Congratulations to the girls and boys who received their Confirmation, on February 1st in the Church of the Assumption, Tullamore. 

A special thank you to Ms. Quinn, the class teacher, for preparing the children. 

The school choir sang at the ceremony and they were fantastic!  Thanks to Ms. Killeen and Miss O Sullivan for all their work!

A big thank you to everybody involved. 

Huge congratulations to our Special Olympics swimming team who had great success at the most recent swimming gala winning lots of medals. We are very proud of them! A big thank you to our coaches and volunteers who work so hard to train and prepare our athletes for competitions.

Congratulations to Ava Harney who came first in our schools chess competition for 5th and 6th class after 5 weeks of competition between 32 players. Runner up in the senior section was Jamie Healy. Ava won the best of 3 final on a score of 2-1.

The bus section (3rd and 4th classes) was won by Tadhg Kenny who defeated Ryan Healy also on a score of 2-1. There was also 32 players involved in this competition. 

All players also took part in weekly online chess battles against over 100 schools throughout the country.

The players will now practice and prepare for the Feile Ficheall which the school are hosting on March 4th and then the Leinster final which we are also hosting on April 8th. Well done to all our super chess players!

Well done to all the children who took part in the Tommy Godley Cross Country race that was held in the Harriers on Tuesday last! The children put in a superb performance, were very well behaved and really enjoyed the day.

Congratulations to Beth, Thomas, Jason and Lily May who brought home medals on the day. This was a fantastic achievement as there were over 1000 children competing on the day! Congrats also to the sixth class girls who scooped third place in the sixth class race!

Gearóid, Dáire, Amy and Holly competed in the Offaly Cumann na mBunscoil skills competition last week. They each put in a great performance and we are very proud of them!

 Special congratulations to Amy who won the Offaly Camogie Skills competition! She will now go forward to play during the All Ireland Hurling final or semi final in July 2025. Well done Amy!

We had a very special visitor call to our school this week during our assembly. Adam Screeney called in and brought the Joe McDonagh Cup and the James Nowlan cup with him. It was a fantastic surprise for us all!

Congratulations to Annie Mooney who played in Croke Park at half time during the Joe Mc Donagh Cup Final. She was kitted out in full Offaly gear with a beautifully commissioned jersey for the Joe Mc Donagh Cup. This jersey had all the Offaly school names printed on it. It was a wonderful opportunity for Annie. She had a fantastic day!

On Thursday 29th February we leaped into our first ever Feile Ficheall Chess Tournament. We hosted over 120 pupils and staff from Rochfortbridge, Miltownpass, Tyrellpass and Clonown in our school for a great day of friendly competition. We entered 2 teams in the Budding Masters section (3rd and 4th class) and another 2 teams in the Masters Section (5th and 6th class). The teams were selected following an internal school competition in November and December and received expert tuition from Natalia Strelcova in January and February in preparation. It is hoped that some of the players will now be invited to the Comortas Ficheall later in the year. We have to give special mention to our 3 TY students, Josh O’Brien Evan Murphy and Luke McRedmond who prepared the venue for the tournament.

The teams were: 

Budding Masters Section.

The Ballinamere Pawn Crackers: Finian Condron, Georgie Cleary Carroll, Kate Mooney, Cailin Guinan, Conor Goodings, Elsie Kilmartin, Robbie Wyer, Jason McKinney, Noah Dunne, Kritian Butnickis, Alan Oleszczuk

The Ballinamere Kings and Queens: Alex Thornton, Billy Marsden, Ava Harney, Tadhg Kenny, Eiveras Rastauskas, Jamie Healy, Cillian Tracey, Oisin Spollen

Masters Section.

The Ballinamere Bishops: Cian Boland, Holly Mooney, Daire Garvey, Halle Thornton, Lucy Kieran, Joe Haverty, David Guiney, Lucy Bell, Ross Spollen, Lily Morris

The Ballinamere Check Maters: Sam Jordan, Devon Molly, Daniel Sempere Strelcov, Tom Walsh, Annie Mooney, Jake Casey, Colman Condron, Lucy Marsden.

Congratulations to our Junior Team who were placed 4th in the Credit Union Quiz and to our Senior Team scooped top prize! Twenty three schools participated in the junior competition and 25 in the senior competition so this was a fantastic achievement. Well done to our pupils, their parents and teachers who supported them!

Best of luck to the Senior Team who will now go forward to compete in the CUDA final on March 2nd in Blanchardstown.

Congratulations to the children from sixth class who received their Confirmation on  27th January in the Church of the Assumption , Tullamore. 

Special thanks to Ms. Guest,  Ms. Quinn and Fr. Joe Campbell who prepared them so well for the sacrament.

The school has joined the Ficheall schools chess organization recently and will be hosting a tournament for 120 chess players from other member schools in February.  In preparation for this we held a tournament for chess playing pupils in November and December.  In Ficheall players are divided in to Budding Masters (3rd and 4th Class) and Masters (5th and 6th Class).

In the Budding Masters Competition we had 21 competitors and in the Masters we had 25 players.  After 6 rounds of competition we had quarter finals, semi finals and then two very tense finals and 3rd /4th place play off.  In the final Alex Thornton beat Billy Marsden in an epic battle and in the play off Ava Harney eventually beat a masterful defensive display by Tadhg Kenny.

In the Masters section following on from their rivalry last year Daniel Sempere Strelcov took on Devin Molloy in the final with Devin coming out on top with the 3rd place going to Sam Jordan who defeated Tom Walsh.

