School News & Events

First Class – October 2023

1st class has been very busy this month getting into the spirit of Halloween and working with other classes. We were challenged on our maths skills by 5th class. Thank you for making great maths trails for us. We had so much fun! We were also very lucky to get the chance to listen to 3rd class reading us some very spooooooky Hallowe’en stories by torch light. We have been very busy learning all about procedural writing this month. We learnt how to make buns so it was only right that we also made and iced them in class!! Yum!

 

Maths Week in 5th Class

During the month of October, we celebrated Maths Week in 5th Class. We had great fun trying to improve our maths skills using games and technology. We used the new school Ipads to play tables games against each other. We designed and made our own board games and played them. We also worked in pairs and groups to solve problems.

We decided to help some younger classes to celebrate Maths Week too. We created a maths trail around the school and the yard for 1st class and we helped them to answer the questions. We also taught 2nd class how to play some board games and card games like Frustration, Uno, Ludo and Chinese Checkers.

  

Inter-Schools Showjumping, Maryville

Well done to Brian, Mary-Jane, Emmeline and Fiona who represented our school in a showjumping competition in October. We are proud of them and delighted to see their rosettes and trophies. Their classes got an extra special treat when some four legged friends came to visit us in school a few days later. It was great to see their horses.

 

East Cork Primary Schools – Cross Country

The East Cork Primary Schools Cross Country took place in Fr. O’Neill’s Sportsfield on Friday 29th September. The children representing our school put on their green and yellow bibs and travelled by bus to the event, along with Ms Barry, Mr Healy and Mr McCarthy. They did us proud and well done to all. Thanks to Ms Barry for all the time she gave to training at lunchtime. See some photos here.

Marymount Coffee Morning September 22nd 2023- 6th Class News

Marymount Coffee Morning was very exciting but also a very hard working experience for us in 6th class.  In preparation we had to collect paper cups, lids, paper plates, milk jugs and much more.  Everybody worked as hard as each other.  Sending out invitations and making posters was also a very important part of the event. 

On the morning of the event everybody brought in their cakes.  We set up the tables in the hall and put the table cloths on the tables to make them look nice.  We all knew the jobs we had so we got in our positions and we waited for the guests to arrive.  We were very worried when we only saw 5 cars, but we were blown away by the amount of people that came after.  It seemed that everybody was having a great time for a fantastic cause. 

It shows the great community spirit that we are blessed to have in Dungourney. We would like to thank everybody for being so generous for donating an incredible amount of money for an amazing cause.  

We are unable to name the amount of money we have raised simply because there is still money coming in.  Thank you all and we hope to see you next year.

Written by: Niamh Hanna

 

3rd Class September News

September has been a busy month for 3rd Class. Our favourite moments have been doing a variety of science experiments and trying out our Chromebooks.

 

5th Class School Tour to Oysterhaven

On Thursday 15th of June, we made the long journey to Oysterhaven Activity Centre. There was a lot of excitement on the bus on the way down as we had heard some great things about the place. We started the day with some team building activities and games with our instructors. Next, we moved onto the Jungle Activity Course. We had been warned by Ms O’ Sullivan that we would get muddy and we definitely did! We ran, jumped, climbed, rafted, crawled and
swam through the jungle course until finally we made our way to the clean water to wash ourselves off for lunch!
After lunch we got our wetsuits, helmets and paddles and headed for the sea. With the sun keeping the water nice and warm for us we did some kayaking, rafting and pier jumping. Even Mr. Murphy, Mr McCarthy and Ms. O Sullivan joined us for some fun on the water. We really enjoyed our day at Oysterhaven Activity Centre. Please enjoy some photos from  our trip.

6th Class – Glendonagh – Adopt a Grandfriend

We have really enjoyed spending time getting to know the residents in Glendonagh. At Christmas time we went up singing Christmas carols to them, it was a very enjoyable experience, we really enjoyed writing letters to them and getting to know the residents. Last Friday we went up to Glendonagh playing board games with the residents and doing some gardening. It was extremely enjoyable sitting around listening to the residents tell us their great stories.
By 6th Class

4th Class Orienteering

Recently, 4 th class took a trip down to Bailick Walkway to take part in some orienteering. We had a great day out and really enjoyed the weather. See the pictures here.

3rd Class School Tour

3rd Class went to Cork City Gaol, the Waterworks and finished the day with a game of bowling. A great day was had by all. See the pictures here.

Sports Day 2023

The whole school enjoyed our Sports Day in the field which was organised by 6th Class. We finished off the day in style with the annual Staff vs Students soccer match.

1st Class – Ironman Postcards

First class were delighted to be part of the preparation for the upcoming Ironman which takes place in Youghal this summer. Each child wrote a little message of encouragement to be added to the athletes’ goody bags before the race! We even have some of our own junior athletes competing in the children’s event! Best of luck to all participants!

4th Class – Sunflowers

We had a very busy month in 4th class. We started off in May by planting sunflower seeds. We looked after our seeds and watched them grow over the last few weeks.

4th Class – Art

For Art in 4 th class, we used clay to make small pots and ornaments. Once the clay had dried we spent some time decorating the clay with paint.

 

2nd Class Activities

We have been very busy in 2nd Class. May was a very special month. We received our First Holy Communion.  We had a lovely day celebrating.
We have been making great use out of our new gymnastics equipment.  We have learned some new skills such as forward rolls and cartwheels.  It has been great fun!
We have also been doing ‘play’ through Gaeilge. We have been making up summer shops where we have been selling and buying ice cream.

Cork City Sports 2023

It was a busy sporting week with a fine number of athletes competing in the Cork City Sports in MTU in Cork. Well done to all who competed and all who came home with trophies. Thanks to Ms Barry and Ms Foley for their organisation and training in the weeks coming up to the competition and their great support on the day. A fantastic day out for all involved.

   

3rd Class Blitz – Páirc Uí Chaoimh

3rd Class followed the footsteps of the Sciath na Scol teams back to Páirc Uí Chaoimh to play a blitz on the 4G on Thursday. The boys and girls did themselves proud against some other Cork schools. The visit to Páirc Uí Chaomh was finished off with a tour around the stadium. A great day was had by all.

Sciath na Scol 2023 – Páirc Uí Chaoimh

Our Sciath na Scol teams were victorious in Pairc Uí Chaomh on Tuesday last. Our boys claimed the Allianz DH4 hurling title with a win over Aghada and the girls claimed the Allianz DC4 camogie title with a win over Castlemartyr. A great day out was had by all players, coaches, mentors, supporters and parents. Thanks to Mr Healy, Ms Coyne and Ms Mulcahy for all their training. We are so proud of our teams and coaches who worked and trained tirelessly with massive commitment to get to the final.  Congratulations and well done to all involved.

JEP Showcase Day – May 2023

We decided to have a JEP Showcase Day last Friday, where we invited the whole community to come and join us in Dungourney N.S. hall to browse around our selection of soaps. It was a great experience for 6th class as junior entrepreneurs to see people buying our soaps. We held a raffle inthe school hall with a beautiful hamper with many surprises inside. We sold around 100 soaps and we made €750. We had a selection of teas, coffees and a variety of cakes and treats for the customers of our JEP Showcase Day. Overall it was a great success for all of us and we really enjoyed the day.

Written By Ava Wallace and Ava O Callaghan

                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Class Creations in the Sun – May 2023

1st class were soaking up the sunshine today while using different pieces of twigs, stones, chippings and leaves to make different constructions. If you look carefully you’ll see a hotel, campsite, bowling alley and battlefield! Very creative!

1st class would also like to say a big thank you to Mrs. Doyle for providing all the resources for their creations.

Well done Abbie Murphy in 1st Class

A massive congratulations to Abbie Murphy in 1st class for taking part in the Cork Primary Schools first ever Inclusive Games which took place yesterday in The Mardyke Arena in Cork. A fantastic achievement in which Abbie has confirmed was “THE BEST DAY EVER!!”
A special thanks to Mrs. Barry and Sue also for their support and encouragement towards Abbie in entering and partaking in the competition.
Well Done Abbie- You Superstar!

Sciath na Scol

Well done to both the boys and girls in 5th and 6th class for reaching the semi finals of the Sciath na Scol. We wish them the best of luck in the upcoming semi finals.

 

Cork International Choral Festival

Our school choir sang in the Cork City Hall on Wednesday night as part of the Opening Gala Concert for the Cork International Choral Festival. Well done to all involved. It was a great night and a wonderful experience.

 

Letter Writing in First Class

Over the last few months, 1st class have been working very hard on their letter writing skills, so we decided to team up with 1st class in St. John the Baptist N.S in Midleton and write to our new penpals.
This has been a very enjoyable experience for the boys and girls in 1st class and they have really enjoyed getting to know their penpals by responding to their letters. Hopefully we might get the opportunity to have a day out and meet our penpals at the end of the school year!
Please see our school gallery for more photos.

