Last Updated: August 2010

Annual Class Educational Trips June 2010 Read trip reports, comments by pupils and watch slideshows of the trips.

Art exhibition 23rd June Something of a tradition is beginning to develop in JSS regarding ‘in house performances’ This tradition has arisen partly as the daughter of necessity but more significantly because of some very creative teaching and enthusiasm for the’ arts dimension’ of the curriculum. The desire arose to present parents with the school’s endeavours in regard to the arts with the minimum of fuss and effort and hence our early morning displays came into being. While one of our choirs and our Junior orchestra got their opportunity in May (in St Barts’s Church) our other choir under Mrs Van de Belt also needed a venue to perform. The teachers and especially Mrs Zanep O’Brien ensured that the work displayed was of a very high order. Pastels, chalks, mosaics all were represented in the display. So when parents had feasted their eyes and quenched their thirst, their hearts could be warmed by nigh on 60 children from 1st to 4th sang a selection of songs, all under the baton of Mrs Van de Belt. Below - Thatched Cottage by Maria Colfer, 2nd Class. More photos from the exhibition to follow....

Primary School Sports Days 11th and 23rd June View slideshows and read reports on these two fantastic sporting events.

Astronomy Ireland visit to the Junior School In early June, Astronomy Ireland were invited to John Scottus to give the children a talk. They gave two sessions, the first was tailored to the junior classes and the second for the older classes. Everyone including both adults and children were fascinated by their visual and informative presentation of the planets, stars and comets. Using a Powerpoint presentation they discussed planets and their moons, comets and other Solar System objects and of course our home galaxy, the Milky Way. They had a question and answer session which allowed the children to ask their own questions and to further discuss the topics that they were most interested in. They gave a brief history of astronomy and astrophotography and wondered would if any of the children would like to be Astrologists when they grew up! We think that they may have converted a few that day! They certainly managed to show us how astronomy is a very accessible hobby and how science plays a very important and fundamental part in our lives.

Updated: May 20th 2010

The students of the Performance Dance course, which is run after school on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are preparing for their performances ath Art In Action on the June Weekend. What will they be performing? 

Updated: 20th April

Spring Term Highlights

Notes from the Junior School Principal Includes reflections on the term - fund-raising for Haiti, lectures for parents and staff - and news of future events in the school. Read more.	Summer Coin Collection Dear Children, Thank you so much for the wonderful effort you put into the Pringles Fundraising last Summer.  You all did a great job & the total collected for your school amounted to an amazing €560.00. Mrs Telford has posted a suggestion box in the school where students can propose the best way of spending this money. We hope you will be happy to try again over the Summer months this year. You can collect your Pringles box from Sarah at the Office.
	World Book Day 4th March 4th Class Girls explored the wonderful world of picture books with Form 1 boys. View some photos of the pupils engrossed in their books. On World Book Day, 4th Class boys wrote book reviews. Read some book reviews - it might give you useful ideas for buying a book for a child of this age in the future!
Spring Term Philosophy Themes We had ‘Good Manners’ or ‘Rules for Living’ as our theme for philosophy this Spring term. As well as discussions in Assembly we used various stories to help develop this theme. However as with all things to do with children, things do not go in straight lines. Stories chosen to develop the theme often ended up sparking other ideas and issues for the children. The stories which caught the imagination of the children were ‘Parts of the Body’ and ‘The Four Masks’. Parts of the body was told to illustrate how unity and team work are fuelled by good manners. The story itself was so graphic that animating the parts of the body such as the stomach or the head captivated the interest and it gave rise to pictures from Form 2 and 1st class, acrostic poems from 3rd class girls. The story entitled ‘Happiness’ with strong fairy tail elements gave rise to the drawing of the butterfly from Eric in 1st class and the depictions of princesses and princes from Form 2 girls. King Solomon and the Bee was the inspiration for the vivid drawing of the bee from 1st class boys. View some work samples in the Philosophy Gallery.	The Four Masks - a story to activate the enquiry as to ‘Who am I’ spawned the self portraits from 1st class and 4th class girls. They depicted themselves displaying various emotions and relished being easily identified by their peers and teachers.
Recipes from the Junior School Kitchen Many students rave about the delicious bread and lunches which are prepared and served each day in the Junior School. The kitchen staff have kindly offered to reveal their recipes. Try these recipes for yourself at home.	Sanskrit Songs are now available to listen to on the school website. Vist the Sanskrit page.
Project Work 3rd Class boys have an avid interest in History and they really go for the ‘hands on’ approach. The photos in the Projects gallery are evidence of their work on the Vikings and Normans. Great work and imagination was put into the creation of Viking ships and shields and Norman Castles. All the class produced excellent work both written and 3D. 2nd Class Girls have studied the famous scientist, Thomas Edison and have presented beautiful work in their Project copies. Even a girl in Form 1 has produced a Project about here friends. View Spring Project Work Samples.
	Story Writing Stories are being written in words and pictures by boys and girls from Form 1 upwards. You can see the progress in self-expression as you look at work produced in older classes. Form 1 girls have been illustrating what they like to do, and considering Day and Night. Form 2 girls have the story of the Ugly Duckling (opposite) amongst other things. 1st Class have been writing their news. 2nd Class boys have been writing stories, given the opening line. Read more. 3rd Class Girls have written stories, inspired by a character called Mr Mack, in The Giggler Treatment, a novel by Roddy Doyle. They have produced drafts, editted and typed their stories. They have now been published in this booklet.
When I grow up.... In Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) class, Form 2 Boys have been remembering themselves as babies and considering what they might like to be when they grow up. View some of their ambitious plans!	by Form 2 Girls
	Form 1 Art As you walk through the school, there is always beautiful artwork displayed. Form 1 Girls produced Mosaic Mermaids and Form 1 Boys produced Daffodils. View Artwork Gallery for Spring Term
1st Class and 3rd Class Art 1st Class Boys enjoyed producing St. Patrick's Day fireworks and Clay Models of snakes. 3rd Class Girls are following a Drawing Programme devised by Mrs Siobhan Campbell and Mrs Mary Delaney (Art Teachers in the Senior School), for the Junior School. Recently they have produced pencil drawings of their hands, inspired by a study of Arms and Hands by Leonardo da Vinci. 1st Class Girls have produced beautiful artwork including pictures of hands and dancers. View Artwork Gallery for Spring Term
EBS/INTO National Handwriting Competition This competition is open to all national schools throughout the region and its focus is to keep the art of handwriting alive. Students are not being judged on content but the style, flair, neatness and layout of their handwriting. Pupils in 2nd and 3rd class used their best writing skills to transcribe a portion of the poem entitled "My Mum and Dad make me laugh". The best results were entered into the INTO/EBS Competition on February 26th. The National Prize giving ceremony will take place in Dublin on Saturday April 24. View samples of their work, along with 2nd class boys stories in their handwriting copies.
Form 2 Girls showcase their St Patricks Day Art.	Form 2 Girls study the Water Cycle
Fractions Quiz by 2nd Class Girls A flag has been divided into 12 sections. 2nd Class girls coloured each section in blue, green or red. Look at the flags coloured in by Leah (above) and Teia (below) and see can you answer the questions which were made up by 2nd Class Girls.

