UPDATE: A Local Hero, Simon Fitzmaurice

My Name is Emily

Simon is a Dad in our school.

He wrote a wonderful script

for our Christmas pageant.

 

Five years ago Simon started

to write a movie.

It is called ‘My Name is Emily’

 

He began writing it with a pen

or typing on a keyboard.

 

Because he has motor neuron disease

he finished it using

a special “eye gaze” computer

that allows him to type

by looking at letters on a screen.

 

In November 2013

we wrote about how he was

fundraising to make a movie.

You can read more

of his inspiring story here.

 

Since then Simon has written

a book called:

‘It’s Not Yet Dark’.

He has been on TV and on

the radio and in the newspapers.

 

He began making his movie

‘My Name is Emily’

in early September, 2014.

He is now more than half way

through shooting it.

 

We are excited because Evanna Lynch, the

wonderful actress, who played Luna Lovegood in the

‘Harry Potter’ movies is playing the part of Emily.

Here in Greystones Simon Fitzmaurice is our Local Hero.

This is the last week of shooting the movie.

We think Simon’s work shows

us that you can do anything

you set your mind to.

IMG_0751

Update: Our Local Hero: Simon Fitzmaurice

My Name is Emily

Simon is a Dad in our school.

He wrote a wonderful script

for our Christmas pageant.

 

Five years ago Simon started

to write a movie.

It is called ‘My Name is Emily’.

 

He began writing it with a pen

or typing on a keyboard.

 

Because he has motor neuron disease

he finished it using

a special “eye gaze” computer

that allows him to type

by looking at letters on a screen.

 

In November 2013

we wrote about how he was

fundraising to make a movie.

You can read more

of his inspiring story here.

 

Since then Simon has written

a book called:

‘It’s Not Yet Dark’.

He has been on TV and on

the radio and in the newspapers.

 

All going according to plan

he begins making his movie

‘My Name Is Emily’

in August 2014.

 

Here in Greystones

he is our Local Hero.

IMG_0751

Hello to the boys and girls in Room 8 @ Aurora (South Taranaki, New Zealand)

Recently we visited a lovely blog

recommended to us by our ‘old’ friend 😉

Mr. Webb from Aurora School, in New Zealand.

This blog is Room 8 @ Aurora.

Room 8 is a 0-2 Class. In Ireland we would say

a Junior and Senior Infants class.

Like ourselves the school is not far from the beach.

Their school is surrounded by farmland.

Why not visit their blog!

Call in and say hello! You can find it here.

Ms Nicholas's Blog

We left a comment on this blog

and their teacher Ms.Nicholas kindly replied:
From Ms Nicholas

So hello to the children in Room 8, Aurora.

It is nice to meet you.

Let us tell you a little bit about our school.

The teachers are kind and fair and the students are friendly.

You can see our school here:

There are lots of good things about Greystones,

the town where we live too.

It is beside the sea.

There are lots of things to do for children.

 

You would like living in Greystones if you like

football, rugby, tennis, karate, running,

cycling, swimming and skateboarding.

 

You would also like to live in Greystones

if you were interested in music, drama or reading.

There is a very good library in Greystones.

Hi.jpg

 

Bye for now.

We hope you have a good week in school.

We will visit again, soon.

Remembering Caroline: The Greystones Bear and why it is there!

Occasionally on our blog we write about

past pupils of St. Brigid’s, Greystones.

Earlier in the year we told you about Emily’s Green Fingers 

and her contribution to our community.

 

Before that we wrote about Harry 

who is having great success musically.

We called that post ‘Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns grow’ .

 

Today we want to tell you about a girl

called Caroline Dwyer Hickey.

Caroline and her little brother Denis

came to school here with us in the 1980s

and they are both fondly remembered by the teachers

who were working here then

and by the school friends who were here too.

 

Caroline went on to become a primary school teacher

and she worked in another St. Brigid’s NS., in Glasnevin

where she was greatly loved.