Budding Gardeners in Junior Infants

Junior infants have been very busy planting over the last month. They have planted some parsley, thyme, cosmos, lettuce and sweet pea indoors and they have also planted some peas, broad beans and spinach outdoors. All the plants that have been sown indoors will be planted outdoors after the Easter break. This is all part of the Woodies Budding Gardeners programme. The project includes planning, planting and perfecting your very own class garden. All the children will be able to muck in and get involved. Hopefully our garden will be in full bloom come June. Please see our school gallery for more photos.

 

Spring Clean

As part of National Spring Clean, on Wednesday, March 29th all classes took part in cleaning up around the school and village. All of the materials had been kindly provided for this event by An Taisce. Well done to all involved.

Lá Glás

We had a wonderful day filled with celebrations of the Irish language, music, dance and recitation in the school. Please click on the clip below, which Mr Murphy kindly created, showcasing some of the wonderful things we got up to for our Lá Glás.

FAI 5s Competition- 6th Class Boys

On Thursday, March 16th, our 6th Class boys participated in the FAI 5s soccer competition in Mayfield. The boys drew one game and won three games, without conceding a goal. Unfortunately, in the end, they were knocked out on goal difference. Like the girls, the boys have also been fantastic at training and across practice games over the last couple of months and should be very proud of themselves. Thanks also to Aidan in 4th Class for attending all the training sessions and supporting the lads today.

FAI 5s Competition- 6th Class Girls

On Wednesday, March 7th, our 6th Class girls participated in the FAI 5s soccer competition in Carrigtwohill. The girls won 4/5 group matches and and also won their semi-final against Scoil Chlíodhna CNS, Carrrigtwohill. Unfortunately, in the end, they were beaten by Walterstown NS in the final. The girls have been fantastic at training and across practice games over the last couple of months and should be very proud of themselves.

Frameworks Art Project

3rd Class took part in the ‘Frameworks’ Art project. They got five pieces of fabulous artwork by Irish artists to hang in the hall. Artist Julie Forrester came to third class for a series of lessons. This involved looking and responding to the pieces of art, drawing, printing, sketching, self-portraits, portraits and landscapes. They used a variety of media including pencils, charcoal and crepe paper. Julie taught the class a lot and everyone had different,  favourite lessons with her. It was a great experience. Please see our school gallery for photos.

February-4th Class

This past month in 4th class, we celebrated St. Brigid’s Day on the 1 st of February. We spent some time learning all about St. Brigid and the work that she had done. As a class we made modern St. Brigid’s Day crosses using lollipop sticks and wool. Here are some pictures of our creations.

During art this month, we created papier mâché letters using old newspapers and paste. Once these dried we painted them. Please see our school gallery for more photos.

FÍS Film Festival

Congratulations to Jake Rodgers from 1st Class and the children from 6th Class for winning the coveted prize of Best Original Song for Jake’s song “Chairs” at the 17th FÍS Film Festival 2023.

The music-video for “Chairs” was entered in the FÍS Film Competition last June and was subsequently nominated for an award at the FÍS Film Festival awards ceremony at the Helix theatre in DCU Dublin.

The song was nominated for three “Outstanding Achievement” awards – in Comedy, in Editing, and finally (and for which it won) in Original Music.

Seán and Holly from 6th Class represented the school and accepted the award on stage from host Sinéad Kennedy, while cameras panned to Jake and his friends who were cheered by everyone in the auditorium.
Well done again Jake and 6th Class; You should all be very proud of yourselves!

Values Alley

Some of the 2nd class look happy exploring our values alley.

 

Engineering in a Box – 5th Class

Over the past few weeks an engineer has been visiting our class every Wednesday. His name is Jack and he works at JP Hegarty’s. He has been teaching us all about the different types of engineering. We have learned about the world’s tallest buildings and how things are made such as bridges. We have also been building things and testing things out.

Jack taught us about process engineering. An example of process engineering is growing a tomato in a field, next it goes to the factory, then it is made into ketchup, followed by bottling and packaging and finally it is sent to the supermarket where you can buy it.

Jack has also been teaching us about mechanisms and how to adapt mechanisms to make things easier. An example of a mechanism is a pully. Pully’s make things like lifting heavy objects easier.

We also learned about windmills and how they work. The blades of a windmill are at different angles so the wind can move them at any angle. We have completed activities to go with everything that we have learned. For example, when we were learning about process engineering we designed and made a marble run.

We are looking forward to learning more about engineering in the next few weeks. Thanks to Jack for everything he has taught us so far.

By: Seán Padden: 5th Class

Please some pictures of some of the activities we have been doing with Jack  in our school gallery.

