Posts on this page are in a chronological order with most recent updates on the top.
Enrolment for 2024/25 to start 27th of February
The Board of Management has published the admission notice for the next school year, 2024/25. It can be found here. Applications for admission for September will be accepted from 27th of February on.
Deirdre retires
After more than 30 years teaching Deirdre retired. Her influence at SSP was immense, and we are sad to see her leave – but we also hope that she can enjoy her time off school.
New families arriving
A very warm welcome to all the new children and their families who started at SSP this September. There has been a quite significant shift in both classes, and we are delighted to see the various energies of the children being brought into our school.
Mohamad’s Tree Observatory
Mohamad plans to monitor the development of the big tree in front of our school over the course of the year. Every month he wants to take a picture to document the various appearances of the tree across the seasons. We will add his observations on a separate page under the Extra section, please look here.
Fun day 2023
The annual fun day just before the summer holidays is always a very nice event with parents and friends coming into the school to join us with a lot of sport activities and games. Some impressions of this year:
You will find more pictures from past events on the dedicated page in the “Extra” section.
Gleniff Horseshoe and Benbulben Forest Walk
Michael Conlon brought us in his bus to the Gleniff Horseshoe and on the way back we also went on the Benbulben Forest Walk. Glorious weather on the day made it a real treat. We’ll certainly do that again in the future.
Woodwork Creations
There have been some industrious times in the woodwork room during the year. We have added a couple of pictures of new creations on the designated woodwork-page. Have a look here.
Pet Day 2023
In our school meeting Alex suggested that we may organise another Pet Day. We had done this in the past, and it was a great success. So we went ahead, and did it again. On the day, parents brought in the pet animals of the children.
Vehicle Fleet Extended
Over the last number of months a couple of new additions were made to our vehicle fleet. We now have some bikes that were donated to the school, scooters that we bought, and also a play tractor.
Wild Willow
In the hedges around the yard there are two willow trees growing that no-one planted deliberately. They seem to have taken root at their places wildly. The children have discovered these trees to be quite good for climbing. The branches grow densely in a way that makes it safe to climb into the tree, and the tree itself does not grow too high either. Particularly the younger children appreciate these trees and some have made them their favourite place to play during yard break.
Homemade food two days every week
During the school year 2022/23 we are lucky to be able to provide homemade food in our school kitchen. Every Wednesday and Friday we make our own lunches. There is a lot of variety on offer. We had pizzas, stews, bolognese, fried potatoes, pies, salads, kind of up and down the entire menu of a proper restaurant. And in all cases, the preparation of the food involved children from the older classes.
In the selection of food that we offer we make sure that there is always fresh fruit and vegetables on offer. We also take into account the dietary requests of children who do not eat pork products, or don’t eat meat at all.
So far our experience with this type of provision is extremely good. We see the benefits on all levels. There is always an important aspect of skills acquisition, and learning about the different foods for children who are involved in the preparation. We reduce the waste that inevitably comes with school lunches otherwise, be that packaging material or food not eaten. And the children learn to eat in a social situation, act responsibly in a common space, clean up their tables.
As a service to the school this is only possible on the basis of significant unpaid voluntary adult support. But as long as we are in a position to offer this service we will gladly do it.