Halloween 2017

St Vincent de Paul Collection

Thanks to everyone for your support of the recent St. Vincent de Paul hygiene packs collection. These packs will be given to needy families in the Limerick area so your kindness will be felt at a local level. St. Vincent de Paul have asked us to pass on their sincerest thanks for your generosity.

Ard Scoil H urling B litz

This year Scoil Naomh Iósaf entered the Ard Scoil Hurling blitz. Pat Murphy and Pádraic Kearney were to be our managers. So we got prepared with some training before the games and tried to get our heads in the game. The managers said our captain would be Johnathan Byrne.

In our first match was against Crecora we had a super first half against a slow starting Crecora team and we were leading by nine points. In the second half they were a whole different team and we lost our momentum and Crecora made an unprecedented comeback to beat us by two points. We were devastated but we had to keep our heads up. We had a break before our second match, which we needed to win to stay in the competition. Our second match was against Sixmilebridge from Clare. It would be a tough battle for us. Sadly they lead the whole game through despite our hard efforts. Patrick and Oisín scored a goal to lift our hopes but it wasn`t our day. In the end we displayed a wonderful performance but no glory or luck.

All in all we enjoyed ourselves and that is what matters most. After the game we got a t-shirt and some sweets. We did ourselves and the school proud. The future of Adare Hurling is bright.

By Patrick and Milo in 5th

Bebras

Last month 5th and 6th class did an online computing test called Bebras. We entered the 10-12 category.

We had to recognize patterns in problems and solve puzzles. We competed to be the best in Limerick. The winners get to go to Dublin to compete to be the best in Ireland.

In some of the levels we had to create a path to get to the end. In another problem we had to find the most efficient way to fill jam jars. In another problem we had to break as little walls as possible so the person could get to the treasure.

Sean O’Donoghue came first in 5th Class. Ronan O’Donnell, Gearóid Lowry and Dylan Herbert came first in 6th Class.

Bebras was very fun and we hope we will do it next year. The best thing is that it is all educational!!!

By D y lan H erbe r t and Ro r y M o r r i ssey

Gymnastics

All of the school started gymnastics in October. We did it every Monday. Our teacher was named Mark Cranitch. For eight weeks, he taught us how to do a forward roll, a backward roll, a handstand and a headstand. He made us do a warm up beforehand because otherwise you could get injured from doing these gymnastics. Mark did great demonstrations on what we were going to do. He was so funny that if he hadn’t become a gymnastics teacher he probably would have been a comedian. But sadly it had to come to an end. 0ne of the last things we did with him was that we had to make a human pyramid.

By Cian and Mark

H all ow e e n

On Friday the 28thof October Scoil Naomh Iósaf students dressed up in amazing costumes for Halloween. We almost got scared out of our pants!

Everyone came to school dressed up in scary, Halloween costumes such as spider-man, grim reaper and an I-phone. We do an activity where we do laps around our school called run around Europe, this time we did it in our costumes. It was great ‘craic’ until there was few minor injuries.

We sprinted to the hall excitedly, there were many activities to do such as throw the rings onto the witch’s hat, shoot cups with a nerf gun and don’t knock the grape off the flour pile with a knife. After a while we lined up, grabbed a hurley and got ready to hit the piñata. It was a witch on a broom stick and when Mick finished it off sweets and chocolates went flying everywhere.

After the hall we agreed to go outside and play some dodge ball in our costumes, it was great fun although we struggled to move in our costumes. Afterwards we went to assembly. Stephen told us not to go near bonfires and have fun trick or treating.

Overall, Halloween is a fun event that we celebrate each year. It will also be on next year.

B y F i n lay a n d Seán A

Library Visits

This term we visited the local library multiple times. We learned about the vicious warriorVikings and the unique art of poetry.

A couple of weeks ago, we went down to the library to meet a man named Gabriel Fitzmaurice. There he read out his poems from his book and told us how he came up with them, and we listened intently. Near the end, he told us about haikus and requested us to write our own ones. We wrote several of them with some humorous ones about Stephen, our principal and teacher.

Another event we attended was a Viking exhibition from the Hunt Museum in Limerick. They showed us extraordinary replicas of what they wore, drank out of and their weapons. We were given the privilege to try on the chainmail tunic and coif and helmet. We all enjoyed listening to the people from the museum and hope to see them again.

