School Initiatives

Assembly

Assembly takes place every Friday. We present our Student of the Week awards to each classroom and our Líne Díreach award to the best class.

We communicate together about the seasonal/relevant happenings within the school and the wider community.

We communicate about Green School, mindfulness and extra-curricular activities. We share our learning and experiences with other pupils. We pray for those who need our prayers.

We celebrate the endeavour and achievements of pupils, past and present. Sometimes we have special visitors or themed assemblies like “The Toy Show” at Christmas and Ms. McMahon’s Science Fair in November.

Digital Literacy

We are very fortunate to have excellent Digital Learning opportunities in our school. We are well-equipped with Interactive White Boards and a set of ipads and laptops. The children in all classes use the ipads to enhance and enrich their learning and to develop valuable skills in Digital Literacy. The Children have learned to use Book Creator, take A.R. quizzes, make a Powerpoint presentation, create Vision Boards and do Project work.

PickerPals

1st and 2nd Class are engaging in the PickerPals Programme this year. We received a PickerPals pack from the PickerPals in September. This pack contained litter pickers, bin liners, gloves and instructions on how to safely litter pick in our areas.

We take it in turns each week taking the Picker pack home and litter picking in our area with our families. As well as this, we have monthly Zoom calls with our wider PickerPal community and leaders (over 2,300 schools nationally), compete in competitions, watch PickerPals TV, read PickerPal stories and complete exercises in our PickerPals workbook.

All of these activities are to teach us about how littering occurs and how we can combat it, through litter picking and spreading awareness of the importance of keeping our environment clean.

Accelerated Reader

The Accelerated Reading Programme has been rolled out to include 1st and 2nd classes this year. . It has been a wonderful success. Children are more motivated to read, for pleasure, at their level. Once they have finished reading their book, they take an online quiz which gains them points. These then accumulate to earn a prize/ homework pass in our rewards system . Parents can log into the Renaissance HomeConnect app through our KidsZone page to monitor their child’s progress.

You can click here to find out more about the Accelerated Reading Programme.

Green Schools

This year we achieved our first Green School Flag.The theme was Litter and Waste. We established our Committee and conducted a Survey to inform our Action Plan. We raised awareness within our community about the importance of protecting our environment. We collected batteries and picked litter within our community and the environs of the school. We used Digital Literacy throughout our campaign. We look forward to working towards our next Green flag .The theme is energy.

STEAM

Science, Technology, Engineering,
Art and Maths (STEAM).

All classes participate in STEAM activities throughout the school year. Senior pupils have really enjoyed working in groups to produce an object within a timeframe and meeting certain criteria, like a paper playground and a house that can withstand flooding. Pupils enjoy working with LEGO. Infants work on Aistear themed projects on a daily basis.

Aistear

Play is an integral part of the infant classroom. Children express themselves through play. Aistear is the curriculum that underpins our play. We do many different themes in infants including:  

The doctor’s surgery/hospital, The Library, The Arctic, Antarctica, Santa’s workshop, The restaurant/Hallowe’en café, Buildings, Minibeasts, Summer, The zoo and more.

Children are in various groups and go to different stations during Aistear, each of which has a different focus. 

S.E.N.
(Special Education Needs)

Social groups were introduced to Kilnamona N.S in 2022. They provide a supportive environment for children who would benefit with further interaction with peers to experience success in social situations. Social challenges may stem from difficulties in areas such as sensory or emotional regulation, anxiety, attention, and social communication. Covid 19 has also increased the number of children and adults who find social situations stressful. Relaxing music plays while the children make Lego, play cards, play chess or make jigsaws with their peers. We also have the luxury of a Sensory Room which all the children can enjoy, on occasion, or as the need arises.

Spellings for Me

Last year, 1st and 2nd Class engaged in the Spellings for Me programme with great success. This year we are rolling out the programme across the school. Spellings for Me is a very unique programme where students are working at their own individual level, learning and mastering words that they need to spell. Every 4 weeks, students complete spelling tests on their iPads to figure out what 48 spellings they need to learn. Over the next four weeks, we complete fun activities learning these spelling words, including drawing pictures for words, making poems and rhymes, writing stories and much more. The app for the initiative is available in the Kids Zone section of this school website.