Junior School Games Newsletter - October 2016

JUNIOR SCHOOL GAMES NEWSLETTER 0CTOBER 2016 HOCKEY My First Hockey match - Eva Doyle Std.3 My First hockey match was a friendly match against Castlepark in Dalkey. At the start we were all a bit nervous but when we got started it was so much fun and we all loved it. We had a great day and we all played so well. We were playing against a very kind school. We ended up winning with a score of 6 to 4. We were so happy to win our first ever hockey match. I look forward to my next hockey match.

Ava Stanley – Std.6 I have been playing hockey in St Gerard’s for 3 years, this is my 4th. All the new pupils in Std.6 are doing great in hockey and are settling into it very well. Most of that is due to our wonderful welcoming coaches Cathy and Brendon. In a couple of weeks we are off on our Manchester trip. We are looking forward to making new friends with the Cheadle Hulme pupils. We hope to bring home the winning Trophy. Wish us luck!

Now let’s hear from some of our new pupils I’m Jess Mortell and I’m one of the new pupils in St. Gerard’s. I was a bit nervous at the beginning but since the girls are so welcoming and kind I found it very easy to settle in. What I particularly love about St. Gerard’s is how much they prioritise hockey. We are so lucky to have such great coaches like Brendon and Cathy. I always look forward to playing hockey as I enjoy it so much. Since I have been welcomed to the school we have played our first hockey blitz. It was great fun and I extremely enjoyed the competition.

AIJS SOCCER- Abby Tuthill –Std.6 On Saturday October 23rd St. Gerard’s hosted the AIJS 5 - Aside soccer tournament. Girls and boys teams from all over Dublin came to participate. Every team played very well on the day. St. Gerard’s had 2 boy’s teams and one girl’s team entered. The St. Gerard’s girls team took home the trophy with a battle against Monut Anville in the final. The boy’s team came in 4th place which was also a great result. A big thanks to Julie, St. Gerard’s and all the staff for helping and making it such a fun event !

CROSS COUNTRY Hi, I am Louise O’Riordan. I’ve been in St. Gerard’s for around 2 months and I love it! All the sports and games we do are amazing. I’ve been running for two years and I really love it. It was so much fun going to Santry on the bus with my team mates. It was so interesting to see how many other schools were there when we arrived. In my race there was about 200 girls competing. I finished 4th! I am looking forward to racing again for St. Gerard's. Thanks so much to Julie and Nathan for bringing us to this event and supporting us.

RUGBY Our first rugby game - Sean Carroll Std. 3 All the boys in my class were very excited to start rugby this year. We could not wait for our first match. For our first game we played Presentation College Bray. The rain held off during the match we played 15 minutes a half.

We played against two teams because Pres Bray have alot of boys. We were very happy that we came back with a win! Everybody played really well and we scored lots of tries.

SHOW JUMPING Show Jumping - Alanah Tuner This year St. Gerard’s Junior School has decided to attend the Junior Inter School Show Jumping Competition in Killossery in Dublin.

Lots of schools attend this competition and we are delighted to take part. We have one team entered, and all members are also taking part in the individual classes. I was delighted to come 5th in the individual competition.

We have attended the first competition and have more to compete in. The final is on the 29th of January. Well done to everyone who took part and good luck to everyone in the next event. Thank you to all parents for their help and organisation. We plan to do our best for St. Gerard's.

Conor Balmaine Std. 6 This year in rugby we have had a good season so far. We have played 4 matches , we have won 2 and lost 2. Our training is also good. Our first match was against Pres-Bray. We lost 2-3 in that match. We are delighted with the new boys that have joined our teams. We have really joined forces to make us a stronger side. Our 2nd and 3rd games were in a blitz hosted by Willow Park. Our first game was against St. Conlleth’s College. We did our stretches really well as it was a very cold morning. I was very proud to be selected as captain for todays blitz and took my place beside the ref for the coin flip. It landed heads up in my favour. I chose for the ball to be kicked to us and so it started I received the ball from the kick and scored a try. On the next restart they kicked and Charlie received it, passed it to me and I scored yet again another try. I was so happy !

The end result of the game was 2-1 to us . Our second game was against Pres-Bray B team. They won that match 4 -3. Unfortunately our 3rd match was cancelled but we were happy to go home and warm up. Our 4th game of the season was against Willow Park. Unfortunately it wasn’t very evenly matched and we were beaten badly.

So Far the year has gone well. There is a very strong team spirit . Our coaches are Mr.Caraher and Jason and they’re really helping us. We want to do our school proud.

St Gerards Day - Ben Barrett Std. 6 St Gerard’s Day started like a normal day except after break we went to climb the Sugar Loaf Mountain. It looked easy,not too hard until we started to going up. My ears started to feel like they were frozen. When we reached the top the view was great and you could see the sea.

When we came back to school we all had a treat. Later that evening we arrived back to school for mass and Std6 Boys and Girls had a ceili in the hall. I was a great day, no sorry, it was the best day!

By Julie McInerney Head of PE and Games St Gerard’s Junior School