Ennis National School

The Ennis Primary Schools Tribute Service for retired Bishop Willie Walsh took place in Ennis cathedral today, May 19^th.  Ennis NS choir and musicians took part under the direction of Ms. Carrigg, Ms. Corbett, and Ms. Lynch, and led all the assembled Ennis choirs in the beautiful “My Shepherd is the Lord”.

The Ennis National School quiz team performed extremely well last weekend in Ballincollig, Co. Cork. They came second in Munster in the National Parents' Council Quiz, under the watchful eyes of Mr. Maher and Mr. Enright.  

Well done to Rebecca Ludden, Stephen Maher, Ellen Bennett, and Sophie Gibbons for representing our school with distinction. An-éacht go deo!

On the 5^th of May 2011, Ennis National School had their first Golf Classic in Ennis Golf Club. There were seven teams made up of four students each. There were also seven adults to lead the teams. They were Dara Blake, Gary Roche, Garry Stack, Pat Vaughan, Kieran McDermott, Paul Talty and Bob O'Brien.The whole event was organised by Tom Glynn.

Pictured above is the winning team with event organiser, Mr. Glynn.

This competition was a scramble. It was nine holes and the scores were counted in shots. First place got plaques and three months timeshare in the trophy. Runners-up got a smaller version of the plaques. Well done to everyone who took part.

By Ross O’Flaherty

On Wednesday the 11^th of May, our school’s quiz teams competed in the Garda Quiz in St. Flannan’s College. We entered two teams of four. On the A team was Ellen Bennett, Sophie Gibbons, Stephen Maher and Rebecca Ludden. On the B team was Hannah Minogue, Grace Minogue, Chloe Eustace and James Nugent. The quiz began at seven o’clock. Both teams did very well and when the ten rounds were over we waited for the results.

We found out that both teams had tied first and there would be a tiebreaker! There were ten questions and at the end we found out we had yet again tied! There was one decider question asked: What is the longest month of the year? The answer is October because the clock goes back. So there is one extra hour in October.

Our A team answered this question correctly but unfortunately our B team did not. So Ennis National School placed first and second, and Clare Castle National placed third. We are very proud of both our teams. The quiz team would like to thank all the teachers who have helped us all year, particularly Mr. Maher, for giving up his lunchtime every day to train with us.

by Sophie Gibbons

The logic skills of students from 3rd to 6th class were tested recently in the School Draughts Challenge.There was a winner in every class plus some overall winners. Mr. McInerney presented them with their trophies and medals.

Frank Roche was overall Draughts Champion in 3^rd / 4^th class, and Sean Doherty was the 5^th / 6^th class and overall School Champion. Also pictured is Ennis NS Draughts organiser Mr. Vaughan.

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Ennis N.S. pupils are taking part in a research project for 10 – 12 year olds at the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College, Dublin. The DEFT study there believes that difficulties in the brain’s executive function system are at the core of dyslexia, and aims to address this through a computer-based brain-training programme.

Some pupils from our Reading Class travelled to Trinity College on May 5^th to become part of the project. At this initial visit, they completed pen-and-paper tasks, and computer tasks, while the electrical activity in their brains was measured using an EEG.

For the next eight weeks, the students will work on a specially-designed computerised brain-training program each day. They will then return to Trinity College and any changes in brain activity and task performance will be noted. The researchers are predicting an “unprecedented level of broad-spectrum improvements” as a result of this novel brain function training.

Trinity's School of Psychology has been named among the top 50 worldwide in the recently published QS World University Rankings 2011. We look forward to the results!