Dear Parents / Guardians,
We hope you are all well. Our news is as follows:
- Applications for Admission to Junior Infants 2025/26: Applications for admission for the 2025/26 school year will open tomorrow. The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 15th November. Application forms were distributed today to all of the local preschools. They are also available to download from our school website www.bunscoilbhride.ie or on request from the school office – 045-524540.
- A Spooky Walk/Non Uniform Day: Our annual Spooky Walk will take place tomorrow. All children will leave the school at 10am to walk up the town as part of our Spooky Walk, with Infants to First Class children walking to Ma’s Kitchen and back and all other classes to the Garda Station and back. While tomorrow will be a non-uniform day, with children invited to dress up for Halloween if they wish, they will need to wear warm clothes and sensible shoes for outdoor walking.We would love to see any parents / family members out to greet us on our walk. We are asking all children to bring in a donation of €2 for our Parents’ Association, to cover the cost of speakers and workshops for the children during the year.
- Debating: Our school will again, this year, enter the Concern Primary Debating Festival. I wish to congratulate our young debaters, who will represent our school in the competition; Arianne Gillamac, Eve McDonald, Maria Pop, Hope Beary, Anna Kenna, Libby O’Loughin, Aoife Naslonska, Zara Casey, Savannah Dunne, Mischa Campbell and Orna Manning. In the first round of the competition, on 14th November, the team will compete with The Mercy Convent School, Naas, in opposing the motion that “Every person in Ireland should be given a bike”. The girls are busy researching and preparing. We wish them the very best of luck with their future debates and thank their teachers; Ms. Costello and Ms. Banks for volunteering their time to mentor the girls.
- Creative Rathangan workshop: Ms. Coughlan’s and Ms. Brogan’s Third Classes will take part in the ‘Beyond the classroom’, Creative Rathangan Meitheal (CRM) 2024 outdoor Autumn workshop in Tannery Park and a follow-on workshop in Rathangan Library on the 5th and 8th November respectively. The workshops are facilitated by local artist, Monica de Bath and biodiversity specialist, Nuala Madigan, and will involve the children observing, sketching and getting to know the little creatures who live in the trees, the ground and the water near our village. Photos of the event will be available to view on our website www.bunscoilbhride.ie.
- Assembly: Ms. Choudhury’s Senior Infants and Ms. Marrinan’s Sixth Class will lead this month’s assembly, which takes place in the hall tomorrow.
- Science Week: Science Week will take place from 11th to 15th November and we look forward to celebrating it here in the school with lots of science activities taking place in all classes. All classes will engage in a workshop on Biodiversity with expert, Barbara Sullivan, on either Monday 11th or Monday 18th November. We look forward to learning all about biodiversity.
- Science Fair: To mark Science Week, all of our Fifth and Sixth Classes will host a Science Fair for the whole school in our school hall on Friday 15th. The girls, working in teams, will be given a brief, which they will research and gathering materials for. They will be conducting experiments relating to their brief, for all classes to observe and we look forward to learning lots from this experience. I want to thank the girls and their teachers Ms. Marrinan, Ms. De Faoite, Ms. Banks and Ms. Freeborn.
- Tennis Lessons: The girls in our Bluebells Class will engage in a 10-week block of tennis lessons with Gary Beresford, from Rathangan Tennis Club here at the school starting directly after the midterm break. We look forward to seeing the girls develop their tennis skills.
- School Website: Please check out our school website, which is frequently updated. Keep an eye on the class blogs to see what our girls are up to. To access your daughter’s class blog, go to www.bunscoilbhride.ie, click on ‘Classes’ and select your daughter’s class.
- Christmas Shoe Box Appeal: A reminder to all those who wish to participate in the Christmas Shoe Box Appeal: Shoe boxes must be brought into the school by Friday 8th November. They will be collected from the school on that day.
- Parent-Teacher Meetings: Please ensure you have booked your time slot for Parent Teacher Meetings for either 19th or 21st November. Booking slots are only available to parents who have not already met their child’s teacher at a Pupil Support Planning Meeting. Booking can be done via the ‘Parent Teacher Meetings’ tab on the Aladdin app. Please ensure you arrive promptly at your appointment time. Meetings will be 10 minutes in duration and we ask that parents knock on the classroom door at their appointed time. Chairs will be provided outside the classrooms. Please ensure you know your child(ren)’s classroom number(s). Rooms 1 to 6 and Room 15 are downstairs and rooms 7 to 12 are upstairs. While these are our annual, formal meetings, if an issue arises for your child during the year, the teachers are happy to meet with you if you make an appointment with Catríona in the office or send a message to your child’s teacher on the Aladdin Connect app.
- Oral Language: For the month of November, our whole-school Oral Language theme is Giving and Following Directions. All classes will be engaged in activities based around helping the children to competently give and follow directions. This is something that you can quite easily work on at home with your child(ren). It is only through school and home working closely together that we can achieve the very best outcome for your child(ren).
- Parents’ Association Annual General Meeting (AGM): We would encourage all parents to join our Parents’ Association, by coming along to the AGM, which will be held in the school hall at 7pm on Tuesday 12th November.
- Midterm Break: Bunscoil Bhríde will close for the midterm break tomorrow, Friday 25th October and will reopen on Monday November 4th. We trust everyone will enjoy a well-deserved break after such a busy half-term.
Kind regards,
Maria Rogerson