5th Class School Tour
On Friday the 13th of June, all of the fifth classes went on their school tour together. Taking two buses, we first went to the National Aquatic Centre. When we arrived, the children got a safety briefing from the Lifeguards before going into the Aqua Zone. Everyone loved it in there where they got a couple of hours to try out the wave pool, lazy river and the surf machine. There was also three big slides, the Dark Hole, the Green Giant and one using a doughnut called the Master Blaster! Even Mr. Monaghan got a chance to go on some of the slides- his favourite being the Dark Hole!
After everyone had a chance to try them all out, we jumped back on the bus and drove to Phoenix Park. We got a glimpse of Áras an Uachtaráin as we drove by and saw that the flag was flying high meaning that the President was home! We arrived at the Information Centre at Phoenix Park and since it was a beautiful sunny day, we ate our lunch out on the grass. There was a nice big area for playing football and some of the children even went into the mini forest to play around in the trees. After some down time, we split into two groups and the first group watched a interesting short film about the history of Phoenix Park and how it is the biggest park in any city in Europe. In fact, its bigger than all the parks in London put together! There was a small exhibit on James Butler and all the animals you can see in the park along with a burial Cist from over 3500 years ago! Next was a guided tour of Ashtown Castle. We learned that Strongbow used to own this castle and how it was hidden for many years within a house and until the house was knocked down to reveal the Norman old castle, it was forgotten about! We finished up by walking through the perfectly looked after and pristine walled garden. We saw a lot of the same vegetables we are growing in our school garden but to top it off, there was lots of beautiful flowers to make the whole garden look amazing.
It was time to go home after this, so we hopped back onto the bus and made the journey back to scoil. On the way home, we stopped in McDonalds in Newbridge for our final treat where most people got something to eat and some Ice-cream. It was a really enjoyable day for all the students and even the teachers enjoyed themselves too!