Inter-school Sports

Inter-school Sports

The months of April and May have introduced a hectic schedule
of inter-school sports competition for the pupils of St. Joseph’s.

On April 25, two teams from the school, - a boy’s team and a girl’s team - took part in the Ribena 5-side soccer competition in the Salthill Devon’s grounds in Galway. Both teams competed well with the girl’s team in particular unlucky not to advance to the finals.

On the hurling and camógie front both teams have completed the round robin series with the boys team having advanced to meet Creagh N.S. in the semi final. We wish them the best of luck.

MadLab Science Show Visits Our School

As part of Galway Science & Technology Week, our school benefited from a visit by the famous 'Madlab Science Show' of Britain.
All pupils from Junior to Senior levels got an opportunity to create their own electronic models using soldering irons and materials that consisted of electrical circuits and metal parts.
These operational units included sets of functioning traffic lights, clown's faces that light up and a lie detector that actually worked!

' Birds in our Locality' Project

In 2005, St. Joseph's National School was selected by the Galway Education Centre and Galway County Council to be one of 15 schools participating in a Heritage Council-funded countywide 'Birds Project'.
(Photo shows two senior pupils placing food on our bird feeder)
The project begins!- Arrival of a Bird Table
Dr. Daire Ó hUallachain, an ornithologist from National University of Ireland Galway, assisted the pupils in developing a programme to study birds in our locality.

A bird table was provided that allowed us to attract in birds to St. Josephs thus giving us an opportunity to view them up close.
This was very popular with the pupils as it allowed us to see at close quarters the amazing variety of birds that live in the vicinity of the school. These included blackbirds, magpies, crows, thrush, wrens, blue tits and our favourite, the Jay.

Daire lectured us on what was needed for inclusion in our project. We learnt about the anatomy of birds, the types of habitats suitable for different species, about eating habits, about those birds that visit Ireland each summer and those that staying during the winter. He asked us to take notes of the birds that visit the feeder table each day and to undertake ongoing studies of the most popular birds that inhabit Woodford.

Wildlife Habitats
The area surrounding St. Joseph's offers a rich variety of habitats (or living areas) for birds. We have a fine river with a lake nearby, lots of hedgerows and stonewalls surrounding farmland. At the back of the school is a large field that is left uncut for most of the year thus offering a haven of wild flowers and grasses for birds and other wild animals. Most significent of all is the large woodland directly behind this field. It is full of large old trees and shrubs and is populated by many birds.



Deep in the woods is an ancient place of pilgrimage -
St. Anne's Well with its famous grotto.
For over a thousand years, people came her to pray and to offer gifts to St. Anne.





Drystone Wall Habitat
The picture on the right shows part of an extensive stonewall system that surrounds many fields near St. Joseph's school.

If you look closely at the picture, you will see moss, shrubs, flowers and trees- it provides an excellent home and a feeding ground for many wild animals including some birds to live and to eat.





Planting Trees in Our School Grounds The pupils were also involved in a tree planting programme within the school grounds. In the future our efforts will provide new and further living environment for birds.
Trees are also essential to maintaining an atmosphere for the all living things. Trees absorb green houses gases and produce oxygen the essential basis for all land and air animals including man.



Transforming our Research of Birds into Words & Pictures
Our class teacher and school principal- Bríd Uí Mhainnín - acted as project manager.
She divided the class into individuals and small groups and allocated each a different bird to study. We were allowed to use library books, the Internet and our own experiences to put together an information and scientific report. The names of each bird type had to given in Irish as well as English. This proved of great benefit to our understanding of birds as the Irish names often provided invaluable information on the charactertics of individual bird species. For example 'Jay' in Irish is known as 'Scréachóg' which translates as 'young screamer'- a perfect description of this little animal!


Anatomy of a Bird
Some of the pupils had the very interesting task of finding out everything possible about the skeleton and body parts of birds..
Questions and drawings were then presented as a class quiz.

Attractive Front Covers for Reports

Many of the pupils

produce lovely covers for their Project Report books using colour paper, cut-outs from magazines and their own drawings and paintings

Scientific Information on Bird Species

Each report provided information on specific bird species including measurements, colour, sounds, eating habits, reproduction and habitat.

A few example illustrates the hard work undertaken by the pupils of St. Joseph's.

The Cuckoo is best known for laying its eggs in the nests of other birds. it just won't go to the bother of building its own- the lazy creature!

This sample is of the colourful Blue Tit, one of the common visitors to our school garden.

The Thrush is one of the best known of the Irish songbirds. Gardeners love it as its favourite food is snails!

Invitation to Exhibit at the Galway Science & Technology Festival

Brendan Smith from the Galway Education Centre visited our school last autumn. He was so impressed with our project that he invited us to exhibit our bird works at the very popular Galway Science & Technology Festival held each November in Salthill, Galway City. Brendan said that this event is one of the largest one day science festivals in Europe and thousands of people will be able to view our stand.

We said yes and we produced a series of very attractive posters for the exhibition. Our principal, Bríd Uí Mhainnín, had her husband Joe loan us a large number of stuffed birds that we could use as eye-catching displays. Joe is an experienced taxidermist who informed us that all the animals that he stuffs and mounts died from road accidents or natural causes.

The Festival was an outstanding success for the school. Loads of people visited our exhibit and were very impressed with our knowledge of birds, our colourful art work and Joe's stuffed birds.

Bird Visitors to Our Science Exhibit!

We were delighted to get a visit for a real life Goshawk. These fiercesome raptors can even eat birds as large as woodpidgeons.

But this Goshawk probably was very disappointed to find out that the stuffed birds at our stand would not form his next meal!