Friendship Week starts on Monday 6th of Feb. The school will be promoting many initiatives to promote friendship throughout the week. Classes will make friendship posters for display around the school. There will be a friendship stop in the Jnr. Infant yard. Friendship bracelets will be on sale in the school and a variety of anti-bullying lessons will be taught in the classrooms. Other initiatives include Gotcha Cards where the pupils are rewarded for doing acts of friendship, joke/thought/poem of the day will be broadcast from Mr. Crofton’s office.
Mr. Crofton is running a very successful Dodge Ball League at lunch time in the school gym. There is great interest in the league and participation is at a very high level. The league is ongoing with the semi finals and final coming up soon.
To commemorate the passing of Winter and the arrival of Spring we held our St. Brigid’s Day Ceremont in the school gym. Mr. Crofton told the story of St. Brigid and Mr. Carroll’s class played traditional Irish tunes on the tin whistle. Mr. McCann’s class read the prayers and all the boys celebrated this grear Saint’s feast day by ” Singing a Song to Brigid “. The altar was adorned with fresh spring flowers and many classes made St. Brigid’s Crosses all adding to making the celebration a wonderful occasion.
This year was our best year ever in the Community Games Art and Craft Competition. Receiving Bronze Medals were Darragh McNamara, Maxwell. Boyd, Darragh Mooney Sam. Smith, and Thomas Byrne. Receiving Silver Medals were Darren Lally, Darragh Cleary, Andrew Coakley, Ciarán . Abbott. Receiving Gold Medals were Pádraig Kelly, Alex Smith, Morgan Watkins, Nicolas Turtak, Blain Lynsky and Aaron Corcoran. The gold and silver medalists will go forward to the county finals . Well done to our prizewinners and all the boys who participated in the competition.
Early in January Attendance Certificates were awarded to pupils who had full attendance, very good attendance and to pupils who had improved their attendance record. Mr. Crofton presented the boys with their awards at a ceremony held in our school gym. The boys were very proud of their awards and received great applause from the rest of the school community. We hope it will inspire the boys to keep up the good record and encourage others to improve their attendance record.
Christmas is always a wonderful time in St Brendan’s and there is a great atmosphere in the school. As Christmas approached we had our Advent Ceremonies. Our wonderful Crib was visited by all classes and the Jesse Tree stands as a reminder of what Christmas is about. Christmas trees can be seen throughout the school with beautiful art work decorating both inside the classrooms and in the main display areas. Hallelujah Concert, Christmas Plays ,Santa Letters, Christmas Logs, Cribs, Santa Stockings, Snowmen and Christmas pictures were all done to celebrate the festive season. We celebrated a Christmas Mass with the Mercy Convent School and the boys sang Christmas Carols in the Sandymount Nursing Unit. Santa’s arrival by motorbike caused great excitment in the school and he visited all classrooms with gifts. Many thanks to our Parents’ Association for this project. At our Christmas Assembly the boys sang songs and paid tribute to Mrs. De Forge for her long and dedicated service to the school. We would like to wish our whole school community a very Happy Christmas and New Year.
Mr. Kennedy’s class performed a wonderful play for Christmas. The pupils dressed up in costumes and performed in the play which gave a very funny insight into the very popular show The X Factor. The play was colourful, funny and they performed it in front of a school audience in the gym.
Fourth class have just completed a Maths for Fun session. Thanks to Mrs. Margaret Fitzgerald for all the organising and to the many parents who help out in the classrooms. The pupils really enjoyed the Maths games.
As Christmas approaches we began our Advent Ceremonies in the school. The boys lit the candles on the Advent Wreath and read prayers with great clarity and confidence. We all sang Christmas Carols and Mr. Crofton spoke about the meaning and origin of the Advent Wreath. Many classes also visited our Jesse Tree and our School Crib.
Early in November we held our Prayer Service to remember friends , family and relatives who have passed away. Each class wrote the name of a loved one on a paper candle and the candles were then displayed at the service. The boys read prayers and sang hymns on the day in memory of the people who have passed on.