Our School Blog
Credit Union Quiz
We were delighted to take part in this year's Credit Union Quiz, with both our junior and senior teams representing the school with great enthusiasm and team spirit.
Our junior team, made up of Ceoladh, Senan, Liam and El'Samid, performed exceptionally well. They were crowned winners of the Cavan round, a fantastic achievement, and went on to represent the county at the regional finals in Monaghan. Competing at such a high level, they secured an impressive 4th place. We are immensely proud of their hard work, dedication and outstanding performance.
Our senior team, Conaill, Alfie, Lara and Dáire, also represented the school brilliantly, showing great knowledge and determination throughout the competition.
Well done to all involved for their fantastic efforts and for being such wonderful ambassadors for our school.
Cumann na mBunscoil Quiz
We recently took part in the Cumann na mBunscoil Quiz, with four teams proudly representing our school.
In the junior category, our first team consisted of Liam, El'Samid, Senan and Dáire, while our second team was made up of Hazel, Adam, Tom and Alex. Both teams performed very well and showed great teamwork throughout.
In the senior category, Alfie, Conaill, Tadhg and Daithí represented our first team, with Rory, Dylan, Lexi and Lily competing on our second team. All of the pupils displayed excellent knowledge and a positive attitude on the day.
We are very proud of all the children for their efforts and for representing the school so well.
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Friendship Day / Bí Cineálta Day
Our school marked Friendship Day/Bí Cineálta Day with great enthusiasm across all class levels. Fourth Class teamed up with Senior Infants, and the groups worked together to plan their artwork before getting started. The corridor became a hub of activity as we created and decorated a large poster filled with positive messages about kindness and respect for one another.
World Book Day
World Book Day was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, with the children embracing the chance to dress up as their favourite characters. This year, a number of pupils chose fun group costumes, including the Minions, Gingerbread Man and Gangsta Granny, adding plenty of excitement to the day. The creativity and effort on display were impressive, and the children looked brilliant.
Grandparents' Day
One of the standout moments was Grandparents' Day, when grandparents joined us in our classrooms for an enjoyable visit. We spent time together playing games and chatting. The children performed 'You are my Sunshine'. It was a lovely occasion, and everyone had a very enjoyable time, finishing off with tea and scones.
Credit Union Quiz / Cumann na mBunscoil Quiz
Liam, Senan and Ceoladh achieved an outstanding result in the Cavan Credit Union Quiz, where they took 1st place against strong competition. They didn't stop there — they went on to represent Cavan in Ulster, where they proudly finished in an impressive 4th place. This is a fantastic accomplishment.
Liam, Senan and Hazel also represented Castletara in the Cumann na mBunscoil Quiz.
Chess
Liam, Senan, James, Jamie and Arnas represented Castletara in the school chess competition and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Tin Whistle
4th Class are preparing for the Music Generation concert. They have been learning Killeagh, Blinding Lights, Tell Me Ma and Country Roads.
GAA Coach
4th Class have been enjoying football with the Cavan County GAA coach Rory. They have been working on their passing, soloing and teamwork. This is so enjoyable for everyone involved. We are looking forward to continuing this after Easter.
Baking
We enjoyed working in teams to make Rice Krispie buns and Top Hats. The classroom was full of excitement. It was a great day of fun.
Well done to everyone in 4th Class for their fantastic work this term, and I wish everyone a very happy and enjoyable Easter break!
We have had a wonderful term two in junior and senior infants' classroom, filled with creativity, kindness, and plenty of "magic." Here is a look back at everything we've been up to!
We kicked off the month by celebrating:
St. Brigid: The patroness of Ireland and a symbol of kindness.
The Story of the Cloak: The children loved hearing how Brigid's cloak magically grew to cover the Curragh of Kildare. Father Cassidy gave the children a lovely talk. Our senior classes worked together to ensure all children made a St Brigid's cross using the traditional rushes.
Pancake Tuesday: The highlight was the pancakes! We practiced our "procedural writing" by listing the toppings we used—lemon and sugar remain the firm favourites.
Valentine's Day: Our little artists were very busy preparing for Valentine's Day; love was in the air as the infants worked on their fine motor skills through heart-themed projects.
St. Patrick's Day & Seachtain na Gaeilge: We wrapped up our spring celebrations by embracing all things Irish! We used green card and googly eyes to create our very own "Shamrock Men" to decorate the windows. The children engaged in singing "Amhrán na bhFiann".
Bí Cineálta / Friendship Week: The whole school collaborated with special ideas of how to be a good friend with the result of an amazing wall art display. Everyone enjoyed this wonderful chance to work together as a team.
