Boher National School

Little Green Fingers at Boher NS. April, 2025

The pupils of St .Ciarans NS have gained great gardening experience in recent weeks. This has been made possible by many groups in the local community including Ballycumber Tidy Committee.

The pupils have been busy in our new poly tunnel. The poly tunnel was funded by the Parents Association. It is a great resource for our school raising awareness of biodiversity and healthy eating. Our caretaker Alex has put an outdoor tap near the tunnel and he has given us a helping hand along the way.

At the end of last year, Emer and Brian Doherty, Eddie Buckley from the Tidy Towns Committee and Eamon Larkin and Carmel Gately representing the school, took part in a ten hour course run by Heritage Ireland. Emer drew up a plan called Busy Little Fingers to develop the tunnel. We were delighted to receive funding from Heritage Ireland for seeds, compost, tools and a gardening workshop. 

On December 8^th The Tidy Towns organised a Willow Workshop was given by Astrid from Burren Beo, Co, Clare, in the school it was attended by Parents and pupils, and on the day a beautiful willow dome was erected. 

In March Deborah from Moores Nurseries did a workshop with the school's garden committee. The committee has pupils from various classes. The gardening Committee and lots of other pupils planted lots of vegetable seeds in the tunnel and flowers in the window boxes. Mooney's vegetables also donated compost and seeds. 

At the moment we are taking part in the school garden competition through the Tullamore Credit union. Fingers crossed we might be successful. We would like to thank Siobhan and Caitriona for the donation of seeds.

The Mens Shed helped by moving planting beds to the tunnel and they also built a raised bench and storage shelves for seed trays in the tunnel. Kevin and Frank delivered these during the week.

The Tidy Towns Committee also presented the school with a beautiful bird table. Lots of lovely birds visit the table every day. The Parent’s Association generously donated bird seed for the table.

At present we are working towards getting our Global Citizenship Green Schools Flag. The local community have demonstrated great citizenship at community level and this links in with an awareness of being a good citizen at a global level. 

St. Ciaran’s Mixed Ns were delighted to welcome Offaly footballer and hurler Lorraine Keena to the school on Friday 14^th March to raise our Active Flag. During the ceremony, Principal Mr McKeon, Teacher Fiona Murray and pupils of the Active School committee read speeches detailing the work that has been done to date to attain Active Flag status.

The aim of the Active Flag initiative is for schools to be more active, more often whilst promoting health and wellbeing within the school community. The pupils participated in Active Schools Week, completed a school marathon covering 42,195 metres collectively, completed a block of Athletics with Offaly Sports partnership last year in the Sports Hub in Ballycumber, did the ‘Jump for June’ skipping initiative and this year have done taster yoga sessions, rounders and jiving lessons as part of Active and Wellbeing week in the school.  During the ceremony, Mr McKeon also raised the Bí Cínealta Flag, symbolising the school’s commitment to kindness. 

The final part of the ceremony was a medal presentation to the Boys Cumann na mBunscol Winning team who won their final against Clonbullogue last October in O’ Connor Park.

The children wore green on the day to support Go Green for LauraLynn , supporting children and familes in LauraLynn Children's Hospice. 

The staff and pupils of St. Ciaran’s Mixed Ns School wishes to sincerely thank and acknowledge Lorraine Keena for attending the ceremony and making the event so special and memorable for the pupils and staff of St. Ciaran’s Mixed Ns. Also a big thank you to all the parents who attended on Friday morning to show their support and to celebrate this huge achievement with all the children, teachers and school staff.

Jiving Lessons

Go Green for LauraLynn

Our 4th and 5th classes attended the Roscommon Arts Centre last Wednesday 4th December, for the Roscommon Mini Motion Picture Film Festival. They had the opportunity to watch the screening of our school film "Down with that Sort of Thing" along with work from other schools. This initiative was made possible through the generous financial support of Creative Schools and Roscommon Arts Council. 

