Academic Programmes 

Here in Glasheen Girls we deliver a broad range of programmes to support numeracy and literacy within the school. Children throughout the school are introduced to programmes such as Literacy Lift Off, First Steps Reading and Writing, Peer Tutoring and Paired Reading. Ready Steady Maths and Maths Recovery. The Aistear Programme is hugely popular in the junior classes.

Programmes such as Reading Recovery and Maths Recovery are also used in the school to assist pupils with difficulties in these areas.

Parental involvement is actively encouraged and we are delighted with the number of parents who come to visit the classrooms to play maths and literacy games with the children throughout the year.

Last year UCC students supported our  SUAS Maths Programme. This involved them visiting our school twice a week to work with a group of students and to foster a love of mathematics. Unfortunately, this programme had to be deferred this year due to Covid Restrictions but we look forward to this programme continuing once the restrictions are lifted.

Time to Read Initiative

Our school is involved with the Time to Read Initiative every year. This project links schools with the business community and we were delighted to be paired with the E.S.B. The aim of this initiative is to promote a love of reading in young children. Volunteers from the staff came to read with the pupils from second class on a one to one basis for a half an hour a week for a period of 20 weeks. Funding was supplied for the purchase of a wide variety of reading material and this scheme was a great success. We will be participating in this scheme again next year once Covid restrictions are lifted.

Special Education Team

We are fortunate in having an excellent Special Education Team in our school. These teachers work closely with the class teachers during Numeracy and Literacy lessons to ensure that every child is progressing in these areas and supporting children needing extra help.Every child in the school will have contact with this teacher at some stage. We also have  teachers  on the team to support children  whose first language is not English.

Creative Schools Initiative 

Our school were delighted to be one of the 150 schools selected for the pilot project supporting creativity for children. This programme is an initiative of Creative Ireland which puts the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives. Pupils of 3rd and 4th class have spent the final term of last year working with Gary of  GMC Beats composing and recording their own songs encouraging inclusion. Click on the links below to view these wonderful compositions.

Whoop Whoop Rang 3

Together as One Rang 4

Junior Entrepreneur Project 

Our school was awarded the JEP flag in June 2014 for it’s successful participation in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme. The aim of this programme is to encourage children to develop their entrepreneurial knowledge and skills while independently creating and establishing their own business and learning how to deal with all that entails. 5th class students usually participate in the programme. On awarding the flag,the organisers praised the 5th class pupils’ innovative ideas and sterling efforts in creating a business and running the company themselves. This programme was deferred the last two years due to Covid restrictions but will be resuming once restrictions are lifted.

In 2019 students from 5th Class and their teacher Ms. O’ Leary were invited to the RDS in Dublin to showcase their product ” Delightful Door stoppers”. This idea was a resounding success and the girls did trojan work to meet the demand for this product! The girls had conducted market research to help guide them and ensure their idea would work. They became members of teams according to what they felt best suited their skills and talents. The teams included: Design and Production, Sales, Finance, Marketing and Story Telling. They were delighted to have been shortlisted for the ” Marketing Guru Award”

Junior Achievement Programme 

This programme is delivered to classes from 1st to 6th. It involves representatives from the business community explaining to the pupils how a company works and the different roles there are within a business. This is delivered on a weekly basis over a 6 week period. Pupils learn the business terminology and explore what makes a business profitable. We have been very fortunate to have people from KPMG, Bord Gais , EMC and various other multinational companies coming to deliver the programme to the pupils.

Chess in Glasheen  

Two years ago we introduced our students to the game of chess. Pupils in 3rd and 4th class receive tuition each week from a chess tutor and are making great progress. This is an excellent game to develop their problem solving skills and also to play on a rainy day at lunchtime!

Get Up Stand Up Programme

Our school was chosen  to pilot this new social skills programme. It is an 8 week course to help prepare the 6th class students for secondary school and for life in general. It aims to enable the pupils to develop to their full potential and to enjoy life to the full.

Green Flags  

Here in Glasheen, we encourage our students to become environmentally aware and to show them how they can contribute to reducing our carbon footprint. Our Green Schools Committee is made up of students and adults from the school community and they work tirelessly to promote environmental awareness .We have been awarded many flags for our efforts and these include: a flag for Litter and Waste, a flag for Travel, a flag for Energy conservation, a flag for Water Conservation. We were also awarded a Blue Flag for European Studies.

Health Promotion in Glasheen

Mindfulness in Glasheen  

Two years ago pupils from Infants to 6th class were introduced to Mindfulness sessions by staff member Ms. Desmond. These sessions are enjoyed by all our pupils and are a wonderful way to teach young children  to develop coping strategies when they are feeling anxious and to help them to recognise the importance of  looking after their mental health. Last year was a very stressful year for the pupils and these sessions proved to be invaluable to help alleviate any anxiety they were experiencing.

