Junior Entrepreneur Programme
This year 5th and 6th class are taking part in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme. JEP is an entrepreneurship programme for primary school children which nurtures confidence, resilience, creativity, problem solving and teamwork. In early November the pupils learned about entrepreneurs such as the Collisson Brothers (Stripe), Aimee Connolly (Sculpted by Aimee) and Tom Keogh (Keogh Crisps).
The pupils then generated individual ideas for potential class entrepreneurship projects. They got together in teams and agreed on the best project to present to a panel of dragons for consideration. There was great excitement and tension in the classroom as the groups prepared to make their pitch to the dragons. The dragons were Mrs. Kelly and Ms. King from the school and local business person Jimmy O’Connor from Cohan refrigeration. Each group had to make a presentation to the dragons. The dragons took their roles very seriously and asked some searching questions.
Following much deliberation the winning team of Finnan Miley, William Barros, Ryan Fallon and Josh Clarke was chosen. They called themselves The Four Fractions and designed a maths board game. The dragons were impressed with all ideas presented but felt that The Four Fractions idea was the best overall idea. The class will now work together to produce this board game and sell as many copies as possible. Recently local business person, Mark Lohan from Mark Lohan Kitchens spoke to the pupils about his life as a business person. He explained how he started working in his garage and how he has now expanded to employing 65 people. Mark was assisted by his marketing manager Sinéad Fanon. The pupils really enjoyed the presentation.
The pupils are currently in the process of separating into teams to produce and market their product. They will host an open day soon where they hope that you will support them by buying the product.
Christmas
Academic homework is reduced in the weeks leading up to Christmas and instead the pupils have to produce a Christmas themed creation. This year we had a fantastic variety of creations such as hanging Christmas trees, wooden Christmas trees, Home Alone houses, snow globes, wooden reindeers, to name but a few. The school looked particularly festive with the decorations displayed
Mini Sevens
Thursday 7th November was a famous day in Scoil Bhríde as the boys’ mini 7s team won the county final. This is a new football competition introduced by Cumann na mBunscol Roscommon. A panel of 10 boys from 3rd, 4th and 5th represented the school in the competition which was held in St. Faithleachs GAA Grounds in Ballyleague. Scoil Bhríde were grouped with St. Comans’s Wood, Creggs and Corrigeenroe in the group stages. Our first game was a relatively straight forward victory against Corrigeenroe. This was followed by an epic battle against Coman’s Wood. The game was tight all through but in the last play of the game James O’Neill fed Tadhg Lohan who slotted over the winning score. The final score was 5 points to 4. Our next game was against Creggs which we won by a few points.
We topped our group and qualified for the semi-final where we played Cornafulla. This was a tough match but the boys fought well to emerge victorious. In the final we were playing against Boyle. At this stage tiredness was a factor and after a poor start we found ourselves a few points in arrears. However we improved as the game went on and gradually got on top. It was a nervous final few mi utes but we held on to secure a famous victory. Daithí Farrell our captain received the trophy to tremendous celebrations. This was the first victory achieved by the school in a football competition in a long, long time. It was particularly special as it was achieved playing against some far larger schools. Well done to everyone involved.