5th & 6th Classes

Click here to view our senior room blog from previous years: http://seniorroomstsavioursns.blogspot.com

Friday Afternoon Clubs
5th and 6th class have been trialing  Friday afternoon clubs. You choose the activity you want to do and over four weeks build your skills in that area. Pupils teach pupils, with adult helpers to hand.

October l/November, choices:
1. Needlecraft (knit, crochet,  sew, embroider ….)
2. Chess
3. Claymation 

November/December 
1. Stage props (for the Christmas play)
2. Handmade Christmas decorations and cards.
3. Board games

Wicklow Way 10Km hike
The whole class embraced the day with a hike,and a sausage sizzle. We walked to Glendalough and enjoyed being free outdoors.

Harvest Festival
Amazing  bread creations  made by the class brightened up the church for Harvest Festival. 

Maths Week
Maths Week was full of fun. Senior pupils created a maths trail for all the junior classes. 

Treetop Walk at Avondale
Thank you to the Tree Topsat Avondale for inviting us to enjoy the Tree Top Walk and Playground. It was so much fun! 

November 2023
Every year we go on a trip to Dublin based around the annual Diocesan School’s Service. The senior class divided to complete two different activities.  \

 One group went on a tour and took participated in a stained glass art workshop in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Meanwhile, a group of ten pupils was invited to join schools from across the diocese for a special service in Christchurch on the theme of Light. It was a beautiful service. A collection was made for Pieta House.

After an enjoyable play in the park, the whole class went on the official tour of Christchurch Cathedral. The Cat and Mouse and St Laurence O’Toole’s Heart were the best part for many! The tour guides were wonderful. 

On to Trinity College, where we picnicked before going on an exclusive tour with Professor Nicholas Grene. He gave a wonderful insight into the college, explained its history, talked about college life and the opportunities it provides. He also recounted many tales, which brought the college life alive. Stories included where not to sit in the exam hall, dinners in Commons and  tale of the illustrious author who found himself being hosted in a building with no indoor toilet. Professor Grene’s dedication and joy was inspirational. 

No trip is complete without our visit to Stillorgan Shopping Centre. McDonald’s and the opportunity to see how much you can buy for €5 in Tescos before hitting the road for Rathdrum.

October 2023
Our Halloween celebration this year was PJ day with a special breakfast provided by the Parent’s Association. 

As always we had a whole school parade in the yard,which was the perfect opportunity for parents,and pupils to show off our award and prize cheque from The Pure Mile for our contribution to keeping Rathdrum clean and other Green School’s initiatives. 

September 2023
Here’s another video from the Junior Entrepreneur Programme.

April 2023
Pupils from 5th and 6th classes had a wonderful field trip to Ballinafunsoige Waterfall and Glenmalure Valley as part of the Coastal Uplands environmental project (CUPHAT). The day included learning about the history,  geology and geography of the area, kick sampling in the river to ascertain water quality and a litter survey. The highlights included finding quartz crystals and netting aquatic creatures.  The low point was seeing how much litter is left and dumped in this beautiful spot. A big thanks to team from UCD who worked with local schools on this project.

Kids’ Marathon with David Gillick
We completed a full marathon in small steps over 8 weeks. For the final 1200 meters 650 children from schools across Arklow joined together. The event was opened by The Mayor of Arklow and David Gillick was the guest of honour. 
Amber Lily Carey represented St Saviour’s on stage and asked David Gillick our class question “If you were 12 years old again, what would you do differently?’
Everyone was awarded a medal. While waiting we also got to build a grassman which was photographed by the local newspaper!

Junior Entrepreneur. 
Pupils work on projects 

Science Lessons.
5th and 6th classes are completing a 3 Month module on the human body. Step one …. assemble your own skeleton.

Lá Sneachta.
Bhíomar ag sugradh sa chlos.

F.A.I.
5th and 6th class competed in the FAI schools football league in March. A special congratulations to the 6th class girls who were joint first on the day. Sadly the penalty shoot out did not go our way … but it was an amazing day. Congratulations everyone!

Easter Chicks.
It is not just birds which lay eggs but some many creatures including fish, reptiles, seahorses, duck billed platypus and many more. We were so lucky to witness chicks hatching in our classroom. The yellow chick was nicknamed omelette.  The chicks have gone to live with school families and should be laying g their own eggs before the summer is over.

Wicklow Life Boat Trip.
With so many keen swimmers in the class, it was great to learn more how about to keep safe while swimming. We also learned a great deal about the dedication of the RNLI team.

Athletics.
3rd to 6th class participated in The Avondale Athletics Long distance run. As well as bringing back medals,  it was wonderful that everyone completed with such good spirit.
We are now in the process on running g a whole marathon in stages as part of The Marathon Kids initiative. Every day we run a bit further. 

Spring 2023 history focus was The Great Famine.
5th and 6th classes completed projects on the Famine in Ireland. Parents came in to talk to the class a out their work.
We also completed a historical trail of Rathdrum focusing on The Famine. Mrs Ryan led an impromptu Famine Drama in the Famine Memorial Graveyard.
As well as looking back, in our Geography,  SPHE, Music ,and RE lessons we have been studying the on going impact of Famine in the World, human interdependence and responsibility.

