Last week our Senior Infants had Bricfeasta le chéile to celebrate the great learning they had been doing in Irish. The class had been learning all about food and were so lucky to share bricfeasta on Friday. The menu included sú oráiste, tósta, gránach, bainne, im agus rudaí eile. We are so proud of all the learning taking place each day.
3rd Class recently led a wonderful assembly to mark European Day of Languages, celebrating the many ways people communicate – from spoken and written words to sign languages.
To prepare, the class surveyed families in our school community and discovered an impressive variety of languages spoken at home. Alongside English and Irish, families use Ukrainian, German, Romanian, Hungarian, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Spanish, and Catalan.
Staff members also bring their own linguistic skills: Liliana speaks Portuguese, Justyna speaks Polish, and both Ms. Smith and Sandra speak French.
Our school is even more diverse, with families also speaking Afrikaans, Hindi, Filipino, Japanese, and Russian, reflecting cultures from South Africa, India, the Philippines, Japan, and beyond.
During the assembly, children shared greetings in languages such as Irish, Japanese, German, Ukrainian, Māori, Spanish, French, Hindi, and Italian. They also reminded us of the International Day of Sign Languages, showing that communication takes many forms.
The assembly ended with a joyful performance of “This Little Light of Mine”, celebrating how our many languages can shine brightly in our school community.
On a bright and joyful afternoon, our school community gathered to officially launch the brand-new Nun’s Cross Playground—a project that has been years in the dreaming and months in the making. What once seemed like a distant hope has now become a vibrant reality, thanks to the generosity, hard work, and unwavering spirit of our entire community.
When the idea of extra land was first mentioned, it felt more like a dream than a plan. But through the incredible kindness of Stephen Collier, who gifted the land outright to our school, that dream took root. Without his generosity, none of what we now celebrate would have been possible.
With the land secured, inspiration came from the children themselves, who helped shape the design. The PTA stepped up with boundless energy, raising an astonishing €25,000 through events, donations, and a GoFundMe campaign. Parents, families, and friends rolled up their sleeves, transforming sketches and ideas into something truly extraordinary.
This project was never about one person—it was about many. From the very beginning, people gave their time, resources, skills, and encouragement.
Keith Belton became the backbone of the project, offering his machinery, expertise, calm reassurance, and endless hours of hard work.
Andrew Fox of Ashford Sand and Gravel generously provided materials, staff, and support that lifted the project beyond what we could have imagined.
John Herraty, Des Martin, and the O’Sheehan family all gave crucial contributions of materials and funding.
Our talented design team—Edwin Jebb, Alice Gibson, and Sam Fleming—brought creativity and vision to every stage. A special thank you goes to Alice Gibson, whose pond design with its waterfall, stream, and fountain has created a magical centrepiece.
Sarah Green devoted countless hours to planting and landscaping, ensuring this space is not only beautiful now but will continue to grow, change, and inspire learning for years to come.
And then there were the countless parents, children, and friends who showed up with wheelbarrows, rakes, tools, and sheer determination. Each workday was proof of the unique spirit of Nun’s Cross—neighbours and families coming together with enthusiasm and joy to create something bigger than themselves.
The new playground is nothing short of a wonderland for our children. It includes:
A sports pitch for games and teamwork.
A giant sandpit for creative play.
Gross motor equipment to help develop strength and coordination.
Swings and slides for pure childhood fun.
A stage, ready for performances and imaginative play.
A stunning pond with a waterfall and fountain, offering not only beauty but also a space for outdoor learning and reflection.
As a lasting reminder of what can be achieved when a community comes together, we were also proud to unveil a beautiful mosaic of the Nun’s Cross school logo, lovingly created by parent Carla Benedetti and her father.
The playground is not yet finished—it will continue to grow and evolve as new elements are added and as the plants mature. We look forward to forming a garden working group to help care for and maintain this special space in the years ahead.
But today, as laughter and play filled the air, we paused to celebrate. This playground is a testament to what can happen when generosity, kindness, and community come together.
To everyone who played a part—whether through donations, design, hard work, encouragement, or simply showing up—thank you. This playground belongs to all of us, and most of all, to the children of Nun’s Cross.
Here’s to years of play, learning, and happy memories in our new playground!
Our Big Buddy System
Starting school is a huge step, and to make sure every Junior Infant feels safe, happy, and cared for, we have a very special tradition: the Big Buddy System!
When an older child becomes a Big Buddy, they take on a very important role—they become a friendly guide, a helping hand, and a caring friend for one of our new infants, their Little Buddy.
So what do Big Buddies do?
Help little buddies settle in: A new school can feel like a big place, but with a Big Buddy by their side, our new infants quickly feel at home.
