Junior School News October 2025
Preschool Lower
The Preschool classes were lucky enough to receive some brand new outdoor play equipment and they couldn't wait to test it out. We used cups, buckets, spades, sieves and spoons alongside the new equipment and it kept us very busy.
The girls enjoyed using the mud kitchen and sand pit to play in and make sandwiches and mud pies. We enjoy this type of play as it helps us to understand measurement, pouring and other fine motor skills. Being outside is also great for learning about nature and our natural environment.
KG Upper
We’ve had such a wonderful few weeks in class! In English, the children have been learning new sounds like ai, ee, or, z and w, blending them into words and diving into our new story Room on the Broom. In Maths, we’ve been busy counting, sorting data at our Teddy Bears’ Picnic, and creating colourful patterns with beads and cubes.
In Gaeilge, we’ve been learning all about An Scoil—naming classroom items and practising simple Irish phrases through songs and play. We’ve also explored autumn and talked about kindness and sharing in SPHE. The children have loved our Aistear play themes—Supermarket and Hallowe’en!
It’s a joy to see how much confidence and creativity is shining through each day!
J1
In preparation for Hallowe’en, we have been learning all about pumpkins in J1. We have learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin from seed to sprout, vine to flower, green pumpkin to ripe orange which some of us presented on in assembly. We also worked in groups on a scientific investigation of our very own pumpkin and demonstrated good teamwork as well as scientific investigation skills to analyze the shape and size of our pumpkins. Happy Hallowe’en to everyone from J1!
J2R Assembly
On Tuesday, 14th October, J2R performed a student-led assembly. This is an opportunity for half of the class to present their work to the whole Junior School. Later in the year, the other half of the class will have their opportunity to take part too. Our assembly was about character strengths. The strengths included-creativity, love, kindness, leadership, fairness, self control, forgiveness and love of learning. Each girl selected a character strength which was important to them and they explained this quality and created a poster to illustrate the meaning of this trait. The girls spoke clearly and confidently. They should be very proud of themselves. Well done!
J2W Class Assembly
Over the last few weeks, J2W have been investigating how geometric and organic shapes have been used in art. They studied the work of Kandinsky and created their own abstract art based on his work. They learnt that Kandinsky felt that colours and music were intrinsically linked and so in English, they wrote poems where they imagined what colour each day of the week could be. J2W ended their project by excellently presenting their work at a class assembly.
J3R
J3R have been busy settling back into the new school year and preparing for Hallowe’en.
During SPHE lessons, the girls have reflected upon and discussed their own personal strengths as well as the qualities needed for good friendship. The girls formulated some ‘friendship soup’ recipes. We have also done some fun art lessons, creating colourful leaves and pet rocks!
J3W October News
October has been a very creative and busy month in J3W. In English, we have been focusing on procedural writing. The girls particularly enjoyed following and writing recipes, and some even baked delicious autumn apple and cinnamon muffins to share with the class. The room smelled amazing, and their enthusiasm for baking was wonderful to see!
In Maths, we explored the topic of data. The girls learned how to collect and record data in different ways, and some created their own line graphs to show how long they spend doing various activities in school.
A highlight of the month was our class assembly on Friday, October 10th. The girls spoke confidently about Irish Myths and Legends, sharing stories such as The Salmon of Knowledge and Cúchulainn. I was so proud of their clear speaking and teamwork — the whole school was very impressed!
It has been a fantastic month of learning, creativity, and growing confidence for all the girls in J3W.
J4W
This week in J4W, as part of Maths Week 2025, we have been trying to solve a series of challenging problems! As well as our normal maths tasks, the girls have been working in small groups to develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills to move counters, break codes and rescue chickens from hungry foxes! We have been really impressed with the girls' tenacity and determination to solve these problems, while working as a team.
Drama Party
On Thursday 16th October, our Junior School Drama Captains met the Transition Year Drama Reps for some fun, games and snacks! Zoe O’B (TY Drama Rep) shares a little about the fun the girls had below!