Seachtain na Gaeilge.
Bhí SNAG go hiontach agus bhí a lán spraoi againn. I measc na n-imeachtaí bhí tóraíocht taisce, léitheoireacht chairde, cluichí, damhsa Gaelach, lá glas, ealaín agus cócaireacht.

Young Scientist.
For the Young Scientist, we did a project on “The impact of Friction and how it relates to real life applications”. We travelled to the exhibition to present our work.

Singing carols at St. Colman’s Hospital for the residents there.

October 2022
The lovely weather in October gave us lots of opportunity play in the garden. We completed Native Irish animal projects and learned about Tectonic Plates and Volcanoes. We had such a great week during Maths Week. Each day brought a new set of Maths challenges. The whole class enjoyed creating and organising Maths Trails for the younger classes.

It was wonderful to get back to the Diocesan Annual School’s Church service in Christchurch Church Catherdal. Ciara and Caoilfhionn read prayers as 6th class joined other schools from all over the Diocese.
5th class had a tour of St Patrick’s Cathedral. Both classes visited Marsh’s Library, the oldest public library in Ireland. Texts on display were in Latin, Greek and even old Ukrainian. After lunch we visited the ‘Clothes We Wore’ exhibition in Collins Barracks and then on to see the military collection. The final excitements were a trip to Eddie Rockets and Tesco in Stillorgan before heading home.

On the last day of swimming term, we finished up the session with a trip to the Playground.

With the Rathdrum Samhan Festival for schools, making haunted houses and our own dress up Active Flag Day, Halloween was a busy time. We also got use the lanterns made in the Art Workshop.


2022 September update
Our new school year, started with an action packed month. We welcomed Caoilfhoinn and Raya to our class and hope that they will be very happy in our school family. Below are some of our highlights. We welcomed the new 5th class, baked scones, learned about OS maps, had some fun in our school garden, built bridges to support 1Kg weight, learned to play Téigh ag Iascaireacht (card game in Irish), made clay mascots, baked decorative harvest bread

2021 October Update
October was a busy month! 5th and 6th class had planned to do a section of the Wicklow Way but poor weather conditions resulted in plan B. We had a lovely time on the Avondale River Walk instead as rain was replaced with sunshine.
We made some Halloween art, and had a pyjama day and school breakfast.
We learned about problem solving with lollipop sticks and how to play whist.

2021 September update
Check out or super recipe ideas in our Fridge Raiders page!
It is so great to be back together after Covid. Here are some photos of what we’ve been up to.
Seniors have moved to the hall while the new classroom is being built.
We chose our own science projects. Projects included investigating and growing cultures of bacteria, the properties of liquids and the physics of force. We plan to develop some of these ideas for Science Blast.
We had a class reward for our excellent work, a trip to the park in Rathdrum.
As well as exploring colour in art, we also involved some maths and enjoyed working with symmetry and art.
We baked breads for harvest celebrations. Each loaf tells a harvest story. Loaves were sent to each church as part of The Harvest Festival .
Exploring 2D shapes. Interior design Mini challenge.
Rinne Rang a Cúig agus Rang a Sé subh smeara dubha agus arán traidisiúnta . Bhí an rang cócaireachta i nGaeilge. Bhaineamar an-taitneamh as.

2019/2020 Blog

Welcome to the 5th and 6th class blog. Here are some highlights from the 2019/2020 school year.
The very first thing we did was to take a photograph of our new 6th class on the first day of their last year in St. Saviour’s. In September we had some great weather and we took the opportunity to use our outdoor classroom. That same month we were delighted to discover that we had got a place in Peace Proms. It had been one of the highlights of the last school year so it was great news. Our first job was to send off a photograph of ourselves all sitting on the school stairs.

Art in action
In September we studied biomes. The class split into 6 groups so we could become more familiar with the different habitats. As well as researching aspects relating to climate, biodiversity and habitats, each group also produced a piece of art to depict their biome.

October 2019: Inter-Schools Rugby Blitz in Rathdrum Rugby Club

Trip to Dublin
Every year 5th and 6th class head to Dublin. 6th class go to the Diosescan School’s Service in Christchurch Cathedral while 5th class visit St Patrick’s Catherdal. We had liunch in the park where the 5th class girls posed for the camera. The next stop was the National Gallery. Our guide brought us to see a great variety of material. The picture we’re looking at in the photos is called ‘Aoife and Strongbow’. After the gallery we went to visit the Natural History Museum. Everyone loved the Natural History Museum. It was incredible to think that some of these animals had been alive in Ireland! Our final stop of the Day was in Stillorgan to go to Eddie Rockets and to buy some treats.

Halloween
As we prepared for our Christmas play Catherine came and took some great class photographs. Sam Wakeford came in to talk about trees and show us some of the incredible tools he uses in his work. Everyone’s imagination was captured by the humungeous chainsaw.

The Christmas play was brilliant fun. Luke and Turlough took to their role as rapping angels, William and Alex enforced the law and the animals from the Stable (Manners) had attitude. We celebrated and enjoyed each other’s company.

In the Senior Room we had a party on the last day of the Christmas term and a Kriskindle.

We went to BT Young Scientist and exhibited our submarine technology in the Primary Science Fair (and have a great plaque to show off!)

Next stop was Peace Proms, History Project Day, FAI football and much much more.In March we had a brilliant time on Green School’s Day. We made sock puppets as part of our upcycling workshop.