Berrings National School has had an amazing few weeks in terms of their sporting achievements. The Third and Fourth Class boys and the Fourth Class girls recently took part in their respective Indoor Hurling and Camogie blitzes that took place in Cloughduv. Both the boys and the girls fought off all of their opposing teams and came home victorious. Under the excellent guidance of their coaches, Principal Liam Walsh and Liz Hayes, the children proved that hard work and dedication pays off. We look forward to seeing both teams in action again at the Na Piarsaigh Hurling and Football Complex. The Infant Classrooms have been a hub of excitement in recent weeks. Aistear a programme that allows for children to learn through play has proved to be one of the most enjoyable experiences for both children and teachers. The Junior Infants have been learning all about Food. A Supermarket and Restaurant were set up in the classroom! The children created, sold and ‘ate’ all different types of food. The Senior Infants took the recent cold weather and used it as inspiration for their Aistear theme, The Antarctic. The classroom was transformed into a chilly environment topped off with an igloo! Berrings National School are extremely lucky to be involved in Project Spraoi for the second year running. Project Spraoi is a Health Promoting Initiative that aims to improve nutrition, increase physical activity and decrease sedentary time amongst Irish primary schoolchildren. Our co- coordinator Mai O’Leary has been invaluable to staff and children alike. She has introduced us to Huff and Puff Sessions which are short periods of exercise performed during the school day that aim to improve the children’s concentration. Mai has also been teaching the children about the importance of healthy drinks like water and milk. On Thursday 15th January, we the pupils of 6th class here in Berrings NS were treated to an interactive tour of the globally famous Tyndall Institute in Cork city. From our arrival, we were treated like royalty. In fact such was the huge welcome that we received, we felt like Queen Elizabeth herself, as everyone did their utmost to ensure we enjoyed ourselves. Our Tour began with a guided tour of Tyndall’s state of the art research labs. We were then introduced to the energetic and animated Richard, who patiently explained to us how circuits work, and how memory units have decreased greatly in size, even in the last decade. Silicon and its many uses in the world of micro-electronics, was explained. Richard explained to us that all scientists in the research labs wear protective suit called ‘Bunny suits’, to minimise contamination of the micro chips from human hair follicles, skin cells, sneezes etc. A fun race to correctly don these ‘Bunny suits’ was organised between our two teachers Miss Horgan and Mr O’ Callaghan – please see photo! Miss Karen McCarthy then involved us in various cool interactive experiments. We had great fun with magnetics, colour mixing, electrical circuits, and light spectrum experiments. We returned to school that afternoon, telling our younger classmates about our exploits. Hopefully this trip will inspire some of us, to study Engineering at third level, and in time maybe some of us might be lucky enough to work full time in a really cool place like Tyndall. Thanks to Mr. Padraig Hughes (our very own local obliging engineer) for organising this great trip for us.
