It was a very special yet unusual night for our 6th Class pupils who graduated from Primary School this evening. With recent COVID19 restrictions lifted and outside gatherings of 200 permitted, it was great for the lads that this night could go ahead. It was very important that they had the opportunity to celebrate this moment with their friends and classmates. Having been away from the school for so long, there was a real sense of ocassion about this unique ceremony tonight outdoors in the Junior Yard. The "Lasallian Award" was a new award introduced this year. It was presented to the pupil who best represented the Lasallian ideals of a strong sense of faith, interest in education, inclusiveness, respect and being conscious of social justice issues. This award was presented tonight for the first time to Eesaan Moharana. Congratulations Eesaan. We wish all the boys well now as the move on to the next phase of their education.
This morning, Bishop Cullinan celebrated Mass in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Waterford for the schools of the Diocese.You will see that the names of the schools were printed and placed on the pews as he prayed for them all. St Declans is to the furthest left at the very front.
This friendly competition was between all the classes that surround the school garden. They are both Junior Infant Classes, both 2nd Classes, Mrs Grants 1st and Mrs Hawkins 3rd Class. {R3 - 8}After the February break all classes involved put 5 seed potatoes on a shelf in their classrooms to allow them to "chit". By the end of March little shoots were beginning to sprout so it was time to plant them out. As we were closed because of the Coronavirus, Mr Doran planted them in bags of compost. Now as the plants begun to grow, the shoots were covered as they grew with the extra soil stored in the bigger bags. By June the bags were growing really well. By early July it was time to burst open the bags, find the spuds, weigh them and compare them to the other classes. So here is the final result......Mrs Duggan's Junior Infants {R3}came 6th at 693gr. Mr Morgan's Junior Infants {R4} came 5th at 828gr. Mrs O Shea's 2nd {R5}came 4th at 875gr. Ms McKeon's 2nd {R6} came 3rd at 876gr! Mrs Hawkin's 3rd Class {R8} came 2nd at 1000gr but the "The Spud Growing Champions of 2020" were Mr Grant's 1st Class {R17} at 1010gr!
After a month of growing R3 are clearly in the lead with R8 not far behind.
By May 18th, All the bags are full and growing nicely. R5 is now doing the best!
By the middle of June all of the bags were equally blooming marvelous!
Early July and the spuds were ready to be harvested. R7, Mr Grants 1st Class were the winners!
As part of Seachtain na Ghaeilge we held our Lá Lán Ghaelach in the Hall today. All classes gave their own presentation involving Irish music, language, poetry, song and dance. Later in the afternoon, 5th and 6th classes enjoyed Tráth n gCeist. Bhain gach duine sár taitneamh as an lá!
Our inaugural Culture Day was a huge success. Organised and coordinated by Ms Aylward, 58 boys represented 21 countries from all around the world. All classes involved visited the displays throughout the day with parents visiting in the afternoon. A big WELL DONE to all involved!
As part of Engineers Week, 3rd and 4th Classes enjoyed a 1 hour session each with Bricks 4 Kids. This was a thoroughly enjoyable hands on construction STEM related activity perfectly suited to the theme of this week. Many thanks to the PA for organising this activity with sponsorship coming from Sanofi.
Many thanks to everyone who once again this February supported the local homeless charity "Helping Hand". The collection was a huge success and very much appreciated.
Having recently retired from the St Declans BOM, we were delighted to have the opportunity to present Jack with a small token of our appreciation for his many years of dedicated service, loyalty and support to the whole St Declans community.
Two former pupils, Cameron Power and Niall O Keefe visited the school today to show off the League of Ireland U19 trophy which they recently won with Waterford. They received a great welcome and we were all delighted to hear all about their success in this competition.
Today was "Dress Up Day" for anyone who wanted to have a little fun for Halloween. There was literally an invasion of colourful characters this morning, everything from dinosaurs to cowboys, skeletons and monsters! What a day!
There was the usual fun and games at our annual Halloween Raffle held in the Hall today. As you'd expect, there was lots of excitement and everyone had their fingers crossed. However there can only be one winner of the "Seller's Prize" which was won in 6th Class this year. Congratulations also to all the other winners of the main raffle prizes and thanks to everyone for supporting this important fundraising raffle again this year.
Today the Mayor of the Metropoliton Area of Waterford, Cllr Breda Brennan visited the school to present 35 boys with certificates of full attendance for not missing a day in school last year. Congratulations everyone!
It was Science all the way across the school this week culminating in a special exhibition of Science experiments in the Hall today by Mr Kirby's 6th Class. All classes had a chance to see and learn from the various experiments being presented. This week other senior classes wrote Science fiction stories while 4th Class built rockets. 3rd Classes drew diagrams of their own inventions while 2nd drew futuristic pictures of Waterford and St Declans in the year 3019. 1st Classes built machines. Senior Infants learned about famous scientists while Junior Infants learned about famous inventions.
De La Salle jerseys were seen all across the school today as we celebrated "Red and White Day" in support of the De La Salle Senior Hurling Team's appearance in the County Final on Sunday. Best of luck to all involved!
We had a large number of classes from 1st to 6th Class join with our neighbouring schools as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the shortage of cardiac services in Waterford.