Watch: Blackrock children ‘turn on Christmas’

The pupils of Scoil Ursula in Blackrock 'switched on Christmas' last Friday after winning a contest to kickstart the festive season on Red FM's breakfast show. 

Teacher Dave McCarthy told The Echo that pupils were thrilled to "basically turn on Christmas". 

“Schools in their droves entered, and our school was chosen out of the hat - it meant so much to us.

"Christmas is a tough time for a lot of people even though it’s a very happy time for most, it really gave our school a massive boost, and some of our kids would need that boost," he said. 

Mr McCarthy said that every student wore a Christmas jumper, saying “what was beautiful about that was we’d have an awful lot different nationalities in our school, but they all got into the magic of Christmas.

“No matter what state they were from or what religion they were, they all bought into it and the school was awash with all the different Christmas gear."

The school went live on the radio and did an official countdown to the beginning of the festive season.

“We’re a small school, about 195 pupils at the minute, but the roaring in the halls - you’d have thought we had 1095 people, and because we’re mixed we had a shout-off between the boys and the girls as well”, Mr McCarthy explained. 

“It was great to see them all dancing, the whole school really bought into it – teachers, staff, SNAs, our caretaker," he said.

“It was an incredible day”, adding: “we were very honoured to be chosen, I know it was a random draw but everything happens for a reason.”