 

Caroline went home to God on 20 March, 2013

after a brave battle against cancer.

 

She was a girl who was greatly loved

and people wanted to remember her.

In St. Brigid’s Glasnevin,

they are making the most marvellous mosaic

to commemorate her.

 

This brings us to the wonderful

and most magnificient Greystones Bear:

 

BeFunky_Underpainting_242.jpg

 

He looks even better in real life 😉

Caroline’s family gave the community of Greystones

the gift of this wonderful bear

in memory of Caroline.

The Beach Bear was created

by the talented sculptor Patrick O’Reilly.

 

The bear is taller than any grown up we know.

He is eight foot tall and two tonnes in weight.

He carries a bucket and spade

and he looks as if he is marching down to the beach to play.

We love him and every time we past we say hello.

There are always people around him, admiring him.

 

Family and friends of Caroline have also established

‘The Caroline Foundation’.

The ‘Caroline Foundation’ will raise funds for cancer research.

 

There is a Guinness World Record Attempt

being held on Sunday, 11th May.

The challenge is to join up the longest chain of ribbons

from Greystones to Bray along the Cliff Walk.

 

You can read about it here.

 

Why not join in!

We know children from this school

who are taking part.

The event is very well organized

and children will not be on the cliff walk,

better locations along the route

are being organized for them.

 

We wish the Caroline Foundation

every success in this exciting challenge

and remember our brave past pupil.

 

Photos of visit from Garda Liaison Officer with Mobile Unit: Great fun. ‘Real’ Education.

Today our good friend Garda Linda

came to visit in the new Garda van.

 

As always her visit was very interesting.

She is a good friend to us here in school.

The best bit was when

she locked us in the back of the van.

We also enjoyed when she turned on the sirens.

We hope Garda Linda come back soon.

We always enjoys her visits.

Learning about our Local History: ‘The Burnaby Heritage Weekend,’ Greystones.

For those of you interested

in the history of Greystones

and having a GREAT time,

 


Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Neil Dorgan via Compfight

 

‘The Burnaby Heritage Weekend’

 

is being held on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th August.

 

The organisers have planned

a whole lot of great events including:

 

a Burnaby Heritage Scavenger Hunt,

a photo exhibition,

an evening of music, poetry and story telling,

guided tours of The Burnaby,

a dog show,

 

a vintage day in Burnaby Park

with a children’s cricket match,

vintage games and bowling.

vintage portrait: little girls in white, from england
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Flam via Compfight

Everyone is invited to dress in Edwardian dress

and there will be a prize for the best.

 

Participating local cafes will be doing Edwardian High Teas.

 

Click on the link below to read 

all the details about where and when

these events are taking part over the weekend.

The Burnaby Heritage Weekend – What’s On?

 

The Burnaby Residents Association have an

excellent website which with information on

the history of ‘The Burnaby’ estate.

You can see it here.  .

 

We are interested in the history of Greystones.

Click here to see what we learned about

Colonel Frederick Burnaby. during the year.

Project Work: Famous People with links to Greystones

Projects about people, in history.

We are doing projects about people with links to Greystones.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: LEOL30 via Compfight

Our first project was about Isambard Kingdom Brunel

who was born in 1806.

He was an engineer who designed steamships, bridges and tunnels.

He engineered the railway line between Bray and Greystones.

This was a challenging job

as tunneling through rock was needed.

The arrival of the railway in Greystones

has made our town what it is today.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Nagesh Kamath via Compfight 

 

Next we are going to learn about Elizabeth Whitshed.

On Friday we learned about her husband Colonel Frederick Burnaby.

 

Lots of places in our local area are called after Colonel Burnaby.

 

Colonel Frederick Burnaby was a Victorian celebrity:

a soldier, adventurer, and writer.

He and his new wife Elizabeth Whitshed travelled

to North Africa on honeymoon,

but due to delicate health,

Elizabeth returned to Greystones.

She then moved to Switzerland for health reasons.

Colonel Burnaby was killed in action

(near Khartoum in Sudan) in 1885.

