Karate at Nun's Cross

Today we were treated to a special visit from Felisity and her daughter Faith who is a past pupil of Nun’s Cross NS who came in to do a karate demonstration for all of our classes. Felisity is the mother of two students in our school and we are very grateful for her taking the time to come and visit us ahead of her return to after school karate classes from the 28th of September. Among the skills we learned were how to punch properly without hurting ourselves, the outward block & the inward block and fighting stance.

We look forward to welcoming karate classes back into the school on Tuesdays and Fridays beginning on the week of the 27th September.

Sports Day 2021

Sports Day 2021 was a very special day. It was a little different than we are used to because parents could not stay and cheer the children on but a huge amount of fun was had. Our Active Committee had put weeks of planning and preparation into the day, deciding on activities and races to be included and all their hard work paid off.

On the day we all met up at Ashford GAA pitch and we started the day off with a thrilling obstacle course. Here the children did some hurdles, some ball balancing, cargo net crawling, and sack races to get their hearts racing. It was super fun!

This was followed by our class relay races which included fly swatter golf, three legged races, wheelbarrow races, pass the baton and the capacity race. Following the relays, each class visited stations which were led by the teachers to complete activities. These rotated every 15 minutes. The stations included activities such as crab soccer, water dash, spill the sponge, caterpillar relays, hit the target, tug of war and no mans land.

Our day finished with a wonderful barbecue of hot dogs which were provided and cooked by our wonderful Parents Association. The surprises did not end there, and just when we thought it was all over we were visited by an ice cream van which again was organised by our Parents Association.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Ms Bennett and our wonderful Active Committee who arranged and pulled off an amazing day.

Colour Dash Run to end Active Week 2021

Today on our final day of Active Week 2021, we finished the week with a colour dash run with all classes taking part. So much fun was had by students and teachers alike. We have enjoyed an absolutely fantastic week where many memories were created with our friends. We would like to say a huge thank you to Ms Bennett and the Active Committee for making this week one which will stay in our memories for a very long time.

Senior Soccer at the GAA pitch

Our senior students visited Ashford GAA pitch as part of our Active Week activities on Thursday.

The Nuns Cross Grand National

Over the past two days the children have been participating in the Nuns Cross Grand National which brought huge excitement to the school. We would like to say a massive Thank You to Cooley farm who kindly provided the jumps. We also received a surprise message from Katie Walsh, Irish Grand National winner, where she offered us encouragement along with a lovely message. Take a look below…

Junior Infants …

Senior Infants…

1st & 2nd class …

3rd class…

4th class …

Active Week at Nuns Cross

This year Nuns Cross are going all out to celebrate Active Week. Our Active Committee have been working tirelessly to make this Active Week the best one yet and it has been going down a treat with all classes.

We started off on Monday morning with a Wake Up and Shake Up which was led by some of our senior pupils. No sooner were we arrived in school before we were dancing along to their tunes and trying to keep up with their actions. It was great fun!

All week we have continued our final week of the run around Ireland challenge, each day reaching a new target location. Monday finished off with relay races. These consisted of three-legged races, wheelbarrow races, sprints, piggy back races and potato and spoon races.

Monday was finished off with some good old tug of war which brought out a competitive streak in everybody, even the teachers decided to join in!

On Tuesday…

We welcomed a familiar face back to the school. Aidan our rugby coach worked with all classes to check in on how our skills have developed since his last visit in December. He was very impressed by all he saw.

On Wednesday…

We started our day off with a healthy breakfast morning. The children brought in a healthy breakfast they had prepared, inspired by a very helpful parent whose cooking tutorial was shared on SeeSaw on Tuesday afternoon. We are conscious that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and in order to keep our minds and bodies functioning to their best, we need to be fuelling our bodies accordingly.

During the day, each class had a 30 minute circult training class with Ms Pearse and her Active Committee helpers. This was a great test of our strength and stamina, as we completed a wide range of stretches and High Intensity exercises.

Later during the day our junior classes visited Ashford GAA pitch where they enjoyed a soccer tournament. Tomorrow our senior pupils will be getting their turn to showcase their skills on the big pitch.

