Month: May 2019

Congratulations to all our young athletes who participated in the Tralee Primary Schools event which was hosted by Tralee Harriers, last Thursday evening. Every single child competed whole-heartedly and many won medals in their individual races. We secured some stunning wins, overcame disappointment, celebrated each other and ultimately never gave up. As you can see in photo above, we won 6 medals in the 6 relay events () : 3 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze. All the subs were on standby and we needed them on the night due to injuries. What a fantastic result, when one considers the various challenges which they faced on the night! Here are some pics, with more to follow when the children return to school with their treasure-trove of silverware. This is our 3rd successive year winning the trophy, since its inception three years ago. We won by 6 points…..a very tight, fist-clenching battle! Our school has participated for over 14 years and the children never fail to give it 110%. Sincere thanks to Tralee Harriers for hosting this annual event. It has become a really important fixture in our sporting calendar. Thank you all for being so supportive of each other and let’s hope our medal winners will keep the momentum going as they prepare to represent Caherleaheen at the upcoming Kerry Schools Finals in An Ríocht, Castleisland (Date to be confirmed). Many thanks to Brian Sargent for the video above.

Lila Galway from Fifth Class received her Commendation Prize last week. Here is a photo of her beautiful painting. Isn’t it stunning? It’s now part of the Texaco Art Exhibition which will travel to various venues around Ireland in the coming year. Well done, Lila!! (These photos have been published with her parent’s permission).

Active Week had something for everyone: Gymnastics courtesy of Active Kingdom; Line Dancing with Cassie and Ms Adrienne; Athletics with Paul Griffin from Tralee Harriers; Obstacle Courses in the hall and yard; Handball with Alan and Basketball with Sinéad from IT Tralee. Many thanks to Ms Ann and Ms Caroline for organising the events. It was a great week with fine weather and whole school engagement.

We could not commend these young children enough. They fully appreciated and understood the meaning behind their third sacrament: First Holy Communion. They were responsive, reverent and attentive during their very special mass. Their teachers, Ms Claire and Ms Gemma agreed that all the preparation and attention to detail made for a very special ceremony. The choir of 27 and 4 musicians from Fourth, Fifth and Sixth were superb, having practised early every morning in recent weeks. Fr Sean Jones also celebrated his very First Holy Communion Mass as a priest and he attended to all the school work in the preceding months with great enthusiasm and infectious good humour. Carmel Foran kept a watchful and supportive eye over all the prep and proceedings in the church. The P.Assoc and First Class parents and children prepared a wonderful reception in the school hall after the church ceremony: savoury and sweet delights, coffee and teas, flower arrangements, decorations and they even arranged incredible sunbeams to shine through the newly decorated hall! The art work on display in both the Mary Immaculate Church and the school hall, from all the children in Second was truly beautiful and everyone had the opportunity to chat and meet up before every family went their separate ways. Thank you all for making this special day such a memorable one. God bless all our children. Of course, there were great celebrations when we all returned to our normal routine on Monday, which happened to coincide with the first day of our Active Week. That didn’t stop Ms Gemma from treating Second Class to ice cream wafers, or Ms Mary from treating the singers and musicians to icepops, or Ms Claire from treating teachers and assistants to warm scones!

Well done to Lila Galway from Fifth Class. We were delighted that she received a coveted commendation in the national Texaco Art Competition! Lila has always been creative and her ‘Variations of a Sky’, really impressed the judges. Unfortunately, her painting will remain in Dublin until she receives her prize, but I will post a photo of it in June. We are thrilled for her. Also Mr Paul was delighted when his footballers from Fifth and Sixth comfortably won their match against Ardfert NS recently. The Spa NS got the better of them this week, but they must be commended for fantastic skill and heart! Well done, all!

Many thanks to the 9 parents and young helpers who arrived to school on a sunny Saturday morning: Paudie, Samantha and Kayden Sugrue, Cathy and Ken Fitzgerald, Tom and Adam O Brien, Ger Breen, Mike Ross, Ciara, Eric and Colin Buckley, Cliona Caplis, Tara, Ben and David Cullinan. We cleared hedgerows, pruned bushes, swept the HUGE yards, cleared drains, tidied organic garden and wrapped it all up with tea and coffee after a satisfying few hours. Paudie filled a trailer and took it all away. Thank you all! We are also very proud of the great work done by gardeners from Fifth and Sixth during the week, led by Niamh Ní Dhúill.