The audience then sang the finale of Amhran na bhFiann to conclude the night and send the audience home with a spring in their step and happiness in their hearts.
We hope it was both educational and entertaining and respectful to the memory of the heroes of 1916.

A highlight of the year was 5th class boys travelling to Kilkenny one Saturday in February to be part of the PEACE PROMS CHOIR 2016. The boys had practiced their songs and dance moves for months under Ms.Ward and they had a great day. Lots of parents who travelled were also blown away by the concert and the live orchestra. It is a marvellous opportunity for boys to experience this and one where you definitely get more out of than you put in. Dance moves of the staff who attended were not as good as can be seen on some videos 1 Sincere thanks to Ms.Ward for her hard work and to Ms.Kirwan, Ms.Pilkington and Mr.Crofton for giving up their precious Saturday to take the boys. Special mention to the group of boys who attended as they were a credit to their school and families.

Ms Katie Costigan organised and ran a great poetry project in the school during her time here on TP. It was a great success with lots of classes producing great quality poems.
Pictured are the class winners and the overall winner from 4th class.

• The school received its newest “Science and math excellence award” in the post this week. Thanks to Ms.Ward for organising and co-ordinating the classes to work towards this award which was our 3rd in a row. Congrats to all involved and good luck with this years campaign. Pictured are Ms.Ward with a rep. from all classes who took part.

The boys from Mr. Carrolls class took part in a cool project where they all got to plan , design , construct and paint wooden bird houses and fairy houses. Thanks to Mr. Carroll and Mick for all the help.

Winner of the design competition for ” St . Brendans Boys Beats” is Aurimas Ozelis from 5th class with a wonderful entry which wowed the judges from the cd committee.
Well done Aurimas – This will be our CD cover !
CD art design

As part of Green schools we are taking part in An Taisce scooter challenge as part of Green school travel initiative. Boys are encouraged to scooter ( safely ) to school and we will have some areas / activities organised during feb during some breaks / lunchtimes. Watch this space !

Chess Championships
for 5th and 6th classes
at
St Brendan’s BNS
Birr
2014

The first Chess Championships for 5th and 6th classes were held on Friday, 11-April-
2014 in the main hall in the school.
John Alfred supplied chess sets and clocks for the tournament, and ran the
competition based on computer software, ‘swissperfect’ on his computer.
Swiss tournaments are the main types of competition used for most chess
competitions these days. After each round players are paired with someone on a
similar score and the stronger players get to meet stronger players, and similarly for
weaker players. No-one gets knocked out and everyone plays until the end.
Each board was numbered and the computer generated Draws after each round which
were displayed on a large screen using a data projector. Players could see who they
were to play and at which table number.
Clocks or timers were used on all games with 10 minutes set on each players clock.
This guaranteed a time limit for each round, and a likely finish-time.
Results were put in directly to the computer which then generated the draw for the
next round once all games were finished for the current round.
48 players took part from 5th and 6th classes and after 5 rounds there was a clear
winner.

St Brendans BNS Chess Tournament, 2014
Individual Results
1st: Atiqjan Zarghoonsha – School Champion
2nd: Edvinas Ozelis, on tie-break
3rd: Michal Kaczmarczyk, on tie-break