The day finished off with a Teachers vs 5th and 6th class Students doddgeball challenge. Chants could be heard from far and wide in the run up to home time, as excited onlookers chose their side to support. The teachers emerged victorius thanks to some great skill shown by Ms Smith. a re-match must be had as the game had to be called to a premature hault due to collection time being upon us.

Tomorrow we look forward to our senior classes soccer tournament at Ashford GAA pitch as well as the Nuns Cross Grand National which will be held over the coming two days for both junior and senior pupils. Here is a sneak peak of what is in store…

On Friday, our week culminates with a colour dash run, with our run around Ireland drawing to a colourful close.

Our run around Ireland

This week we took on the Run Around Ireland challenge. All of our classes have been taking on his challenge and running every day with our combined distance totals taking us to some wonderful landmarks around Ireland. We are using coloured thumb tacks to show where we have reached and we have been having lots of fun talking about the places on this map which we have visited.

New GAA goalposts

This week we were delighted with the delivery of our GAA goalposts and 10 GAA footballs. We have been patiently waiting for this special delivery for a long time. Earlier this year, following our hugely successful Nuns Cross GAA Class Blitz, it was brought to our attention by both Student Council and the Active Committee that a set of GAA goalposts would be hugely beneficial to the children who became very inspired when training for our blitz with Kevin our GAA coach. We are looking forward to having 3rd - 6th class pupils back in school to test them out for us.

Christmas Mini Olympics at Nun's Cross

Today, after much planning and preparation, our Active Committee held the Winter Olympics in Nuns Cross NS. Our committee have worked on this for the past month, deciding on games which could be played with the Christmas theme and then shortlisting these games by allowing all classes to vote on which games were included.

Our Active Committee prepared three stations and a fun timetable full of fun and games for all classes. This morning started off with a ‘find the elf’ treasure hunt to get the classes warmed up this morning. The children had to locate elves around the school yard who then provided them with the next clue until they collected 8 Christmas baubles. It was super fun!

Our four stations consisted of ‘tinsel tug of war’, ‘snatch the Santa’, ‘rob the presents’ and ‘Santa’s sack race’. Great fun was had by all. Take a look at some of the action on the day.

Cricket with Jim

Today 3rd class were delighted to be commencing cricket training. Jim from Greystones will be working with us over the coming month as we learn the basics of the sport. Today we learned positions; wicket keeper, fielder, batsman and bowler. We learned to bat, bowl and to field. We had great fun learning cricket.

Active Schools GAA Training Day

Today the whole school participated in a GAA training day as organised by our Active Schools Committee. Having worked with Kevin our GAA coach since September, we were eager to test our skills and teamwork by having a training blitz. The junior end of the school played their matches at the school and our senior pupils made the trek down to the Ashford GAA grounds. We were absolutely blessed with such a wonderful day weatherwise, and the talent on show was top class.

Classes were each split into 4 teams and times were allocated for each match as decided by the Active Committee. We played across the main pitch where we were able to have 4 matches played at a time. Each team played every other team in their class and the winners after all of that competed in the finals.

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Kevin our coach and Brian and Vicky our referees on the day. The day was a tremendous success and has really inspired us to do days like this more often as a school. There was a great energy all day long and we are certain that the children will all sleep soundly tonight after their busy day. We look forward to getting our GAA goalposts in the school in the coming weeks so that we can practice a little more.

Gaelic football

On Wednesdays we enjoy Gaelic football coaching with Kevin. So far we have practiced hand passing, picking the ball off the grounds, kicking and soloing the ball.

Our Student Council are hoping they can work together with our Active Schools Committee to raise enough funds to purchase a set of gaelic scoring posts. This will give us ample time to practice our shooting over the crossbar.

