School News - December 2007

The Parents’ Association will be organising the Christmas Bazaar again this year. It will be held on Friday 7th December in the school hall. There will be a raffle also. The money which is raised at this event, helps to defray the cost of transport on the various field-trips that are undertaken
during the year.

The children from 6th class organised a Halloween Party for the school on Friday 26th October. It was a great success and the money raised, €258.85 was sent to the RTE People in Need Telethon. Well done to the class.

Phase 1 of the Food Dudes Healthy Eating Programme is now finished and we have entered Phase 2. The children each received a really smart pair of lunch-boxes one each for the fruit and vegetables which they bring in from home. It really is incredible to see the improvement that has been made. Let’s hope it continues.

No doubt you have noticed the publicity around the initiative being undertaken by the Office of the Ombudsman for Children called “The Big Ballot.” The whole school has been involved in this. It is an interesting idea whereby the children learn about the function of the Ombudsman for children and get an opportunity to vote on issues which are important to them. The findings will be published in due course.

The school collected 35 shoe-boxes for the Samarian’s Purse Operation Christmas Child Appeal. This is down on last year, but every little helps.

The ReadaThon for MS Ireland, is still on-going so we have not got a final figure as yet.

Our Home/School/Community Liaison Co-ordinator, Ms. Marion Hefferon ran a parenting course which was well supported. There will be a Christmas Craft Class during the month.

The Tesco Tokens collection went well this year and we have enough tokens to get the new indoor tennis net that we needed.

Ms. Annette Boles will be taking the children in 3rd and 4th class to the Helix on Thursday 13th December to see Alice in Wonderland. Ms. Edel McGlynn and Ms. Caroline Rountree will be taking the Junior and Senior Infants and 1st and 2nd class to see Santa and the Snowtown Meltdown in the Helix on Wednesday 19th December. The children in 5th and 6th class will be going to Newgrange Heritage Centre on 4th December.

The School Carol Service will be on Sunday 16th December.

Some of the classes are planning a concert on Thursday 20th December, so it’s going to be a busy run-up to Christmas!

School News - Oct 07

The start of the new school year is always a busy time in schools, but there’s a great buzz around the place with lots of happy faces! The sunshine certainly helps to lift our spirits. Our shared Learning Support Teacher, Ms. Breda Rouillier has been made permanent in her base school and we will be interviewing shortly for her replacement.

We are glad to have, Ms. Edel McGlynn, Ms. Caroline Rountree, and Ms. Annette Boles still in the classrooms and Ms. Jane Barnes is our Resource Teacher. Ms. Adrienne McKevitt, Ms. Geraldine Healy and Ms. Bernie Dixon are our Special Needs Assistants and Ms. Marion Hefferon is our Home/School/Community Liaison Co-ordinator. Of course our school would not be complete without our Secretary, Ms. Karen Mooney and our Caretaker Ms. Lesa O’Dowd. Great to have everyone back!

We were delighted to welcome in the new families into Junior Infants and 2nd class, everyone has settled in well.

This year we will be putting on an extension, the architect has drawn up the plans and we are looking forward to seeing them. The room will be used for Parents, HSCL and Resource.

The Breakfast Club, which is run by Lesa and the Homework Club, which is run by Annette starts on Monday 17th September. The School Completion Programme, which is co-ordinated by Ms. Emily Ryan finances these initiatives.

Marion will be running a course for parents called, “Take a Fresh Look at Parenting.” The course will start on Tuesday 25th September.

Edel and the Principal will be attending a seminar on Monday afternoon 17th September in relation to a Critical Incident Policy. Sadly it seems necessary in today’s world to have such a policy.

On Friday 21st September the Principal will be attending a Training Day in the Religious Education Programme, Follow Me.

Our school has been invited to participate in two exciting programmes during the academic year.

In October we will be part of the Food Dudes Healthy Eating Programme. Annette will be
co-ordinating this. The programme itself will last for 16 days during which the children will each receive fresh fruit and vegetables daily. There are lots of incentives and it should be fun as well as healthy. As a follow-up to our Golden Tree Project in June 2000 we have been invited by Alternative Entertainments to do an Arts’ Week in the summer term, it sounds really exciting, watch this space!

Edel is organising the new Green Schools Committee at the moment, we hope to get our Green Flag before the end of this academic year.