It was an inspiring and fascinating experience to meet these people at the local library. We learned a litany of knowledge about Vikings and poetry because of these trips. It was a great way to learn instead of schoolwork.

B y G avan C onway & R o nan O’ Donn e ll

RDS S c ie n ce F a ir

During the month of October our teacher, Stephen Lavin, told us that we were entering a competition in Mary I in Limerick. It is called RDS science fair.

Stephen split us into four groups, one of the groups are making the project. It is a simple circuit quiz with a light bulb switches and a buzzer .They have experimented many times with proto-types before making the final project. Stephen has helped the throughout this amazing experiment .

Also some of the students have been doing a project on Scratch for the science fair. They have tried to show how the quiz works. They have been working extremely hard for the past few weeks with many creative ways to demonstrate

As well as that one of the remaining groups were vloging on what everyone was doing during the period of time the student were doing their work. They used IMovie to connect the interviews together.

The final group did PowerPoint. They created a PowerPoint presentation about the circuit and haw the power flows and works. All of these fantastic projects will be presented at the RDS science fair in Mary I in January.

This experience has been great for everyone who participated. Everyone has truly enjoyed taking part and will be a great achievement if this project works out for us after the immense effort the class has put in.

B y Rona n.M & M ick

R un Around Europe

Run around Europe is a challenge 5th and 6th are attempting to accomplish. The challenge is to run 30,503km across Europe’s capitals [43 counties]. Each morning we run around the school trying to complete as many laps as we can. Every lap we run is equivalent to a Km around Europe. We’re roughly one third of the way through!!! It’s a great activity to get children out exercising.

B y Gavan C onway & Milo K a n e

SPORTS AND CRIB NIGHT

School Crib and Live Crib

Recently we had our school crib. We did a lot of practising for this night of nights. The crib was beautifully built by Joe and Pauline and lit every year by one lucky student.

The school crib starts with carol singing and ends off with a good cup of tea and a freshly baked biscuit. We sang songs like Mary’s Boy Child, Rocking Around the Christmas tree and even Josh Groban’s, O Holy Night. This year Vinnie from Junior Infants was the lucky one to turn on the lights for the crib. The parents brought lots of lovely biscuits and cakes. The parent council did a lovely job doing up the staff room to look its best for the special night and brought sweets for everyone. The school rented a marquee for the very proud parents to stand in and keep dry while watching the magnificent performance.

It was an eventful night but there was more to come. The live crib was on a few days later. It was on in the village hall and there were many amazing acts on the stage. Some boys from fifth and sixth became a shepherd. We sang so well we got a treat the following morning.

Lots of people came to the school crib and live crib and were amazed by our fantastic talent on the stage. Let's hope next year is just as successful

By Jo s h a n d TJ

Munster Players Visit Adare

Two Munster Players, Ian Keatley and Duncan Casey visited our school on the 27th

of October 2017. These two Munster players come from two different clubs, Duncan from Shannon and Ian from Garryowen, but every week come together to play rugby for Munster.

They came to teach juniors to 3rd

class how to play rugby. Duncan and Ian taught the lads many basic skills, such as passing the ball and receiving the ball correctly. They also explained the knock-on rule to them.

Because, 6th class, 5th class and 4th class were at the West Limerick County final (which we lost) they did not participate in the drills, instead they got autographs and class pictures. They even made a guest appearance on the school news!!!

These two players are some of the best in Ireland! It’s no wonderwhy they play for Munster!

Fr o m Lochlann Brown a n d S eá n O D ono g h ue in 5 th Class

Sc hool Ga elic Foot ba ll

The school football started in the month of September and even from then we were eager to claim the top spot. Although only third, fourth, fifth and sixth classes were able to play, we still had a panel of at least forty students.

Training for our school Gaelic football team started in the early weeks of September, when our amazing principal, and coach, Stephen Lavin trained us week in and week out on Wednesday afternoons after school. The training consists of great skills, tactics, and a training match towards the end of the session. Overall, most of our success came from our dedication to training and our hard work on and off the field.

There were two groups in the top division, which we were in, three teams in each group. The top two teams from each group advance to the semi-final. The school that comes first in their group plays the team who came second in the opposite group. The winners of thesemi-final book their place in the final against the other successful team.

