The Senior Room team truly shone as excellent ambassadors during the recent VEX Robotics event. Their dedication and hard work shone throughout the day, making it a memorable experience for everyone involved.
We are incredibly grateful to Thermoking who sponsor the project, VEX, and all the staff at ATU, especially Carine Gachon, for their unwavering support and hospitality.
Our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Gohery and Mrs. Murray for their training and guidance, which played a crucial role in the team’s success. Additionally, we extend our gratitude to Ms. Egan and Ms. Brunnbauer for their support and encouragement throughout the day.
The Senior Room’s performance and spirit were truly commendable, and we look forward to many more successful events in the future!
Check out the highlights of the day here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=ZYEzJoi1WrngpKUH&v=MrkqG3brzRg&feature=youtu.be
Congratulations to 4th, 5th & 6th Class in Clontuskert who won the Robot Design Award and Team Champions Award at the Thermoking VEX Robotics competition in ATU in Galway yesterday.
The students will now go forward to the VEX National Competition in Cork in February representing the region.
We were extremely proud of our hardworking team who collaborated, problem-solved and completed the challenges together. Thanks to Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Feehily and Ms. Nevin for guiding us and bringing us to the event.
Special thanks to Clonfert National School who lent us orange bands when ours broke. Thanks to Carine Gachon, David Hodge and all of the team in ATU for setting up and running such a great competition.
We are delighted to announce that Clontuskert National School is once again a Microsoft Showcase School for 2023-2024. We are very proud of our dedicated team- we have received this award each year for the past 10 years!
We are the only primary school to have achieved this award in the country, joining nine secondary schools and a Further Education college in receiving the accolade in Ireland.
Congratulations to our dedicated staff who are all MIE educators and all of our staff who have been awarded MIEExpert and Microsoft Certified Educator (MCE).
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded Microsoft Showcase School status once again for 2022-2023 and that our amazing staff have achieved Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEExpert) awards.
Congratulations to everyone on the school team; Board of Management, Staff, Parents, and Students, all of whom contribute to Clontuskert’s excellence and the continued worldwide recognition of the school as a Microsoft Showcase School.
Clontuskert is a Top 20 Winner of the Ireland’s Future Is MINE Project for 2022.
We were invited to DreamSpace in One Microsoft Place today for the Prizegiving from Microsoft and RTÉ.
Feedback from the Judges-
We knew you guys would do incredible things (as always) but you and the class should be really proud of yourselves for placing so highly with the judges scoring 😊
Thanks to Corey and Neeve for a super day. Check out the fun day we had!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For Ireland’s Future is Mine we have made our school even more sustainable. We already have solar panels on our school. This produces 42% of our school’s electricity. In Minecraft we installed LED lighting all around the school which will save energy and funds. We have recycling, landfill and compost bins everywhere. We have an environmentally friendly sewerage treatment plant. At our school garden we sow vegetables, flowers and have composters and bee hives. This is part of our outdoor classroom. Our school bus is electric and runs on solar energy. We have installed a safe cycle path from the church to the school so that we can start a Cycle Bus for our students. We have electric charging points for teacher and visitor cars.
Our world is built in a flat world. This meant that we needed to code a 4 block height grass tower that we stretched across the whole parish to give us more build options. This meant we could build down as well as up. The other world landscapes would have interfered with what we wanted to build. We used a slash fill command which quickened this build.
Old Clontuskert school was closed but still occupied in 1958. Our modern school opened in 1959. There were two class rooms and two toilets in the school at that time and was also used as a local youth club. There were 120 boys and girls in the school at the time of its opening. In 1970 the school free transport system started but only applied to people two miles from the school.
An extension to the school was built and opened in 1999. Now we have three modern classrooms, two SEN rooms and a large general purpose hall. This year we started a Breakfast and Afterschool Club. We have a huge playing space, games courts and pitches around the school. For the road we used an agent to code so that it would be built faster.
Check out our twin Wind Turbines.
They are taller than the average wind turbines and are vertical axis to generate more electricity so that they supply not only the school but the whole parish with electricity. The extra energy is being sold back into the national grid. The money we earn from this is being donated to charities to help students across the world to receive an education under Sustainable Development Goal 4- Quality Education. The turbines move using 49 Command Blocks.