Rugby is back at Nun's Cross

We are delighted to have Aidan back visiting us at school and coaching us in rugby. All classes enjoy playing a variety of games each Wednesday. It does get quite competitive at times, but at the end of the day we understand that it is all about the fun and laughter. We have been very fortunate with the fine weather each week which has allowed us to get out and about in the fine weather and fresh air. Take a look at 3rd and 4th class in action…

SPAR 5s Soccer

Today we had 6 teams representing the school in the SPAR 5s , a soccer tournament which took place in Greystones. A maximum of 8 players were registered for each squad, with five players on the pitch for each game. Our six teams comprised of the following; 6th class girls, 6th class boys, 4th/5th class boys, 5th class girls, 4th class boys, 4th class girls. The teams all played between 4-5 matches each, on different pitches and keenly supported other teams when they were on a break. All teams put in a tremendous days work, with our 6th class boys and our 4th class boys narrowly missing out on progressing in the competition. A great day was had by all!

Girls GAA

Today our 5th and 6th class girls participated in the GAA Wicklow Times Shield Say 1. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining down on us all day long. On the day we had 13 players which was our best turnout yet for GAA with the girls. The girls played tremendously against some tough opposition and emerged as winners against Moneystown, St. Brigids and Greystones Educate Together. We are all extremely tired after our day.

Our next day out is on the 19th of March where we will compete in day 2 of the competition.

Gaelic Football revival at Nuns Cross

Yesterday we were visited by an old friend of the school. Having met Tommy at the 5th and 6th class boys GAA blitz last week, we convinced him to come back for a visit and see how good we are at football. It was a lovely day and all classes enjoyed the sunshine for their session with Tommy. We are so grateful to Tommy for taking the time to visit us once more.

GAA champions in Nuns Cross

Today Nuns Cross NS participated in day 1 of the Coughlan Cup which took place in Bray Emmets. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining brightly and a cool chill in the air. We set off with 12 boys from 5th and 6th class who, it is fair to say, had done minimal training and our confidence was low due to our lack of competitive involvement in GAA in the past.

We were in a tough group which consisted of Wicklow Educate Together, Moneystown, St. Fergals and Gaelscoil Uí C. First up we took on the Gaelscoil which we won 6 points to 9. Having got off to a great start we continued our winning streak against Moneystown where we scored 6 points to their 3. It was a very tight affair and our boys had us on the edge of our seats. Our next match was against Wicklow ETNS who we squeezed past on a scoreline of 9 points to 6. We then enjoyed a short break before our last match, which was the most exciting of all. Some excellent persistence and excellent accuracy carried us over the line as we won the against St. Fergal’s match by the slimmest of margins.

We would like to say a huge thank you to the travelling parents who brought children to the match and not only that but who were able to replace a missing gumshield and carry out physio on the boys!

We are extremely proud of the boys, particularly given that the majority of the team were running cross country yesterday.

Next up is a 2nd day out for the Coughlan cup which will take place on the 12th March at Bray Emmets once again.

Running in Avondale

Yesterday students from 3rd - 6th class participated in a cross country running competition where they had to run a mile. Students ran against students from other schools in Wicklow who were in the same classes as them. They received wristbands of different colours to show how fast they were able to run the mile. The students showed tremendous determination and team spirit on the day and their efforts were rewarded. 4 students returned to the school with medals for finishing in the top ten! We are extremely proud of the students and our running club. Next up it’s a 3 mile race in Avondale in a months time.

Hurling in Nuns Cross

Yesterday we were delighted to have been joined by Philly who will be our hurling coach for the rest of this term. Although we had competed in hurling earlier on in the year, this was our first even official hurling training session. Pupils from 3rd to 6th class were involved. Philly introduced us to hurling in such a fun way, and we were so good that he taught us 5 skills on the day which will be important to us in matches. These included the hand pass, dribbling, soloing, the jab lift and the roll lift. It was so much fun!!

Take a look at our skills below.

Young Whistlers

Last Thursday, two fifth class students went to Kilcoole to be trained as Young Whistlers. This means that next year when they are in 6th class they will be refereeing Cumann na mBunscoil football competitions for younger classes. As part of their training they learned the rules and the importance of concentration. They also received a whistle and a windbreaker to use for competitions.

“ The young whistlers course was really inspiring! I learnt so much about refereeing and concentration! everyone should try it! "