Junior Choir Highly Commended in Wesley Music Festival

Wesley College Interschools Music Festival 5th March 2010 Four choirs from John Scottus School competed in this annual competition. The Junior School Choir, conducted by Máire Ledwith Butler, competed in the Unison or 2 Part Primary Choirs competition. They were simply delightful and part of the magic of this group is that they compete in a competition with children who are generally 3-4 years at older than them. They do it with ease and style.The fact that they were placed 3rd out of 15 choirs was also heartening. Their two part rendering of ‘Sailing’ drew very warm comments from the judge : ‘A lovely tone from the outset... Good dynamic control and clear diction. A really good choice and beautifully executed.’   There will be another opportunity to hear these children in the final weeks of the summer term when a short concert will be staged in our yard ( weather permitting). Well done again to Maire, the choir and all the parents who make such sterling efforts to support them. A particular thanks to Michael Drayton for his continued help with the running of this choir. Read about the Senior School Choirs' performances as the Wesley Music Festival. Go to the JS Music homepage

Click on the Play button beside the song track title. A pop-up music player control box will appear at the bottom of the screen, which allows you to pause, rewind and control the volume as the music plays. Click the X on the control box to stop the music. Alternatively to download the song, right-click on the song title and Save the MP3 file to your computer. Sailing performed by JS Junior School Choir

Updated: November 11th 2009
Announcing Junior School Projects Page 

Every month, various pupils and classes are undertaking project work - historical, scientific, geography or cultural - researching information, producing written, illustrated and 3D constructions of their work. Where possible and practical, these beautiful work will be photographed and available for viewing by the pupils, their familiies and friends, and and interested visitors to the John Scottus website. What has been recorded so far this term?

October 2009

October has been a busy month with projects on the Maori culture and Science - for the Young Scientists Exhibition, no less!. There have been field trips to the Botanic Gardens and the National Print Museum, as well as the whole school fundraising walks around the city on Founders Day. Math-letics fitness is being enjoyed by 3rd class with Fractions. And of course, there was much evidence of the Halloween season in the school. Summaries of some of the active learning taking place are given below, but as we all know, a picture paints a thousand words, so click here to view more

What Happened in October 2009?