Make friends together: A Big Buddy is often a little buddy’s first friend in school. They help them meet children their own age too, so that playtime is full of fun and friendship.
Encourage independence: Sometimes little buddies need a bit of help at the start, and Big Buddies are there to show them how to do things until they can manage on their own.
Care and look out for them: Most importantly, Big Buddies care. They keep an eye on their little buddy, making sure they always feel safe and supported.
How does it work?
The first few days: Big Buddies spend playtime with their little buddy, helping them get used to the yard and classroom routines. They may even join them at lunchtime once the full school day begins.
The first few weeks: Buddies meet for special activities like free play, art, or story time. Big Buddies also sit with their little buddy at assemblies and services to help them feel secure.
The rest of the year: As the little buddies grow more confident, they won’t need as much daily support—but Big Buddies still check in every now and again, so their little buddy always knows there’s someone special looking out for them.
The Big Buddy System is a wonderful way to help our youngest pupils feel at home while giving older children the chance to grow into kind, caring role models. It’s one of the many reasons why our school community feels like a family.
During well-being week we took a break from homework and instead used our well-being wheel for suggestions for alternative exercises and activities to engage with in our evening times. Our junior classes took part in co-operative games as arranged by our Active Committee. During these games the children from all 4 junior classes were mixed into teams, where they had to work together to succeed. Our senior classes did well-being stations with our senior teachers for an afternoon, trying out yoga, art through music and co-operative games.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Felisity who kindly gave her time to do karate with all classes during the week.
Our Well-being week finished on Valentines day with a lovely church service which was led by our junior classes and attended by our parents.
This week we celebrated anti-bullying week in Nun’s Cross. As part of our Bí Cineálta anti-bullying policy development, we decided it would be a great idea to spend the week looking into what bullying is, how if effects children, the role of bystanders and the importance of telling. Our senior classes completed the FUSE anti-bullying programme for their specific classes and Zippy’s Friends and circle time were used in the junior classes. Our student council also ran a poster competition and they announced the winners during assembly on Friday. Well done to all the children for getting involved. Posters will be displayed throughout the school to remind everyone to be kind and not to bully.
On Friday Ms Mulholland’s 5th and 6th class had their No Lunchbox Day to raise money to cover the tour to Emerald Park. An amazing effort was made by the class in planning an exciting line up of entertainment alongside some delicious foods and tasty treats. Children in all classes left their lunchboxes at home for the day and their lunch was provided for them by 5th & 6th class. The menu had lots on offer, including hotdogs, veggie dogs, deli rolls and fruit skewers, and once a healthy lunch was eaten there was an array of baked goods including cookies, brownies, flapjacks, rocky road, cupcakes and ice lollies. Music was provided on the day by Molly, Jack and Isaac who had some really cool dance moves on display. Additional activities which were provided for included hair braiding, bracelet making, nail painting, face painting and shooting some hoops. Take a look at some of the action from the day below!
Today our wonderful Student Council surprised the whole school with pancakes to celebrate pancake Tuesday. Our wonderful committee met and planned the day, organising supplies and delegating roles to allow this day to run smoothly. We had our 5th and 6th class students cooking the pancakes on their crepe makers. We also had our team from 3rd and 4th mixing the batter. We had representatives from 3rd and 4th also helping to bring the students from their classes, keeping a steady flow of traffic. When the children visited, they chose their pancake and decorated it using honey, lemon, sugar, marshmallows, strawberries, cream, sprinkles, chocolate and strawberry sauce. The pancakes were so yummy!
All pupils also took part in our pancake flipping contest which was very hotly contested. Take a look at some of our photos below:
This week at Nun’s Cross our Well-being committee have been highlighting the importance of our well-being through a variety of different activities and events. Our well-being is very important to us and this week we have tried to focus on the 5 different areas that are important to support in order to have good well-being and mental health.
CONNECT
Ms Pearse very kindly spent time this week with each class to focus on a variety of stories and breathing activities. She used a variety of stories, tasks and exercises to help give the children the skills they need to develop the self confidence and awareness to deal with some tricky feelings and/or situations they might come across!
We have also spent some time this week clearing our minds and allowing ourselves to relax and be calm. We have completed lots of mindful colouring and have been listening to some relaxing music which has even made some of us sleepy!
BE ACTIVE
We are a very active school and we know how important this is for positive well-being! This week Ms Doyle very kindly took each class for a dance lesson in Bokwa! We absolutely loved it and hope she will teach us some more moves soon!
We held a school disco and all the children got to show us their moves on the dancefloor! It was so much fun and we have had many requests from children to have a disco every week - and why not?
