During the last week of school the voice of Edith Piaff could be heard as you entered the senior building of St Mary’s PS.- 6th class girls were dressed in the French national colours and even some were sporting the traditional French moustache!
The French Experience for the 6th class girls!
Having completed an in-depth study of France and French culture through their Power Point Projects, they sat back and enjoyed the sounds of La Mer and La Vie en Rose.
The girls enjoyed a French lunch with a variety of croissants, brioche, baguettes and a variety of French cheese. To finish it all off they enjoyed some homemade creme brûlée.
A wonderful day of French culture and fun!
As Busy as a Bee with ‘The Bee Man’
We had some very unusual visitors to our 6th class room.
Some pupils were a bit apprehensive as Micheal Moynihan and a hive of 40,000 honey bees paid us a visit. Everyone relaxed when they realised there was no escape for these little guys.
It was one of the most interesting talks we have heard this year and we got a chance to take a very close look at the bees and to ask Micheál a few questions. He told us all about the life cycle of the bee, life in the hive, the hierarchy of bees and swarming. He also spoke to us about life as a beekeeper throughout the year and how the honey gets from hive to shop shelf.
It was extremely interesting and we certainly came away having a very different opinion of bees and their importance in the world. We are very grateful that Micheál took time out of his very busy schedule to share his love of bees and his knowledge with us.
We hope he got the Queen Bee back to the hive before there was too much consternation amongst the drones and workers!
Thank you Micheál!
Bike Week
The 5th and 6th class girls from St Mary’s celebrated Bike week with their annual cycle to Clonea followed by a picnic on the beach. Many thanks to Eadaoin, Kate and Peter from WSP, for all their help in organising the event, and many thanks to Garvan Cummins, The Greenway Man, for all his help on the day and imparting wonderful nuggets of information along the way. The cycle training from WSP has been invaluable as it has given our girls great confidence on the road and it has enabled them to cycle to many of the inter schools matches during the year.
Thank you WSP!
Fishing
Many thanks to Waterford Sports Partnershipn for their sponsorship with the ‘Go Fish’ programme this year -for the wonderful three days 6th class spent fishing in Ballyshunnock. The girls have been buzzing with chat about it since. It was such a fantastic experience for them and a terrific way to finish off their primary school years.
We were blessed with 3 beautiful sunny days at Ballyshunnock Reservoir. The girls had the expertise of members of Inland Fisheries Ireland and they got a better understanding of one of our most important biospheres.
They set up their own rods and reels, learned to tie a variety of knots and how to attach their live bait. Many fish were caught but none reached the frying pan as they were all released back into the lake.
A very informative three weeks as the girls got to see a variety of pond/river life and also learned about the utmost importance of bio security for all who fish in our lakes and rivers.
We are coming to the end of the year and the end of a very special time for our 6th class girls but they will bring with them great memories of their time with us in St Mary’s and some of those memories were made possible by WSP and members of IFI in Ballyshunnock.
