Star Awards – March

Congratulations to our Star Award winners for March! One pupil from each classroom was selected by their class teacher and the award winners were presented with certificates at today’s assembly. They were also given a night off homework for their efforts!

An extra award, decided on by Ms O’Dwyer and Mrs. Brosnan, is presented to pupils for a particular act of kindness or to pupils who have completed an exemplary piece of work in school. Well done to the latest recipient of this award.

Congratulations also to all medal winners at recent community games events. Pictured are medal recipients in Solo Music, Solo Singing, Group Singing and Solo Recitation.

Footballers Finish 2nd in County Finals

Our Girls finished runners-up in the 2019 INTO Mini 7s football competition.

Our girls football team continued their fine year with some outstanding performances at the County INTO Mini 7s Finals in Mick Neville Park, Rathkeale today.

Herbertstown NS, representing the South as the division’s champions, took on East champions Roxborough NS, Mahoonagh NS from the West and Gaelscoil Caladh an Treoigh from the City.

In the first game, Herbertstown gave a fine display and had a convincing win against Gaelscoil Caladh an Treoigh.

Captains prior to first game

In the second game, Herbertstown faced off against the Celtic Image Shield holders (county 15-a-side champions) Roxborough NS. The first half was keenly contested and at the break, Roxborough held a 1 point lead. Wind assisted in the second half, the East side pulled away to get the victory.

In the final game, Herbertstown and Mahoonagh NS met having secured a win each at that point. In their best performance of the day, our girls recorded a memorable victory with some crucial goals coming in the last couple of minutes.

Pictures courtesy of Eamon Doody, Skyview Photography

As mentioned, Herbertstown finished as runners-up and it was our best result at a Mini 7s County Final having finished 3rd on two occasions previously. (Boys hurling 2016, girls football 2017). Well done girls!

Mathletics March Challenge

Herbertstown NS finishes 18th in the world in the Mathletics March Challenge!

Well done to all our pupils who completed activities on Mathletics during March and helped the school to 18th place in the world in the Mathletics rankings. The school was also the second highest placed school from the Republic of Ireland. Pupils from Herbertstown NS could be seen at the top of the individual daily charts during the challenge and 2nd class, 3rd class and 4th class all finished in Ireland’s top 10 classes, with 3rd class being Ireland’s best performing class.

Well done to our two top performing pupils during the challenge who amassed almost 30,000 points between them!

Third Class Tour Irish Cement Factory

Our third class visited the Irish Cement factory in Mungret for a tour of the facility. Concrete is the second most commonly used material in the world (after water) and the children got to view how the cement is manufactured.

Below is an account of their experiences and a gallery of photos from the trip.

Irish Cement

Today 3rd class went to the Irish Cement factory in Mungret, County Limerick. They organised a bus to come and collect us at the school at 10.ooam. So we all got on the bus!

When we got there they brought us into reception. In there we met Elaine, Caoimhe and John. They said they would be our guides for the day so they showed us a slide show and a video about how cement is made. Elaine showed us some rocks: Limestone and shale.

Next we went down to the quarry and saw a big truck. We all went into the shovel and for a picture. They told us that every Thursday the guards come while they blow up a bit of the quarry. Then we went to the kiln and put our arms up to see how hot it is. Then we went back and took off all our safety gear. They gave us all a bag with goodies in it before we went back to school.

Molly

The Kiln

After the quarry we went to the kiln. The kiln is very hot. The rock has to reach 1450 degrees for the rock to melt. It can get to 2000 degrees, hotter than a volcano!

Ciarán

A kiln is a big round machine like a cylinder. Elaine told us to put up our hands and feel the heat!

Liam

The Quarry

The first stop on the tour was the quarry where we saw the loading shovel. It was massive! It had a bucket that could hold over 20 people.

Sinéad

The Bee Man

A bee man called Benny came to our school to talk to us about bees. He said bees are good for the environment but their population is slowly decreasing. He also brought in a hive to show us, the main parts of a hive are the brood chamber, the stand, the super and the frames. There are three types of bees, the queen and the worker bees who are the females and the males are called drones ,but the drones don’t work. A bee can travel up to 5 km for food. A good queen bee can lay around 2000 eggs a day. In winter bees don’t hibernate, they must fly every 6 weeks. If you happen to own a hive you must put a mouse guard in front of the bottom so mice don’t get in during winter. After winter most of the drones will be evicted from the hive because they barely do anything. When you get a queen bee you must clip her wings so she doesn’t fly away. You would find the queen bee in the queen cell which is located in the brood chamber. Benny said that he feeds his queen bee with something he calls royal jelly. It is important you stay quiet if you are near a hive so you don’t scare the bees away from the hive. About a week after Benny came to our school he sent down tests for us to complete. Erika got the highest score in the test. Tadhg, 6th Class

A bee man called Benny came to our school to tell us about bees. He said that they are actually good for the environment. A female bee is called the worker and the male bees are called drones. When the female bees get cross the male bees will be evicted from the hive. The total distance the bees covered to make a jar of honey is 100KM. To keep mice out over the winter we usually use a mouse guard. The Queen cell is found in the brood chamber. The Queen lays approximately 2000 eggs a day. We know the Queen bee from the rest because she is the biggest and a spot is painted with paint. The gap at the front of the hive is 9mm. The frame of honey in the super is made from timber and wax. Aoibhinn, 5th class.

Photos from Juniors/Seniors

Photos from Seniors/First

Photos from Second & Third

Photos from Fifth & Sixth

Herbertstown NS secures Second Place in National Awards

The school has been awarded second place in the National Cornmarket Cumann na mBunscol Awards in the Promotion of Gaelic Games and Culture category.

Members of the school staff were at the awards ceremony in Sligo on Friday night where the awards were presented. A video created in the school which highlighted the 2018 fourth class project on hurleys for the RDS Primary Science Fair was entered for consideration and the video received great plaudits on the night. The video was on display for the over 200 guests in attendance.

This morning, the current fifth class who completed the project and starred in the video, were pictured with the award and the one they received at the Fair in January 2018.

Star Awards – February

Congratulations to our Star Award winners for February! One pupil from each classroom was selected by their class teacher and the award winners were presented with certificates at today’s assembly. They were also given a night off homework for their efforts!

An extra award, decided on by Ms O’Dwyer and Mrs. Brosnan, is presented to pupils for a particular act of kindness or to pupils who have completed an exemplary piece of work in school. Well done to the latest recipient of this award.