Newsletter
8th December 2017
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
News this and last week
Last Wednesday, Ms. Collins’s 2nd Class visited the markets on Moore Street as part of their learning about food. They made some very healthy fruit snacks with their purchases.
Last Friday, 5th and 6th Class visited Liberty Hall for a special launch of Jeff Kinney’s new ‘Diary of Wimpy Kid’ book. These books are hugely popular with our children and it was a fantastic opportunity for them to meet the author himself. Thank you to Julianna, our Reader in Residence, who organised this visit.
On Tuesday this week, our Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and members of our Student Council attended a special training day to learn about being an anti-bullying ambassador. The children learned lots and were great representatives of our school.
Yesterday, Senior Infants visited the ‘Moving Crib’ on Parnell Square. The children were able to spot all the different characters from the Christmas nativity story. We’re looking forward to their performance of ‘Prickly Hay’ in a few weeks.
Also yesterday, 6th Class went to Cineworld to see the film ‘Wonder’. The children have been reading the book ‘Wonder’ by R.J. Palacio this term and were really excited to see it brought to life. Ms. Kilkenny tells me there were quite a few tears!
Boxing Showcase
We were very proud of our team of boxers from 5th and 6th Class who represented our school at an inter-school tournament at the National Boxing Stadium on Wednesday. They remembered all the skills they learned and won lots of medals! Their classmates in 5th and 6th Class also went along to support them.
Their coach, Paul Quinn, sent us a message to say: “they were terrific and showed real character and skill. Congratulations to all, and thank you for supporting the programme”. Well done children and thank you to Ms. Kilkenny and Mrs. Fay for supporting them.
Christmas Art
Ms. Todd, Ms. Marron, Ms. McBride and Ms. Sheridan’s Classes have completed their first week of Christmas Art. It takes place on Wednesdays from 9.00 a.m. until 10.00 a.m. in each class and parents/carers are invited to come in for the hour to work on special Christmas Art projects with their child.
Thank you to all the parents who came along this week. We hope to see lots more there again next week!
Parents’ Association – Cake Sale and Raffle
Our Parents’ Association have been busy this week organising a great cake sale and raffle. There are loads of lovely sweet treats to be had and I know it will be a big success. All money raised is going to Temple Street Childrens’ Hospital. Thank you to Dean, Babita and the team at Spar, Mountjoy Street who have donated so many items to the hampers in our raffle. Thank you to all the families who brought in cakes and treats for the sale. And special thanks to Laura Mulligan and Ludmila Paskova who have been leading our parents’ group and putting the whole thing together. Congratulations on your first event!
News2Day Visit
The team from RTÉ’s ‘News2Day’ programme may be visiting in the next week or two to speak to our Young Interpreters about their work. They may also film in other parts of the school. We don’t know yet which children will be included but we would like to ask your permission for your child to be filmed. The programme will be broadcast on RTÉ Television. If you do not want your child to be included, please let us know by Monday.
Battery Boxes
WEEE would love your help to collect as many waste batteries as possible for a Christmas Battery Box Appeal for the LauraLynn charity. Recycling batteries is part of our Green Schools Programme.
Primary Language Curriculum Training
Last week, the whole teaching team had a day of training with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) in Drumcondra Education Centre. The training was for the new primary language curriculum for both English and Gaeilge.
We have already begun to work with different parts of the curriculum in Infants-2nd Class and the focus of our training yesterday was on Reading and Writing. Our teachers will continue to use the new curriculum to help their planning of English and Gaeilge in your child’s class.
Child Protection Training
This week, our staff have completed an online training course so that we are ready for new Child Protection guidance which begins on Monday. The updated ‘Children First 2017’ guidelines will help us to ensure we keep all children safe from harm.
Parish Advent News
We had lovely prayer services for Advent with Fr. Pat and Fr. Martin this week. We lit the first purple candle on our Advent wreath. We have special kindness advent calendars of kind things we can say or do in this special time before Christmas. This morning, the Catholic children went to Mass in the church.
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to 5th Class with top attendance of 96.6% last week.
Dates for your diary
6/13 December – Christmas Art with parents
14 December – Senior Infants to Imaginosity
17 December – Parish Carol Service at 3p.m.
19 December – Infant Christmas Performance
19 December – 3rd-6th to Marino Theatre
20 December – 1st and 2nd to the Ark
21 December – 1st-6th Christmas Performance
22 December – Close for Christmas Holidays
8 January – Re-Open at 8.50 a.m.
Cold Weather
As the weather gets increasingly colder, please remind your child to wrap up warmly. We still have children coming to school without a coat! We don’t want anyone to get sick – so please ensure your child has a coat. If they have a hat, scarf and gloves, please show them how to put these in a pocket or sleeve so they don’t get lost and with the smaller children, practise taking them on and off by themselves.
Wrap up warm – it’s going to be a cold weekend!
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal