St. Peter's Primary Bray Blog

Where did that time go? It’s hard to believe that we’re thinking about the Christmas performances already! This year our performance schedule is slightly different, to reflect the fact that we have three new classes! Junior and Senior Infants will prepare a play together, First and Second Class will prepare a play together and Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Class will perform individual class plays. Not only that, they will also perform the annual Roald Dahl musical as a large group together! This year, our Roald Dahl musical is ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. Everyone got a chance... 

As we told you in our last podcast and blogpost, 6th Class are reading ‘Reaching the Heights’ by Peter Gunning. The book is an incredible read, and our latest podcast tells you all you need to know about Chapters 10-15! You can hear our earlier podcast on the book here!  

Last month, 6th Class started to use Minecraft and Sketchup during our ‘Tech Fridays’ golden time. We were set a challenge by Conor, a lecturer in UCD! We always chat to Conor on twitter.   @StPetersBray I need a new and better classroom plan… can you guys help? — Conor Galvin (@_conorgalvin) October 17, 2014 We decided to help Conor! He told us about his class and what the room would need to look like! @StPetersBray About 35. Mostly grown up… they like technology but not desks and are happier with beanbags and sofas. And coffee… — Conor Galvin (@_conorgalvin)... 

As we told you in our last podcast and blogpost, 6th Class are reading ‘Reaching the Heights’ by Peter Gunning. It’s a fantastic book that we just can’t put down. Check out our latest podcast on it, as we see how the lives of Tosh, Naylor and Aisling are affected by a series of social problems in 1980s Ireland!  

As you know, St Peter’s really enjoyed taking part in the Mathletes Challenge last year, and we were delighted to win Best Primary School in Leinster, and we’ve been very involved in promoting Khan Academy and Mathletes to other schools and teachers. Although only the senior classes can take part in Mathletes, 2nd class have been involved in a really exciting project recently trying out the Early Math content on Khan Academy. So far, we’ve been trying it out in stations during maths class. It was difficult to navigate the site at first, but now that we’re used to it, we’ve... 

Sam and Luke in 6th made a little video on GoAnimate to tell you all about this year’s school play, Jack and the Beanstalk! We can’t wait to start practicing in the hall! Hippo and Zebra tell us about the school play! by stpetersbrayblog on GoAnimate  

Last Wednesday, the St. Peter’s Primary Student Council had a very, very important meeting. We decided early in the year that we wanted to run a meaningful fundraiser before Christmas. We have decided to help those in need this Christmas, and also to have a little fun when doing so! We have decided to do these things: 1. Run a fun, Crazy Sock Day where all staff and students will wear CRAZY socks to school. Everyone will be asked to kindly give €1 to charity! We will then use the money to buy Concern Gifts for people in need! Here are Aoife and John telling everyone about it as they made... 

6th Class have started a new book called ‘Reaching the Heights’. It’s set in Co. Cork and is about three teenagers and the challenges they face in their lives. It is a demanding read, with lots of social problems explored in it. We’re really enjoying it so far. Have a listen to our first podcast on the book, all about Chapters 1-5.  

As you know, St. Peter’s students and staff recently welcomed the opportunity to create videos to help to promote and encourage other schools to participate in the Digital Schools of Distinction process. We recorded three different videos, two for the Digital Schools of Distinction website and another for the Microsoft Partners in Learning project. Congratulations to the students who did such a great job when they were interviewed. It was an incredible opportunity to show how we encourage staff to stay up to date with exciting trends in technology, how we use twitter in our school and also... 

In maths this week we have been learning all about capacity. Here are some photographs of the boys working in pairs as they measure water using different sized containers.                 We had so much fun and can’t wait to do more work on capacity next week!