Rathkeale Blitz

A few weeks ago the Scoil Naomh Iósaf School Hurling team went to Cóláiste Na Trócaire secondary School in Rathkeale for a hurling blitz. There were many teams all from the West of Limerick.

Our first match was against Croagh/Kilfinny. It was a tight match and at Half-Time the score was 2-1 to 1-2 to Scoil Naomh Iósaf. Croagh /Kilfinny made a come- back and the final score was 3-2 to 2-4 to Croagh/Kilfinny. We had a break until our next match which gave us time to prepare. Our next match was against Ballingarry and we lead the whole way through and it was a comprehensive victory for us at the end. Those two results earned us a place in the final against Croagh/Kilfinny. Just before we played the final we were given tasty burgers from Bloomers, those Delicious burgers must have given us some energy in the final!

It was a tight match at the start but then we eventually started to pull away. The halftime score was 2-1 to 2 points. We worked even harder in the second half and we started to build up momentum. Once the final whistle was blown we could confirm that we had won the cup. The final score was 4-5 to 1-2. As Sam Hickey lifted the cup, it was announced that he was the player of the tournament scoring nine goals and ten points. Overall it was a great day and everyone enjoyed it. The future is bright for Adare hurling.

By Sam Hickey and Ian Supple

Sports Week

Sports week is a week when we try to be as active as possible and we do lots of sports. This year it took place on Monday 19th of June and ended on Friday 23rd

of June.

Our Sports Week started with a Street Handball blitz accompanied by the Girls’ school. There were 20 teams all named after rugby teams: the Cheetahs, the Highlanders and Leicester etc.

On Tuesday we went to swimming which we had done for the past 8 weeks. Then on Wednesday we walked the river, had a water fight and also had a barbeque.

On Thursday the Junior and Senior infants went on their school tour to Thomond Park and Delta sports Dome. 3rd-6th played in a tag rugby tournament. On Friday 5th and 6th went down to the Pitch & Putt and the juniors and seniors played in an extremely important hurling match.

Overall we had a fantastic Sports Week and it was a once in a lifetime experience.

By Seán, Zach and Oisín W

Swimming

Swimming is a useful sport for children, not only is it an active sport, but it will be useful in their later lives. The boys of Scoil Naomh Iosaf has had the pleasure of taking part in swimming lessons in Askeaton.

At swimming we learn different types of swimming techniques: back stroke, breast stroke, front crawl, back crawl and more. These swimming lessons are normally held on Tuesdays.

In Askeaton we have learned vital necessities such as how to thread water, how to swim properly and we also learned how to save someone’s life in case of an emergency. The swimming instructors were very helpful, understanding and responsible at the pool.

The pool is split into five groups which separate the experienced from the unexperienced. When the teacher finishes teaching, she gives us a few minutes of playtime.

All-in-all we had an amazing time at swimming. We wish good luck on the lads that will go next year.

Tarbert Football Blitz

On Thursday the 15th of June 2017, the school’s Gaelic football team headed down to Tarbert on a bus after school to play a Gaelic football tournament in the honour of Darragh Lanigan (a former teacher in the school , R.I.P.).

Firstly, we got changed and prepared for our first match against Dromcloch. We lost by six points. We were disappointed, but we had a match straight after against Tarbert. It was a tight game but we came through with a win of two points.

By Christopher, Matthew and Eoin

Next up was Scoil Íde; we won comfortably and were waiting to see if we had made it to the final. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the final because of scoring difference, but we still got into the shield final.

Once again we were up against Scoil Íde. We played brilliantly and beat them once again. We were overjoyed. We headed back on the bus home and stopped for Ice Cream. We were all very happy!

By Aaron Flynn and Finlay Parbat

Science Project

About four weeks ago, Stephen gave 5th and 6th class an assignment to make a power point project on the computers. There was a variety of projects from elephant toothpaste to learning about the brain and we were practicing for weeks.

Each group had a unique project and experiment. Every group had an experiment to do during their presentation. On Monday we saw four groups give us a practice presentation, they were all brilliant. One group had a very long presentation on the heart, and one had a short presentation on elephant toothpaste. We will be presenting our projects in the school hall in front of all the parents from 5th and 6th class.

The science projects were very beneficial to us because we now understand everything from light to how sugar effects our bodies!

By Calum Blake and Ruairí O’Connor

School Show

On the 5th and 6th of April Scoil Naomh Iósaf had a school show. It was Alan in Wonderland, it was great fun and everybody enjoyed it.