To begin our campaign, we faced Ardagh in the first round. Thankfully, we beat Ardagh well which secured us a place in the semi-final. Even though, we had secured a place in the semi-final, we still had to play Newcastle West to make sure we got an easier team in the next round of the competition. Secondly, we played Courtney Boys from Newcastle West and in the end, we beat them well by over two goals. We were over the moon to make it through to the semi-final but to beat our old rivals, Newcastle West, was an even bigger boost. Since we came top of our group, we ended up playing Broadford at home in the semi-final, who came second in their group. Our semi-final battle against Broadford were our toughest encounter to date. Fortunately, we pulled through and narrowly beat them by a single point. We walked away with a win under our belt; we may have won the battle but the war was yet to come.

On the 27th of October, early in the morning we got on our bus and made our way to Mick Neville Park situated in Rathkeale. As Stephen was picking the team, the tension in the room was palpable. A swarm of supporters gathered around the pitch, all of whom were expecting a cracker of a match, and they got what they wanted. The match started with a bang and everyone was putting their body on the line for a good result. Unfortunately, we lost by a mere five points to the triumphant Abbeyfeale.

We kept our heads held high even after our tragic defeat to Abbeyfeale. We truly deserved to be proud because we were the first team since 2005 in our school to make it to the West Football Final.

By G e aró i d , Ch ar l ie a nd Jonathan

Sc h o o l News

We started the school news at the start of the year. There have been four movies so far.

Stephen randomly chooses six students out of fifth andsixth. There are five different jobs: the interviewer, the weather man, the camera man, the news man and the sports reporter and there can be two people in one job. The app is called I movie. In this app you take video from the camera and you can combine and put thevideos together and play them all together like a mini movie and then you can upload them to Youtube .

First you have to make your intro which is the funniest part then we get serious until the bloopers when you mess around.

The school news is seriously fun, it might take up your break but it’s worth it!

By Matthew and Jack

Scho ol T able Tenn is

This year in school we have been doing table tennis in the school hall. There are five tables and over 30 competitors to play. You can go over to the hall at morning break, small break and big break. The table tennis is for 5th and 6th.

There was two teachers for table tennis and their names are the principal Steven Lavin who teaches 4th to 6th And Stephanie who teaches 2nd and 3rd.

The table tennis was on at 3o’clock to 4o’clock. There was two leagues - league one and league two. There are 18 people in the big league and 12 in the small league. In the big league Oisín O Sullivan is in the lead. In the small league Conor Ward is in the lead.

The table tennis league is really great fun. People recommend everybody should play it. It is a great source of health, fun and is very active for you.

By C athal, R o ry N a n d H ar r y

Santa Visit

After the school Mass on Thursday 21st, Santa arrived to visit the boys escorted by the Fire Brigade. Everyone was delighted to see him and to assure him that they would continue to be on their best behaviour up to Christmas Eve. There are some lovely photos taken of the boys with Santa on the website scoilnaomhiosafadare.com so make sure to check them out.

The County Final Adare

The Adare senior football team won the county Championship for the first time in their club’s history! Later that night the team celebrated their victory with a large bonfire on the main roundabout of Adare.

The next day the Adare team visited our school and introduced themselves to everyone. The whole school got a school photo with every player in the team, some of the pupils of our school asked the team players questions and how they felt when the final whistle blew. The captain, Shane Doherty said “it was an honour to lift the cup for the first time in their club’s history!When the assembly was over, each class went back to their classrooms while the Adare team went to the school’s reception to get interviewed by 6th Class news crew. Four members of the team got interviewed by Jonathan and filmed by Ronan Murphy. Jonathan asked questions about the winning goal etc. and some that were already asked by pupils in the assembly. When they finished the interview the team said their final goodbye to everyone in the school and left to hit the road.We’re pretty sure everyone in the school enjoyed their visit because we sure did! When the news crew finished their news on Friday, we had an assembly, we all watched it and all enjoyed it,that was a great day!

By Alfie Fitzpatrick and Ruairi O’Connor

Ya r d Lea g ues

The Yard Leagues was set up to get the younger classes active, to have fun and improve their social skills. Everyone in the school enjoys it.