JSS 4th Class are on a journey of discovery: Autumn Fruits Capturing Light Each part of this project will be carefully documented and a final display will be created for the Young Scientist Exhibition at the RDS in January. Fourth class JSS will have the most excellent project in the Primary Category. See you all there in January 2010! 4th Class Project homepage	JSS 4th Class are on a journey of discovery: First stop: National Botanic Gardens (15th October) to learn about plants and why we study them. Over Halloween they will collect plants bearing autumn fruits and preserve them as herbarium specimens. Each plant species will be studied: the names and their meaning, role folklore and culture, medicinal and food uses, etc.  Fiona Doris kindly published photos from this trip on the web. Click here to view. Comments from the students below: We went on a trip to the Botanic Gardens. We visited the 'herb erium' and there were some amazing sights. In a green house we say a daisy. Did you know it has 150 flowers in it? Did you know that its name is really 'Days eye' ? This name arose because this plant opens up during the day and closes at night like our eyes. Tamilore, Eve. The biggest seeds come from Psalm trees Luan,Kiya There are millions of plants in Ireland Roisin It is fascinating to know that you can find out where trees come from. Aisling I found it interesting to see the pressed flowers and to discover how they are made. Rida
Philosophy Lessons Form 2 Boys undertook experiments with Mosaic work.   Does it make a difference if we work in silence or if we chat while we work? 4th Class Girls have been expressing what it means to be quiet in a Haiku poem.
	Mathletics Maths is going well in 3rd class. Fractions are the current topic of interest. Some comments from the students 2/8 = 1/4 That's amazing. Cian I love knowing that 1/4 is bigger than 1/8. I learnt that 8/8 is one unit. Blue It is good to know that 1/2 = 2/4. Jack Now why not have some fun with practising on the  Woodlands Junior School Maths Zone on-line?
Junior School Open Day - 16th October There were beautiful displays of Handwriting, Maths, Gaeilge, Art and Creative Writing for the School Open Day throughout the school. Congratulations to the teachers for compiling this work. Current parents were very impressed.
Happy Halloween to all! 3rd and 4th Class had a party and the costumes were great. Form 2 Halloween Display below.	Trip to the National Print Museum On 16th October, 1st class girls made a trip to the National Print Museum and to the JS Senior school for lunch. A parent, Fiona Doris, kindly took photos and published them on the web. Click here. Comments from the students below: Isabelle: we printed our name like the way they did in the olden days. Cara: we made hats and we decorated them. They were Printers' hats Delfine: We got to use different kinds of stamps to decorate our hats with. Nada: We got sequence to put on our hats Saoirse: They gave us workbooks Sasha: We printed stamps on strips of paper Keelan: We put our own names on the hats Gigi: Best bit of all was lunch in the Senior school. The food was brilliant

September 2009

The month of September has seen the pupils of the Junior School settle back to school well and produce some wonderful work on a range of formats. The noticeboards in the school corridor and in the individual classrooms are displaying beautiful artwork and creative writing, as well as photographs of Pupil of the Week.

A small sample of this work - not selected by merit, but simply as a 'taster' of the fantastic work being done by students with guidance from their teachers - was recorded with a digital camera on Monday 28th September and it is shown in the School Gallery. 

What happened in September 2009?

Form 1 Boys have used a range of materials to produce Busy Bees artwork.	Form 1 Girls  have produced Artwork based on the story of The Ugly Duckling.
Form 2 Girls have been drawing pictures of their Favourite Place in the School. The Secret Garden was the clear winner, and, surprisingly, Mrs Telford’s office was chosen by two pupils!	Form 2 Boys have already being doing Clay modelling. This time round they are demonstrating fantastic precision, creativity and accuracy in their colouring of Geometric shapes.
1st Class Boys have created Clay Models, using a Dutch House as a model. The Art theme for this term is Building.	1st Class Girls have been creating wonderful collages of My House and Garden.
2nd Class Girls have started writing as Gaeilge (Irish), (emphasis was on Oral work up to this year) and are really enjoying the new challenge.	2nd Class Boys have been writing stories about Monkey and Papa God.
3rd Class Boys have been learning about myths and heroes and have constructed Trojan Horses.	3rd Class Girls have each produced a Timeline of their lives so far. School Gallery
4th Class boys constructed Ziggurats. Curious? Read on....	4th Class Girls have constructed models of Crannógs. They have also been writing Acrostic Poems. What is an Acrostic Poem?? Acrostic poems are where the first letter of each line is the title of the poem. Go to School Gallery...

Do you know all the Class Teachers names this year? 

Junior School Teachers 2009/10

Form 1 Boys	Ms Elizabeth Byrne
Form 1 Girls	Ms Julie Russell
Form 2 Boys	Ms Áine Murphy
Form 2 Girls	Ms Niamh Griffin
1st Class Boys	Mr Cónall Clancy
1st Class Girls	Ms Mary Kelleher
2nd Class Boys	Mr John Flaherty
2nd Class Girls	Mrs Bernadette Wynne
3rd Class Boys	Ms Yvonne Diffley
3rd Class Girls	Mrs Margaret Dempsey
4th Class Boys	Ms Anne Casey
4th Class Girls	Ms Rebecca Carroll