Nature Hunt with Jessica Mason

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The younger children had a great time taking part in a nature hunt with Jessica Mason from Heritage in schools. They explored the school grounds to find different items from nature, including a leaf, bark or wood, grass, a seed, a stick, soil, a flower, a rock, a feather, a bug, something shiny, and something round. Everyone enjoyed the challenge and discovered just how many amazing things can be found right on our doorstep. The activity helped the children learn more about habitats and the living and non-living things that make them up.

Thank you to Jessica for such a fun and educational outdoor adventure.

A Visit from Jessica Mason – Learning About Habitats and Biodiversity

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We had a fantastic visit from Jessica Mason from Heritage in Schools this week. Jessica taught us all about habitats and biodiversity, and how every living thing has an important role in nature.

She brought along a wonderful collection of animal skulls, bones, shells, seaweed and coral, which everyone found fascinating. We also talked about ways we can help protect local habitats — like planting wildflowers for bees, building bug hotels, and taking care not to disturb nature when we’re outdoors.

A big thank you to Jessica for such an interesting and fun visit.

Big Changes in Our School Garden

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We’ve been very busy in our school garden. As part of our Creative Schools project, we decided it was time to give our garden a major upgrade.

Our visiting gardener Chloe Dempsey shared some invaluable advice, helping us shape a clear plan for the months ahead. Since then, the children have been hard at work — pruning, weeding, composting, identifying, eating, lopping, cutting, moving, digging, turning, bending, weaving, dragging, plucking, planting, gathering, trimming, snipping, hammering, heaping, assessing, throwing, pulling, laughing, moaning, asking, drilling, holding, sharing, cooperating, lifting, cleaning, arguing, agreeing, bossing, googling, levering, watering, sweeping, sketching, planning, measuring, painting, sawing, carrying, stacking, tying, sorting, designing, collecting, raking, smiling, and celebrating — all the countless tasks that make up a thriving school garden.

It’s been messy, fun, and full of learning. The garden is starting to take shape, and with our new plan in place, we know it will all be worth it in the end.

Harvest Feast

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After months of planting seeds, carefully watering, pulling weeds, and watching our garden grow, the time had finally come to harvest our vegetables. Once everything was gathered, it was time to transform our hard work into a well-earned feast. The roast potatoes came out perfectly—crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside, with just the right touch of seasoning. Our colourful mixed salad was packed with fresh flavours, and for dessert, we enjoyed a cool and tasty fruit salad. This garden project has been a wonderful learning journey, teaching us all about science, healthy eating, teamwork, and responsibility. A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this garden-to-table experience such a memorable and rewarding success.

Summer Salad Harvest

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What a difference a season makes. In the spring we got busy in the school garden and now we can harvest our first crop. The children enjoyed a lovely side salad with their lunches today. We harvested mixed lettuce, radish, onions and cress and added some cherry tomatoes. This was paired with a fantastic homemade olive oil salad dressing – Thanks Mary. We are really looking forward to our main autumn harvest. This is an organic “hands off” garden that will be unattended for the summer so the autumn harvest is very uncertain. Fingers crossed we get a decent crop.

Gardening

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The children enjoyed planting some sunflower seeds and strawberry plants this week. They are looking forward to getting busy in the school garden as soon as the danger of frost has passed.

Flower Pressing

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The beautiful flowers we picked a couple of weeks ago have been pressed and dried. It was now time to identify their English, Irish and Latin names and present them on acid free paper. Stephanie from Heritage in schools showed the children how to arrange and display the pressed flowers. The children then created lovely artworks with the remaining flowers.

Bees Orchards

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We were delighted to receive one pear tree and three apple trees from Dunmanway Family Resource Centre. This is part of a Bees Orchards in the community project.

It is all about Bee Friendly & ensuring children get the opportunity to engage in biodiversity by planting trees & plants for our bees to pollinate & reduce the decline in our bees in Ireland.

They were planted in our school garden today and we look forward to the fruit they will produce in the next few years.