St. Pius X GNS

As two of the overall runner up winners of the Intel mini scientist competition we combined our two projects “Bee Green” and “Oily Oceans” and displayed an environmental theme at our stand in the Primary Science Fair.  On arriving at the RDS at 9am on Sat 14^th January, we produced our admittance letter and excitedly entered the huge and buzzing arena. Girls and boys of all ages were setting up their individual projects. We registered, received our PSF badges and started to set up our exhibit. Dressed in Bee Green t-shirts, white forensic suits and donning goggles we rehearsed our speeches.  The public started to arrive at around 9.30am and we had plenty of visitors to our stand. We were nervously awaiting the Judges’ arrival and at midday the time had come. The judges listened intently and asked lots of questions about each of our projects. We were delighted when we received a fantastic report from the Judges including comments such as “excellent presentation” and “great communication skills”. We were awarded a beautiful glass plaque which has taken pride of place in our display cabinet in school.

A quartet from the Garda band visited our school on December 20^th and treated us to some renditions of our favourite Christmas songs. It was most enjoyable and really helped to get us in the mood for Christmas!

A cake sale in aid of Barnardos was held on the 2^nd December. A massive thank you to everyone for their support and generosity. We raised just over a record breaking €1,700! The money raised was spent on various toys, which the children chose themselves. The toys were displayed in the GP room and would have given the toy show a run for its money! A special thank you to all the staff in both schools for getting involved and to the two 6^th Classes who helped with the selling on the day. Once again St Pius rises to the occasion.

We also presented a cheque for €2,000 to Our Lady’s Hospital, Crumlin for its Patient comfort fund, some of which was raised through our Halloween colour day.

We recently had a visit from some members of the All-Ireland winning Dublin football team together with the Sam Maguire Cup. This was a great experience and some of our pupils even ended up inside the cup!

On Thursday 10^th November 2011, three judges from Intel - Sheila, Enda and Ben arrived in St. Pius X G.N.S. to examine the girls on their science projects.

What an excellent couple of years it's been for sport in Pius X GNS and this year has been no exception! Our camogie team took home the Corn Uí Phuirséil (1st division) in style last Friday in Croke Park. We got off to a dream start against Colmcille's of Knocklyon with Karen scoring 2-2 and Niamh scoring a point in the first half. Our captain Niamh led by example from the throw in and our team had never looked stronger. Colmcille's exerted a serious amount of pressure in the second half, scoring six points. With a minute to go and only a goal separating the teams, Colmcille's full forward blasted a shot in on our goal but luckily her effort was just shy of the lefthand post. We were then awarded a 65 down the other end of the field. Once Niamh converted the score, we knew we were home free.

With the exception of maybe our semi final performance against St Brigid's of Castleknock, we never had defended more valiantly or worked harder as a team. All the training, practice and matches paid off. Next year we look forward to seeing more of the girls from Ms Fitzgerald's team along with some fresh faces.

Pius X GNS abú!!

More photos here and here. Click here to see Match Program. Match report in Tallaght Echo.

Congratulations to our tennis team that recently participated in the final of the Leinster Tennis Primary Schools League. The league is an annual competition open to schools throughout Leinster.

Our team won six matches to reach the final which was held in Landsdowne Tennis Club on the 19^th May. Our team played a very exciting and competitive match and was narrowly beaten 2 – 1 in the final by Mount Anville. The team received a finalist award which is now displayed in our trophy cabinet! The team, Isabel, Aoife, Jenna, Niamh, Laura, Sarah and Sarah Jane represented the school with distinction and did us proud. Well done girls!

St. Pius X girls brought the Heather Cup back to St. Pius X this year, after a 6 year absence.  The Winning Team was Brazil. Well done to Rachel, Eve, Hazel, Rebecca, Orla, Sorcha, Leah, Sophie and Cara.

 Two members of the Dublin hurling team who won the National League final recently visited or school with the league cup. They spoke to the girls and signed autographs. The team members who visited were  Maurice O’ Brien from Faughs and Niall Corcoran. We hope that our budding camogie players will be inspired by their achievement.