Welcome to Clontuskert Parish Church
This is our Sustainable church and community pitch with solar panels, charging points, playground, coffee shop, walking track and flower patio. There are wind turbines here too.
Welcome to Clontuskert Pitch:
We have a new modern clubhouse for the community to gather.
We built irrigation pipes under pitch. This both drains the pitch and supplies water to our community allotment gardens which supply vegetables and fruit to each family in the parish.
Wind turbines supply the energy for the lights here.
This is Clontuskert’s Old School:
The old school is in Chapel park near the Church. It was opened in 1836. There is a plaque on the wall that says Clontuskert National School AD 1833. Helena Coen, a great granny of a current 4th class student was the principal of the old school and some of the teachers were Mrs. Eileen Fenton, Mrs. Coen and Mrs. Kitty Bleahen.
There were at least three hedge schools in Clontuskert before they built the school building. This school was built on a ringfort. The people called the school Crossconnell school but the name was changed to Clontuskert National school on September 21st, 1852.
The school started as a mixed school on the 1st of July 1836. There was an old staircase near the door of the old school. There was a stage in it made from old doors.
To rethink how the old school can function for the future we have turned it into a kids museum where the community can gather. Clontuskert’s history is told at the museum with VR and AR experiences. We also have a library underground. We built an aquarium filled with beautiful fish and visitors can learn about the fish here.
There is an attic with large windows to maximise the views of Clontuskert parish. This is our new Clontuskert Observatory. At night the balcony can be used for stargazing. Because Clontuskert is in the country it is the perfect place for astronomy, away from the light pollution in towns and cities.
Today the Senior Room participated in the Ballinasloe Rugby Club inter-school blitz.
We had a super day of fun rugby with each student playing and enjoying the sport.
Thanks to Mrs. Murray, Mr. Feen, Ms. Nevin and Mary who brought us to the tournament and to Dermot Tierney our Connacht Rugby trainer who invited us!
For Ireland’s Future is Mine we have made our school even more sustainable. We already have solar panels on our school. This produces 42% of our school’s electricity. In Minecraft we installed LED lighting all around the school which will save energy and funds. We have recycling, landfill and compost bins everywhere. We have an environmentally friendly sewerage treatment plant. At our school garden we sow vegetables, flowers and have composters and bee hives. This is part of our outdoor classroom. Our school bus is electric and runs on solar energy. We have installed a safe cycle path from the church to the school so that we can start a Cycle Bus for our students. We have electric charging points for teacher and visitor cars.
Our world is built in a flat world. This meant that we needed to code a 4 block height grass tower that we stretched across the whole parish to give us more build options. This meant we could build down as well as up. The other world landscapes would have interfered with what we wanted to build. We used a slash fill command which quickened this build.
Old Clontuskert school was closed but still occupied in 1958. Our modern school opened in 1959. There were two class rooms and two toilets in the school at that time and was also used as a local youth club. There were 120 boys and girls in the school at the time of its opening. In 1970 the school free transport system started but only applied to people two miles from the school.
An extension to the school was built and opened in 1999. Now we have three modern classrooms, two SEN rooms and a large general purpose hall. This year we started a Breakfast and Afterschool Club. We have a huge playing space, games courts and pitches around the school. For the road we used an agent to code so that it would be built faster.
Check out our twin Wind Turbines.
They are taller than the average wind turbines and are vertical axis to generate more electricity so that they supply not only the school but the whole parish with electricity. The extra energy is being sold back into the national grid. The money we earn from this is being donated to charities to help students across the world to receive an education under Sustainable Development Goal 4- Quality Education. The turbines move using 49 Command Blocks.
Welcome to Clontuskert Parish Church
This is our Sustainable church and community pitch with solar panels, charging points, playground, coffee shop, walking track and flower patio. There are wind turbines here too.
Welcome to Clontuskert Pitch:
We have a new modern clubhouse for the community to gather.
We built irrigation pipes under pitch. This both drains the pitch and supplies water to our community allotment gardens which supply vegetables and fruit to each family in the parish.
Wind turbines supply the energy for the lights here.
This is Clontuskert’s Old School:
The old school is in Chapel park near the Church. It was opened in 1836. There is a plaque on the wall that says Clontuskert National School AD 1833. Helena Coen, a great granny of a current 4th class student was the principal of the old school and some of the teachers were Mrs. Eileen Fenton, Mrs. Coen and Mrs. Kitty Bleahen.
