St. Pius X GNS

Our school choir, under the guidance of Ms. Gunning and Ms. Marron, has recently participated in the National Children's Choir. This event gives the children a wonderful opportunity to display their singing talents as part of a national choir. The regional concert took place in the National Basketball Arena, Tallaght on May 1st and some of our girls have been selected to sing in the National Concert Hall at the end of May. The concerts were most enjoyable with a vast repertoire of songs from some of the world's most renowned composers. Great credit is due to all involved.

0n 14th May, Isabelle, Karen, Danielle, Rebecca, Ciara, Caoilinn, Ella and Katie took part in a golf gala day in the Spawell organised by Junior Golf Ireland. The girls enjoyed it immensely and represented their school very well.

 

Monday, April 29th 2013

This camogie season has gone by so quickly. It has been great fun and we were really successful in every match. Our first match was against Bishop Galvin's. We showed many great skills and came out on top. Up next we played at home against St. Colmcille's. It was very muddy but we still displayed wonderful team spirit and fought hard to win the match. Our last match of the group stages was against Loreto, Grange Road. Our team work was amazing which led to us securing our place in the semi-finals.

 

The semi-final was our toughest match yet. We were playing against St. Vincent De Paul, Marino. Many supporters came and cheered us on throughout the whole match. We were very lucky to get a goal and two points straight after throw in. Unfortunately, Marino scored a goal ten minutes later but we fought back and scored another two goals leaving the scoreline at 3-2 to 2-0... .We drew in the final in Croke Park against St. Brigid's, Castleknock.

We would like to thank our fabulous supporters who provided a sea of blue and green in Croke Park!!!

 

In order to raise funds to pay for the Astro Turf surface on the infant yard, the school, in conjunction with the Parents’  Association,  ran a “readathon”. The pupils read as many books as they could through the month of February and sought sponsorship from family and friends. We raised a total of €11,120.75, which included sponsorship money and donations. This sum was beyond our wildest expectations! Just the sort of thing Mary Poppins might have pulled out of her bag!!

The readathon ended on March 7^th, World Book Day. The school and PA organised a Fancy Dress Competition with fun, games and great prizes. There were finalists chosen from all the classes and during the afternoon they had to walk the Catwalk for our panel of judges. The children put a huge effort into their costumes and it was very difficult to pick the overall winners. There was fantastic buzz in the school on the day. As I walked about I met the most unusual characters in the corridor. I said hello to Ms Trunchbull and Pippy Longstocking. I drank tea with Alice in Wonderland and I lunched with The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

There were 19 finalists in both categories but the overall winners in the Junior category were:

1^st:         Katelyn  as The Queen of Hearts

2^nd:        Ava as Dust Bin Baby

3^rd:         Annabel as The Most Beautiful Letter.

The Winners in the Senior category were:

1^st:          Kate as Wolf

2^nd:         Rebecca as The Tin Man

3^rd:         Meg as Mrs Trunchbull

3^rd:         Maria as Alice in the Book

On behalf of the Board of Management, the staff and the pupils, I, Miriam Marron (aka. Mary Poppins) would like to thank the parents most sincerely for supporting our fundraising readathon. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the Parents’ Association for the support and assistance they gave the school with the planning and organising of the event.

Miriam Marron

 

Bhí Lá na Gaeilge againn sa scoil ar an 14ú Márta. Bhí gach rang sa scoil páirteach. Bhí ceolchoirm againn ar maidin. Bhí ceilí mór ar siúl tar éis sosa agus ansin um iarnóin bhí tráth na gceist againn. Bhí lá iontach ag gach duine.

“Beatha teanga í a labhairt”

 

In March St. Pius X GNS choir once again participated in Corfheile na Scoileanna in the National Basketball  Arena in Tallaght. They sang their hearts out and were duly awarded with an excellent adjudication and huge applause.

Grandparents' Day 2013

Grandparents’ Day has become a much-anticipated annual event and once again on 1^st February children and grandparents gathered to celebrate Catholic Schools Week in prayer and song.

Hi! We're the Boisterous Bags V Irresistible iPads group. We set off to the RDS on Friday 11th January 2013 wearing our headbands and laden down with our project books, banners and spine models. We were buzzing and so excited, but nervous about the day ahead. Our project was investigating if the weight of our school bags could affect our future back health, and if iPads are the future for primary school children.

We set up our stand along with many other primary schools from around the country. As crowds of people strolled around, we distributed flyers to encourage people to visit our stand... and they did! We were kept very busy answering questions and demonstrating our findings. Having set up a rota, we all had the opportunity to explore the huge number of other projects and take part in many exciting activities. The 3D cinema and the robots were particular favourites. Some of us met RTE celebrities including Brian Dobson and Siobhán Ryan. It turns out Siobhán is a past pupil of St. Pius X girls! Many of us were lucky enough to meet and get our photos taken with the Irish Olympic gymnast Kieran Behan who showed us some great tricks.

At 12.30pm the judge arrived at our stand. Our project was in three parts and he spent lots of time discussing every aspect of it. We got an excellent report from him and we were presented with a glass plaque. Each of us received a certificate. We left the RDS feeling exhausted but proud. Our visit to the Primary Science Fair was a fantastic experience and very much enjoyed by us all.