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 in April and more recently some of our girls were selected to sing in the National Concert Hall on May 29th. 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.

The 6^th class girls received the sacrament of Confirmation on April 9^th. Bishop Eamonn Walsh presided over the ceremony and he also visited the school to talk to the girls during the week preceding the Confirmation. Congratulations to the girls and to their teachers Ms. French and Ms. Shanley.

 One of our lollipop ladies, Ms. Helen O’ Toole has retired after 25 years of dedicated service to the school. She will be missed by all of the children, parents and staff. Ms. FitzPatrick paid tribute to her on her final day and presented her with a gift and a bouquet of flowers in recognition of her years of service to the school. Representatives from each of the classes also presented her with cards and mementos. We wish a long and healthy retirement.

On the 7^th and 8^th of March 2011, Tom from Dublin City Council Parks took us on a ramble in the woodlands in Bushy Park.

On the 18th February 2011, Des Chew from "The Dublin Angling Initiative" visited the two 4th classes in St. Pius X G.N.S. He chatted to us about angling, the River Dodder and how to investigate if a river is polluted. We all got a "macrobiotic water pollution indicator" booklet which clearly laid out how to establish whether a river is polluted by observing what insects survive in the river. He showed us the most amazing and colourful flies which he would use when angling and his fishing rod, which was surprisingly really light!

 On Thursday 13^th January Ms Shanley`s sixth class went to the Young Scientist Exhibition at the RDS with Try for Five`s project. The main attractions of the day were Robot wars, the 3D cinema, science experiment shows, and the RTE weather forecast station. Some girls even got autographs from big names such as Ryan Tubridy. The Try for Five girls were awarded a lovely glass trophy, which is in the schools trophy cabinet. The girls had a great day.

Grandparents Day

 As part of Catholic Schools Week we celebrated Grandparents Day. It was a lovely occasion where grandparents were invited to visit their grandchild’s class and talk to the children about what school was like when they were young. After the classroom visits the children together with the grandparents took part in a prayer service of thanksgiving for the role grandparents play in family life. It was a most enjoyable day and most beneficial for the children both from a religious and a historical aspect.

Last May the students in 4^th Class under the direction of Ms. Sarah Kelly in St. Pius X GNS devised a film called ‘The Time Machine’.

The story was penned by their creative classmate Sarah. ‘The Time Machine’ is about a girl, Sally, who brings her grandfather’s “time machine” in for “show and tell”. When the teacher leaves the classroom things take a turn for the worst as Sally due to peer pressure sets the button that will set the time machine working. Suddenly the girls find themselves in a classroom back in the 1950’s where their teacher is a lot stricter. Will they ever be able to return to their IPOD and Nintendo D.S. existence???

On our return to school in September a letter arrived to say our budding movie makers had been selected as one of the schools to participate in the celebration of the national Fís Film Festival in the Helix. They attended on 3^rd of November 2010 to discover to their surprise and delight that they had been nominated for 3 awards – best comedy, best acting and best editing. Their film received -Best Comedy Award. It is the first award of this kind to come to St. Pius X G.N.S. and the school community are rightly proud that we have achieved this. Huge appreciation goes to Ms. Sarah Kelly (class teacher) and her team for their dedication and commitment for guiding these students to such an achievement. It is well deserved.

The following day two class representatives Meadbh and Marie-Claire were interviewed live on the John Murray Show.

The trophy received holds pride of place in our schools trophy cabinet where it is much admired.

Comhgairdeas do gach duine

St. Pius X Girls’ National School is participating in an innovative study into Global Climate Change. We hear a great deal about the Greenhouse Effect and the role of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) however it is less well known that more than 80% of the CO2 produced by humans originates in cities.

This study is examining the CO2 generated by Dublin by measuring the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere at two distinctive urban locations.

- The first location is located on a building owned by Dublin City on Marrowbone lane. The surrounding area has little green area and represents commercial/industrial Dublin.

- The second location is St. Pius X Girls’ National School, which is located in a mature suburb with significant areas of green space. This site represents suburban Dublin.