Minister Katherine Zappone, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs visited St.Kilian’s Junior School in Kingswood on 18th October.
The Minister was warmly welcomed to the school and she was shown some of the mental health initiatives that St. Kilian’s JNS have been involved in.
The visit proceeded to Ms. Emer Bradley’s senior Infant classroom where the children sang for her and danced to Go Noodle. The Minister joined the children in their dancing, much to their delight! Ms. Wendy Bradley’s class were engaged in Mindfulness with staff member Ms. Rafferty and once again Minister Zappone actively engaged in the programme. Ms. Black’s pupils were working with Aistear resources and were dressed up as witches, fireman and construction workers. They were delighted to display their junior engineering and play skills. The Minister was shown braille work and enjoyed having braille read to her. The green schools committee talked to the Minister about climate change and what they could do to prevent it. Ms. Magee’s class spoke to the Minister about her work and asked her lots of questions.
As it was Maths Week, several children spoke to her about their maths eyes work and their success in the national competition. Many children were out and about on their maths trails during the day and some pupils talked about their maths estimation challenge, guessing how many sweets were in the jar. Ms. Carr’s class displayed their coding skills and the Minister was shown how the children develop their code.
Minister Zappone spoke to the staff and kindly affirmed all the inspirational work and the diversity of initiatives going on in the school. The visit was a lovely occasion and created lots of excitement among the children and staff.
See photos of the event below:
