A New School Year!

After a very miserable and wet first day back to school,the weather is warm,sunny at times and allows us to spend time outdoors which really helps the settling in process. It was lovely to welcome back Lara,Lane-Maye, Ceola, Eamon, Harry and Joseph as my “chief helpers”! It makes everything that much easier when the older children set the example of simple things like putting work back in the correct place and also helping to establish the sense of order we have in the school so that all runs very smoothly.

We really are enjoying these days with little picnics in the field and trips down to see the horses and give them fallen apples from the orchard.It is a wonderful Autumn for fruit.The apple trees are laden with fruit and children have had great time picking them. Hopefully we shall make apple slices next week and perhaps some juice too. Yesterday we picked 3 kg of damsons so I shall be busy over the weekend making damson jam and maybe have a surprise little jar for all! Next week we shall also pick pears as they are so plentiful that the branches are practically breaking!Our autumn raspberries are starting to ripen so the garden is a whole new world of discovery for the children and they are loving every moment of it.

I have started an afternoon class and even though they are all new children they have settled in very well. The warm weather has allowed us to play outside every afternoon and the highlight every day is  the trip down the field to see Scoby, Ruby,Polo and Sally(the horses).Even in looking at the horses the children are learning as in school one of the family boxes is the “horse family”. So here in the field we have  mares and  stallions and  they can now see that Ruby and Sally are mares whilst Polo and Scoby are stallions!We also take in our beautiful surroundings and by standing on the hill the children can see Coney Island,Cnoc na Rea, Ben Bulben,a lighthouse,Rosses Point and later on as they study the land forms in school they will be able to see a bay(Sligo bay) and a peninsula!So much to learn and see on a simple walk! I hope the good weather continues as this type of learning relating everything to the real and natural world is wonderful.