Drogheda Choral Festival 
An article by PJ O'Reilly
​5th Class

On Friday 24th November St. Andrews N.S small choir went to The Barbican Centre in Drogheda to participate in the Drogheda Choral Festival. For a few weeks prior to the competition the choir practiced every Friday morning at 8:30am and the week leading up to the competition they practiced every morning.
Our music teacher Ms. Horgan and our pianist Aoife travelled with us on the bus to the venue. We were the first choir on stage and we were the smallest out of the four choirs in our competition.
We sang “My Sunshine” O Sole Mio in English, followed by “When You Believe” from the movie, The Prince of Egypt. Sadly we came 2nd but considering we are such a small school that is a great result!!
Ms. Horgan was so pleased with our performance that she brought us to Mac Donalds afterwards!
We all had a great time and are really looking forward to next year when we hope to win!

Brother Cross Country
An article by Ben Ronan
6th Class

On the 5th of October 5th and 6th class (and a few 4th class) took part in the Brother Cross Country  in Santry Demense. 5th class girls ran first then the 5th class boys then 6th class girls then 6th class boys.
The competition began at 11:30 and finished an hour and a half later when the secondary schools ran. Some of our past pupils ran in those races. The course was tough in particular the final bend which made the end seem a lot closer than it actually was!

Our school had no team placements but  Niamh Murphy achieved an individual top ten placing 4th just outside the top 3.

As usual, it was a great day, loads of fun and a super experience. Win or lose it's always good to have a chance to take part!

Maths Week
An article by Eoin McDermott
6th Class

Beginning on the 16/10/17 we had Maths Week. It should have started on the 14th but Storm Ophelia delayed it!

​We had a week long competition. On Wednesday we went to Ms. Ronan’s room to get the instructions and she also gave us our teams. My team consisted of Emily Keogh, Anna May Keogh, Eoghan Mooney, Ciara Morgan, Mylo Hussey, Lauren Fewer, Aine O’Connor and myself. We also made up mathematical team names, our team name was the Mathematical Brainiacs.
Each team had to figure out percentages of the number of pupils in the school with various characteristics, for example how many people are left handed or how many wore glasses. We discovered 15% of pupils in St. Andrew's write with their left hand!

We also had to play maths games at home on Manga High! Ms. Ronan gave us all a log in and we could earn points by getting medals online.

Sadly my team did not win. The winners were the Mathematical Maniacs led by captain Kim Sherlock with Nicholas Dillon, Kevin Doyle, Kirsty Greene, Gina Ronan, Tigh Carey O Neill, Felicia Byrne, Ailbhe Buckley and Keelan Sweeney. They won a huge hamper of goodies.
Well done Mathematical Maniacs!

Bellewstown Cross Country
An article by George Heather
​6th Class

On the 15th of November 2017 3rd to 6th took part in a cross country race in Bellewstown racecourse. Parents were allowed to come and spectate .The first race was the U11 girls followed by the U11 boys. Penultimently the U13 girls and finally the U13 boys. There were a lot of great finishes, Niamh Murphy finished 1st in her race Lauren Fewer also finished in the top 10. The under 13 girls took home the title for their race . 30 children went so there were two buses. Everyone really enjoyed the day , it was a great experience . We were all glad that we took part  

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St. Andrew's Day
An article by James Healy
6th Class

The 30th of November 2017 was Saint Andrews Day.That day pops out at us because our school is named after Saint Andrew.Saint Andrew is a patriot saint of Greece,Romania,Barbados,Russia and Ukraine.In our school each class worked with another class, for example 6th class with Junior infants.Every 2 classes got a country.Those two classes did a project on their country.We tried to put senior school children with junior school children.On that Thursday we went to mass in the morning.We all worked brilliantly as a team.We interacted great with the little ones and both learned something that day.Also,we all wore our own clothes colour coordinated to the flag of our country.Saint Andrews Day was fun,interactive and enjoyable.

The Famine Ship Tour
An article by David Ryan
​5th Class

On Friday the 20th October we went on a tour to see the Jeanie Johnston and learnt about her, we went to Dublin city centre by bus and walked to Burger King afterwards.
The Jeanie Johnston was originally built in 1847, to carry wood America/Canada to Europe, but since there were many starving people needing to go to America/Canada, the outwards journey had human cargo on board and when the Jeanie Johnston came back it brought wood. Many other ships did this too but many died on those.
Here are some facts about the Jeanie Johnston:
Nobody died on board, because of a very good doctor, not even when it sank in 1858.
​16 journeys were made by the Jeanie Johnston, the shortest lasting 40 days and the longest lasting 70 day
A replica was built and completed in 2002 and it made the same journey as the original.

The Christmas Fair
An article by Aoife Fay
5th Class

The 2017 annual St. Andrew's Christmas Fair was held in our school hall on Sunday 3rd December. It was a great success. The Parent Association spent a long time organising and setting up and it paid off. There were many stalls such as home baked treats and cakes, plants and festive wreaths, hand made Christmas crafts, home made jams, relishes and apple juice, school Christmas cards, calendars and DvDs, toys, teddies and books, face painting and balloons, Santa's grotto, tombola and raffle.
Thee was delicious food such as hot dogs and hot chocolate and many sweet treat. There was a fabulous raffle with many prizes. Santa Claus arrived and was in a beautiful grotto at the back of the hall where children could line up to see him and get a present. The Fair started at 12pm after Mass in St Andrews church. The school choir led by Ms Horgan sang at this Mass
​Our Christmas Fair is always a great fun day for all the children in the school and our families. All the money raised at the Fair goes back into supporting our school. Thanks to the Parent Association and all the parents who helped organise, set up and run the Fair.

Equestrian League
An article by Phoebe Horgan
5th Class

St. Andrew’s Equestrian team got off to a great start in the Primary Interschool Show jumping competition league with the team finishing 2nd on our very first outing in October. Since then our team of me, Kirsty and Grace have been placed every week and last week we came first. We have to jump around a course of fences measuring 65cm and if we go clear we go into a jump off against the clock. Each week around ten schools compete with 3/4 pupils on each team. It’s great fun and always very exciting. The competition also has an individual class and Imogen, Charles and Nicholas have also represented St. Andrews this season. We are at the top of the league at the moment with 3 more days to go in December, January and the final in February. Fingers crossed we will do well and bring home the trophy!