This year’s Sports Day was a little different to others in years past, taking place in Lansdowne over two days to allow for social distancing. The junior classes completed their sports day last Wednesday followed by the senior classes on Thursday. All classes were then treated to an once cream from the ice cream van that visited on Thursday afternoon. It’s safe to say that all of the boys went home tired and happy after all of the exertions of the day!
The boys in 6th class are very fortunate to have a German class with Miss Power from the secondary school every week. They really enjoy the classes and this week, they created a poster all about themselves to hang up in the classroom. We are very impressed with what they produced! Well done boys.
On Wednesday, 5th May, the Preparatory School joined other ERST schools around the world to celebrate the Feast Day of Blessed Edmund Rice. Class teachers gave presentations to their students about the life and work of Blessed Edmund Rice. Students at the junior end of the school did some beautiful drawing and colouring of Edmund, the teacher, whilst boys in our senior classes wrote short pieces about how they are inspired by his life and work.
Wishing all of our families a very Happy Easter. It has been wonderful to see all of the boys settling back into school life over the last number of weeks. We would like to thank parents and guardians for their continued cooperation with drop off and collection procedures which are aimed at maintaining social distancing at all times. We finished off the term with a virtual mass on Thursday morning followed by a fantastic virtual family bingo event on Thursday evening, run by Mr. Steven Lynch, which raised funds for Diabetes Ireland. We look forward to welcoming all students back to the Prep School after the Easter break.
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Senior Infants have enjoyed with lots of active learning this month, getting to grips with the number line and learning about the Story of 9 with an “imaginary pizza” in Maths and doing lots of word work and reading skills in their classroom.
The Junior Infants enjoyed a Spring stroll in the sunshine with their Easter Bunnies that they created in Art class. They were delighted to spot the daffodils in full bloom.
The boys in 3rd Class got creative and created these fabulous Sock Bunnies for Easter.
4th class are learning to care for and respect their environment . They used old tyres to plant spring flowers in the garden near their classroom . They also expressed their artistic side by painting the tyres . This was a fantastic activity for the boys during their first week back at school to promote well being and team work.
The upstairs corridor of the Prep School was full of activity as our students from Junior Infants to 2nd Class returned to school following the Jan/Feb school closures. The teachers were greeted with smiles and laughter as the boys ran into the yard on Monday morning. We have been busy getting readjusted to being back at school with lots of social activities and fun. An added bonus of being back first is that there are extra slots on the Astro and we have been making full use of that whilst enjoying the dry weather.
Students at CBC Prep enjoyed celebrating World Book Day this year. Boys in Junior Infants – 2nd Class listened to stories in class and took part in a live World Book Day event where they drew their own bookmark characters. The boys still working from home also enjoyed the occasion with students in 3rd Class recreating their favourite book covers while boys in 5th Class dressed up as their favourite characters for their ZOOM lesson with Ms. Cummins.
Take a look at some of the fabulous book covers created by boys in 3rd Class.
These are the photos from the Fifth Class Engineering Challenge – the boys were asked to make bridges or towers that were freestanding and they weren’t allowed to use any sticky tape or glue etc. They came up with some very creative structures.
Our 4th Class boys have been busy at home. Ms. O’ Donovan set them the task of creating art from items found in nature. Have a look at some of the wonderful creations that were submitted via Google Classroom!
As students at CBC continue to engage with remote learning during the current school closure, Mr Lynch has arranged a superb programme to encourage the boys to stay active at home. Making use of the wealth of sporting talent at CBC, members of the Senior rugby and hurling teams as well as some of our 4th year coaches have prepared videos for the Prep School boys to help them work on their own sporting skills at home. This is a fantastic initiative and has been very well received by all members of the Preparatory School community.
Following the Level 5 government directive during the Christmas break for all schools nationally to remain closed until 1st February, CBC Preparatory School has commenced its remote learning programme for all students. All class teachers are engaging with students via Google Classroom and we were delighted to see the boys eager to get back to their schoolwork following the extended Christmas holidays.
While Christmas celebrations at the Prep School were a little different to normal this year, the boys still got into the festive spirit over the month of December.
A sincere thank you to all families for their cooperation with the new procedures that have been put in place this term to ensure our students remained safe during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to wish you all a very happy and healthy Christmas and look forward to welcoming you all back to the Preparatory School in January.
Congratulations to Julien Freeman in 3rd Class who won an IPad in the MS Readathon draw, following his fundraising efforts. Well done Julien!
Congratulations to one of our 5th Class boys, Harry Machie, for winning a Great Work Award in the MS Readathon. Harry was nominated for making a great effort with his reading and surpassing his personal reading goal! We are all so proud of Harry for this fantastic achievement. Well done, Harry!
November’s monthly mass was hosted in the 3rd Class room and streamed live to the rest of the school. The theme of this month’s mass was Remembrance.
Senior Infants made playdough during Science Week. We enjoyed watching the individual ingredients change as we mixed them together to form a dough. We also tied this in with our English lesson as we worked on procedural writing.
First Class enjoyed Science Week. They made rafts and tested them to see if they would float or sink. They also made marble runs.
As we approach the end of this year’s first half term I would like to warmly thank all in the Preparatory School community – pupils, parents and teachers for the exceptional cooperation all have shown with the Covid 19 restrictions. This is a school year like none other on record. All had to adjust and all had to make sacrifices. And by so doing we are helping each other in school and our families at home. We the teachers express our gratitude to all our parents who helped so much up to now. Unfortunately, as we know, we must continue with this effort for the foreseeable future. That said, we have done extremely well in our first two months – we celebrated First Holy Communion, we had our monthly Mass, we continued with PE and visits to Lansdowne, enjoyed Maths Week and most importantly all classes continued with the full class curriculum, including our now well established extra subjects. Our school motto is the Latin- Certa Bonum Certamen- fight the good fight! Let this continue to be our focus in the weeks ahead.
Larry Jordan
CBC Preparatory School Principal
The 2020 School Awards took place a little later than usual this year. The Awards Ceremony was held via ZOOM with classes logging in from their classrooms as students were presented with their award. Please see below for a full list of recipients.
This month’s monthly mass with the theme of “Harvest” was prepared by 5th Class and their teacher Ms. Cummins. The mass was broadcast to classrooms via ZOOM and was, once again, a very meaningful occasion for all involved.
The boys at the Prep School celebrated Maths Week 2020 with plenty of games and activities throughout the week. Here are some photos of the various classes in action:
First Class
The boys in First Class took their Maths Week activities outdoors and enjoyed a Maths Trail around the school grounds. The also played some enjoyable Maths games in the classroom.
Fourth Class
Fourth Class integrated Maths with their PE lesson during Maths Week. They played the multiplication cone game which works on their memory and tables recall. They had great fun and developed some very good strategies to remember the questions and answers. The also enjoyed some interactive Maths activities and videos in the classroom.
Fifth & Sixth Class
The boys in 5th and 6th took part in many Maths Week activities. The 6th Class boys really enjoyed trying to beat the clock in Countdown and beat 5th class in the relay (to keep it fair, Ms McAdoo asked 5th class the questions and Ms Cummins asked 6th Class!!!).
6th Class also had fun in class playing an area dice game, seeing who could sit down exactly on 60 seconds without seeing a clock and finally looked at a Mensa challenge which one boy successfully figured out!
Well done to all the boys for taking part in these super activities!