All Forms Of Art Are Fun And Cool, So Let’s Become A Creative School!

Walterstown NS is currently participating in Creative Schools. This is an initiative of the Creative Ireland programme and aims to promote the creative potential of every child.

We have set up a student driven Creative Schools Advisory Group who play a central role in developing, implementing and evaluating the programme in our school. The Advisory Group have created a school mantra and made some origami hearts. The school mantra is ” All forms of art are fun and cool, so let’s become a creative school!”

The children have identified Creative Points of Interest in the school garden – places where they would like to see artistic things taking place!

Maev O’ Shea, our Creative Associate, works in the Everyman Theatre and regularly visits our school and guides our creativity in new and exciting ways.

Creative Schools is allowing us to create new and enhance existing links with local artists in our community. It is giving our pupils opportunities to broaden their exposure to the arts and is also enhancing wellbeing and positive mental health in WNS.

Our School Anthem

As part of Creative Schools Week 2022 we, in Walterstown NS, are preparing for the performance of our School Anthem titled ‘Ar Aghaidh le Chéile!’

Created in keeping with our motto, ‘Ar Aghaidh le Chéile – Moving Forward Together’, our anthem has been written by the children of our school.

Creative Schools Week 2022

Crazy Hair Day

Fruitcake

As part of Creative Schools Week 2022 Alice Barry, Noggin Theatre Company, visited our school to perform her one-woman show Fruitcake. The children in 4th, 5th and 6th class were treated to this dark yet funny tale which involved a cookery demonstration!

We would like to give a massive thank you to Alice whose performance we thoroughly enjoyed!

Creative Schools Week Art Project 2022

The children based their projects on many different forms of art including painting, drawing, sculpture, gardening, installation, literature, knitting, baking, junk art, architecture, lego, jewellery, film making and many more.

Each piece of art was original and creative and the children enjoyed admiring and appreciating each others work. We were blown away by the standard of the artwork and by the amount of talent and creativity which we have in our school!

Ballerina Visit

As part of Creative Schools Week Eveanna Kearney paid us a visit. Eveanna is a ballerina who put on an outstanding performance for the younger classes. We would like to give a big thank you to Eveanna for the performance which was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Cobh Christmas Art Competition 2022

Cobh Chamber organised a Christmas School Art Competition for all the children in Cobh. The theme of the competition was “Cobh at Christmas” and all the boys and girls in WNS participated. Drawings of Belvelly Castle, the harbour and the “Deck of Cards” were just some of the entries submitted by the pupils.

Creative Schools Infant Day

As part of Creative Schools we held a creative day especially for Junior and Senior Infants. The children spent the day doing Christmas arts and crafts, singing, engaging in drama activities and doing some Irish dancing. A big thank you to Maev and Dervla from the Everyman Theatre who visited the school to do a drama workshop with the children! A special thanks also to Bean Uí Ríain who taught our amazing irish dancing lesson!

Cinderella

In December all the pupils and staff from WNS visited the Everyman Theatre to see Cinderella. This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to experience a live Christmas pantomime in a beautiful theatre thanks to the Creative Schools Initiative.

Fourth Class Knitting

World Book Day

“The Great Wave”

As part of Creative Schools we recreated a famous painting – “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” by Japanese artist Hokusai. Our artwork, “The Great Wave” was made from tiles which we broke into tiny pieces to create a beautiful mosaic effect. Each child in the school stuck a tile onto the artwork representing the inclusive nature of art in our school.

“The Great Wave” is hanging in our school hall for everyone to enjoy, appreciate and interpret whatever way they wish!

Hear Our Voice

Hear Our Voice visited our school and transformed our hall into a camping adventure with live music. This was an interactive, immersive experience enhanced with multi-sensory elements and led by the children’s engagement.

Sixth Class Christmas Artwork