St. Brendan's Boys Primary School

St Brendans PS Birr- 6th Class Graduation– Hero Project-

Dreams can come true !

St Brendans PS held their customary 6th class graduation event on Tuesday 25th June where the boys in their final month of primary school research a hero that they choose themselves and then present a project along with a speech to their peers, staff, family and friends.
This event has been running for the past 20 years since being introduced by Mr Crofton to the school. This year to a packed hall the boys hero speeches started out and varied from Pele to TJ Reid to David Walliams and then number 4 on the list Dylan Kelly went up to speak about his hero ..Adam Screeney-Guess what happened next!
Memories for a lifetime made as who appeared at the door of the hall but the Kilcormac Killoughey magician himself !
This was a massive surprise for parents , boys , staff and of course Dylan himself.
Thanks to Ms Roisin Donovan and Mr Damien Cunningham for rubbing whatever magic lamp they had and producing the genie ! Adam Screeney – #legend #gentleman
A delighted Dylan and also Billy Carroll met their hero and took a few photos. Adam then spoke to the boys and crowd about the importance of having a hero to look up too and he remembered his own days growing up dreaming of his heros on the hurling field.
The event then continued in the school hall as each boy spoke for 1-2 minutes about his hero ( famous ) and how he was inspired by them – the large crowd heard a variety of inspirational speeches about heroes ranging from Messi to Smokey to Ronaldo.
The parents had a cup of tea at interval and the boys enjoyed their customary slide show movie of their 6th class highlights created by Mr Crofton.
Ms Doyle then spoke and outlined how the boys had been an such a great class who had such an amazing year with sports / robotics / trips and projects. She also mentioned the loss that this group had endured over the past 8 years with family members and of course fellow pupil Tommy K (RIP) back in Junior Infants and of how special it was that his little Mario teddy had followed the class each and every year. The resilience that this group has shown will be an asset to them going into the future.
The boys all wore their special 6th class graduation hoodies that were kindly sponsored by our Parents Association.
Mr Crofton thanked all present for their support in the journey over the past 8 years and encouraged each boy to always do his best and try to reach your dream. Mr Crofton also thanked the parents sincerely for placing their trust in the school and staff to provide the best holistic education for their boys. Well done boys, we are all so proud of you. Follow your dreams and your special hero. Thank you Adam Screeney for taking the time to come to our school hall to hear Dylan’s speech and displaying the genuine characteristics that allow so many young people look up to you.

End of year awards 2023/2024
End of year awards are always a special occasion at our school – hurling leagues / sports days / tech week and individual awards were presented – we have a number of awards cups and trophies for sporting and academic achievements
: Kenneth fox / Aidan Rosney / Derek Maher / Brian Mcmanus / Brother Finian /Johnny Cleary / Tommy K. These hold a special place in our hearts and we are always delighted to welcome members of these families to school to present these awards. We are delighted to have awarded the following—
Congrats to all this years winners
The Brother Finian Cup -6th class long race was won by John Plunkett.
The McManus Cup( Special Achievement Award) won by Dylan Kelly.
The Derek Maher Trophy (Student of the year) was won by Cillian McAteer.
The Aidan Rosney Cup (Snr Hurler of the year) was won by Ryan Kelly.
The Kenneth Fox cup (Winning Capt of Senior Hurling league) was won by Cathal Mooney.
The St.Brendans Cup (Winning Capt.Of Junior Hurling League) was won by Conor Mullins.
The Junior Hurler of the year went to Conor Mullins.
Johnny Cleary Cup – Most improved hurler award Justin Touhey
Tommy K Infant Achiever award— Jack O’Connor

Parents Association
The Parents Association would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all students and families who so generously supported our recent end of year cake sale and raffle. We were honoured to present Teresa Kings fundraising campaign for the Oncology Unit Tullamore with a €200.00 cheque donation from the PA, which was very kindly matched by a €200.00 cheque from our very supportive BOM. Massive congratulations to all involved!
Everyone at the PA sends our best wishes to all the 6th class pupils who embark on the next chapter of their lives, we wish you every success in the future, Shine Bright! Bon Voyage also to Sinead Watkins, Karen Mooney and Patricia McAteer who end their tenure with the PA, we are truly grateful for your hard work, dedication and commitment to St Brendan’s PS over the last decade, you will be truly missed. The PA committee will resume this coming Autumn with new members always welcome.
Shona Canham Chairperson

HSCL
Lovely presentation of flowers from our Parents Association St. Brendan’s Boys School, Birr to Ms Ann Hennelly as she has completed her 5 year contract as our Home school liaison teacher shared with Mercy primary – Ann did amazing work in the role and provided great support to families in both schools
– Ann return to class in Sept and wished the new HSCL Paula Carey well as she begins her 5 year contract in September – Presenting the flowers to Ann on behalf of PA was Karen Mooney ( former chairperson of PA ) who herself was attending her final school end year mass as parent after 14 years of her boys attending our school

End of year school mass celebration
We held a lovely end of school year mass outside on the front grass last Thursday. Fr Arnold came to school to celebrate the mass with our boys and a huge crowd of parents and family members. The theme of the mass was “ Give thanks” and it was lovely to be able to gather as a school community together outside in the cool shade of the trees and be thankful for all that the boys bring to our lives. Our Chairperson Pat Teehan spoke and thanked all for a wonderful year at our school. Thanks to all who were involved in the service especially Majella and her wonderful choir with music who brought happiness to our hearts.
It was lovely to have our school chaplain Fr Arnold Rosney present the Aidan Rosney cup ( His late brother) last week at our mass also to the proud winner Ryan Kelly.

Visit of YOU TUBE Award winner—Luke Lynch

Delighted to welcome back past pupil Mr Luke Lynch to the school on foot of his recent YOU TUBE award for 100,000 subscribers –
( he now has over 250,000 to his channel ! ) fnafboi1278
Luke spoke to the 5th and 6th class boys about his channel , his award , the equipment he uses , the long hours of content creation and editing , the issues with copyright , how to get paid by YOUTUBE and finally how he deals with success and how he deals with negative and hate comments in such a positive way –
The classes were spellbound by this as lots already know of channels or have their own accounts. Thanks Luke for being such a positive role model and inspiration and we hope to have you back when you reach 1 million!!

Grandparents day 2024 was a lovely occasion at our school hall. It has always been a success in giving the opportunity to parents and grandparents to come into our school to see the boys of 2nd and 4th classes sing a few tunes and enjoy some tea / cake – well done to the classes and their teachers and SNAs who prepared them with Ms Killeen – Massive thanks to our HSCL Ann Hennelly and Betty Hogan for setting up the hall with tea coffee and buns so beautifully. Finally thanks to our audience who came in such great numbers ( over 100 in the hall ! ) and we are glad you all enjoyed it.

Fantastic win in the Offaly Cumann na Mbunscoil final today against a young and determined Dromakeenan team -full match report to follow well done to all 33 boys on the training panel and the 30 that togged out today with 26 getting on to play – Thanks to Mr Kennedy as head coach and all the staff who supported with the team / with the early hot lunches for team / with the supporters at the match and with covering classes today -Real team effort and much appreciated to achieve days like this and memories for a lifetime ! Birr Gaa

School will support a no- uniform ( rainbow day ) this Friday . Boys and staff asked to bring donation of €1/€2 which goes to LOFFA but the main focus really at our school will be developing awareness and understanding around autism – see picture ( SEEING THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY) ❤️