All Saints’ National School participate in a wide variety of exciting educational initiatives.

Green Schools
All Saints’ National School is a proud green school. We have been awarded with 8 Green Flags. Our Green Schools Committee are currently exploring our next theme – Global Citizenship Travel

Lego Six Bricks
Meet Grobby! Grobby was delighted to welcome everyone back to school. He is our school teddy and he is named after each colour on his special superhero brick stack. This year we are delighted to participate in the Lego Six Bricks initiative. We are having lots of fun completing activities and tasks across the curriculum as we learn through play.

G -green – superpower = looking after the environment
R – red
O – orange
B – light blue
B – dark blue
Y – yellow

There was great excitement when we discovered Grobby has super powers! Grobby loves looking after the environment and he has been helping us to learn ways we can help to protect the world around us.

Italian Songwriting Competition
Our Senior Classroom entered a song competition ‘European Song by Children’ which is hosted in Trento, Italy. We are delighted to announce that we are one of ten winners chosen to produce and sing our song as a choir in ‘The Ice Skating Palace’ in Italy in April 2020! As a result of the current pandemic, the event has been postponed. We are immensely proud of our school on this fantastic achievement.

Book Fair
Each year we host a Scholastic Book Fair to celebrate ‘World Book Day’. All Saints’ National School encourages a love of books and reading throughout the school. The children thoroughly enjoy reading novels, celebrating famous authors, incorporating literature in cross-curricular themes and participating in story-time. We recently set up our own school library. It is a fantastic space for the children.

Active School Flag
We are currently participating in the ‘Active Schools Initiative’. All Saints’ N.S. educates our pupils on the importance of regular physical exercise. The children participate in a range of activities during ‘Active Week’ in the summer term. We also welcome coaches for a variety of sports and enjoy regular active movement breaks. The children are currently participating in Gaelic football lessons through Wicklow G.A.A. We have a large playground with a vibrant school garden, interactive play area, tarmac with playground markings, basketball stands and a grass pitch equipped with goalposts. The school occasionally hosts and participates in the ‘Diocesan Soccer Blitz.’ The pupils celebrate Sports Day with Kilcommon N.S. at the end of term.

Positive Mental Health – Amber Flag
All Saints’ National School actively promotes positive mental health among our school community, creating an inclusive and happy school environment. An emphasis is placed on teaching the pupils skills and methods to support their wellbeing. We host an action packed ‘Friendship and Anti-Bullying Week’ in the spring term. We participate in mindful activities such as colouring, deep breathing exercises, yoga for children, along with an array of fun and engaging activities for ‘Wellbeing Wednesdays’. We are currently working towards achieving an ‘Amber Flag’ under the Pieta House Initiative.

Biodiversity
As part of our Green Schools work, we have developed colourful and vibrant school gardens for our pupils to enjoy. The children created a fairy garden in front of our school with the addition of a wooden fairy door and woodland ornaments. The children painted miniature fairy doors which are on display. The front garden of the school was developed in 2005 as part of the Woolgreen Project. It is home to a wire sheep structure. The garden located in our playground has a minibeast hotel, compost bin, wildflower bed and creative displays. The walls were decorated by the pupils. We recently added a willow dome created by the pupils under the ‘Heritage in Schools Scheme’. The playground has become home to many creatures!

ESB Science Blast
Every other year the senior pupils participate in the ESB Science Blast event held in the R.D.S., Dublin. The non-competitive programme encourages pupils to explore and investigate the science behind a question. The pupils showcase their science project at the event and participate in scientific workshops. It is an enjoyable day out for all.

Peace Proms: Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland
Peace Proms is an educational music resource for primary schools. It invites pupils from schools located on the island of Ireland to participate in a large scale performance for choirs and orchestra in the R.D.S., Dublin. It is an exciting event and an amazing experience for all involved. The senior pupils look forward to participating in the event.

Coding Skills
All Saints’ N.S. uses digital technologies throughout the school. We encourage the pupils to engage with digital technology in a variety of forms to enhance their education. We are delighted to offer use of a device to all pupils in our school. The children are currently using Seesaw for homework activities and to consolidate learning. Seesaw is an interactive educational platform. The school purchased a set of Bee-Bots for use in the classroom. Bee-Bots are programmable floor robots which can be used in a variety of ways to teach and develop programming skills. The pupils also use Scratch to learn computer coding skills.