6th Class Hard at Work: Preparing Our School Garden for Bulb Planting

There was great activity in our school garden today as our 6th Class pupils took on the important job of preparing the beds for our upcoming bulb-planting project. Autumn is the perfect time for planting spring bulbs, and thanks to the hard work of our senior students, the garden is now well on its way to being ready for a burst of colour next term.

Armed with gloves, trowels, and plenty of enthusiasm, the children set about removing weeds, clearing away old plant material, and loosening the soil. They worked carefully and cooperatively, taking real pride in their efforts and showing excellent teamwork throughout the morning. It was lovely to see them sharing tools, helping one another, and chatting about the types of flowers they hope to see blooming in the spring.

Gardening days like this provide far more than a tidy garden—they offer opportunities for hands-on learning, responsibility, and connection with nature. The pupils enjoyed spotting insects, discussing how plants grow, and discovering just how much preparation goes into keeping a garden healthy.

With the beds now cleared and refreshed, we’re almost ready for the exciting part: planting our bulbs. Over the coming weeks, classes will take turns planting a variety of spring flowers. We can’t wait to watch them take root and eventually brighten the school grounds with colourful blooms.

A huge well done to 6th Class for their fantastic work today. Their effort makes a real difference, and we’re very proud of the leadership they continue to show in our school community.

Getting Our School Garden Spring-Ready! 🌱🌼

There’s a real buzz around our school as every class rolls up their sleeves to help get the school garden ready for spring! Over the coming weeks, pupils from all year groups will be taking responsibility for their own patch of the garden — digging, tidying, and planting bulbs that will soon bring a burst of colour to our outdoor space.

In preparation, the children have been busy learning all about bulbs — what they are, how they grow, and the best way to plant them. From discovering that bulbs store their own food to finding out how roots and shoots develop underground, the pupils have become real gardening experts!

We have a beautiful selection of bulbs ready to go into the soil, including daffodils, tulips, irises, muscari, and more. With everyone’s hard work, our garden will be bursting with vibrant colour from January right through to springtime.

Our Junior Infants have already been hard at work in their lawn area, carefully planting groups of snowdrops and muscari. These little flowers will gradually spread over the years — creating a magical blanket of snowdrops in January, followed by a sea of muscari from February through March. What a wonderful start to our garden transformation!

It’s fantastic to see such teamwork and enthusiasm from all the children as they learn about planting, growth, and caring for the environment. We can’t wait to watch our garden come to life — a true celebration of nature, colour, and community spirit!

Celebrating National Tree Week in Kilmacurragh

Second Class celebrated National Tree Day in Kilmacurragh. They were very lucky to engage in the budding botanist experience where they learned how to take a botany sample, how to identify if accurately, their sample’s Latin name and common name and how to record this. It was lots of fun!

Our New Playground

A Playground Dream Come True at Nun’s Cross

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.

From a Whisper to Reality

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.

A Community Effort

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.

What We’ve Built Together

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.

Looking Ahead

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!

Minibeast Hunting in 1st class

Today 1st class made the most of the weather and got outside to do some minibeast hunting. The children worked in groups to see if there were any spiders, insects or other creepy crawlies on the school grounds. We used magnifying glasses to find the minibeasts, the best place we found was under rocks and pieces of wood. We used pooters and magnifying pots to collect them. It was great fun! We collected so many worms, woodlice, millipedes (these were really really fast!), centipedes, spiders, ants and ladybirds. We then gave them some food in the form of leaves and places to hide under rocks and soil. Take a look at our pictures below.

With the help of the magnifying boxes, we were able to view our minibeasts in great detail. When we got back into the class we viewed what we had collected and drew some really detailed pictures before releasing them back into nature again.

Biodiversity day in Nuns Cross

Today we were visited by the lovely Mairead today who took us on a trail of the school grounds in search of minibeasts. We had great fun searching for minibeasts and we couldn’t believe our eyes with the variety of insects we discovered. Have a look below.

New Raised Bed

We are delighted the first addition to the front part of our garden as part of our over plan to make it a sensory garden for our school.

At Nun’s Cross. we are fully inclusive and it is important for us to ensure that all our children are able to fully enjoy all aspects of school. For some children, running around, playing ball games and being loud with their friends is not their idea of enjoyable playtime. This space will serve as a quieter space for children to spend their outdoor time in a calm space, away from the fast running and loud noises of traditional playtime.

This colourful raised bed has been filled with beautiful flowers which will continue to bloom over the coming month as we add more to this area of our playground. It will help us to keep this area of the playground at a slower and quieter pace than the rest of the outdoor space. We would like to thank all of the parents who contributed to the fundraising efforts last year in order to enhance our outdoor area and we are excited for the rest of the additions to come! Bi thank you, also, to our amazing PTA, without whose efforts none of this would be possible!