Hi! We're Aifric, Orlaith, Mia and Sarah and we're the "Beat our Bugs" Mini Scientists! On Thursday 13th December 2012, we eagerly gathered our visuals, our project book and our laptop.... everything which helped explain the project which we have been working on for the past few months and we headed to the Science Gallery at Trinity College for the Grand Final of the Intel Mini Scientist competition! Ms. Fitzgerald and Ms. Godson kindly accompanied us. The Science Gallery at Trinity College was buzzing with primary schools from all around the country and we searched for our station which said "St Pius X GNS". We set up our display. It looked great! We waited nervously for the judges. After a while two judges arrived and we explained all aspects of our project to them including our study into viruses and antibiotics and how we really believe people take antibiotics when they don't really need them. They questioned us as to how we would further our investigations. After looking at our projects, Scientific Sue entertained us all with her magic show which included fantastic experiments with explosions! The awards followed. "How to Grow Grass" was the overall winning project. The day we spent in Trinity College was really exciting and we thoroughly enjoyed it! We set off for Pius exhausted, but happy and proud. 

Great fun was had on Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th December at the school Maths table quiz. Each team was made up of one third, one fourth, one fifth and one sixth class girl. There were 30 / 31 teams each day. There were eight rounds of six questions and both days ended in a tie-break round before the final winners claimed their prizes. All the teams did really well and the scores were very close after each round. Well done everyone. 

After months of preparation – research, investigating, predicting, experimenting and drawing conclusions, the day had finally arrived! The 4th, 5th and 6th Mini Scientists of St. Pius X girls were ready to present their projects to the Intel judges and their parents. The girls excitedly set up and took time to ensure they knew their stuff! Kirsty and Bronagh the two Intel judges arrived and spent time with each group. They took away the project books and had the difficult task of deciding the winners. They chose one winner from each class group, one overall runner up and one overall winner. The 4th class winner was "Armature" – Ella, Melissa and Niamh. The 5th class winner was "The Brightest Bulb in the Box" – Isabelle, Heather and Ellen. The 6th class winner was "Progress in Prosthetics" - Meg, Ella, Clodagh and Katie. The overall runner up was "Spread the Soap not the Germs" – Amber, Karen, Isabelle and Freya. The overall winner was "Beat our Bugs" – Orlagh, Aifric, Mia and Sarah. This group will go on to a further competition in Trinity in December. The best of luck to them. All of the girls received a certificate and a goody bag. St. Pius X G.N.S. received a plaque for participating in the competition. Congratulations to all of our budding scientists who put a huge amount of time and effort into their projects. Thanks to the parents for all their support over the last few months.

Don Conroy writer and artist visited third class on 8/11/12. He told the children stories of his travels and interesting people he has met. They particularly enjoyed his mimicry of former teachers! He talked about where he gets ideas for his books. As he talked he sketched which was fascinating to watch. His combination of humour, wit and artistry is captivating. The children had a memorable and hopefully inspiring hour with one of Ireland's most endearing and enduring authors.

 Declan Holmes from "Science Ireland" visited St. Pius X girls from 2nd-4th October 2012. He brought his highly entertaining interactive Science show to all classes from Junior Infants to 6th. Declan taught the girls about many strands in Science including sound, light, air, gravity and lots more in a fun and exciting way. The girls got a chance to participate and join in the action! The rockets, wind bucket, dancing ping pong balls, slinky waves, boom whackers and a flying toilet roll were definite favourites! For photos click on the following....

Another stellar year for camogie in Pius X GNS! It’s hard to believe that camogie is only seven years old in Pius and was started by our very own Ms Fitzgerald in conjunction with Faughs. Our two teams won their leagues (a first in Pius history!) and our development squad proved that they are ready to battle for a place on the school team next year. Ms Murphy’s team won all their matches to become League B champions and the hard work and dedication shown by both the players and their manager was evident for all to see. Ms Kelly’s team retained their Division 1 title by defeating Bishop Galvin by four points. A great day out in Croke Park was had by all. We also managed to get ourselves two write ups in the paper- we are moving up in the world!! I will be sad to see our 6^th class members leave but am sure that the junior team will be ready to fill their big shoes! No doubt you will see a lot of these girls in the future playing for their native Dublin!

Our midfield star Kerrie represented her school valiantly in a skills competition by coming in fourth place. Well done also to Sinéad, Emma & Holly who represented Dublin in the Dublin/ Belfast Friendship Exchange in the gales and torrential rain.  A special mention also goes to Saidbh who was chosen to represent Dublin in football on the day.

None of this would be possible without the support of both Faughs Camogie Club and you the parents so a big thank you to you also.

Pius Abú!!!

We have recently been awarded the Digital Schools Award in recognition of our work in the area of ICT. We were commended for our leadership and vision, for our use of ICT across the curriculum, for our culture of ICT in the school and for our resources and equipment. We received a plaque which was unveiled by Ms. FitzPatrick as one of her last official duties as principal. Well done to all involved. We have also received the Scoilnet Star Site Award for our school website.