St. Brendan's Boys Primary School

5th Class with Ms Ward were delighted to sing a few songs to welcome santa to Birr and launch the turning on of the lights.

Highlight of the year for 6th class is visit to Sandymount daycare centre. Boys did some carol singing and wished the residents and visitors a merry Christmas.

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

St Brendan’s Boys Beats
The boys of St. Brendan’s PS had a fantastic day last Wednesday as their school hall was transformed into a recording studio. The boys became professional musical artists in their own right as they recorded a school CD titled “ St. Brendans Boys Beats”. Each and every boy got the chance to sing on the CD as under the guidance and tutelage of Ms. Majella Killeen a vast range of songs were performed and recorded. Bringing the magic of recording to the boys was Mr.Joe Molloy and it was a credit to all involved that the 19 songs got recorded on time and on schedule.
We welcomed a few guest performers in the amazing Ronan Bell on banjo, past pupils Mark , Darragh and Campbell, Fr.Tony Cahir and the staff members that have a love for and talent in music. The CD’s are now in production and will be launched with an event in Dooleys Hotel Birr on Thursday 26th March starting at 7pm. We hope to launch the CD with a sample of live performances on the night. CD’s will be on sale at €10 with all proceeds going to the “Help build our Wall “ fundraising campaign currently ongoing in the school. Finger food will be served and a medal presentation for the Schools Gaelic Football team will also take place.
Hope to see all of the St. Brendans family, friends and school community there on the night for what promises to be a great night.

Boys and classes have begun a brilliant project under the guidance of Ms.Majella Killeen to practice and record tracks for a school CD. Copies will be sold as part of fundraising towards ” Help build our wall ” campaign. Launch night to be on Thurs 26th March in Dooleys hotel – Put that date in your planners for what will be a great event !

We are delighted to hold our annual music day on Thursday 5th June 2014.
This is a fun day for the boys to display their talents, take part in music performance, listen and respond to various forms of music and overall to have fun with music. The boys display song singing and tin whistle skills developed in the school through support of staff and under the watchful eye of our music teacher Ms. Majella Killeen. Parents and families are invited to attend any part of the day with us in the hall and let the sound of music fill the air in St. Brendans PS

9.20-10.50 – Stage set-up and final practice

11.10 – 1st class song with Mr. Kelly
– 3rd class (tin whistle) – 3 songs
– 5th class (tin whistle)- 3 songs
– School peaceproms choir- 1 song

11.45 – 4th class (Mr.Cunningham) – Kodali demonstration
– 4th class (Mr.Kennedy) – play and sing
– 2nd class (Tin whistle) – 2 songs and one action song
– Mr. Kennedy choir group song

Lunch break

1.10pm – 6th class ( Tin whistle) – 3 songs
– 6th class group – Amhran as Gaeilge
– Junior Infants – 2 songs
– Senior Infants – 2 songs
2.00pm – Peace proms choir
– Staff + guests + past pupils + individual pupils who play and sing and finish with choir performance

Abhaile !

Project Outline:
The CBOI’s “Peace Proms” is a unique and ambitions musical education programme in which 7,000 children from 250 schools throughout Ireland participate annually.
Peace Proms is a musical and cultural celebration and provides a unique platform for young people to showcase their talent while promoting peace, unity and tolerance through music. The aim of our choral programme is to entertain, educate and engage children and young people in music and to enrich their lives through exceptional musical experiences and performances and by providing a stimulating music programme that nurtures and advances their musical, social and cultural development.

Thanks to Ms. Ward for all the hard work she put in preparing the school choir. On Saturday 1st March we travelled to Kilkenny for the concert which was AMAZING! Huge thanks to all who travelled and a great day was had by all especially Mr. Crofton and Ms.Kirwan who displayed great dance moves also!

Message of thanks from Peace proms choir organiser:
We want to say a huge thank you and congratulations to everyone who participated in Peace Proms in Kilkenny over the weekend. The huge amount of work you put in to teaching the choir material was very evident – the choirs were absolutely sensational and the moves were precision perfect!!! It was incredible to see the months of work come to fruition in breathtaking, spectacular style. Please pass on our congratulations to all the children – they really shone!!
Also we can’t emphasise enough, how much we appreciated the calm clear way in which you organised the children; moving them from buses, to rehearsal, to holding area to performance and back to buses or parents. This contributed enormously to the smooth running of everything over the weekend.
Thank you also for encouraging the Parents to attend the concerts. We’ve had hugely positive feedback as we hope you have. The fact that the children sang with a symphony orchestra seems to have really resonated with many parents –some of whom said that it was their first time to see an orchestra also. So in this regard, as a Community Arts Education programme, your involvement is helping us to bring the Arts way beyond the classroom and out into the community.
To the Principals and Teachers who have been involved in Peace Proms in the past – HUGE THANKS FOR YOUR CONTINUOUS SUPPORT, and to everyone who sang with us for the first time HUGE THANKS AND WE HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL AGAIN!!
Best wishes, thanks and congratulations,
Sharon and the Peace Proms Team.

Ms. Ward  is preparing pupils at the moment to participate in a Musical Recital entitled The Peace Proms. Pupils from all over the country will get together in Kilkenny and perform a choral recital. This event promises to be a spectacular performance with so many pupils participating. Well done to Ms. Ward, Majella and the boys and we look forward to their recital later in the year.

Our school celebrated St. Brendan’s Day by participating in a lovely ceremony in St. Brendan’s Church. The boys sang , played and read prayers. Ms.Ward’s class performed a wonderful St. Brendan’s play dressed in full costume. It was bright, colourful and inspiring. It was great to see former teachers from our school attend the ceremony. The boys were accompanied by Majella and Fr. Cahir presided over the ceremony. All the pupil involvement really added to the ceremony.

We held our Rememberance Service in the gym to remember and pray for family, relatives and friends who have passed away.Fifth class and senior infants made Rememberance Trees and hung crosses on them with names of family ,relations and friends on them. Other classes made rememberance charts which were displayed in the gym. Sixth class played Inisheer on the tin whistles and the boys read prayers of the faithful. Mr. Kennedy’s class played the theme song from the Titanic and all classes sang the Rememberance Song. Mrs. Ryder read a beautiful poem about angels and Rosary beads were presented to staff members (blessed in Rome and given by Fr. Cahir). The ceremony ended with the boys playing Amazing Grace as each class returned to their classrooms.