Thank you to all the parents and children for taking the time and making the effort to fill a shoebox for the Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal. A large collection of shoeboxes were collected from our school this week and will make some little girls and boys very happy this Christmas. Well done everyone!
We participated in Maths games, Maths stations and a Maths Trail in our locality. We enjoyed collecting real life data – we carried out a traffic survey and calculated our average distance and time. We integrated the Measures Strand into our Maths Trail. We used lots of Maths language during the week in homework activities. We also used ICT in our Maths learning. We no doubt love Maths games and Maths, what magnificent Mathematicians we are.
What is the Food Dudes Programme
Food Dudes is a programme developed by the University of Wales, Bangor, to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables both in school and at home. It is based on positive role models (the Food Dudes characters), repeated tasting and rewards. It is ultimately designed to enable children to enjoy eating healthy diets, and to create a healthy eating culture within schools.
Who are the Food Dudes?
The Food Dudes are four young super-heroes: Charlie, Tom, Raz and Rocco. By eating their favourite fruit or vegetables, the Food Dudes gain special powers which enable them to save the world and the Life Force from a gang of baddies: The Junk Punks. General Junk and his side-kicks, Miss Demeanour and Master Disaster, are trying to drain the energy of the world by depriving it of nutritious fruit and veg. With their special powers, given to them by carrots, tomatoes, raspberries and broccoli, the Food Dudes feed the Life Force and foil the Junk Punks.
There are two main phases to the Programme:
Phase 1 is an intensive intervention which lasts 16 days. During this time, children in the junior classes were given fruit and vegetables while they were read a letter and/or watched a specially designed DVD of the Food Dudes. These super-heroes save the life force from a gang of baddies whose objective is to take away the energy of the world by depriving it of nutritious fruit and veg. Each day the children were rewarded with stickers or small rewards and get a tick on the classroom wall chart for successfully eating the fruit and veg. This phase is primarily school based, although children keep a diary of fruit and veg they have eaten at home. The senior classes take part in 4 tasting days during phase 1, also get read a letter and/or watch a DVD episode and are rewarded with 4 rewards.
We are currently working on Phase 2 . This aspect extends the home element of the Food Dudes programme by encouraging the children to bring their own fruit and veg to school every day in special Food Dudes containers Classroom wall charts continue to be used for the junior classes and are introduced to the senior classes to record progress and children receive Food Dudes certificates upon reaching goals. We hope this phase maintains fruit and veg consumption in the longer term.
We are learning about the benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption-
Why should we bother with our 5 a day rule?
Fruit and vegetables :
To get all the goodness you can from fruit and vegetables choose a wide variety of colours and aim for 2 servings of fruit and 3 servings of vegetables every day.
Dear School Community,
This year we are working hard towards obtaining our fourth green flag. Our theme is based on Travel. We have worked hard in the past on the Green Schools themes of “Litter” and “Energy” “Water” and we continue to maintain these themes.
We have a committee to represent all our hard work and to help think up ideas on how to travel to school in an eco-friendly manner.
We monitor our modes of transport to school and we are currently working on the Environmental Review and Action plan for the Travel theme. We hope to hold some Action Days in the future and we have lots of exciting activities planned. We realise Climate Change is a serious issue that needs to be addressed by all nations. We are willing to make a contribution within our school and community. As part of our Curriculum and Greenschools work, we have completed fieldwork with the help of Jillian Banahan and Caitriona our Green Schools Travel Coordinator. Recently, we went on a wonderful walkability audit and SESE walk in the locality to assess where we might locate our park and stride location for our WALK ON WEDNESDAY initiative.
There are seven steps to our Green Schools project:
Remember:
‘Walk, you’ll save fuel and you’ll feel cool!’
Fifth and Sixth class pupils attended the Marquee in Lanesboro during the “Taste of the Lakelands” Festival and spent a wonderful morning learning how to make soup, cereal bars and scones. As you can see, there are many budding chefs in Ballagh NS!!
On Thursday, 6th October, the pupils of Ballagh NS took part in the Opening Ceremony Parade for the Taste of the Lakelands Festival in Lanesboro/Ballyleague. All the children were dressed in wonderful costumes and brightly coloured clothes and they proudly marched through the streets of Lanesboro and Ballyleague displaying their wonderful artwork. This was a wonderful evening and there were lots of exciting floats and characters to be seen. As a thank you for taking part, the children were treated to an ice-cream party the following day at school, by the Festival Committee.
A big congratulations to Shane, Adam and Sean on their recent great achievement. All 3 boys are members of the U12 St. Faithleachs team who recently won the Div3 Final. 
Our Let’s Go Activity Day was a great success and full of fun and games.
Our girls team have made the school very proud as they reached the semi-finals in the Cumann na mBunscol football competition. 
Representatives from Coillte called to the school recently to give the children a workshop on wind turbines and electricity. This was a really informative session, and as the photos show, the children thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon
