National Tree Day, Thursday 7th October 2021.
To mark the day we planted two cherry trees in the school grounds. The children divided into two groups and everyone actively participated in the planting ceremonies. All the pupils will be involved in the care of our new trees over the coming months and years.
The following link leads to some lovely activities and information that your child may enjoy at home. https://www.treeday.ie./
National Fire Safety Week 2021
Ballyowen Meadows is delighted to announce the success of Class 4’s pupil Oscar O’Donnell’s entry into the drawing competition for National Fire Safety Week 2021 4th – 11th October.
This year’s theme is:“Working Smoke Alarms Save Lives – Test Yours Weekly”
Promoting fire safety among children is vitally important for their future, their families and the local community.
Oscar’s fantastic drawing depicted Fire Safety mascot, the Fire Hound. Oscar said ‘ I gave Fire Hound a hose to put out the BIG fire’.
Eva from the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management said:
‘Wow! Thank you so much for your entry. We here in the National Directorate want to say a huge thank you for taking part in our competition. We have to say we love your hound. We love him so much we’d love to share him with all our friends on facebook and twitter’.
Check our their new website at www.firesafetyweek.ie and on twitter and facebook @firesafetyire.
Thanks to Oscar, all the pupils at Ballyowen Meadows will be receiving Fire Safety Goodies!
Well done Oscar!
All of the pupils were excited to have our School Playground Communication Board delivered from the organisation ‘Finding Charlie’s Voice’. It is located in the school playground for anyone to use to communicate to their friends or school staff. We have all enjoyed using the communication board and it is a fantastic addition to our school playground.
Special Gift Packages
Aviva in collaboration with ASIAM put together gift packages for Children with Special needs and donated them to various organisations. They donated these lovely packages to our school.
The packages included Sensory equipment, Sports equipment or Social skills games. All classes were given packages that they would be beneficial and bring enjoyment to the children in their group.
The children were very excited to receive these lovely gifts. We would like to thank Aviva for their generous donation of these packages.
Low Energy Day
Ballyowen Meadows Green School’s Committee organised a LOW ENERGY day on 30th of May. Our aim was to use the least amount of electricity possible in our homes, and be a real Green School even now while we are not in school. The children and staff did many Low energy activities on this day. Everyone from school was really happy to participate and the video below shows activities some of our children were involved in on the day to save energy. Thank you everyone for participating and don’t forget: WHEN IT IS BRIGHT SWITCH OFF THE LIGHT.
Tree workshop
Ballyowen Meadow’s pupils greatly enjoyed learning about; conservation, their environment and planting trees with the Crann organisation on the 28th January 2020.
Dale from the Crann – People for Trees run the workshop in the school on 28th of January at 10am.
“This workshop aims to create awareness amongst primary and secondary aged students of the benefits of trees along with the conservation and protection of their natural environment. Students are engaged in workshops, followed by outdoor ‘hands on’ activities including tree planting, hedgerows and/or specimen tree planting, dependent on space available on school grounds. Saplings/Trees are provided – helping to create tree nurseries, mini woodlands, to be used in future years as an extension to the school e.g. an outdoor classroom resource.”
Information about Crann People
Over the years Crann has run various tree related projects and we are very proud of our current initiative. We are lucky to have on board, the well known ecologist, Dale Treadwell who visits schools throughout the country with Crann environmental awareness workshops. He introduces students to the animals and plants that are to be found all around them in their own gardens, fields and school grounds (especially the mini beasts). Following workshops, the students join Dale in the planting of trees to enhance the school grounds. So successful is this project that in 2009 Crann has adopted the program for the various age groups, continuing with the tree/hedgerow planting in designated areas of the schools.
Crann has partnered with the Easy Treesie project, www.easytreesie.com helping school children plant a million trees on the island of Ireland by December 2023, to reach the “Plant-for-the-Planet” challenge.
Crann believes that these projects will have a huge impact on the school children involved. The schools visits will reap dividends for years to come as the children grow and become the community leaders of the future.
Crann also feels that the Projects have many benefits in improving the environment for those who live there and greatly assists Crann’s efforts to raise ‘public awareness’.
Miona Kikanovic – Class 2 Teacher
Climate Justice Week
On Friday 20th September we had a whole school assembly to commence climate justice week. Pupils were invited to share the different activities that they are involved in at school to prevent climate change. A great idea which has begun this year is a compost bin to positively manage food waste. It is time for the pupils to work together to renew the school’s green flag this year. We will be learning more about recycling and energy conservation. We will work together to reduce our waste and energy consumption in our school.
Louise Kennedy – Class 3 Teacher
European School Sports Day
European School Sports Day (ESSD) took place on Friday 27th September. The aim was to complete 120 minutes of any type of physical activity during the day. Most or our pupils really enjoy any type of physical activity so we were delighted to have the opportunity to take part in this European event. Unfortunately, the weather in the morning time was quite wet so our plan to create an outdoor obstacle was postponed! However, Sarah our Music teacher organised a Disco in our school hall. The pupils especially enjoyed the dance videos that were included in the play list. The staff also enjoyed the dancing and the opportunity for all our pupils to get together for this event. Individual classes also took part in P.E sessions, extended playground time and walks around our lovely school grounds once the weather cleared up. Everybody enjoyed the day and we hope to take part again next year.
Paula Vance
Pre-School Teacher
Climate Justice Week
On Friday 20th September we had a whole school assembly to commence climate justice week. Pupils were invited to share the different activities that they are involved in at school to prevent climate change. A great idea which has begun this year is a compost bin to positively manage food waste. It is time for the pupils to work together to renew the school’s green flag this year. We will be learning more about recycling and energy conservation. We will work together to reduce our waste and energy consumption in our school.
Louise Kennedy – Class 3 Teacher
European School Sports Day
European School Sports Day (ESSD) took place on Friday 27th September. The aim was to complete 120 minutes of any type of physical activity during the day. Most or our pupils really enjoy any type of physical activity so we were delighted to have the opportunity to take part in this European event. Unfortunately, the weather in the morning time was quite wet so our plan to create an outdoor obstacle was postponed! However, Sarah our Music teacher organised a Disco in our school hall. The pupils especially enjoyed the dance videos that were included in the play list. The staff also enjoyed the dancing and the opportunity for all our pupils to get together for this event. Individual classes also took part in P.E sessions, extended playground time and walks around our lovely school grounds once the weather cleared up. Everybody enjoyed the day and we hope to take part again next year.
Paula Vance
Pre-School Teacher