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Ukulele Le Chéile

Ukulele Le Chéile is a collaboration between Ballymoney National School in Ballineen, Kilgarriffe National School in Clonakilty and St. Multose National School in Kinsale. The three schools have formed a two year creative cluster based on developing music in the schools. They will each receive a grant of €2,500 per year for the next two years. The money will be used to purchase ukuleles for the pupils, to fund ukulele lessons and to fund musicians to visit the three schools to perform for them. This initiative is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Music is the school subject which is most affected by the Covid-19 restrictions. The Department of Education and Skills has stated that wind and brass instruments, including tin whistles and recorders, should not be played indoors due to the additional risk of infection such activity poses. Singing is only allowed outdoors.

While the pupils were waiting for their lessons to begin after Christmas, they had great fun during art class decorating and personalising their ukuleles.

The Buttimer Bake Off

Jean Buttimer was an inspirational woman who has had an enormous influence on our school. She became a committed member of the Board of Management when her son started school. She remained on the Board of Management for an incredible forty four years! She cared so much about the pupils and was always encouraging and interested in what they were doing. She used to treat the pupils every December, after their annual carol service, by sponsoring the ingredients for ‘The Buttimer Bake-off’. This has become and continues to be one of the pupils’ highlights of the school year.