Grandparents / Special Persons Day: One of our favourite days this term was welcoming our wonderful grandparents and special persons. The children performed their favourite songs—including "I'm a Little Leprechaun." We displayed hand-drawn portraits of our grandparents using fabric and fibre.
World Book Day & Our Fairy Forest Adventure: To celebrate World Book Day, we had a costume parade—from witches and wizards to superheroes and animals, the classroom was bursting with imagination.
Fairy Forest Tour: We took a trip to the local Fairy Forest and playground. The children loved spotting tiny fairy doors and looking for "fairy dust" hidden among the trees.
We have had a very busy and exciting Term 2 in Second Class!
In Geography, we learned all about the seven continents. We especially loved singing the "Seven Continents Song," which helped us remember them in a fun way. We also really enjoyed taking part in our Geography quizzes, where we worked in teams and used our different group buzzers—it was lots of fun and very competitive!
We explored the water cycle and learned how water moves around our world. To help us understand it better, we added actions to the Water Cycle Song, which made learning even more enjoyable.
In History, we learned about Moore Street and discovered how it got its name. We also learned about the traders who worked there long ago and what life was like for them.
In Maths, we explored transformation, symmetry, and tessellation. We had great fun creating patterns and learning how shapes can move, flip, and fit together.
We have also been reading the novel The Creakers and are really enjoying it. It keeps us engaged, and we are always excited to read more. We are looking forward to finding out what happens to the grown-ups and if Lucy and her friends manage to rescue them!
We had great fun learning the Haka as Gaeilge. We practised it together as a class and really enjoyed performing it—it was full of energy and excitement!
Throughout the term, we did lots of art and crafts and showed great creativity in all our work. We also celebrated some very special days, including World Book Day, Friendship Day, and Grandparents Day. These were wonderful occasions filled with fun activities and happy memories.
One of the highlights of the term was our class trip to Breffni Park. We had a fantastic day and were very lucky to meet one of the Cavan players and the team manager. We also had great fun playing in the playground before heading back to school.
It has been a fantastic term, and we are very proud of all the hard work and enthusiasm shown by everyone in Second Class!
This term has been a busy and enjoyable one in our classroom, filled with creativity, collaboration, and learning. A highlight was our work on the Vikings. The children worked in groups to research Viking life and completed impressive projects based on the information. They designed and built their own longships at home. They proudly presented their projects to the junior classes with great confidence.
We have been using Gaeilge more informally throughout the day, helping to build confidence in speaking and listening. We have also been learning 'Amhrán na bhFiann'. In art, the class created beautiful Mother's Day pieces and explored working with clay for Valentine's Day. In English, the children wrote thoughtful pieces about their grandparents or a special person and enjoyed creating fun rhyming poems.
Our mini school tour was a major highlight, with a visit to Cavan fire station where Johnny taught us all about the important work of firefighters. We saw fire engines 'Alpha 1' and 'Bravo 1' and even got to spray the powerful hose! After that we went to the playground and Centra, which was a real treat! Overall it has been a great term full of lots of activities and fun.
This term has flown by and I cannot believe we will celebrate Confirmation this weekend.
This term we looked at the history of the 1916 Rising. We looked at Ireland in 1916 and uncovered that most Irish people supported Britain during World War 1. Catholics and Protestants from the north and south of the country joined the British Army. Home Rule had been promised as soon as the war was over, so there really was no reason to expect a rebellion in 1916. Despite that, it happened. We enjoyed looking at the history of this rising and discussing the brutal and violent deaths of many, despite only being a short war, lasting five days. We discussed the aftermath of the Rising and how it impacted life then and life now. The children really enjoyed this.
We celebrated World Book Day. The children all dressed up. This year some of the children dressed up as The Spice Girls and the Peppa Pig family. All the children put in a great effort and all looked fantastic.
We visited Breifne College to watch their performance of 'All Shook Up' for our mini tour. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. We went to the cinema to watch 'Miss Moxy'. This was a treat from Ms Brady as a reward for our good behaviour and being good role models. Thanks Ms Brady!
Friendship Day/Bí Cineálta Day was a huge hit with the children from the junior end to the senior end. 6th class paired up with 2nd class and we collaborated before beginning our drawings. We all went out to the corridor and designed and decorated a huge poster with quotes to remind us about being kind to others.
A special highlight was Grandparents' Day, when our grandparents visited our classrooms to spend some quality time playing games with us. We performed 'Killeagh' on our tin whistles and recited a wonderful poem called 'Grandparents are so precious'. Everyone seemed to have a great time and enjoyed their delicious tea and scones.