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/63948

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Living in Our Home Town

Today we made a podcast about

the advantages and disadvantages

of living in Greystones.

Senan was today’s interviewer.

The boys and girls in 2nd Class Room 6

could think of lots of advantages

and very few disadvantages.

We agreed Greystones is

a great place to live.

What do you think is  good about living in your home town?

Click on ‘Continue Reading’ below to tell us what you think.

 

 

Read more we have written about the town we live in here.

We live in Viking Meadow!

The children of 2nd Class, Room 6 were very interested

to hear stories about the history of Greystones.

 

Matthew lives in Rathdown.

He was amazed to hear that

people have been living in Rathdown

since the Stone Age.

 

Twenty years ago, a cliff near Rathdown

fell into the sea.

Among the rocks and earth,

people found Stone Age axe heads.

 

The children in 2nd Class, Room 6

were also fascinated to hear

that Vikings were in the area.

One of our favourite things to do,

when we have visitors from older classes

or students from Transition Year,

on work experience, visiting our classroom

is to challenge them to a game of Viking Quest.

Click on the link below to play!

BBC’s ‘Viking Quest’

We don’t always win this game …

but we usually do!

 

This is what we learned in class:

 

We know Vikings visited our local area because

 

1. Some of the local placenames

came from the Vikings.

‘Gata’ is the Viking word for road.

Windgates is the road

between Bray and Greystones.

Wicklow comes from

the Viking words ‘Vyking Alo’

which means Viking Meadow.

 

2. Viking coins were found

in the local area.

 

3. The monks wrote a book called

‘The Annals of the Four Masters’.

In it they said that there had been

a big battle nearby at Delgany in 1021 AD.

The King of Leinster beat

the Viking King, Sitric.

 

We think it is exciting that Greystones

has had such an interesting history

from the time of the Stone Age

and that Vikings visited here too.

 

Later we heard that a castle

was built at Rathdown.

We look forward

to learning more.

 

 

Seaside Scavenger Hunt

Today we went on a Seaside Scavenger Hunt.

 

This is what we collected:
New And Improved Seaside Scavenger Hunt

Choose only things that you can collect

and return safely and without damage

1. A small black pebble

2. A feather

3. A pebble with a hole in it

4. A mermaid’s purse

(dog fish egg case or whelk egg case)

5. A limpet (or part of)

6. A mussel (or part of)

7. A whelk (or part of)

8. Something beautiful

9. Some sea lettuce

10. A sea belt

11. Some bladder wrack

12. Something that makes a noise

13. A small white pebble

14. A pink flower

15. Something soft

16. A yellow flower

17. Something important in nature

(Everything in nature is important!)

18. A small grey pebble

19. Any part of a crab

20. Something that reminds you of yourself

21. A white flower

22. A sun trap (This is anything that captures the sun’s heat)

23. More than 100 of something!

24. Something that the sea has changed

25. A creature’s home

26. Something round

27. A big smile

At the very end, after we have showed each other what we found ,

we left what we found on the beach.

Leave only footprints.

Take away only memories!

Taya found a cowrie 🙂

which is a very unusual find on our local beach.

Well done Taya.

We sent away a ‘message in a bottle’. Maks threw it into the sea and we waved it goodbye.

 

 “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) 
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea”  

ee cummings

Mrs. Mooney’s Magical Sweetshop – Greystones

This review of Mrs. Mooney’s shop was sent in
on behalf of the children in 2nd class, Room 6.