TAKE NOTICE
Taking notice is a very important part of having healthy well-being, but its one that can sometimes be the easiest to neglect because we are busy. This week we made an extra effort to slow down and think about things we dont always have time to reflect on. We took the time to think about the things that make us happy, things we are grateful for and things that we are looking forward to in the future. We had great discussions with each other and realised just how lucky we are! We represented our thoughts in posters, gratitude jars and chains, and happiness posters.
KEEP LEARNING
We were so lucky to have Felisity Cullen-Molloy, from Greystones and Arklow Karate Kid, volunteer her time to come and teach our whole school some self defence this week. Felisity demonstrated some cool defence moves for us and we also got to practice them ourselves. It is an important skill for everyone to have some knowledge of and, as it was a new experience for most of our children, it allowed us to learn something new too! We are grateful to her and her team for their time - the children really enjoyed it!
GIVE
We held an Amber Day, where all the children were invited to dress in amber colours, and we raised money for Pieta house, a very worthwhile charity which works to support mental health. 4th class delivered a wonderful assembly to a sea of amber, reminding us that God wants us all to be a bright light and if you feel that your lamp is running low on oil, you can always turn to him for help.
We held a collection for Pieta house and we would like to thank you all for your incredible donations to end our well-being week. We were blown away by the generous support and kindness shown. Luke, one of our 5th class students, took it upon himself to bake cookies and sell them to his class mates. The efforts of Luke, and indeed his classmates for supporting his efforts, raised a huge €90 alone! Together with the donations brought in throughout the school, we have raised an enormous €491 for Pieta House this year!
In 3rd class, we have been working through the Weaving Wellbeing programme and we have spent extra time outdoors this month. We have engaged in a variety of activities which promote good mental health and wellbeing. These include mindfulness colouring, daily affirmations, breathing exercises and meditation. Each child has their own 'wellbeing toolkit' of simple strategies and tools that they can use to help regulate their feelings. We will continue to build on these as the year progresses. We also have a feelings check-in board where the children can identify how they are feeling at different times of the day and we have re-introduced our worry box as a way for the children to express any worries they may have.
We are delighted to announce that Nun’s Cross have been awarded their very first Amber Flag award. This award is presented to schools who make a conscious effort to promote and improve the well-being and mental health of their school community.
Nun’s Cross began the process at the beginning of the academic year and began by setting up an Amber Flag committee made up with a selection of students from each of the classes from 2nd-6th. The students who felt they could make a contribution to this area submitted an application and from these, 6 students were chosen.
Together with the leading teacher, Mrs Gannon, the committee worked hard throughout the year to make positive changes and to co-ordinate events to promote positive mental health and well-being in our students, teachers, and parents.
They introduced ‘Worry Boxes’ to each classroom to help children who have worries and who may not be able to verbalise these to have a way to talk to an adult who can help.
The committee also coordinated a Well-Being week where the school dedicated more time each day to positive well-being. Some activities that the classes did were meditation, mindful colouring, mindful homework activities in place of regular homework, extra relaxing time including reading, listening to music etc, each class took part in yoga or Pilates, we held a fundraiser for Pieta house and designed well-being posters to display around the school.
With thanks to Saint Patrick’s Mental Health Services and also thanks to our PTA for hosting, we had a parents evening event to help educate our school community on children’s mental Health and well-being.
Of course we had lots more planned for this year that unfortunately had to be cut short but we will pick up where we left off as soon as we get back to school.
The committee would like to thank all the students, teachers and parents for all their help in our mission to gain our first Amber flag for Nun’s Cross. Also a big thank you to Pieta House for recognising all our hard work and for all the hard work they do to help people who need their support!
“Dear Amber Flag Committee in Nun’s Cross National School,
We, at Pieta, are delighted to inform you that your school has been awarded with the Amber Flag! 😊
We would like to thank the Amber Flag Committee for their commitment and dedication to promoting Positive Mental Health in your school this year. As you know in order to receive a Pieta Amber Flag you have to set and achieve goals throughout the year and our team found your application to be an outstanding initiative promoting positive mental health. We are truly overwhelmed with the amazing initiatives being run in schools this year. You are all a credit to your school.
We know how difficult the last few months have been and we are so thankful that you were able to achieve your goals either in person or “virtually”. We understand it’s been a trying time for the Amber Flag Committee but we hope that you can look back on your achievements throughout the year and be grateful of the time you spent together and the goals you’ve accomplished! Don’t underestimate the positive impact that your work has had this year. We, here at Pieta, certainly don’t.
We are hoping to send the physical flags once we get back from working remotely, hopefully this will be in September so thank you for your understanding.
Again, well done to all of you. Pieta’s Amber Flag Team hope that you are proud of all your accomplishments this year, especially in spite of the current situation. We certainly are!