Bird Friendly Garden

We absolutely love our school garden and we love all the wildlife we share it with too! From frogs in our pond to bird and bat boxes around the school grounds we enjoy all the opportunities we can to help look after our wildlife friends! This week we were delighted to have the addition of bird feeders to the garden. Ellie, who is a keen garden bird fan, was the instigator in this addition and she very generously donated a large number of feeders and nut free bird food. All of the feeders have been carefully placed around the school grounds and filled with yummy treats for our small friends to enjoy! Watch out if you’re in the garden to see what birds you might spot at the feeders!

Green-School Awards Ceremony

On Tuesday 5th October, the staff and students of Nun’s Cross were delighted to have the opportunity to attend a virtual award ceremony for our SIXTH Green Flag.

The children on the committee, with the help of everyone in the school community, were very excited to be involved in earning the Green Flag for Global Citizenship: Litter and Waste. We enjoyed watching the ceremony and looking out for any mentions of our school. We enjoyed joining in with the live interactive elements, sending our responses to different questions in, and seeing them appear on the screen. The organisers kept us waiting while announcing all the different schools who had earned flags, but being the second last school mentioned meant that we gave an even louder cheer.

A huge congratulations and thank you to all involved in earning this flag. We look forward to begin working towards our seventh flag which will be for Global Citizenship: Energy.

World Bee Day

We had lots of fun celebrating World Bee Day on Thursday 20th May. The rain couldn’t stop us exploring the world of bees and completing so many un-BEE-lievable activities.

BEE-autiful Writing

Many classes decided to use bees as a stimulus for writing. Junior infants wrote some fantastic sentences based on a bee picture. Senior infants created some exciting acrostic poems about bees. 1st and 2nd class spend the morning learning about different bees and the lifecycle of bees before writing their own pieces about bees. 3rd class learnt lots of bee facts too and displayed them like a huge honeycomb. 

Buzzing about our Pictures

We had lots of bee artwork created throughout the school. We have some incredible artists in the school who blew us away with their creations.

Yummy Honey

1st and 2nd class became honey connoisseurs for the afternoon tasting and comparing 2 types of honey. They used their sense of smell, sight and taste to differentiate between the brands and some of the children had a clear favourite. We were spoilt to even have a piece of honeycomb brought into us on Friday.

New Additions to our Green-Schools Flagpole

In Nun’s Cross, we are delighted to be a Green-School and fly our green flag with great pride at the front on the school.

We are currently working towards our sixth green flag, but we thought it was very important to acknowledge the great effort that has gone into achieving our 5 previous flags.

As soon as we came across the pennant flags, we knew that they would be a brilliant addition to help show the great achievements we have had in the Green-Schools programme to date. Each pennant represents one of the Green-Schools themes that we have completed.

Green: Litter and Waste

Yellow: Energy

Blue: Water

Maroon: Travel

Mint: Biodiversity

We are going to continue working hard over the remainder of this school year and will hope to continue the success and add another pennant to our flagpole.

Green-Schools Remote Day of Action

This year Nun’s Cross National School held a remote day of action which was organised by the Green-Schools Committee. We are currently working towards our 6th Green Flag and decided to use this lockdown as an opportunity to take action in protecting our planet and to learn about our role as global citizens.

 On 11th February, the school community took action from their own homes. The children and their families chose activities that interested them most. We had many families go on recycling and Fairtrade symbol scavenger hunts, and others noticed the save water symbol so added that to their scavenger hunt. It was amazing to see all of the different items that can be recycled and very interesting to learn about the different Fairtrade products that we might have in our homes.

Other families decided that with the cold weather approaching, it would be a good time to build bird houses, bird feeders and bug hotels. Others used this opportunity as a reminder to refill their bird feeders. Some families managed to take photos of the birds exploring their new bird feeders.

 Another activity that many families took part in was creating recycled crafts or fashion. We had old tops being upcycled into bags, hair bands and chicken clothes, while others turned recyclable materials into castles, monsters and so much more. We even had someone upcycle a chair into a table.

We had litter pick-ups around our local areas which gave us some very surprising and sad findings in some cases. We had some very full bags of rubbish after tidying a small area which was a bit upsetting, but we are glad to know that the waste has been disposed of properly now. We even had members of the school community sending messages out to their family to pick up any rubbish they might see when walking. As global citizens, it is very important to know that our actions can have an impact on others and an action like this can have a positive impact on the environment.