Amber Flag 

In 2019, we were awarded the Amber Flag. This is in recognition of all our school’s efforts to make our school community a healthy, inclusive environment that promotes positive mental health.

Healthy Eating School

Glasheen Girls School (Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal), is a Healthy Eating School. In 2011,we were delighted to get our updated Nutrition Policy Certificate from the H.S.E.We would like to thank all those involved in updating this Policy.

We believe that eating habits which are formed in childhood affect us throughout our lives. Primary school therefore constitutes a critical time for promoting healthy eating.We base our Nutrition Policy on the Food Pyramid. We encourage the pupils to eat healthy foods and to be aware that these are tasty and cool to eat and need not be expensive. Our aims are the following:

• To encourage a positive attitude towards food
• To communicate the message that ALL foods have a place in a balanced diet
• To promote an awareness of healthy eating among children which will be of benefit to them throughout their lives

Current Practice

A free lunch is provided for all children at the school.Some children may prefer not to avail of this and these children are free to bring in their own packed lunch to school. Each child is offered a choice of bread/roll type,choice of filling,and whether or not to have butter.Fruit and a drink is also included and again a choice is available for both.A small treat is provided with each lunch which is chosen to reflect more healthy options e.g. a rice cake,a small muffin etc.).We encourage parents to choose less sugary treats.Children are discouraged from bringing foods from the top shelf of the food pyramid to school(e.g.bars,biscuits,fizzy drinks,crisps).Since top shelf foods are acceptable  in moderation,we suggest that on Friday,parents may give their child one treat to bring to school.

Children who prefer to bring their own lunch to school are encourged to bring one food item from each of the bottom four shelves of the pyramid to provide a balanced meal.

All children are encouraged to drink water throughout the day. In line with our new initiative to reduce plastic and waste, pupils are asked to bring their own water bottle to school.

On special occasions, such as school trips or school concerts,treats are welcomed and each class teacher advises the children what types of treat they should bring (which is relayed faithfully to parents,even by the youngest school goers!)

Important Information

In Glasheen Girls School,we have experience of children who suffer from food allergies, in particular severe nut allergies.The more serious types of food allergy include nuts and eggs.We understand that these foods are nutritious for those without an allergy and accordingly encourage the eating of them at home.However in respect of our own particular situation all nuts, nut products and eggs are strictly forbidden and parents have been informed that they are not to be brought onto the school campus.We have asked all our parents to be extra vigilant about this,as the potential consequences are so severe. We remind parents that many foodstuffs,including Nutella,cereal bars and some yogurts contain nut products and are therefore also prohibited. Similarly, we request that use of eggs as a sandwich filling is avoided.

Nutrition is taught throughout the school as part of Social and Personal Health Education (S.P.H.E.) Talks on diet and nutrition are given to all the classes. Information on nutrition and healthy eating, including images of the food pyramid, are displayed throughout the school.Children are reminded on a regular basis of the importance of healthy eating and promotion of our Nutritional Policy in school.

Digital Technology in Glasheen  

Interactive whiteboards are in all classrooms. These are an exceptional educational tool and enables the teacher to cater for all learning styles within the classroom. Pupils are enjoying using these boards and being actively involved in their own learning.

Tablets and Laptops in the classroom 

Here in Glasheen we believe that technology has an extremely important role to play in our pupils’ educational experience. Over the past two years we have made significant investment in improving our WIFI throughout the school campus. This investment has proved to be very successful  as it enables the students to access the internet at a much greater speed. We run fundraisers during the school year to help raise money for new devices and software and are extremely grateful to our wonderful Parents Association for all their help also.

We are fortunate to have a mobile trolley in our school containing laptops and iPads for use in the classroom. A time is allocated to every class and the children are given the opportunity to use these devices to explore a wide variety of software reinforcing what is being taught in class and also to create their own digital content. The older pupils are shown how to use the internet as a valuable research tool for projects and topics being discussed in class. They learn also to  critically assess the reliability of the information found on the internet and how to be a good digital citizen. They have created wonderful projects using a selection of apps. Videos and photographs of tours, visits and projects made during the year are a source of great pride to the students. This year we have purchased 35 chromebooks to be used in class by the 6th class pupils.

Coding in Glasheen

This year pupils will be introduced to Scratch, a programme used to write games, animations and stories. This is a wonderful way to develop their problem solving and communication skills.

Younger pupils will enjoy using BEEBOTS, A Bee–Bot is a colourful, simple-to-use programmable robot for young children. The robot is perfect for teaching simple programming concepts, controls, directional languages, sequencing, estimations and problem-solving.

Internet Safety

Here in Glasheen we are very conscious of the need to educate our pupils on how to use the internet safely. Regular lessons on cyber safety are given to the students as part of the S.P.H.E. Programme in school. During the year guest speakers are invited to speak with parents on this topic and feedback has been very positive. We celebrate Internet Safety Day in February every year in the school.

webwise is a very useful site for information on this topic.