Boys and girls you are famous!
Some of your letter about Mrs. Mooney’s Magical Sweetshop
was printed in today’s Irish Times.
Well done 😀

24 Reasons that Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special!

1.“My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is ‘Traffic Light Lollipops.’” (Noah)

2.“My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is you get a lot of sweets

for your money”. (Alexandra)

3. “Mrs. Mooney’s have the best sweets ever!” (Cian)

4. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is buying lots of sweets like candy floss, brain lickers, stickies, bon bons, pop rock, chewy strawberry sweets.” (Hollie)

6.“My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is that she remembers every ones’ names and that she has nice sweets” (Sinead)

7. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is she is so kind and generous” (Nadine)

8. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because Mrs. Mooney is nice and works hard. My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is the sour sweets”(Taya)

9. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is that you can buy apple bon bons. Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because Mrs. Mooney is so kind and friendly.” (Chloe)

10. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because I love the sweets there and Mrs. Mooney works hard.”(Stacey)

11. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because she is so nice to all her customers and she has a big selection.”(Laura)

12. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because you can get a big bag of ‘Toxic Waste’ (Don’t worry it’s not real!) for one euro” (Ryan)

13. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is ‘Alien Spray’” (Max)

14. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because she does a very good job (Jessica)

15. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is she is so nice and

everything is value for money” (Kate)

16. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is she’s cheap”. (Conor)

17. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because Mrs. Mooney is so kind. My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is that there is dog food there too. My dog Poppy loves it as much as I love the sweets there” (Ríona)

18. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is the candy floss and the bon bons and especially the stickies” (Paris)

19. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s shop is blue bon bones, candy floss and stickies and brain lickers, lollipops and pink bon bons”. (Sophie)

20. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s shop is everything in Mrs. Mooney’s but my most favourite thing is the stickies and candyfloss” (Billie)

21. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney is candyfloss”, from Luke.

22. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is very special because it is very nice. It is very low on price compared to Auntie Nellie’s sweet shop and much nicer than Auntie Nellies. My favourite sweet shop is Mrs. Mooney’s. I love and adore the shop because it is cheap and they are really nice”. (Sarah)

23. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because she has my favourite sweets. My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s shop is stickies and jelly snakes and jelly stats and alien spray and toxic waste and golf balls.” (not real… You can eat them!) (Micaela)

24. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because they have nice sweets. My favoutite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s shop is that the lady is so kind.” (Vagif)

We have made a slide show of this work also on Photopeach

24 Reasons that Mrs.Mooney’s Shop is Special

 

 

Our Favourite Shop

We LOVE Mrs. Mooney’s Shop. We go to school next door.

Round the corner is the local Secondary School. Even though they are big kids there, they like to shop there too.

First we love Mrs. Mooney. She is always smiling and has a twinkle in her eye. Mrs. Mooney knows all our names. She even knows our parents’ names from when they were little. Her own name is Bridie Mooney. Mrs. Mooney is 82 years old. She starts work every morning just a little after eight. She has been running the shop for nearly 60 years.

We also love the sweets Mrs. Mooney sells. We are very lucky to go to school beside such a special sweet shop. Fridays is a busy day for Mrs. Mooney when we go to buy a special treat for the end of the week.

There are the old fashioned sweets that our Mums and Dads used like to eat like apple bon bons, clove cubes and cola cubes, cough drops, bull eyes, jelly babies, Sherbet Dib Dabs and Jaw Breaker gobstoppers.

Mrs. Mooney shop has the look of a traditional old fashioned shop. The shop itself is famous because it starred in a TV advert for cheese

Mrs Mooney is famous in Our Town. She has been a Person of the Year.

Though Mrs. Mooney’s shop is old fashioned, it is modern is other ways. Mrs. Mooney keeps up with new sweets and playground crazes. We love her Traffic Light Lollipops and Marshmallow Men.

She sells Pop Rock that pops in your mouth and cool pops that turn your mouth blue. There is Candy Floss and Toxic Waste, both sold in tubs; one is very sweet and the other is very sour.

She also has a Facebook page!

Mrs. Mooney gives good value for money. She has one euro bags and two euro bags and we can pick and mix. Mrs. Mooney is patient with us while we choose.

The grown ups buy their newspapers there and she knows all their names too.

Mrs. Mooney is loved by her customers and we think this is the secret of her success.

2nd Class, Room 6

You can read more about Mrs. Mooney’s shop HERE

and HERE