Half way through the second term we were visited by Gerdie who was the director of our previous plays. She announced that we were doing Alan in Wonderland. We went into the staff room and read out parts of our scripts to see what parts we got. Calum Blake Got Alan for the first night and Jake Hogan (the guy typing this paragraph) got Alan on the second night.

When we got our parts, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we went to the school hall to practise our parts. At first we were allowed to use our scripts but in the last few weeks we had to know our lines off by heart. At first it was a struggle but we got there in the end.

Throughout the rehearsals the Parent’s Council made the set and the props. We may have been noisy at times but they didn’t get distracted. In the last week we were given our costumes. Some were great, some were not as great but we liked them all the same. We brought the set up to the hall and then we were ready for the big night!

It was the night of the show and the tension was building up. There was too much emotion to handle. Some children were excited, some were nervous , but all of them were coming to the show. Somebody went missing when he was supposed to come on and turned up playing cards, somebody lost their muffler and ended up taking off their costume to find it and John, a teacher, accidently turned off Andrew’s mike!

All in all the show was a fun experience for all. The future of acting in Adare is looking good.

Dara o’ Sullivan, Jake Hogan, Thomas Byrne

Alan in Wonderland

School tour

On Monday 26th of June the school tour took place. We went to John Mitchell’s GAA Complex and the Wetlands both located in Tralee.

First we went to John Mitchell’s GAA Complex, where we played on fun bouncy castles and cooperative games which were obstacle courses and jumping off of bouncy castles onto a protective layer; obstacles from wipeout. After we went to the Wetland where we learned about mammals and did exciting activities such as bird watching where we went up a tower and looked around at the beautiful Tralee view, searching for frogs in a bog and orienteering, where we explored looking for staplers to mark the sheet we were using for the activity. Next we went on the paddling-boats where in groups of four we paddled around at the lake for about 15 minutes. In the middle of the lake was an island with tyres and stones so you wouldn’t crash if touching it. Then we did another team activity where one person had to go to the lake and fill a bucket full of water and the rest of the team held gutters that led to a bottle to fill up another bucket. Afterwards we did another team activity where we were split into about 5 different groups. We had two planks per group with a couple ropes where we lifted them up and down to make a walking movement.

After the activities we went and had something to eat. We were given chicken

nuggets and chips for the food and blackcurrant and orange for the drinks. Once finished the food and drinks we went to the gift shop filled with pointless toys and presents.

To conclude, everyone had a great day at the Wetlands and the GAA complex. We look forward to coming back there

again if we’re allowed to.

Kyle and Mick

Confirmation

On the 1st of June we made our confirmation in the local church. We

were confirmed by Bishop Brendan Leahy accompanied by Father Chris and Father Noonan.

The choir was made up of 3rd and 4th class from Our Lady’s Abbey and Scoil Naomh Iosaf. They were very well behaved and were brought to their full potential by Stephen and Trisha Lavin.

The church looked amazing with candles and flowers up on the altar. Flowers and ribbons were on all the benches and provided a very scenic welcome for families.

The bishop during mass talked about an Irish saint who made charitable acts throughout his life. He also talked about going to the Vatican and meeting the Pope and praying at the tomb of St. Peter.

On making our Confirmation, we were now accepted to God’s family. We have all chosen confirmation names; some saints and some names that have a special place in our heart.

By Thomas Fitzpatrick & Ronan O’Donnell

Geoff Hunt

One day a man called Geoff Hunt came into our school to tell us about the creatures that live in streams around Ireland. He also took us down to a tributary of the Maigue to show us some of the creatures that live there.

Firstly, Geoff Hunt came in and introduced himself to the class. After that we put our wellies on and brought our nets down to the stream. Once we got down to the stream Geoff showed us how to catch the creatures. Then he laid out a few tubs filled with water. These were for putting the animals in so they could breathe.

Some of the animals that we found included Crayfish, Minnows, Caddisfly, Freshwater Leaches and many more. Once we ran out of time we walked back up to the school with the tubs. When we arrived at the school. Geoff used a special microscope to show us the creatures in more detail.

Overall the day was very fun and educational. Hopefully Geoff will come back next year!!!

James Corbett and Óran Hanrahan

Hurling

This year we had great fun playing hurling with Scoil Naomh Íosaf. We didn’t win much but we still enjoyed playing.

First of all, our coach Stephen Lavin gave up his time to do training with us on Wednesday after school. Stephen gave us expert advice and improved our hurling skills to such a high level that we could be playing hurling for Limerick some day. At the start we would do some skills (passing, rising etc.) and at the end we would play a match. Over all it was very enjoyable and the skills we learned will stay with us forever.