The children will now receive chess tutoring in January and February in preparation for the tournament in late February.

The tree is decorated. The crib is in place. The children are getting very excited. This week, the children entertained us with their Christmas shows. The performances were fantastic. The countdown is on!

Congratulations to the Ballinamere Durrow team who were winners in the Jack Wyer Memorial Hurling Tournament. Today the lads brought in the cup for us all to see! Pictured are the Ballinamere boys along with members of the Wyer family.

Following a request from our Class Representatives, an additional 3 bird boxes have been made and donated by Greg Cusack to the school. For the past few years we have had blue tits nesting and raising young in a bird box at the rear of the school. We hope that next spring we will be able to accommodate multiple bird families.  

Congratulations to the girls' football team who competed in the county final last week. They were up against Durrow N.S. It was a super game of football. The girls were fantastic and never gave up! Congratulations to Durrow who were victors on the day. Thanks to  Ms. O Sullivan, Imelda and Carina for coaching the team. 

Our new class representatives for the 2023-2024 school year had their first meeting this week. They were presented with their badges and notebooks by Ms. Cusack.  They will meet regularly to discuss how we can make our school a better place for everyone.

Congratulations to the boys and girls who participated in the Colin Dunne Primary School's Athletics Championships. Our girls team came in second place and our boys team came third. We were the only school to have both our boys and girls teams on the podium, we are very proud. Well done to all involved.

Congratulations to the camogie team who put on a superb performance to win the Cumann na mBunscoil final against Crinkill,  in St Brendan's Park, Birr today. The children played with great energy,  passion, determination and lots of skill. They were just fantastic! Thanks to all our supporters who cheered us on from the stand! Well done, everyone!

The children making their First Holy Communion have made beautiful chalices and candles which really brighten up the school foyer. 

We wish them the very best of luck as they make their First Holy Communion next Saturday.

Congratulations to two of our pupils from 5th and 6th class who took part in equestrian events recently representing Ballinamere N.S. They were both successful in winning rosettes and we are very proud. Well done girls!

To mark Women in Sport week, the girls from third and fourth class took part in a football blitz in the Faithful Fields on Monday last. The girls had great fun and really enjoyed the day. 

Thanks to Offaly Sports partnership for organising the blitz and for sponsoring the lovely t-shirts!

Fourth, fifth and sixth class had the opportunity to take part in a lunchtime chess tournament in recent weeks. The final took place on Ash Wednesday and was a tense battle. All the children really enjoyed taking part and loved learning a new skill, congratulations to the four finalists. Thank you to Mr. Greville, Mr. Fahey and Mr. Forde for coaching them.

Congratulations to our pupils from 5th and 6th class who took part in the Offaly VEX IQ robotics championships. The finals took place in the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Tullamore and were a culmination of months of hard work. We are extremely proud of both teams who beat their scores from  last year. 

We really enjoyed playing in the snow, everybody had lots of fun throwing snowballs, making snowmen and having fun with our friends. We even had an extra long playtime. It was the best day ever!

This week our fifth and sixth class went carol singing and visited Esker Rí and Tullamore hospital. They cheered up lots of patients and sang beautifully. A big thank you to Ms. Killeen our music teacher for all her help.

All classes had a great day dressing up on the last day of term. We had a parade outside to show off all the fantastic costumes and then had fun and games in our classrooms.

Today we had a special visit from the Intermediate and U16 County Champions! The pupils were delighted to see the teams... especially as they gave them a day off homework next week!  Congratulations to both teams. A fantastic achievement!

Students from 5th and 6th class have been very busy designing, building, and coding their VEX IQ robots since the start of the school year as part of their STEM lessons. They attended a competition in O’Connor Park where they competed against 50 other schools in the region. They had a great (albeit wet) day and represented our school extremely well. 

We had a great World Book Day in senior infants. Everybody brought in their favourite book and shared it with us. We did paired reading with second class and we even made our own mini-books and book marks. 

Senior infants were so excited when Postman Ciarán came to visit. They had been learning all about the Post Office in Aistear and got to ask him lots of questions. They even helped him to empty the letters from the letter box across the road. Thank you for visiting us Ciarán!

Well done to the pupils of 6th class who raised an incredible €1,520 for the IMNDA. They ran a mini company where they designed and published a cookbook. It is a fantastic achievement and we are very proud of them.

We were so lucky to have the Claret Jug visit our school. Brendan Lowry, Shane Lowry's Dad brought it to the playground where all classes got to see it. We saw Shane's name engraved on it too. It was very exciting!

6th class received their hoodies this week that they designed and had made. They chose blue hoodies this year with white writing and they look great in them!

Last Tuesday,15th December we had a fantastic day full of fun! The senior classes started the day with a run! They walked to Ballinamere pitch and then completed a 5k run around the walking track! First and Second class had a lovely walk as far as the canal. The Junior and Senior Infants stayed local! After a much deserved break the Dance-A-Thon followed! A special thank you to all who supported this fundraiser for the homeless. A total of €1,250 was raised. Well done to everyone!

For science week this year we focused on the force of gravity. Children were set a challenge to design and make an egg parachute from recycled materials. We brought the parachutes outside and dropped them from a height to test them out. We had great fun and not too many eggs were broken!

Congratulations to the boys and girls who participated in the Cross Country Competition. This competition took place in the Harriers on Tuesday 1st October. A total of 48 children from third class to sixth class entered the competition. Well done to the medal winners – Ruby, Alice and Niamh. Congrats also to the girls from Third Class and the girls from Sixth Class who came in second place overall in their respective races. Well done to all involved!