Kindest regards,
The Pieta Amber Flag Team”
We had a big turn out for our parents’ information evening on the topic of your child’s well-being.
This programme supports parents to encourage and promote positive mental health and well-being in their children. The programme also explored how the building of resilience in children helps them to manage and cope with the day to day stresses of life as they occur.
Some of the following areas were the main elements of a jam-packed evening of helpful information:
· Explored the factors that influence mental health and well being in their child.
· Learned how to build and nurture resilience within their own child.
· Developed an understanding of what children need for positive mental health and well being
· Looked at ways to promote well-being in your children
·Were given tips on how best to support their child’s positive mental health and well-being.
We have received amazing feedback on the evening and many thanks to Sharon for her clear and relaxed delivery of the content.
Last week was well being week in our school and we really enjoyed taking some time out from our busy lives to concentrate on being well. We enjoyed a wonderful talk on nutrition, pilates and we also took the week off homework. Our amber flag committee also challenged us to make some well being posters which can be seen below.
We also had great fun making a wall display to remind us to always be mindful.
A huge thanks to Maija Tweeddale for coming in and delivering a very interactive and informative session to all class around the topic of nutrition and in particular, the impact that good nutrition has on our well-being.
Junior Infants - 3rd class got a lesson, split over two levels, on just how important good nutrition is in order for our stomachs and brains to be able to communicate to each other and also learned how important it is to get 12 hours sleep each night. The children also learned about good and bad bugs inside our bodies and why they are important for a healthy body.
The senior classes extended the material by delving in to how they can use this knowledge to inform good choices in their own personal diet and nutrition and discussed how their food choices has a direct impact on their well-being.
Thank you so much to Maija for her time and knowledge, the sessions were very informative to all the children!
Each class has had a worry box introduce to their classroom. This is an idea brought forward, and made, by the Well Being committee as a way for children who have something on their minds but are unable to express it. The children can now, in confidence, put anything that is on their mind into the box which will be monitored by the teachers.
We are delighted to have set up our schools first Well Being Committee which is made up of a group of very enthusiastic students from 2nd-6th class. We are looking forward to how we can improve and develop the well being of our school community.
Allyson Dowling kindly came in a do 3 yoga sessions with the younger classes. Each class got their own session, which they fully enjoyed and were nice and relaxed afterwards!
All next week there will be a big focus on all things well-being in Nuns Cross and we celebrate our first well-being week. Each class will focus a little extra time on activities such as mindfulness colouring, DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read), extra classes outside (weather permitting), breathing and relaxation activities and more.
We are also thrilled to have some visiting experts to help us this week. Allyson Dowling has kindly offered to come in a do 3 yoga sessions with the younger classes, Claire Andrews, who runs Wicklow Yoga (www.wicklowyoga.com) is kindly giving her time to do yoga with 3rd and 4th class and Nina Scott, who runs Nina Scott Pilates (www.ninascottpilates.com) has made space in her busy diary to come and do some pilates with 5th and 6th class. We really appreciate the time these 3 mums are giving to come and do these classes with the children. The effect that good nutrition has on our well-being is something that is well known and we are delighted to have another one of our fantastic mums, Maija Tweeddale, who is a nutritional therapist, coming in to spend two days teaching the children all about good nutrition.
We will be ending the week with a fundraiser by holding an Amber Day. We hope to see as much amber/orange around the school as possible and this will be to raise funds, and awareness, for two causes. The first is for Pieta House, a fantastic charity who help so many people who are in their darkest place. To find out more about their services please go to https://www.pieta.ie/about. Some of the money raised will also go towards developing our sensory room. Our sensory room came up as the number 1 resource the children feel that Nun's Cross has to help, and to care for, their mental health and well being in our school. It also came up as the number one thing the children would like to see improved in our school so we will be trying to invest in it as much as we can this year. The sensory room is a small space, but a very valuable space to any child in our school who just needs a safe space for a while, some where to decompress, let off some steam or to just be calm. We hope that this fundraiser will be something you will support generously.
Finally, all children will receive well-being focused homework this week in place of the normal writing, tables, spellings etc. This homework is based on the wheel of well-being which highlights 6 different areas we should focus on in order to have good mental health and well-being. We are all good at looking after some areas but not as good at looking after others so this is designed so the children will have choice over what area they would like to work on each day. If there is something outside of the suggestions that your child would rather focus on for their personal well-being then, of course, that is fine. No documentation needs to be done each evening however your child may be asked, over the course of the week, to feed back on activities they have engaged in for homework.
Well being homework for Junior Infants - 2nd class
Well-being homework for 3rd-6th class
