Mr. Ó Braonáin and his 4th class were visited by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) recently to record a geography lesson being taught through Irish. Teaching subjects through Irish in English medium schools is called Content and Language Integrated Learning or CLIL. The NCCA would like more teachers see how this can be done. Both the pupils and Mr. Ó Braonáin passed the day with flying colours and we all look forward to the recording being published.
Continue ReadingSigns of Winter Outdoors
Fourth classes were out looking for signs of winter last week in the school grounds. They heard rooks, house sparrows and seagulls, saw holly, birch, dogwood and hazel trees and rubbed the bark on the birch trees. In another sign of winter, the day was cold, with temperatures around one or two degrees Celsius so pupils could see water vapour when they breathed out. The sap has gone from trees now so they will be dormant over the winter months.
Continue ReadingSlane Air Pollution and Bypass News!
We were delighted to hear the news that Slane may, at last, get a road bypass. Recently, pupils have been measuring levels of Nitrogen Dioxide, a gas which comes from car exhausts, outside the school on the N2 Slane to Collon road. The laboratory results are not good. Slane N.S. levels of Nitrogen Dioxide were the 16th highest out of 160 schools in the GLOBE research project. Also, the schools with higher levels were all in bigger towns and cities….
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