St. Saviour's National School.

Theme : Creativity & Curiosity
This Science Week, we are asking people to consider what it means to be human in today’s world, and how the decisions we make today, will impact humans of the future. Human creativity, curiosity and concepts have transformed every aspect of human life, from how we live and interact with each other to the relationship we have with our planet. Incredible developments have shaped our understanding of ourselves and our world. At times it can feel like these changes are out of our control, from the environmental emergency to being outpaced by technology. It begs the question – what lies ahead, and what role will science play in this? How will the actions we take now shape our collective human experience for both current and future generations?
Areas we are looking at science and the following areas :

·       Farming – How science has helped farming become more efficient

·       Retail – How science helps us to have a better shopping experience

·       Sport – How science helps to track the benefits of sport

·       Health – Benefits of AI

As part of science week we visited a farm to see robotic milking, Zoetis visited us to perform experiments, 5th & 6th visited Avondale TY to see experiments and JI-4th classes visited the library to hear more about science and robots. 
The children designed apps and these are being submitted for a competition and all children created inventions that will help us in the future. 
We are looking forward to having some amazing scientists in the future.

Please take a moment to read our latest news letter.

Congratulations to the pupils from 5th and 6th classes who were declared national winners of the 2023 Junior Entrepreneur Program for their business creating and selling Bush Craft boxes!

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklow/wicklow-district/wicklow-schools-bushcraft-scoops-top-award-in-junior-entrepreneur-programme/a415462930.html

St. Saviour’s NS Rathdrum were delighted to be part of the celebration of 50 years since Ireland joined the EU. 
On May 8th, we welcomed Senator Pat Casey to speak to 3rd &4th classes about why Ireland joined the EU and the positive impacts of us joining. After Senator Casey addressed the children he was invited to see the children’s European projects. Each child created a project on each of the 27 EU countries and even prepared a food item associated with the country. The remaining school children from other classes were invited to come and attend the exhibition. 

On May 9th, we were delighted to welcome Grandparents Tony Buttle and Mary Danaher to present to the children what life was like before we joined the EU and how it changed life in Ireland. After the presentation the full school sang the European Anthem “Ode to Joy” which we learned specifically for the occasion. The singing was accompanied by two 6th class students on the piano – Nina Schmidt and Ciara Ni Cheallaigh. After the beautiful singing we proudly raised the European Flag and planted a tree to remember this special day. Antoinette Doyle, Principal remarked that ” the EU celebration was a great learning experience for all of the children and they loved being part of EU50″.

St Saviour’s NS are delighted to take part in Science week takes place from the 14^th-18^thNovember. This year our theme is sustainable clothes and fast fashion. During the week children will be invited to bring in an item of clothing that the children can upcycle ie a scarf, handbag, socks, jumper etc. We will also be tie-dying an old tshirt. We will be welcoming a local clothes designer Sinead Lawlor who is interested in the area of sustainable fashion and she will be teaching the children about mending clothes. Virtually we will be welcoming Geraldine O’Sullivan who is a specialist in the area of sustainable clothes and the history of clothes. We will also be learning about fashion and the latest trends/impact on the environment. Our past pupil Hannah Joynt is presenting to the children about her TY Junk Kouture project and 3rd-6th will be visiting Avondale CC to hear about fast fashion. At the end of science week we are going to have a fashion show to model all our upcycled clothes. We are looking forward to a great science week.

In your photots below, you can see Faolan Snell Senior Infants, up-cycling an old tshirt with tie dye, Nicholas Doyle and Polly Murphy from Senior Infants recycling old hoodies into super hero capes and masks and past pupil Hannah Joynt talking about her TY Junk Couture project with her sister Juliet Joynt, Elsie Hurley and Jilly Rhatigan

On Tuesday 29th November the full school travelled to the Gaiety Theatre to see the Jungle Book pantomime. It was a wonderful show and everyone had a super time.

We were delighted to have our Christmas Carol Service in St Saviours Church on Friday 2nd December. All children from across the school had a role to play in singing, reading or performing. It was a wonderful evening of prayer and song. A super way to start the Christmas season.

On Mon 5th December Simon Harris visited St Saviours NS. He spoke with the children about the new extension and how his political career started. We appreciate Minister Harris taking the time to come and visit us.

We were delighted to welcome the Most Reverend Dr. Michael Jackson to officially open our new extension. The new extension includes two new classrooms and a new ASD class. The ASD class is called “The hub” and now has a bright airy teaching space, sensory room, a kitchen and lots of new resources. The new classrooms are for 5th, 6th and 2nd classes and a new lift was also installed. The opening event took place on Tuesday 15th November in St. Saviour’s NS hall. The school welcomed past & present families, colleagues from local schools and members of the local community. During the service, the Most Reverend Dr. Michael Jackson addressed the congregation complimenting the children on their wonderful singing, reading and playing piano. Mrs Doyle welcomed the Archbishop and thanked him for taking time to come and visit the school. Mrs Doyle thanked everyone for their support during the building project and talked of how pleased & proud she is of the finished school. 

The service also included ribbon cutting with the student council/members of the Hub and a tree planting with the active flag committee to remember the special day. 

On Sunday 2^nd October the St Saviour’s Vintage Day took place on Sammy & Joan Woolmington’s farm. The lovely weather attracted a large audience to the event with over 200 cars in the car park during the day. The Vintage day had an impressive selection of tractors and cars as well as welly throwing, geese, bottle stall, bbq, guess how many sweets in a jar, bric & brac, face painting, guess the weight of the lambs, guess the weight of the pigs, prize winning sheep, tea & coffees, cake stall, plant stall, book stall, pre-loved clothes stall, pony riding and children’s races. Everyone there commented on the lovely atmosphere which was greatly added to by the beautiful music of Chiara Clear who is our music teacher in St. Saviour’s NS and a renowned local musician. There were amazing sponsored prizes in the raffle which was greatly supported and congratulations to all the winners. Antoinette Doyle, Principal St. Saviour’s commented “It was a great day for our school and wider community. Everyone seemed so happy to be at the vintage day and the lovely weather made it even better. On behalf of the school we would like to thank Sammy & Joan Woolmington for their generosity in allowing access to their farm and also to thank the staff and parents who worked so hard on the day.  We would like to also thank the Irish Vintage Society for their support. All proceeds from the day go directly to St. Saviour’s NS. We thank everyone for their support.”