Step inside Tralee’s Holy Family School
IN THE FIRST OUR VISITS TO SCHOOL’S AROUND THE COUNTY, WE STOPPED INTO TRALEE’S HOLY FAMILY NATIONAL SCHOOL
AS part of The Kerryman’s latest behind the scenes feature, we visited the staff and pupils at Holy Family National School in Tralee where we got an exclusive look at the inner workings of the school, the programmes they have on offer and we also spoke to a number of the younger pupils on different topics, including, of course, their favourite subjects and what they like about coming to school.
Principal Ed O’Brien greets us on arrival and talks us through a number of the programmes that they have on offer in the school, including the ‘Izak 9 Maths Programme’, the Wise Owl After School Club’ and the ‘Ready, Set, Go’ Maths initiative.
“The Izak 9 programme is great because it’s different to regular maths lessons that the kids are used to; it’s visual, it’s interactive and the children who might be weaker at Maths, they get something out of it in a fun way without being singled out,” he said.
“The Wise Owl club is one that is based here in our school and offers a variety of different activities such as zumba, yoga, art, music lessons and Irish, English and Spanish lessons as well,” he continued.
We soon stop to talk to some of the kids in Miss O’ Shea’s First Class and right from the off, Davey Jay Flaherty is out to get onto the good side of his teacher, it seems, as he tells me of the wonderful things they get up to in class.
“We get to do lots of fun things here in school with our teacher, we do singing and we do dancing and it is fun because our teacher Miss O’ Shea is very good at music,” says Davey, who adds that his favourite subject is Irish.
“We get to learn new things here and my favourite thing that we do is colouring and practing writing, I really love that stuff,” says another boy, Jamie.
“I like Irish because we get to do songs and play Simon Says and then we get to go outside and play in the yard,” says Katie, who tells me that she has given up sweets and chocolate for Lent, but who is a little upset because she won’t be able to eat sweets when her friend comes over to her house on Saturday.
“I like going out into the yard to play soccer with my friends and then we get to come inside and get better at reading, which I love,” says Shane, who delightfully informs me that he is a striker for Park FC and that his favourite team is Leeds United.
“Maths is my favourite because I love all of the numbers. I like going out into the yard because I get to play with my friends,” he says with a big smile on his face.
And on that happy note, we leave a hard working class who were busy learning how to tell the time. We now know what makes them tick!
“Art is my favourite thing, I like the painting and the colours. I like Maths as well, though, because it’s fun.”