Newsletter
3rd February 2017
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Visitors from Finland!
We were pleased to host some visitors from Finland on Tuesday morning. The group of researchers were visiting Dublin to find out more about how schools and communities support children and families who speak English as an additional language. The group visited classrooms around the school and were very impressed with the lovely learning taking place. They had lots of questions for us about how we support children who are new to English and we were able to tell them about our small group teaching, our Young Interpreters, our use of interpreters for parent meetings and our inclusive ethos.
It was lovely to share our practice with them and we send our thanks to Sevak from the New Communities Partnership who organised the visit.
News this week
Thanks to all the families who supported our Family Mass last Sunday.
Our after-school clubs got started this week – Football with Mr. Carney, Mindful Art with Ms. Conlon, Language with New Communities, Computing with Pirooz, Music with Ms. Bourke, Art with Ms. Kilkenny and Irish Dance with Ms. Sheridan.
On Tuesday, Imelda from the ‘Walk in My Shoes’ programme came to talk to 5th and 6th Class about mental health.
On Thursday, 4th Class visited the Chester Beatty Library to view Chinese manuscripts and textiles as part of their learning about China this term.
Peace Proms
Best of luck to our school choir who will perform at the RDS tomorrow night at the ‘Peace Proms’. The children will sing with 2,300 other school children from around the country and the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland. They have practised very hard over the last few weeks and are very excited! We wish them all the best for a great day and fantastic performance.
Dates for your diary
13th February – 3rd – 6th Classes to Lighthouse Cinema for International Film Festival
Friday, 17th February – Science Fair
Sunday, 19th Feb. – Family Mass at 11.45 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Church, Berkeley Road
23/24 February – Mid-Term Break
Attendance and punctuality
We’ve had a great week across the school, with nearly everyone in every day. We had joint winners of our trophy – Miss Brophy’s Senior Infants and Miss Calvey’s 1st and 2nd Class with 99% – well done!
Enrolment for Junior Infants – Sept. 2017
We are currently accepting enrolment forms for Junior Infants in September 2017. We will have one class of 22 and have already received a large number of applications.
Children must be 4 years old by 30th April 2017 to be eligible for a place. Application forms must be completed and returned to the office by Tuesday, 28th February 2017.
Let’s hope the rain stays away for the weekend!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Newsletter-3.2.17.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]