We had lots of fun on our day of action, but we will remember that every day is a day that we can take action in caring for our planet.

Thank you to everyone who was involved and sent in the wonderful photos.

Cleaning the Pond

The Green-Schools Committee has been very busy the last two Fridays cleaning out our pond.

Each year we need to spend some time cleaning out the weeds, leaves, PE equipment and much more from the pond to make space for the frogs who will return in the new year to lay their frogspawn.

It was cold and muddy, but we had a lot of fun. Our new members from 1st and 2nd class enjoyed joining the committee for the first time this year and being allowed walk in the pond.

Spring has sprung at Nuns Cross NS

On our return from mid term, spring was most definitely in the air. We noticed lots of changes around our yard and gardens. Most notably we noticed that our pond was inhabited with loads of frog spawn. We also noticed bright yellow daffodils and a number of other flowers starting to open up.

24 Hours of Reality Climate Presentation for 3rd-6th Class

On November 21st, Raoul Empey, father of Thibaud and Marius, joined former US Vice President Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project for 24 Hours of Reality: Truth in Action, a global conversation about the climate crisis and its solutions in communities around the world.

For one full day, Vice President Gore and members of Climate Reality’s network of more than 20,000 Climate Reality Leaders from 154 countries participated by sharing the presentation first made famous by the Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, in their own communities across the globe. 

Over 1,000 Climate Reality Leaders presented across the globe in community centres, places of worship, homes, schools, businesses, and even on social media. Climate Reality Leaders put truth into action and brought the hopeful message about today’s climate solutions directly to their friends, family, and neighbours.

As a trained Climate Reality Leader, Raoul Empey, presented to the older students in 3rd-6th Class, with the hope of inspiring local action. The children will also have the opportunity at a later date to participate in planting some trees in a local Native Woodlands Scheme in Ashford, as well as spur meaningful action under the school’s green flag.

Raoul’s presentation focused on the local impacts and solutions of the climate crisis in Ireland, especially as they relate to our children. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all the students and very inspirational.

“I have two environmentally minded boys at Nuns Cross, Thibaud aged 10 and Marius aged 8. Naturally I am concerned for their future and that of their friends in a heated world. The scientists and politicians have been speaking about climate change since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 – that’s nearly 30 years – to little effect. Compare what children like Greta Thunberg have done in one year under the school climate strike movement Fridays for Future. Climate change is happening now, and it is their future we are talking about.”

“Millions of people around the world are fed up and demanding urgent action on the climate crisis,” said Al Gore. “The tide is turning, thanks to dedicated activists speaking truth to power every day – including the tireless work of more than 20,000 highly trained and dedicated Climate Reality Leaders. I’m thrilled that this year’s 24 Hours will lift up the voices of the inspiring people carrying the climate movement on their shoulders, and I’m honored to join them for this exciting day of grassroots action and education.”

Those who attend the presentations have the option to have a tree planted on their behalf through a collaboration between The Climate Reality Project and One Tree Planted.

Climate Action Week in Nuns Cross

Over the past couple of weeks our Green Schools Committee have been promoting Climate Action Week in our school. As part of this, students were tasked with writing some climate action poems which were read out at assembly this morning. Take a look at our class winners below…

I think it is fair to say that the world and our futures are in great hands!

10 Ways to help pollinators

All classes were visited by two very responsible students who attended the Bee Festival in Ashford this weekend. They took some information leaflets for our school and gave a very informative talk on how we can all do our bit to help pollinators in our environment. There are some very easy ways in which we can all do our bit to help - how will you help?

Green Schools

New Green Flag

The green schools committee were delighted to show the rest of the school our new green flag! Well done to the committee, Ms Heaphy and all the children for their continued commitment to biodiversity in our school.

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Green School Award Ceremony

On Wednesday 22nd May, 3 representatives from the Green School Committee travelled to the Helix in DCU for the Green School Award Ceremony. There were over 60 schools represented with a total of 81 flags presented this year for different Green School categories.

Nun’s Cross were working towards the biodiversity flag, the fifth in the Green School series.

It was an engaging and inspiring day with speakers from Irish Water and Climate Change ambassadors who spoke of their desire to encourage and inspire each person to make a change no matter how small. This was a powerful message reiterated many times throughout the ceremony – one person really can make a difference and through communication we can make these impacts even bigger by working together.

It was interesting to see what other schools have achieved for their flags and it has given us some ideas as we begin working towards the Global Citizenship flag.

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International Bee Day

International Bee Day took place this week and 5th and 6th class discovered just how important bees are to us. We worked together to make a collaborative bee display and designed some important notices to help people learn why bees are important to us and to help people learn how to save bees.

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