Juniors to First Class enjoyed a super School Tour on Tuesday 30th May to Stonehall Visitor Farm and Wildlife Park. Our neighbours warmly welcomed us to their beautiful farm and gave the pupils a fun and very educational tour of the farm and wildlife park. The pupils loved learning all about the animals such as ostriches, emus, rheas and owls. They also had lots of fun in the play area with the bouncing castle, co operative games and many bikes, scooters and trikes. As the weather was so beautiful, we called into Curragh Chase on the way home and had fun in the playground with a picnic. A great day was had by all! Check out the gallery for more photos of the day.

National School were invited to take part in a very special challenge by An Taisce during the month of May. An Taisce's Time Capsule celebrates twenty five years of Green Schools and as such, twenty five schools were chosen from across Ireland to take part. The challenge was to move the time capsule across the country so that it arrives back in Dublin by 31st May. It will then be buried in a mini forest to be opened in twenty five more years. We brainstormed our hopes and dreams as a green school for the next twenty five years and created a poster of the school incorporating these. The time capsule arrived in style to our school via Garda escort no less from Tralee! We then put our poster into it and Travel Officer Sarah kindly carried it on to its' next destination in Galway. We were very honoured to be chosen as part of this challenge and we enjoyed taking part in it.

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Biodiversity Week

Kilcornan National School held Biodiversity Week from the 9th to the 12th May 2023. The children learned the importance of protecting plants and wildlife in their local area. Each class group were given the opportunity to take part in an activity that promotes Biodiversity. Junior Infants to First Class created bird feeders using pipe cleaners, oats, fruit and a perch using lollipop sticks. These are placed outside the window of the children’s classrooms and everyone is waiting patiently for the birds to start feeding! Second to Fourth Class enjoyed planting in the school garden. Second Class planted sunflowers in pots and they are watching out for signs of growth each day. Third class planted beautiful marigolds and petunias in window boxes and Fourth Class planted a range of different vegetables such as spinach, turnip and carrots. The children are excited to taste the vegetables and herbs when they are ready to harvest! Fifth and Sixth Class built a home for the bugs in the area. Using recycled material such as palettes, flower pots, plastic bottles and cardboard, a shelter for bugs was created. Thanks to Ms. Ruddle and Sharon for helping with these.

Thanks also to Heritage Council Ireland. On Wednesday 24th May, Kilcornan National School received a visit from heritage specialist, Carmel Madigan who explored Biodiversity on the school grounds with Third to Sixth Class. The children really enjoyed the visit.

See the photo gallery for more pictures of the week.

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New School Building Fundraising Update

Kilcornan National School's fundraising weekend took place from 31^st March-2^nd April 2023. Several events were organised to raise much needed funds for the new school building.

The weekend began with a bang when the Easter disco had all the children dancing the night away, waving their glowsticks and consuming lots of sugar! Everyone had a brilliant time. On the Saturday night it was the turn of the adults who came out to enjoy live music courtesy of the wonderful Yvonne McCarthy. There was a super relaxed atmosphere as everyone caught up and enjoyed chatting with neighbours and friends.

The BIG event of the weekend was the Family Fun Day and Tractor Run held at Hollypark Stables. The weather was glorious and 88 tractors came along to the event from vintage models to state of the art tractors. They all enjoyed a scenic run through the countryside. The family fun day was a great success with the queue for face painting beating all records. The wheel of fortune never stopped spinning as the Kilcornan NS children were eager to win the much coveted homework passes! The Easter bunny was met by lots of families who also took part in the Easter quiz and colouring competition. The day was a resounding triumph and it was wonderful to see everyone enjoying the sunshine whilst raising money for the school.

The fundraising team are thrilled to announce that these events raised a whopping €11,645!

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A HUGE thank you to everyone that came along and supported the weekend. It will allow the school to make fantastic facilities for your children to benefit from in the future. Additionally, Kilcornan National School and the Parents Council would like to thank everyone that was involved in organising and running this weekend. It took many hours of work to get these events off the ground and would not be possible without the dedication and commitment of the staff and wider school community.

There will be a few more fun events coming this term to keep the fundraising moving forward. Details will follow shortly.

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