If you are stuck for ideas please consider buying your son/daughter a book for Christmas. As part of our Literacy strategy we encourage reading as a lifetime habit. We like this article on recommended books: Guardian Teenage Books.

Thanks to Ms Kernan we also recommend the following games in ‘Easons’ which will help with Numeracy:

1. The DIY board game , make up your own games. 12.99euro
2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Ludo and Snakes and ladders for the First years maybe? 14.99euro
3. Selection of old fashioned games at 3 for 2 offer at 3.99euro each. Snakes and Ladders, Battleship, Pinball,Balancing chairs, Shaky Tower game. May not be directly about numbers but promotes strategic thinking, hand eye coordination  and a bit of forward planning. Also can give a good feel for real world phenomena like centre of gravity, balance  etc.  
4. Math dice and Math dice Junior.@ 9.99euro A  dice game that require arithmetic skills. Thinkfun have a good selection of games both physical and online with a section for teachers. Mainly targeting younger students and special needs.
5. Easonlogy wooden labyrinth maze game @12.99euro
6. Easonlogy all-in-one 38 number games (wooden tiles arranged as puzzles) @7.99euro
7. “Whats the Point” board game which involves decimals, fractions and percentages.@14.99
8. Fraction Action Lotto at @11.99. Made by the same company as What’s the Point?”
9. Suduko Rubics Cube for under 10 euro.
10. BrainBox games including BrainBox Maths which contains cards with maths problems. @10.99 euro
11. Ninety Nine Games set includinbg Yatzy and other dice games @12.99euro
12. Headspace. A lateral thinking boardgame @ 9.99euro.

Thinktoys have Brainbox Maths and Time Tables Lotto board games. They mostly cater for younger students. Their maths games deal mainly with subtraction and addition problems,

Portmarnock CS hosted a 24 hour Mapathon starting on Friday 8am December 4th and concluding at 8am on Saturday 5th. The event was supported by Fingal CC and Action Ireland Trust. Over the 24 hours the school had 75 students mapping in the three IT rooms in the school.

Lesotho is one of the poorest countries on the planet. Mapping is critical to improving the infrastructure of any country. When a country is mapped properly it attracts inward investment and assists in managing effectively natural resources. Lesotho is now one of the best mapped countries in Africa This level of mapping and data detail allows local government and national government see into the future and make decisions that will be informed and deliver effective outcomes across a broad spectrum of issues that the country faces such as population density, erosion, agriculture concentrations etc.

The 117 students who over 24 hours committed themselves to mapping Lesotho attracted a global response that resulted in the event reaching the number one spot in the global mapping activity chart. As the event passed out Germany at midnight and were second to the USA the excitement grew, with the time difference the students #MapdLesotho jumped to number one, an historical event and a magical moment for all concerned as they saw Lesotho with greatest number of edits and modified nodes,reflecting that there was an extensive validation exercise going on guiding validators to fix, repair and improve everything that was being mapped. This reflected the success of the exercise and the focus of the event. Lesotho has now parts of it’s country better mapped that Ireland. Dermot McNally of OSMIRL who was present at the event helping and encouraging students commented that the overall achievement of #MapLesotho would have cost millions of dollars.

While there are too many students to mention individually, it should be acknowledged that the effort of Lee Brown aka LBrown12 managed to be the fourth biggest mapper in the world and Jack Adams the 9th biggest mapper. A tweet by Soren Johannessen an internationally respected mapper and commentator on such events  commented “the numeric effect of this event is hugely significant, there were 265,932 edits” and the overall #MapLesotho has had over 5 million edits in the 22 months of its operation.

The event would like to acknowledge the support of Fingal CC, Action Ireland Trust, Dermot McNally OSM, Dave Sorley, Ciaran Staunton from Fingal CC Colette Cronin teacher Portmarnock CS, Clr Daire Ni Laoi and Brian Mc Donagh whose support was invaluable.

Students used the event to raise funds for Vincent De Paul and Action Ireland Trust in the spirit of local to global.

To read all about their achievements click here. Thanks to Ciaran Staunton for his support and his blog.

PCS students are putting together a photographic exhibition on human rights under the direction of Human Rights Photographer Andre Zopili.

This will be joint exhibition with our twin school at Hlalele Lesotho as part of their 2016 celebration.

The title will be “We are no strangers” and it is supported by WorldWise Global Schools.

On Thursday night, 50 very excited music students braved the wind and rain to attend the opening night of Mary Poppins at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, accompanied by Ms O’Driscoll, Ms McGlynn and Ms S.O’Brien. The evening was a huge success- students and teachers alike were enthralled, from the opening notes of the orchestral overture to the final curtain call, by the magical atmosphere created onstage. The spectacular stage sets and jaw-dropping special effects made for a very memorable outing. It was a wonderful start to the Christmas season for all those who attended.

YOU CAN ORDER YOUR TREE ON 0868220289. TREES ARE AVAILABLE from Saturday 5th TO SUNDAY DECEMBER 20TH.

NON SHED TOP QUALITY TREES TREES GO ON SALE THIS SATURDAY & SUNDAY FROM 10AM IN THE SCHOOL CAR PARK. LIMITED STOCK SO COME EARLY SO AS NOT TO BE DISAPPOINTED. DELIVERY SERVICE PROVIDED. EXCELLENT QUALITY AND GREAT VALUE: €50 PLEASE SUPPORT ALL PROCEEDS WILL SUPPORT LESOTHO PROJECT 2016 WHEN WE WILL BEGIN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN EARLY LEARNING CHILDHOOD CENTRE. TO ORDER CALL 086 8220289

Well done to Ms Murphy’s Second Year History class who are producing fantastic video documentaries. Click here to see an entertaining and informative example.

Stand Up! Week tackles homophobic and transphobic bullying by increasing awareness, friendship and support for LGBT students by other students. It is supported by the DES and all major educational interests. We are reflecting on issues of tolerance each morning this week. Click here for further information.

Well done to the 1st and 2nd Year Girls spikeball teams in qualifying for the Regional Finals after Friday’s Blitz held in PCS.

Two first year teams and one 2nd year team had qualified from the previous round. After some tough battles against rival schools Mercy Coolock, Pres Terenure, and Colaiste Bride Clondalkin, the 2nd Year team managed to win 2 of their 4 games to secure a qualification spot. The team consisted of Caitlin Murphy, Niamh Brown, Lara McEvoy, Roisin Hughes, Niamh Duggan and Lily Yu.

The 1st year teams improved with every game, and eventually the PCS A team managed to secure qualification with 2 wins and a draw from their 5 games. The team consisted of Rebecca Cooke, Ciara Mullin, Hollie Tobin, Kelly McDonnell, Aoibheann O’ Dwyer, Sophie Courtney, and Emily O’Shea.

Team photos in the photo stream.

To mark the tragic events in Paris last weekend our Head Boy Sam Cox, Head Girl Caitlin Kernan and a French Fifth Year student Sylvain Champain offered a reflection over the PA system at 11.00am. During this time of reflection they asked students to take out their phones and take a selfie. Students are to upload this selfie when they go home this evening to their Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram pages with the message “Vive la France, Vive la Rebublique” by way of showing solidarity and support for the people of Paris The hashtag for the Twitter page is #pcsremembersfrance1311.

There was is also a book of condolence in the assembly area today from 11.00. Students and staff are welcome to sign this book and we will present it to the French Embassy.

Thanks to Ms Clarke for organising this poignant event.

Check out these fantastic inspirational art pieces in your Library. Thanks to Ms McWilliams and the students in the library team.