St. Valentine's Day

We celebrated St. Valentine's day a while ago, learning about the origins of the day.
Valentine was a priest during the reign of emperor Caludius II, who forbade his soldiers to marry, claiming that single men made better soldiers. Valentine secretly married couples but was found out, imprisoned and sentenced to death. While in jail, he cured a girl from blindness. On the eve of his execution, he sent her a card and signed it, "from your Valentine"
There had already been a spring festival celebrating love in those days and St.Valentine's day was born!
There is an altar to St. Valentine in Dublin, with a casket containing his remains.
whitefriarstreetchurch
On a lighter note, we made beautiful crafty cards for our Valentines! Here's a peek at them!
(as well as the cowboy head and hat that Aimee drew on the playground!!)

Peace Proms!

At last! Here are some photos from our national stage debut! The RDS hosted the Peace Proms choir and cross-border orchestra, along with other performers.
It was a wonderful day out, the children had a great time both on and off stage. We stopped for dinner on the way home, and discovered we were sharing the dining room with a birthday party for an 82 year old man- so we sang for him!
He got an acapella version of Happy, as well as Happy Birthday! He was delighted!

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Debating competition

Our debate team participated in the semi-final of the competition in Monaghan Education Centre today against Threemilehouse N.S, Monaghan.
The motion for debate was "nobody should have to pay for water" and we opposed the motion.
The speeches were excellent on both sides and the external adjudicator said the crossfire round was "electric"!
Sadly the decision did not go our way today, but we left with our heads high, knowing that the team did their very best.
We wish Threemilehouse the best of luck in the final!

Liorah's mother came to school yesterday and spoke to senior classes about the necessity for water conservation and metering. This is a water meter she brought to show the boys and girls.She also had prepared a very informative slideshow to explain the water treatment cycle.

Lots of tricky questions were asked by both pupils and teachers!