Dear Parents / Guardians,
We hope you are all well. Our news is as follows:
- Debating: Our school will again this year enter the Primary Debating Festival. I wish to congratulate our young debaters who will represent our school in the competition; Orna Manning, Maria Pop, Eve McDonald, Arianne Gillamac, Hope Beary, Anna Kenna, Zara Casey, Savannah Dunne, Aoife Naslonska, Libby O’Loughlin and Mischa Campbell. We are awaiting the schedule of debates and expect that our first debate will take place in early October. The girls are already hard at work, preparing for their upcoming debates. We wish them the very best of luck in the competition and thank their teachers; Ms. Costello and Ms. Banks for volunteering their time to mentor the girls.
- Gaelic Football: Hard luck to our U-11 footballers who narrowly lost their first game to St. Evin’s N.S., Monasterevin last Thursday. They gave a very brave performance and took defeat very graciously. Thank you to our referee, Aoibhín Mahon, a past pupil, who took charge of the game making it great fun for all. There has been such a large turnout at afterschool training which has made the task of picking the team very difficult. The girls should be highly commended for this. Our next game will be against Scoil Bhríde, Athgarvan with the time and date to be announced. We are all looking forward to another strong performance from our girls.
- Camogie: A huge congratulations to our camogie team, who recorded their first win of the school year against Gaelscoil Chill Dara last Friday in Rathangan. We had fifteen girls represent our school and are delighted to report that our skill levels of lifting and striking are improving year on year. It is wonderful to hear that many of the girls are now attending camogie training on Mondays evenings from 6.30pm at the GAA club, where all are welcome. Thank you to both the Camogie and Gaelic football clubs for their continued support in allowing us to use their facilities, organise referees and borrow equipment for use in school. Thank you also to our camogie and football coaches, Ms. Brogan, Ms. Marrinan and Ms. Frawely, who give so generously of their time in training the girls.
- National Fitness Day: We celebrated National Fitness Day on Tuesday, choosing the theme of ‘Relays Take Over’, as this tied in with our first Active School event of the school year, but also helped us to celebrate our fantastic Olympians and especially our relay teams who inspired us all over the summer months. The aim of the day was to be active and have fun by participating in relay activities. The school yards were a hive of activity from early morning with children taking part in out and back relays, pair relays, hula hoop relays, team relays and the highlight for many classes the jigsaw relay! It was super to see the team work between senior and junior classes as many paired up to work on the skills of relay running, passing the baton but most of all to support and encourage each other in taking part!
- Uniform: Please ensure that all items of your child’s uniform and coat are clearly labelled with her name.
- Assembly: We held our whole-school assembly for the month of September in the hall today. Ms. De Faoite’s Sixth Class and Ms. Ruttledge’s Junior Infants led the assembly and did an amazing job of sharing all of our school news with our school community.
- Walk to School Week: National Walk to School Week takes place this year from October 7th – 11th. This week is all about celebrating walking as a positive mode for school journeys. We are asking our students and their families to celebrate with us and try to make this a week to remember. We are aiming to encourage as many students as possible to walk or Park and Stride to school. Walking to school is one of the best ways to start the day with multiple benefits to children’s physical and mental health. It also has a positive impact on academic performance and behaviour with higher levels of concentration and focus. Walk to School Week is also a great opportunity to teach your child about road safety and the Safe Cross Code.
- Junior Infant Vaccinations: The Junior Infant vaccinations will be administered by staff from the HSE tomorrow.
- Volunteers: We are always looking for volunteer parents to help out in classrooms or to accompany classes on trips / tours. All volunteers coming into the school must be Garda Vetted through the school. The process takes four / five weeks to complete and is relatively straightforward. We would be extremely grateful if you were available and willing to help us out. If you feel you would like to help out at any stage of the year, we would really appreciate it if you phone Catríona in the office and ask her to send you on the vetting forms.
- Oral Language: The theme for the month of October is ‘Listening’. Communication and learning skills grow out of effective listening. Hearing and listening are not the same – listening is an active process of focusing on sound; hearing is passive reception of sound. Listening means focusing on some sounds and “tuning out” others. All classes will be focusing on this theme for the month and we would ask that you support us at home, by encouraging and modelling good listening, asking your child to follow oral instructions, playing auditory listening games and questioning your child often.
- 24-hour Pupil Personal Accident Insurance: For parents who have opted to pay for the 24-hour pupil personal accident insurance, please be advised thatall medical costs associated with an accident involving your child, whether at school or at home is covered by this insurance. It is 24 hour, 7 days a week cover. If you have to take your child to A&E as a result of any accident, the cost will be fully covered. Please just phone the office to let us know and we will send you out the Allianz claim form to be completed.
- Christmas Shoe-Box Appeal: The children will receive a leaflet next week from ‘Team Hope’ detailing the Christmas Shoe-box Appeal. If you wish, you can put together a shoe-box which will benefit needy children around the world (this is optional). Shoe-boxes may be brought in to school on Friday 8th November only. They will be collected from the school on this day.
- Dangers of the Internet: While the internet is a wonderful resource, I would like to remind you that it can also pose many dangers to your child. While the school has safeguards in place with regard to pupil internet/website access at school, use outside school falls under parental responsibility. Children should never be allowed access to the internet at home without supervision, nor should they be accessing apps such as Snapchat, Tiktok, Whatsapp, Instagram etc., which all have a minimum user age of 13.
- Head Bumps: It is our school policy to phone home when a child bumps her head, however minor.
- Wedding Wishes: I would like to extend warmest congratulations and best wishes to Ms. Janet Geraghty and her partner, Nigel who celebrate their wedding tomorrow. We wish them a long lifetime of love and happiness.
- Dates for the diary: All dates for the diary this term are available to view on the Aladdin Connect app under ‘Calendar’.
Kind regards,
Maria Rogerson