We have also been preparing for our Confirmation, spending time practising and praying that the Holy Spirit will come to guide us. We had a nice time during these preparations and are very grateful for the support of Fr. Cassidy. Hopefully the weather will be good for us on Friday evening 27th March.
Thanks again to the PA for the wonderful Easter egg hunt and Karen, Lexi's mum for the donation of an easter egg to each child in our class. Wishing you all a wonderful Easter.
Bí Cinealta / Friendship Day
5th class really enjoyed getting to collaborate with the younger children in 1st class to come up with ideas for inspirational quotes and images about what friendship is. We worked with the first class students in the classroom first to come up with ideas and then when we were finished brainstorming we joined the rest of the school in the hallway to create a collaborative poster about friendship and Cinealtas. Baineann rang a 5 taitneamh as an lá seo gan dabht.
Grandparents Day
On Monday 16th March, while dressed in green 5th class gave a lovely rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann to the grandparents and special people of the students in Castletara N.S. We welcomed some special people into our classroom and really enjoyed playing card games with them, and having a chat about school. We really enjoyed this time and loved having grandparents and special in our school.
Quiz
5th class are really proud of our fellow classmates who have recently participated in various quizzes such as the Cummán na mBunscóil junior & senior quiz, the Credit Union Junior & Senior Quiz and the Ulster Credit Union Junior Quiz. We had a brilliant presentation on Quiz teams in our classroom. A huge Congratulations to El'Samid who represented our class and school brilliantly in the Credit Union Quiz, and got to the Ulster Quiz, coming so close to placing. Adam, Dáire, Alex, El'Samid, Tom, Rory, Tadhg & Daithí all represented our class in the Cumman na mBunschoil quizzes. Well done to all involved.
GAA Coach
We are really lucky in 5th class to have Rory from Cavan GAA coming in on Tuesday to offer his expertise in GAA. We are working on basic skills such as kick passing, handpassing, soloing and game based skills. We are looking forward to a few more weeks of this after the Easter break & thank you to Rory for this.
Tin Whistle
We have been working with Gary in Tin Whistle this year, we are perfecting our jigs, polkas and modern songs such as Killeagh and Blinding Lights. These are in addition to the more traditional Kerry Polka, Rattlin' Bog and Terry Teehans which are all sounding great!
Chess
Once again we were lucky to have so many representatives in our class for the chess competition which took place in Killygarry National School recently. All of the students really enjoyed this competition and learned some skills such as patience while playing the mini in class games and at the competition day. Thanks to Mr Colwell for taking the children to this.
World Book Day
5th class created some excellent book reviews, book covers and character descriptions for World Book Day 2026. We all really enjoyed dressing up for the occasion in costumes such as football players, the queen of hearts, the mad hatter, Gangster Granny, Thing 1 & Thing 2. Huge credit to everyone for this as the costumes and effort was brilliant to see. We would also like to thank the Parents Association for the toy sale which happened on World Book Day where children could get new books and toys.
Pancake Tuesday
We really enjoyed Pancake Tuesday & the Pancake Flipping in the School Hall. Everyone got to eat some lovely home made pancakes and it was a real treat. We would like to say a huge thank you to Mary & Jennifer, Ms Brady, Ms Geoghan and Ms Behan for their help in ensuring we all enjoyed a nice sweet treat.
Other
We have been working really hard in 5th class this term. We have completed projects about EU Countries and about the Mountains of Ireland. Miss Briody was really impressed with the hard work that was put into the projects and all of the research, illustrations and fact finding that was done by the students. We have been working so hard in fact that we have filled our star jar twice this term, which is an amazing achievement for the class. We have also completed artwork for Easter, Valentines Day, The New Year and the Chinese New Year. We are looking forward as a class to some sunshine in Term 3 and all of the fun and activities which are to come, including our school tour and mini tour.
Dear Parents/Guardians,
We would like to extend our congratulations to both our Junior and Senior teams for representing Castletara in the Credit Union Schools Quiz Competition, which took place on Sunday February 8th in the Cavan Crystal Hotel.
We are delighted to share that our Junior Team were overall winners on the day and will now go on to represent our school in the District Final on March 6th/7th. We wish Liam, Senan, Ceoladh and El’samid the very best of luck as they prepare for the next round.
We are extremely proud of the effort, teamwork and knowledge displayed by both teams. Well done to all involved!
Thank you to our parents Colette Quinn and Laura Bambrick for preparing the children for the quiz and our teachers Ms. Tierney and Ms. McAdoo.
Míle Buiochas agus comhghairdeas,
Tara
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