There was also a prize of Samsung tablets and also a 55" Samsung interactive screen, to be awarded to the overall winners. We are delighted to announce that we are the overall winners! A Samsung representative will come to the school in January to present us with all of this IT equipment. We are beyond thrilled and we are so thankful to the children, their teachers, Lee from Shuttermaniac Productions, and to anyone else who was involved in this production.

Well done everyone!

Christmas Shoe Box Appeal: 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Team Hope Shoebox Appeal this year.

Behind every box is a child who you have helped make smile. 

Visit from St Manchans Ladies - Friday 8th November, 2024

We were delighted St Manchans Ladies joined us today to celebrate their historical wins over the past few weeks. After months of hard work, dedication and teamwork, they have claimed back to back Minor A titles and back to back U16 A Shield finals. Huge shoutout to our past students who were involved. Minor: Claire Flynn (JC), Amy Lehane, Kara Daly, Aine Flynn, Heather Touhey, Avril Flynn, Emily Rudge, Ruth Carroll, Lucy Champ.

U16: Kara Daly (JC), Aine Flynn, Avril Flynn, Heather Touhey, Ruth Carroll, Emily Rudge, Grace Casey, Caragh Connelly, Jenna O’Meara, Mella Casey, Faye Robinson, Megan Kelly and Hallie Dunne.

Congratulations to all involved and we wish them all the very best in the future.

We are also proud to congratulate Kara Daly who made it through to 2 All Ireland National Cross Country events, with the Tullamore Harriers and the Ireland’s Cross Country Team. We wish her the very best of luck on the 17^th November where she will be returning U18/U20 Even Age in Enniskillen and also on the 1^st of December in Tramore in U17 Uneven age.

Halloween 2024 

Congratulations to our Boys Football D - Autumn 2024 Champions! A fantastic game of football against Clonbullogue. Commiserations to our Girls Football C who put in a fantastic effort against Rhode (especially the last 5 minutes!). Well done to everyone involved.

Welcome to our new Junior Infants 2024 - 2025

Active Flag Accreditation 25th June, 2024

On Tuesday 25th June Boher Ns received Active Flag accreditation and were proudly presented with their Active Flag. The Active Flag Committee and the students of the school worked so hard all year to increase their levels of physical activity and movement, ensuring every child in the school is active for 60 minutes a day, everyday! The Active Flag Committee organised lots of events to encourage physical activity, including 'Fitmas', the 'Fitter Younger Marathon' which raised a total of €3325, Active Schools Week, school walks, Jump for June, and Active Schools Week to name but a few. This is a superb achievement for our school and our Active Flag will hang with pride on the school grounds to remind pupils of their hard work and Active endeavours. 

Special thanks to the Active School Committee Emer, John, Joe, Caoimhe, Shauna, Max, and to Active School Coordinator Fiona Murray. 

Offaly U14 All-Ireland winners

We were so delighted, Offaly U14 All-Ireland winners + St Manchan's Ladies players Mella Casey (former pupil) + Tubber's Diana Heavin visited our school with the U14 Leinster + All Ireland trophies along with their coach Richie Dunne. Big congratulations to all involved in this amazing achievement.

Offaly U20 All Ireland Hurlers

We had a visit from Offaly U20 All Ireland Hurler, Donal Shirley on Wednesday 19th June, 2024 with the winning cup. The children enjoyed getting their photo taken with Donal and the cup and also a lovely treat afterwards of delicious gingerbread men (designed with the Offaly crest) and a drink, kindly donated by Ballycumber GAA Club.

PE Equipment

Special thanks to our Parents Association who have recently bought some well needed PE equipment. With the help from Ms Murray and our Active Schools Committee, our PE press is now full to capacity with brand new Pop up goals, Scoop rackets, Frisbees, Hurdles, Basketball, Tennis Balls, Hula Hoops, Skipping ropes etc. The children are delighted to have all this brand new equipment. Once again, many thanks to our Parents Association who are doing trojan work for our school.