After 7 intensive Team Teaching weeks to develop good writing skills all 1st-6th class pupils wrote, edited, illustrated and published a book each for Monaghan Write a Book Project.

Congratulations to Zara McRory The Little Tooth Fairy and Nathan Carleton – The Beach who have been awarded Merit Awards for their books in the ‘Write A Book Project’. They will receive their awards at the Garage Theatre on Thursday 31 May.

The following pupils’ books were highly commended:
Katie Graham – The Magic Shoes
Vicky Donaldson – The Magical Statue
Rory Cunningham – The Man Who Sat In The Past
Olivia McChesney – The Magical Fairyland
Louis Treanor – The Portal
Louise McChesney – Pocket Knife

These pupils will receive their certificates at school, as will all students who entered a book.

Well done to everybody for taking part in such a worthwhile project and we look forward to showcasing all the books when the return to school.

The First Debate
On Friday 17th November we travelled to Garron N.S. to debate against them. “To tackle climate change everyone should be vegetarian” . We were disagreeing with this motion. Their Principal welcomed us to the school. Their team began the debate, they spoke well and made some good points. But they didn’t refute or make eye contact. Then we began to speak. We spoke on how being vegetarian could be bad for your health. In 2012 scientists found that 31% of 240 vegetarians were depressed or suffering from anxiety and only 13% of meat eaters were. At the end the judges decided that our team had won the debate. Garron N.S. were very respectful and polite making us very welcome. We shook hands with the Principal, judges and the team. We were delighted to win and as a treat Mrs Gilmour and Mrs Fleming took us to Maurice Grahams for a hot chocolate and a bun.
Amelia Tate & Jack Cunningham

The 2nd Debate
Our 2nd round of the debate took place on Thursday 7th December against St Louis Girls School in Monaghan. The motion was “Children under 14 should not be allowed on social media”. We were opposing the motion. Mrs Fleming came as a judge. Evan our captain spoke first. We made some good points and so did they. It was neck and neck all the way. In the end St. Louis clinched the victory by 2 points. We tried our best, and lost on refutes. Mrs Crawford got us a treat afterwards for our hard work. We hope we do better next time.

3rd Debate
On Wednesday 31st January we went to Rackwallace NS for our 3rd debate. We were opposing the motion “Ireland should give more money in aid to poor countries”. Their chairperson welcomed us to the school. Their captain spoke first, they made some good points. They mentioned how there were people in Africa with no homes and no food. We refuted on some of their points. We spoke of the trolley crisis and the homeless in Ireland. The adjudicators left the room to score the teams. Each team spoke really well but in the end we won. We were delighted and afterwards Mrs Gilmour and Mrs Fleming took us to Grahams for hot chocolate and a bun.
By Louise McChesney, Amelia Tate and Louis Treanor

We play with toys and have fun. Every 2 weeks our theme changes. We have learned about our community – how the post travels from the post box and how our homes are designed. We played families with the younger class. We made things out of junk art. We used a large box and imagined it was a car, a prison and a store for lots of different things. Aistear time is fun time.

By Danielle & Timothy

On Friday 22nd September, 6th Class went to the Education Centre to learn more about debating. We met lots of new people. We learned about Global Warming and Pollution. We also learned how some countries are treated unfairly by others. We learned how to express ourselves when debating, how to listen carefully and how to think on the spot. We will be competing against other schools during the year and we look forward to it.