As Transition Year Drama reps for the Senior School, this year we were lucky enough to have a party with the J5 and J6 Drama Captains on Thursday! They were a lovely bunch of girls and everyone got involved in drama games like ‘The Sun shines on..’ and Jaws! The drama teachers even provided us with snacks and juice during our party. It was so nice to see everyone getting involved and making friends with the Junior School girls! Thank you to the drama teachers for setting this up for us, we really appreciated the fun, and we hope to see more of the girls later in the year. (Zoe O’B – Transition Year Drama Rep)
Thank you to the TY Drama Reps for making our J5 and J6 Drama Captains feel so welcome! We are looking forward to working with you all during our school year.
Introducing our new Sports Captains
We recently held our first official meeting of our newly announced Sports Captains! A big welcome to Alex, Amaya, Amy, Emilia, Erin, Jessica, Lola and Martha into your roles promoting and encouraging sporting behaviours and participation in school and having lots of fun in doing so. As you can see from the photo, we had a very productive time!
Part of their job description, as Sports Captains, is attending weekly meetings to discuss and explore ideas relating to a variety of sporting activities and events.
Our photos show how busy our initial meeting was, with Alex and Lola taking the minutes, while ideas were being discussed. We look forward to a super, fun and exciting sports year ahead for all. Best of luck girls!
J4 Mini-World Cup Challenge
On Monday last, our J4 classes played in a fun, yet competitive, mini-hockey tournament which we called the Mini-World Cup! Teams were chosen at random, matches were timed and each team named their country of origin. Australia and England made it to the final, and in the last few minutes England scored the decisive winner off a rebound shot. Ireland and France came in joint third place.
Austria and Sweden came joint fourth with Belgium and Spain sharing fifth spot.
Well played all countries!
J6 Mini-Hockey Matches
Sunny conditions greeted us on the first day of October, as two of our J6 mini-hockey teams arrived up to Mount Anville Junior School to play in a mini-practice hockey match programme designed to develop positional play against another team. This was their first away fixture of the season and all our players were very excited indeed!
We had a ‘3-pass-before-shooting at goal focus’, so that each player had to think about what their aim was during their match plays and passing situations. Our goalies were fully engaged and made terrific saves, both keeping a clean sheet for their team! Well done to all our players.
Hallowe'en Hockey 5-a-Side Challenge
Friday afternoon was exciting for the girls, not only was the Hallowe’en Costume sale on but our annual J5 hockey challenge also grabbed their attention!
We had 8 teams playing, with rolling subs and each team, after careful consideration, chose their own names as follows:
The Scary Pumpkins, the Zombies, the Ghosts, the Spookies, the Non-scary Pumpkins, the Wild Witches, the Hallowe’enie-team and finally, no Hallowe’en would be complete without the Scary Vampires! We had 4 teams in each section, with the most goals scored by a team coming through to the final. There was plenty of team encouragement and motivation from their captains. Very well played girls and congratulations to our Hallowe’en challenge finalists-the Pumpkins and the Wild Witches.
The National Gallery Tour
We are very grateful to our art teacher, Ms Smith who gave us a guided tour of The National Gallery. She showed us some of her favourite pieces. We had the chance to hug the huge wood sculpture Magnus Modus and view the beautiful stained glass by Harry Clarke. The Liffey Swim was another favourite. You could almost hear the crowd cheering. We searched for the horses in another painting. We are very lucky to have “Woman writing a letter with her maid” by Vermeer in the national collection as very few of his paintings exist. Mum and Granny Maeve read “The Girl with the Pearl Earring.” Ms Smith also told us the story of the famous Caravaggio painting which was presumed lost until it was rediscovered by accident. Granny Maeve loved the portraits of Edna O’ Brien. Thank you JACA. We are looking forward to part two of the experience which is an Afternoon Art Tea at the Merrion. Thank you Ms. Smith!
Happy Hallowe'en
We wish all the Junior School girls, staff and parents a Happy Hallowe’en! We hope that you enjoyed the festive Hallowe’en display in the reception area. Thank you to Ms. Smith for decorating this area creatively. A huge thank you to everyone who donated Hallowe’en costumes to the recent clothes sale in aid of the Irish Cancer Society. We raised a huge amount of money for this important cause.