News from 2nd Class

We have had a lovely first month back in 2023. We made lovely firework drawings to celebrate the start of the new year. These were great fun to make as we got to use pastels. We learned about the Chinese New year and we had great fun construting chinese lantrens.
We have also been doing athletics in P. E. It is great fun to see how fast we can run. The hurdles are also good fun as  we can see how high we can jump over them .
For grandparents day we made lovely tea light holders. We made them using clay. We hope they will love lighting their candles in them.
We have been doing lots of preparation for our First Confession. We are singing songs and learning prayers.
Here are some pictures of what what we have been up to in January.
               

Choir Rehearsal at St. Finbarre’s Cathedral

             
Our school choir went to their first rehearsal for the Opening Gala Concert of the Cork International Choral Festival on Thursday 26th to St. Finbarre’s Cathedral. The choir met the other schools that are also taking part as well as the director, Peter Stobart. After the rehearsal we were really lucky that Peter gave us a short guided tour. He was very impressed by the genuine interest shown by the boys and girls and their extremely thoughtful questions. We are very excited about performing in the Cork City Hall on April 26th! (please see our school gallery for more photos)

December in Ms McCarthy’s Class

We have a very busy December in our class.
Christmas was our Aistear theme for December.

  (Please see our gallery for more photos)
We practised very hard for our Christmas shows and carol service. We performed
excellently.


We got to visit the library bus. We chose books to read.

 
We had a very exciting day on Friday 16th December. Santa visited our school and we got to meet him.
We wrote Christmas stories with some of the boys and girls from 6th class.

   
We watched a movie in the hall.


We decorated our classroom door for Christmas. Can you spot the elves we made? We also
decorated jumpers for the Christmas art exhibition.

It was David’s 6th birthday this month. We had a party in school. We made rice krispie buns and we ate some cake.


We visited Arcade in 5th class. We had lots of fun playing with the games. (Please see our gallery for photos)
We are really looking forward to Christmas.

Aistear in Junior Infants

Junior Infants have been very busy engaging with Christmas Aistear. They have been learning all about the Arctic Circle and The North Pole.  Please see our school gallery for more photos.

     

Junior Infants were also very busy creating and designing their classroom door and hallway.

STEPS Engineering Project in 3rd Class

We completed the STEPs Engineering Project. We designed and built something that could help the local community. As part of our project we had a visit from Michal Dymet from Engineers Ireland. We presented our projects to him. We learned a lot and had fun!

The FÍS Film Festival

The FÍS Film Festival is an annual awards ceremony, which takes place in the Helix Theatre in Dublin, that showcases the best examples of school film-making and visual story-telling in Ireland.
Dungourney NS are regular nominees in the FÍS Film Festival and have travelled to the Helix on numerous occasions in the past.
Last May, Jake from Senior Infants performed a song for the school assembly that he wrote himself, calling it “Chairs”.
Jake’s song was subsequently recorded and mixed, with 5th Class filming and participating in a music video for the song alongside Jake.
The resulting music video was shared across the school at the next assembly and was an instant hit. The next step was to send the video as an entry for the FÍS Film Festival ’22.
Last month, it was announced that “Chairs” had been nominated for an award at the 17th FÍS Film Festival Award Ceremony ’22, to be held next February in the Helix, with all participants invited to attend.
Congratulations to Jake and all the (now) 6th Class who took part, and we wish them all the best at the award ceremony.
Details of the ceremony can be found at:
www.fisfilmproject.ie

Science Week in Senior Infants

To help celebrate science week in Senior Infants all of the children took part in a few experiments. The children had a little booklet where they made predictions, tracked the experiment’s progress and drew pictures of the results. They loved getting the opportunity to work together as part of a team and were very interested in all things science week.

1st Class Cooking Up A Storm!

The boys and girls in 1st class have been super busy lately learning all about procedural writing. As this can be very ‘hungry’ work they decided to learn how to make gingerbread men by following the correct procedure/recipe. Of course no lesson would be complete without actually making them also!! A yummy treat and smiles all around to mark the start of the Christmas period! (Please see the gallery for more photos)

Science Week

By Fiona Loughnane
During science week this year we learnt all about science. For example, scientists, facts and much more!
My favourite part of science week was learning about George Crum. He was responsible for making the first ever crisp and has a restaurant in New York City which only sells crisps! Also, did you know that Nicola Tesla invented electric currents? These are two of the many scientists I learnt about during Science week this year.
I also learnt many new facts during science week. For example, it’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open! Also, did you know the moon can fit inside the earth nearly four times?
My favourite experiment from science week was the ‘Heart Experiment’. We first found our heart beats by putting our hands on our chest or wrist. We then did different exercises, for example- jumping, skipping and walking to check if our heart beated faster or slower. We discovered that when you are more active your heart beats faster as it has to pump blood all around your body. Did you know you cannot live without a heart or else you will die.
I love science, it’s one of my favourite subjects. This science week was the best week ever!
 
By Maria Cremin
 
Science week took place in our school from the 14th-18th of November this year. My favourite experiment from science week was the magic bubbling experiment. For this experiment we used many different ingredients such as- washing up liquid, vinegar, baking soda, food colouring and glitter.
Our teacher explained that the baking soda contained alkaline and the vinegar had acid in it and when you mix them together it makes carbon dioxide which caused the potion to bubble everywhere. It was so cool.
My favourite part about Science week was learning about the different scientists. We learned about Albert Einstein. He came up with amazing discoveries about light, gravity, space and time. Did you know that Alexander Fleming invented penicillin? This is an antibiotic which can be used to treat a lot of illnesses and infections. Also, Thomas Edison invented the first working light bulb and finally, Marie Curie was the first woman scientist to win the Nobel prize twice! She helped to make x-rays take better pictures.
I really loved science week this year, it was so much fun! I would love to be a scientist some day!

4th Class Camogie Blitz

The 4th class girls played in the camogie blitz against Mainistir na Corann yesterday.
It was the girl’s first camogie outing this year. Ms. Coyne and Ms. Mulcahy were very impressed with all the girls taking part.  Keep up the practice!

Juniors Infants and 6th Class Paired Reading

Ever since the first reading session with the junior infants, we have had great fun with them. Jack is my junior infant partner; I have seen that he is getting more confident around people and is starting to enjoy school more with each growing day. If you look closely, you can see every single junior infant more confident each day. Us as a sixth class really enjoy reading to the Junior Infants and we look forward to hearing them reading to us when they are able.
In conclusion, I think the reading /bonding that we have done in the first month is brilliant, not only for junior infants but also for us 6th class. They are becoming more confident and getting comfortable with our school and it’s also great for us 6th class to learn to interact with the younger classes and to welcome and help the juniors settle into our school.
By Elijah – 6th class

Marymount Coffee Morning

On Friday the 23rd of September 2022, we held a coffee morning in our school hall at St. Peters N.S., Dungourney in aid of Marymount Hospice. It was organised by 6th class.

First, we sent out invitations a couple of days before and then we put up posters around the school advertising the coffee morning. On the day before, 6th class were busy preparing. We had to get the ingredients and go baking. Some of the sweet things we made were cupcakes, cookies, mars bar squares and banana bread. In the morning we first set up the hall. We had to set up the tables and chairs. We put table cloths on the tables and set up the children’s play area. Everybody in the class got a job to do. Some children were out doing the traffic, others were serving cakes, some were looking after the children in the play area, others were welcoming people and more were giving out the tea and coffee. The place looked great. We were surprised with the amount of people that came. Very quickly the hall was full. My job was serving the cakes. We were all so busy that the morning flew. Before long everybody was gone.

When we got back to the classroom, we had to count up the money to see how much we had raised. As a result of people’s generosity, we raised €3773.50 and we hope to get more donations in the next couple of weeks.

I really enjoyed being part of the coffee morning and I am very proud of the amount of money our school and community have raised for Marymount Hospice.

By Ava Wallace – 6th Class

Virtual Assembly

Today we had our very first virtual whole school assembly. It was a wonderful opportunity for all the boys and girls to see inside the classroom of their fellow pupils. Each class from junior infants to sixth class performed for the school. We heard some very spooky songs and poems. Well done to all involved. We are already looking forward to our next virtual assembly.

Alan Nolan Visit

We were lucky enough to have author and illustrator, Alan Nolan, virtually visit 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Class on Monday, October 5th. Alan kept pupils and teachers entertained with a mixture of storytelling, drawing lessons, random animal facts and a quiz to finish. We would like to thank the Cork County Library service and Alan for coordinating this event with the school.

Farewell 6th Class of 2020

Although we would all love to say goodbye to you in person, unfortunately that can’t happen this year.

However, the staff of Dungourney NS, past and present, would still like to wish you all the best.

Enjoy!

A big thank you to Mrs Comer for all her hard work in putting together this lovely clip.

Virtual Sports Week 2020

We are delighted to have had our first ever virtual sports week. A massive thanks to all the boys and girls and and their parents for partaking. Thank you to Ms Coyne and Mrs Barry for all their hard work in organising the virtual sports week. Thank you Mr Murphy for putting this wonderful video together.

Here is a clip showcasing some of the activities you got up to!

We hope you enjoy it!