Renowned author and illustrator, Chris Judge visited us in Clontuskert as part of the Galway Schools Library Van revamp.
The students in Clontuskert were overjoyed to meet Chris who has written so many of their all time favourite books, such as The Great Explorer, The Lonely Beast, Danger is Everywhere and Cloud Babies.
Chris asked us to come up with ideas and draw what we would like to see on Galway Schools Library Van. He is tasked with designing the artwork and we look forward to seeing our ideas come to life at the hands of such a great artist.
Check out Chris’ work on www.chrisjudge.com
Thanks to Amie Lawless with Galway County Council and Sharleen McAndrew of Galway Libraries for this mind blowing opportunity.
Transcript
We are delighted to announce that Clontuskert has once again achieved a SFI Curious Minds Award (formally Discover Primary Science) This is the 17th year in a row the school has achieved this award which demonstrates our sustained commitment to STEM learning in the school.
Read feedback from the judges here:
Congratulations – your school has achieved an SFI Curious Minds Award. We have evaluated your Log of Evidence and we are satisfied that you have met all the criteria for the Gold Award.
Your school has provided evidence of children’s engagement with STEM in the following areas:
1. Science
2. Technology
3. Engineering
4. Maths
5. STEM Showcase
Here is some feedback on your Log of Evidence:
Congratulations to everyone at St. Augustine’s N.S. Clontuskert on achieving the SFI Curious Minds Gold Award 2023. Your submission clearly shows the amazing work you have done throughout this year in STEM. It was great to see your learners in different classes engaged in a wide range of exciting activities and projects. We really enjoyed reading about the work that you did for STEM this year. Your work on technology during the year was really impressive. We loved seeing the photos of your investigations on designing and coding your robot, wind turbines, nature walk in your local area, and materials investigation and your video from the Galway Science Festival. It seems like there are lots of budding engineers and scientists in the making at your school!
Today Seán and Josephine from Galway Library Services brought the Schools Library Van to the school for a very special reason as Alan and Elena from Soundtrack and Podcast in Galway were with us to help us record our Fierce Close podcast.
Over the past month we have been working with Orla and Annie from CURO NUIG to challenge our thinking, discuss our views, and form and unravel opinions around philosophical questions. Clontuskert’s critical thinkers prepared dialogues and monologues to record for the Fierce Close podcast. We look forward to sharing with you soon. In the meantime, here are some highlights from behind the scenes. Thanks to Elena and Ms. Tracy Murray for recording footage today.
*The Fierce Close Project*
The aim of this programme is to create critical thinkers and activists on Climate Change. The project takes its title from an Irish idiom for a humid day, one where a storm is imminent. Through sessions that build their philosophical skills and a creative outcome that can be shared with their communities, this project gives voice to young people’s perspectives on climate change while building their critical thinking skills and debating literacy. Project participants will express their ideas to one another with the support of professional philosophers and create and perform new monologues through skills building workshops and guidance in podcast creation from Soundtrack and Podcast
This project responds to the scale of change expected in Galway City Council’s Climate Strategy by allowing young people to meaningfully explore possible solutions together.
‘Climate change is a critical challenge for Galway. It will result in a range of impacts across a wide number of sectors that are likely to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities. Taking proactive action to adjust and prepare for anticipated changes will reduce losses, improve our environment and provide a host of community benefits.’ (Galway County Council’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2019-2024)
These young people will be engaged in philosophical dialogues, informed by Lipman’s Community of Inquiry method, to build an understanding of how and where perspectives need to shift in order to think and act productively in relation to Climate Change. These workshops will be led by community philosophers from Library partner Curo who will scaffold their acquisition of critical thinking skills. Through this process they will isolate the most important questions relating to climate action and climate justice that faces Ireland today. At its close this project will allow young people to give voice to nature itself, through guided reflection, and podcast creation workshops.
Core Outcomes:
-Participants will develop their critical and creative thinking skills through facilitated dialogue with professional philosophers.
-Participants will identify pressing questions in relation to climate change and climate justice creating collaborative answers to these by drawing on their own lived experience.
-Participants will communicate their thinking through the production of short podcast episodes that focus on emerging ideas and questions from their philosophical dialogue.
Congratulations to Clontuskert Parents Association for organising a very successful Tractor Run in aid of Clontuskert NS and East Galway-Midlands Cancer Support on Sunday 1st May 2022.
Today the wonderful Emer O’ Neill from RTÉ School Hub visited us in our virtual Microsoft Teams Class in Clontuskert.
We spoke to Emer about her activism against racism in Ireland, her experiences as a child and now as an adult and what we can all do as individuals to combat racism.
Here is a snapshot of the amazing two hour workshop.
Kevin O’ Brien is a professional Animatic/Offline Editor with 10 years’ experience in the TV / Film / Animation industry. He is currently Head of Editing in Boulder Media and has held a variety of other positions including Series Creator, VFX Editor, Post Production Supervisor and DV Director.
We were very lucky when he agreed to visit Clontuskert’s Virtual Classroom on Teams and we learnt about his work in Animatics and Editing. We had so many questions and even showed him some of our own work. Thanks Kevin for being so generous with your time and sharing your expertise with the students in Clontuskert.
We have applied for our 14th consecutive SFI Discover Science & Maths Award today! Wish us luck! You can see our application below.
Congratulations to all the students in Clontuskert who have worked so hard in every class on Science this year, in the school, at festivals and showcases around the country and during their Remote Learning Classes on Microsoft Teams! We are so proud of you all!