The games we play in Yard Leagues are comprised of hopscotch, snakes and ladders, milk jugs, handball and even soccer. In case you were wondering the milk jugs is a game you have to throw a tennis ball into the air and catch it in the milk jug. The handball we do for the juniors and seniors is different from regular handball. You give a handball to the junior or senior and they have to throw it into a net from a faraway distance.

The classes that do it are juniors and seniors, and 5th and 6th class supervise them. The Yard games run on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but if it’s raining we don’t do it. However; at times in the winter we don’t do it because it’s too cold. The groups are called zebras, elephants, lions, tigers and elephants.

The yard leagues are great fun for everybody. It will be great craic in 2018!

By David Moore

Happy Christmas From Scoil Naomh Iósaf Parents CouncilHappy Christmas to all! It’s been a busy first term for everyone at Scoil Naomh Iósaf, including the Parents Council. The AGM was held on October 5th with a regular meeting taking place on November 9th. See below for details of officers for the year ahead.

Our first event of the year was a fundraiser – our 3rd Annual Golf Classic. The funds raised go directly towards funding ICT in the school. As a result, over the last 3 years, you will have seen an increase in the numbers of laptops, iPads & Electronic Whiteboards in use in the school. A sincere thank you to everyone involved in the organisation and sponsorship of this key fundraiser.

In this newsletter you will see articles written by the boys in 5 th and 6th classes about their experience of the Halloween Fun Day, Crib Launch, and Visit from Santa. The Parents Council have been delighted to be involved with these events. We’ve had huge support from Mums and Dads across all the class groups in making these occasions happen – thank you so much! Your support is always hugely appreciated.

We have a busy, fun year ahead in 2018, kicking off on Friday 2nd February with our Annual Fun Pub Quiz. Don’t forget to book the babysitters!! This is one of our main fundraisers for the Annual School Show at Easter. The Pub Quiz is always a very enjoyable night out and a great way for parents to catch up with each other in a fun and social setting. We look forward to seeing many old and new faces there!

We would encourage any parent who can find an hour or so to spare, to join in and help out at the various events planned for 2018. Every little helps and at the end of the day all of our boys benefit from our collective engagement. Along the way, many rewarding and lasting friendships have stemmed from involvement in the wide range of activities that the Parents Council undertakes. Please do come to the meetings to stay up to date about what’s happening.

On behalf of all parents, we would especially like to extend a sincere thank you to all of the staff at Scoil Naomh Iósaf. They are never found wanting when it comes to supporting and championing any of the events that take place throughout the school year. The time, energy and dedication they so willingly give to our boys is something we as parents appreciate very much.

Le gach dea-ghuí i gcomhair na Nollag agus na h-ath bhliana!Yvonne.

The following are the officers for the coming year:

Chairperson: Yvonne Sheahan Vice–Chairperson: Lorraine KirbySecretary: Elaine Fitzgerald Treasurer: Sineád Johnson

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES Juniors: Mary Gohery Seniors: Denise Duggan 1st: Máire Daly

Lorraine Kirby Yvonne O’Neill Noreen Driver2nd: Jill Devery 3rd: Carmel Collins 4th: Karina Byrne Audrey Fahey Ekaterina Dvornaya Anna Marie Geaney5th: Helen Moore 6th: Sally Lowry NPC Liaison: Mags Wallace

Marie Murphy

Christmas Holidays

The School closes on Friday 22nd December at 12.30pm for the Christmas Holidays. It will re-open on Monday 8th January 2018 at 9.20a.m.

We really appreciate your support throughout the year and of course the pupils are the main beneficiaries of your generosity. The staff in the school welcome your input and if you have any constructive ideas they would be delighted to take them on board.

Thanks to our Board of Management for their work on behalf of Scoil Naomh Iósaf . Their advice and input is greatly valued by everyone at the school.

A big thank you to the Parents Council under the leadership of their Chairperson, Yvonne Sheahan. The Parents Council give of their time to organise various events and projects throughout the year for the good of the school and its pupils. We are very appreciative of all their hard work and efforts throughout the year.

Finally, I would like to offer the staff of Scoil Naomh Iósaf, my most sincere gratitude for all the help and support throughout the year. They are a wonderful staff and no task or job is beyond them.

A Very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous NewYear

From All of the Staff atScoil Naomh Iósaf