6th Class 

​

Senior Room Blog

​

 September – December 2025

​

We have had a very busy first term in the senior room. Fourth, fifth and sixth class are a lovely group of humans, and I am thoroughly enjoying teaching them and getting to know each one. Each of them brings so much to our classroom and I really do feel blessed to get to teach this group!

This term we have put a big focus on reading. We have a Book Club every Friday. In groups of five, we chat about the books we are reading, read together and set our reading target for the coming week. This has been a huge success, and the children are enjoying our well-organised library and the children are reading so many books.

The New Maths Curriculum has changed quite substantially, so while we are still doing maths as you would know it, we are also weaving in lots of open-ended maths thinking, observing the world around us and recognising the use of maths, exploring different ways of coming to the same answer but considering effective and efficient methods, maths chat, discussion and problem solving in groups and pairs. It has been fascinating to watch how this stretches those children who used to find maths in the book easy, and see how various children excel in the various areas of spatial awareness, problem-solving, concept development etc.

Despite my beginning of year survey where the children expressed that Gaeilge was their least favourite subject, much to my regret, they are making a gallant effort at improving! Scríobh na páistí litir chuig duine éigin chun buíochas a thabhairt dóibh as rud éigin a rinne siad an seachtaine seo chaite. Bhí mé bródúil astu.

This year, Ms Nestor kindly applied for a grant for €1,500 to facilitate Water Wise coming to our school for 6 consecutive weeks. This is the second year we have been awarded this grant. This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to explore the importance of water in our environment in all its facets. One thing I found fascinating was the idea of how the water in our bodies resonate with sound, thus making us want to dance to different sorts of music, how we ‘feel it in our waters’ so to speak! We did lots of science experiment, explored water through art, music, and many explorative learning activities.

Rev. Eugene was keen we got involved with a history project connected with St Multose Church. We researched 21 Fallen Soldiers from World War 1 who are commemorated on a plaque in the church. The children learned a lot about local history and were fascinated to research online about the war and glean bits of information about the local people who died and where they served. While in the church to see the plaque, Rev. Eugene gave us a fabulous tour of the church; the stained glass with many of the plants mentioned in the bible, the Lord’s Prayer, Apostle’s Creed and Commandments on the walls of the church, the organ and various areas within the church, as well as the history of the building. It really was a treat.

We’ve had two nice days out this term. The first was our trip to Sáile to the Mental Health Day run by KYSS. This was a very good and wholesome event where pupils had fun, but also engaged with the various services that could help them if they ever needed support in the future. It was informative, well balanced and I thought a very important initiative to support mental health in the Kinsale area, for our children into their teenage years.

Our second day out was to City Hall enjoying Evelyn Grant and the orchestra; playing everything from Star Wars and Jurassic Park theme tunes to Handel and Bach! We even sang along to the very popular song by Kingfishr, Killeagh, and enjoyed an up-and-coming singer, Keith Hanley with his rendition of K-Pop Demon Hunter, supported by the orchestra. The children were so well behaved and are a credit to their parents. St Multose were mentioned and were applauded from the stage for coming by public bus, something they want other schools to try, in the future! The mayor of Cork even came to chat with us as he was delighted with our ‘Green’ initiative.

 

Kinsale Community School Transition Year Students have once again generously supported us in the VEX Robotics Programme this year. We have our very own robot to build, code, drive and compete with. It is a steep learning curve for some of us, but the children take it all in their stride and their skills develop by osmosis from the teenagers! It is a terrific and important opportunity.

The Arts are strong in our classroom. We have lots of exceedingly talented artists, actors and singers. The culmination of this terms work will be our performance of Pirates vs Mermaids for the whole school community. This is the first time for a while that we have put on a musical and the classroom is zinging with excitement and enthusiasm; sets and props are being built and painted, costumes are being designed and assembled, lines are being learnt and songs are being sung in showers all over Kinsale! To say we are looking forward to the dancing, singing, acting and shenanigans is certainly an understatement!

We are looking forward to the Carol Service in the church and the Christmasy feeling it brings with it! We have a new song by Casting Crowns that we are excited to perform.

​

January 2023

 

6th class have had an exciting start to 2023. They have been preparing for a robotics competition with the help of the transition year students and their TY co-coordinator Niamh Hay from Kinsale Community School. The students helped us code our robot and with our robot driving skills in an arena (which they brought over to us!) On the 18th January we headed off to MTU and had the BEST day. DELL computers had such a fantastic set up and it was wonderful for the students to go to a university, compete in a robotics competition with other primary schools in Cork and tell lots of jokes to the MC! Thank you also to Alex for getting up on stage!

 

We have started the new year reflecting on what we’re grateful for in our lives. Every day, we start our day with a morning greeting. For the past two weeks, we have stood in a circle first thing in the morning. Each person has said something that made them happy in the morning. It’s a nice, calm and meaningful way to start our day!

 

We have just started history projects on ‘Northern Ireland’. The children are working in groups of two on different research topics. They will compile these on PowerPoint next week. Looking forward to seeing their finished work!

​

September 2022

​

6th class have had a very busy and productive September, settling into their final year of primary school so well! They have been learning about fishing in Ireland, John-Philip Holland and investigating how submarines work. Last week,  they began projects on various topics ocean related: impact of marine litter on our oceans, how tides work, sea shore creatures and seaweed. 6th class also spent time in the polytunnel clearing and preparing our beds. What brilliant gardeners! They harvested apples in our school garden and all made an apple and blackberry traybake that was judged by Ms. Kingston. What a fantastic start to the school year. Well done 6th class!

 

​