Our first match was against Courtney Boys. We put up a great fight but lost by two points when they scored a goal in the last few minutes. We were devastated but didn’t lose hope because we had one more match against Gaelscoil in Newcastle West.

The morning of the match Stephen had to go to a P.E course so he couldn’t go with us. All was not lost when the senior hurling legend, Jodie Hannon went to the match with us. At half time Gaelscoil were up by four points but we were eager to win the last match of the year. In the end we lost by a few points but it didn’t dampen our team spirit.

To conclude, we had a fantastic year of hurling but we sadly won nothing. We’re looking forward to next year when we might have another chance to be victorious!!!

By Ronan Murphy and Jonathan Byrne

Run A Mile

Run a Mile is a fun activity that children enjoy, not only is it fun, but it helps to improve the fitness of young children. Here, at Scoil Naomh Iósaf, we do Run a Mile on Thursday’s and Friday’s every week, and we enjoy it very much. In case you don’t know what Run a Mile is, it is where schools from all over Limerick practise running eight hundred metres and then they come together to have races which are done by age groups.

In our school we rate the times we get by colours for example if you finish under three minutes you are in the purple group but only two boys have got under three minutes. If you finish in under three and a half minutes, you get into the reds and if you finish in under four minutes, you get into the yellows and if you finish in under five minutes, you get into the blue group, but thank God nobody has got over five minutes.

All in all, Run a Mile is a fun, exhilarating activity that will hopefully continue for years to come.

By Charlie Fitzgerald, Sohayb Essefiani and James Keating

Geography Project

In 2017 Mr Lavin our teacher set us a task. We had to pick a landscape that would represent a geography project. The Parents council kindly provided us with twenty brand new laptops so we could use PowerPoint to present our Geography Projects

Four weeks of hard labour went into our extraordinary projects. Every Tuesday we worked long and hard on our projects. After our four weeks of practice the day came to present our projects. We presented them one by one in our groups as Stephen graded us on information, presentation and PowerPoint. All of our presentations went really well and Stephen was very proud of us.

All in all our projects were a huge success. It was very enjoyable and we gained a lot of experience from it. After that when we went home we could show our parents our masterpieces.

By Oisín O’ Sullivan, Michael Keating and Gearóid Lowry

Handball Blitz

It was 19/6/2017 and we were getting ready for the handball blitz. The girl school took part. Most of the boys were checking what teams they would be facing. Mary and Stephan said which teams would be playing and where.

It was a lovely day to play handball because there were no clouds in the sky which meant there would be no rain. Some of the teams were Munster, Leinster, Ulster, Blues, Cheetahs and more. There was four groups but only one can qualify. Out of group one came the Sharks. Out of two came Chiefs. Out of group three came the Brumbies and out of group four came the Wasps.

In the semi-finals the Wasps faced the Brumbies with the Wasps coming out on top. In the last second of the match the Brumbies got a goal but it was disallowed. In the other semi-finals the Sharks played the Chiefs with the sharks winning 3-0. In the finals Wasps and the Sharks played off in the final with the Sharks winning in a very tight 1-0. In the final for 3rd and 4th the Chiefs beat Brumbies of a score line of 3-2.

The Western Force got the communication reward for the team who worked together the best. In third place came the Chiefs. In second came the Wasps and in first came the Sharks

All in all we had a great day. We hope that handball blitz will continue in the near future.

From David and Andrew.

Junior and Seniors Match

Principal’s Note

To the teachers, SNAs, Pauline McDonnell, Joe McDonnell and Ann Conway I would like to say thanks for all your hard work during the year. I would also

like to wish our sixth class the very best of luck in their new schools and to say that if at any stage in the future we can assist them, we would be delighted to do so. I would also like to welcome our new pupils to the school and I look forward to meeting them again when we return on Wednesday August 30th.

Thanks to our Board of Management for their help and advice during the year. Their input has been of great benefit to the school.

Thanks to the staff at Adare Library who make our visits there so enjoyable and to the staff of the Credit Union for coming to the school to get the boys in to the habit of regular saving.

Thanks to the Parent’s Council who have given of their time during the year organising events and projects for the good of the school and the pupils. We are very appreciative of their hard work and efforts throughout the year.

There are many parents who like to help, bring new constructive ideas, making donations, putting us in the way of promotions in their work places, people who do not wish to see their name mentioned but have the good of the school at heart and wish to help the boys of Adare get as much as possible out of their education. Thanks to all of you.

Finally, we would like to wish all of our students and their families a very enjoyable and safe summer with school re-opening on Wednesday Aug 30 th .

Stephen Lavin