Tag: Science

Gold SFI Curious Minds Award for Clontuskert

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We are delighted to announce that Clontuskert has once again been awarded the Gold SFI Curious Minds Award. (Formally Discover Primary Science) This is the 17th year in a row the school has achieved this award, being one of a handful of elite schools in Ireland to have persistently achieved excellence in STEM since 2007.
Check out the feedback from the judges below and well done to everyone on your hard work.

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:

Science
Technology
Engineering
Maths
STEM Showcase

Here is some feedback on your Log of Evidence:
Congratulations to all of the learners and the teachers in the school on receiving the Gold award – it was well deserved. We really enjoyed going through your logbook, it was very clear and great descriptions provided, the videos really brought it to life. It also displayed a wide range of STEM activities and showcased them in multiple ways, videos, blogs/social media posts, pictures, student reports, stands/ billboards at external events, and science copy books – well done! You interacted so well with the external STEM community, from MTU to Medtronic and the Marine Institute and that is only naming a few. You participated in a citizen science project which was fantastic to see and looks like the news spread right beyond the school boundaries and into the community. We particularly enjoyed seeing the learners outside, diligently completing their science copies and then reflecting on what they learnt in the videos. It was great to see all of the innovators work e.g. how the cargo boats were powered, but particularly to hear the experiences of the learners in describing them (communication skills!) and how they used their imagination, team work and trial and error to come up with solutions. Well done to your 6th class student – a mechanical engineer and innovator to watch for the future! Keep up the super work.

Clontuskert win at VEX Robotics 2024

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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.

Looking forward to the event in Cork!

Galway Science & Technology Festival Launch 2023

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🤩 3rd & 4th class from @clontuskertns presented their FIRST LEGO League project #SuperPowered at Galway Science & Technology Festival Launch today.

🤩 It was wonderful to hear our students share their learning with dignitaries from @Medtronic @uniofgalway @atu_ie @GalwayCoCo @galwayscience

🐠Thanks to @galwayscience for inviting us to visit @GalwayAquarium afterwards 🐠

🐠Many questions were answered by Alana and great enthusiasm for fish, the sea and all things marine was shown by all of the students! 🐠

Thanks to Anne Murray for inviting us and to all at Galway Science & Technology Festival for consistently inspiring the people of Galway, young and old each year.

Thanks to Ms. Conneely for running the SuperPowered project with us and helping us with our speeches and Mr. Kres for helping us prepare for the event.

SFI Curious Minds Award

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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!

Check out our Log of Evidence here:
SFI Curious Minds Award Application 2023

Clontuskert Seashore Safari with the Explorers Education Programme

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Clontuskert participated in a Seashore Safari with the Explorers Education Programme & the Marine Institute at Grattan Beach in Salthill, Galway city.

We found Mermaid’s Purses, Blenny fish, Butterfish, Crabs, Flat fish, Shrimp and even a European eel.

Thanks to Rory McAvinney, our guide, who showed us how to best explore the rock pools, making sure that overturned rocks were put back as they had been found. We released our catch back into the sea after we learnt about each one. It was a super day of learning fun!

🐠 🦀 🐚 🌊 ☀️ 🌬️

Video of the day here:

Clontuskert at Galway Science and Technology Festival

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Today Clontuskert’s students presented their Climate Action project at Galway Science and Technology Festival. Check out highlights from the day.

Thanks to staff, parents and students who all travelled to the Bailey Allen Hall in the University of Galway to share our work.

Learn more about the project here:

Climate Change is a massive problem.
What are you doing about it?
In Clontuskert we want change.

One small change would be to ban plastic packaging in supermarkets.
Let’s start with the Fruit and Veg Aisle.
Why do we need plastic on fruit and veg at all? It already has its own natural packaging!!!

France banned fruit and veg packaging from January 2022.
Why can’t we do the same?

We are calling on the Irish government and all of our supermarkets and shops.
Ban plastic on fruit and veg!

Sign our petition here.

Clontuskert awarded SFI Discover Science and Maths Award 2021-2022

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We are delighted to have been awarded the SFI Discover Science and Maths Award for 2021-2022. Science and STEM are important elements of daily school life in Clontuskert.

We received this feedback from the judges:

Congratulations to all at St. Augustine’s N.S. Clontuskert on achieving a Plaque of STEM Award. Your log of evidence was very clearly presented and a pleasure to review. It shows the wide range of STEM work going on in the school that is providing learners with opportunities to develop and apply skills like problem-solving and collaboration through hands-on investigation and design and make activities. Including evidence of learners’ starter questions, predictions, investigation results and reflections demonstrate how rich learning is taking place through a range of activities from windbags to propagation. The climate change call to action video was inspiring as is the practical action the school is taking on climate change such as the solar panels. Extending the theme through using Minecraft is a great integration of technology into learning about sustainability – the design thinking and imagination of the students is very impressive as is their commitment to the sustainable development goals and improving the area for the whole community. It is no surprise that they received a standing ovation for their STEM showcase from their audience at DCU! Well done and keep up the excellent work!

Clontuskert SFI Discover Science and Maths Award 2021-2022

Clontuskert Admission & Enrolment 2022-2023

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The Admission Process is now open for St. Augustine’s National School Clontuskert for 2022-2023.
Please view our Admission Notice below for details.

We will host a Virtual Open Day on Microsoft Teams on Monday March 28th 2022.

Please access the Admission Form for September 2022 here.

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

Clontuskert Brochure Final 2022

School Policies relevant to Annual Admission:
Admission Policy

Data Protection Policy

Policies for review for Permissions in Enrolment Form

Happy Hallowe’en from St. Augustine’s N.S. Clontuskert

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Greetings to all of our families and friends of St. Augustine’s National School Clontuskert!

Please click the link below to view our Hallowe’en Newsletter.

We wish you a very happy and safe Midterm and look forward to welcoming you back to school on Monday 2nd November 2020 at 9.00am.

Clontuskert Hallowe’en Newsletter

Clontuskert achieve a 6th Green Flag

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Congratulations to Ms. Cormican and the Green Schools Committee of St. Augustine’s N.S. Clontuskert who have achieved the 5th Green Schools Flag for the school in Biodiversity.

See details of their hard work here.