There were at least three hedge schools in Clontuskert before they built the school building. This school was built on a ringfort. The people called the school Crossconnell school but the name was changed to Clontuskert National school on September 21st, 1852.
The school started as a mixed school on the 1st of July 1836. There was an old staircase near the door of the old school. There was a stage in it made from old doors.
To rethink how the old school can function for the future we have turned it into a kids museum where the community can gather. Clontuskert’s history is told at the museum with VR and AR experiences. We also have a library underground. We built an aquarium filled with beautiful fish and visitors can learn about the fish here.
There is an attic with large windows to maximise the views of Clontuskert parish. This is our new Clontuskert Observatory. At night the balcony can be used for stargazing. Because Clontuskert is in the country it is the perfect place for astronomy, away from the light pollution in towns and cities.
Clontuskert has saved 2,203 kgs of carbon by installing solar panels on our school. We help the environment further through our Climate Action Project.
Clontuskert is a Solar School. We are a small rural primary school in the heart of Co. Galway, in the west of Ireland. There are 21 students in our classroom from 4th to 6th class and we are all between 9 and 12 years old.
Our latest project has been installing solar panels in our school in partnership with Microsoft Ireland, SSE Airtricity and Active8. Since the panels have been installed they have generated 42% of our electricity in the school.
We check the school app each morning to see the real-time data on energy generated by the solar panels. This helps us with our sustainability goals and reduce the carbon footprint of Clontuskert School.
When we found an issue with Ireland’s Waste Management Systems we taught Minister Richard Bruton, Minister for Climate Action and Environment about the problem with the Green Dot which is often confused with the Mobius Loop, which is the recycling symbol.
Following our meeting, Minister Bruton changed the waste symbols in Ireland to make them easier to understand.
These symbols can be seen on MyWaste.ie.
We were delighted with this progress. Last September the government changed the recycling process in Ireland and now soft plastic can be recycled. We spoke to Ciaran Cannon TD about this. Currently recycling plants in Ireland are not equipped to handle this waste and the soft plastic is being exported for recycling.
We are connecting with schools across Europe as part of the international Climate Action Project to join our movement. We want to empower other students to highlight the issue in their own country and affect change. We have made a website called so you think you can recycle.com.
On this website we are hosting a call to action for all European schools to see if they can action change around symbols and the Green dot in their own country.
We have collaborated with schools in Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Macedonia, Greece, India, the US and Canada, and we focused on the problems, solutions and how to take action. This sharing has helped us to communicate our message, learn from our peers across the world and take collective action together.
Since we started the Solar Schools Programme we have received letters from President Michael D. Higgins, Minister for Climate Action Eamon Ryan and the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science commending the school on our work in the area of Climate Action. Our project has been highlighted in the Seanad by Senator Aisling Dolan.
Clontuskert Solar Schools Project has been written about in the Connacht Tribune and the Sunday Times.
One of our students was chosen for the National Youth Assembly on Climate Change. The Assembly was live on RTE News Now on the 15th of November. 157 students were selected for this event. She was then chosen out of the 157 delegates to do the opening speech on Environment.
Clontuskert became the first Irish school to be awarded Climate Action Project School of Excellence this year. Only 245 schools globally were recognised because of their intense work on climate education in a whole-school approach. The recognition was awarded by Cartoon Network Climate Champions and the international Climate Action Project.
Clontuskert submitted their project work for the past year and met extensive criteria, including a school-wide commitment to climate education and student solutions.
We were interviewed by Maolra MacDonnchadha for Nuacht TG4 and held an outdoor celebration at the school.
We are currently campaigning to remove plastic packaging from the fruit and vegetable aisles in shops and supermarkets across the country. France banned fruit and veg packaging from January 2022 and we want to do the same in Ireland.
We are calling on the Irish government and all of our supermarkets and shops to Ban plastic on fruit and veg!
If you are interested in enrolling your child for 2023 or beyond, please complete this Expression of Interest Form to be kept in the loop of upcoming events including the Virtual Open Day. Expression of Interest Form.
We will also offer tours of the school outside of school hours as per HSE COVID-19 regulations.
Please contact the principal if you wish to avail of this.
Please click on the image below to view each page of Clontuskert’s School Brochure for 2022-2023
