• World Book day
• Seachtain na Gaeilge
• The National Spelling Bee
• Friendship Week
• Safer Internet Day
• The Credit Union Quiz
• The Gorey Tidy Towns Programme
• The Blue Star Programme
• The Junior Entrepreneur Prorgamme
• Independence Week
• Sing Out Loud concert
• Local sports blitzes and competitions
• STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths

First Class loving some reading time during World Book Day

STEM Plaque of Excellence 2019

The school has been very busy this year working towards our STEM Plaque of Excellence 2019.  This is an initiative which looks at Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths within Gorey Central School.  We have worked very hard this year to improve our STEM learning opportunities.

Science

• The teachers have been busy teaching many exciting experiments to cover all aspects of the Science Curriculum.
• The children in 3rd class took part in the ESB Science Blast this year which saw them discover and learn all about magnetism.  They then brought their project up for display in the RDS in March where they were questioned and judged on their project.  They got to enjoy wonderful activities and shows while they were there and they came home with a fantastic award for the efforts.
• There have been school visits to Gorey Library as part of Science week so that the children could attend a workshop on  Electricity.
• The children in 3rd class are busy creating a new school garden at the side of the entrance to the school and growing fruit and vegetables as part of the Incredible Edibles Programme.
• There have been bug hunts and insect and bee hotels made.
• We had a magician come to the school to promote caring and sharing for our environment and those we share it with.
• Recently we have  had Lorraine Doyle, a Heritage Specialist from Heritage Ireland, come to the school to teach workshops about pond and river life and after Easter we look forward to our Heritage Field studies to Altmont Gardens to put what we learned into practice.

Technology

• The children have been busy using the school iPads to access educational games in the areas of Maths and for learning in projects and research.
• 6th class had a visit to Waterford Institute of Technology where they created robots and viewed a Supercomputer.
• There are workshops arranged for the junior end of the school in May during Tech Week to allow the younger children opportunities for Junior and  Senior Infants and Code Cracking for 1st and 2nd Class.

Engineering

• All children in the school took part in Lego workshops during Engineering Week where the children had to work together to design and build cities and harbours with Lego.
• The children in 3rd and 4th Class took part in the STEPS Engineering Programme this year which saw them create prototypes for their ideas and present them to the other classes and a visiting Engineer.  We had one finalist project within this programme.
• 5th and 6th class took part in JEP again this year which included team building work and their showcase day which was put on for the whole school community.

Maths

• During Maths week, the Senior Classes had access to IZAK 9 which is a large Maths resource which can be borrowed from the Enniscorthy Education Centre which allows for group work in Problem Solving and working together which the children love.
• Other classes did exciting activities for Maths weeks which also included Maths trails around the school grounds with their classroom buddies.
• 3rd and 4th Class did baking as part of maths and this included a new Cooking Programme called Cooking All Stars which teaches lots of aspects of food and allows the children opportunities to cook while learning basic cooking techniques for life.

Show and Tell

Probably the biggest thing that we worked on within STEM this year was giving the children opportunities to present their work to their peers, other classes, parents and the wider community.  This was done through the following:

• STEPS Presentation  Day for their peers and visiting Engineer and another day for the whole school in the school hall.
• The ESB Science Blast which took place in the RDS in Dublin.
• JEP Showcase Day for children, parent and teachers.