St. Oliver Plunkett School, Malahide

September is traditionally the month of the All-Irelands as the various GAA competitions are brought to their conclusions and excitement is at fever pitch in the counties which are in the Finals.  This year Ollies is getting in on the act as we await Sept 28th and the Ladies All-Ireland between Dublin and Cork.  Ollies is no stranger to having past pupils as members of finalists panels but this year, for the first time, we will have a member of staff playing for Dublin.

On the Dublin Panel are Past-Pupils Sinead Aherne, Nicole Owens and our very own Miss McEvoy. Sinead is a household name in GAA circles with many accolades, including All-Stars and Man of the Match under her belt.  She is a stalwart of Dubs sides reeking up an impressive taaly – feared by all who have to protect or defend the nets.  Nicole has true grit, impressive in possession with great ball control and hard to catch when in full flight and like Niamh, she too was on many winning sides when in our school.

Niamh has been playing GAA since she was in First Class and cut her teeth in competition while in 5th and 6th class being a regular panel member of both the Boys Teams (under Mr Curran) and the Girls Squads (under Ms Dixon).  She proudly recalls that she has double medals from the boys teams, winning in 5th and 6th, but narrowily missed out on second girls medal in 6th class after winning in 5th.  From Ollies she progresed to St. Sylvester’s GAA Club and within a short space of like, like her counterparts from Ollies, she was coming to note in Dublin GAA circles.  Mr Curran remembers all three players vividly and says that he never had any doubt they would go on to better things.  On Niamh he recalls her as an all rounder with great speed and skills who could take on all comers, and that hasn’t changed now that she is one of the Jackies.  Niamh hopes that our Principal, Ms O’Connor ( hailing from the Rebel County) won’t be too upset when the Jackees win on the 28th.

We hope many parents will go to Croker for the Final to support the Dubs especially our Past Pupils.  It is always a great family day.  We wish the girls well and hope the Dubs will bring home the cup.  So lets hear your roar:-

Double click on picture below for full version

Are you aware of the full range of events and activities that are organised by the teachers and parents in school, or by outside groups, which are availble to all our pupils.  The full list is exhausting and covers all types of sport including Gaelic Football, Hurling, Soccer, Basketball, Cricket, Rugby, Swimming, Tennis and many more.  Outside of sport you can join Irish Dancing, all types of Music Lessons, Taekwondo and a variety of other pursuits.

All information for these activities is on our website www.stops.ie, or on our Parent Association page www.facebook.com /stopspa, and also in our schoolnews.  So as we get off to a great start this year, make sure you are up to speed with school information.  And if you all this activity is not your cup of tea and you prefer the leisurely activities, watch out for announcements of the various events organised by the Parents Association where you will have a great opportunity to meet many other parents and even enjoy a coffee on the house.

Welcome back everybody.  Biggest welcome to our new Junior Infants.  They were in early on first day and lost no time settling into school.  A great welcome also to pupils joining the school in other classes.  We hope your time with us will be enjoyable and productive.  We also welcome back Ms Dunne who was on Career Break last year.

Everybody settled in very quickly and by 9.30 it was like as if we had never been away.  Well done everybody and good luck in the year ahead.  There will be lots to do and lots to learn.  For more pictures click here.

It still quiet in and around Grove Road but the sense of anticipation is at an all time high as we await the arrival back of all our pupils, well rested after the summer and, no doubt, eager to get stuck in to another year.  We look forward to meeting all our newbies, especially the Junior Infants.  There will be lots happening all year and we invite you to keep visiting our Blog and web page to keep up to speed.  No doubt, the biggest story this year will be the start of our eagerly awaited new school.  We’ll keep you posted on how that is developing

Members of the Building Subcommittee were delighted with the response from our pupils for the Entrance Design Competition.  There were many and varied suggestions from our pupils. Some of these are already planned and some, sadly, fell outside the scope of what is possible.

The Committee had a difficult task deciding, but they have chosen four entries which show great promise.  They would like to keep the suggestions as a surprise until the building stage but can announce who the the four entries are from.  The design that was chosen as winner and will be forwarded to the Architects for inclusion came from Isabelle Oppermann(5th class).  Elements of the other three entries will be incorporated into the design and these entries were from Ellie Brady(6th), Sophia Boisse(3rd) and Noah Moore (JI).

The winning designers were announced by Ms O’Connor at the recent Assembly.  She said how great it was to see so many budding architects among the pupils and how exciting it was that our pupils had some input into the final design of the new school.  Who knows what great things lie in store for them.  We look forward to seeing their work when the school is built.