At this time of year, Carnmore N.S. is as always a hive of activity. Last week the children completed their paintings for the Claregalway Drama Festival Art Competition. We are introducing an important change this year. We felt that giving prizes to the top three pupils in each class was making it too competitive and that too many children felt disappointed when they failed to win a prize. This year, then, every child will be awarded a token prize with the emphasis on having the paintings on display during the Drama Festival.
Unexpected Day Off
On Friday, 14th February, the pupils got an unexpected bonus of a day off when the school was forced to close due to a water shortage resulting from a burst pipe.
New Track-suit
The Parents’ Association are, at present, caryring out a referendum among the parents on the question of a new track-suit for the children. As of now, the children wear their school uniforms every day except on P.E. day when they wear their own choice of track-suit. The Parents’ Association are now offering the option of having a special track-suit with the school crest on it for P.E. Day.
Teaching Practice
In early February we had two of our past pupils back in the school for a week’s teaching practice. Daragh Leonard and Patrick Carr are student teachers at the University of Limerick. Daragh hopes to qualify as a P. E. teacher while Patrick is hoping to teach woodwork. Starting on 10th March, another past pupil, Lens Cummins, will be coming to us for a week’s work experience. She is a Transition Year student in Athenry and her week in Carnmore will give her an idea of what teaching is like.
Sport
The sports season is about to get under way. In hurling the winter league has already started and soon the football schools’ hurling and camogie competitions will all be commencing. We would like to thank Pat Fox and Frank McHugh for taking the girls for camogie training on Saturdays.
Schools’ Quiz
During the week-end, our children were involved in two important quiz competitions. On Saturday, they performed very creditably when finishing in the first 5 in the National Parents’ Cadbury-sponsored Quiz which had teams participating from all over the county. On Sunday, they did even better when they won the Claregalway Drama inter-schools Quiz which was staged in the Leisure Centre, Claregalway. At the end of the quiz, twoteams, Carnmore and Corrandulla were tied on equal marks. It took two tie-breakers to separate them with Carnmore eventually emerging winners by just one mark. We send our congratulations to team members, Eimear McGovern, Aoife Kenny, Ailbhe McHugh, John Moran and Martin Kerrigan and also to their teacher, John Reilly.
Philip Coyne, Principal