Newsletter
5th May 2017
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
News this week
We have a busy term of visits ahead and it is great to see classes getting out in the sunshine. On Wednesday, 2nd Class visited the Natural History Museum to see animal fossils and skeletons. Miss Brophy’s Class visited O’Connell Street to look at different modes of transport. On Thursday, 5th Class visited an allotment to plant vegetables and today, 6th Class visited the National Gallery of Ireland to see the Caravaggio exhibit.
Information about other visits taking place this term will come to each class in a letter. Please make sure you sign the permission slips – we must have your consent for visits that involve public transport or anything outside the local area.
Young Achievers
On Wednesday, the annual ‘Young Achievers Awards’ took place at the Lighthouse Cinema. This event is organised by the Home-School teachers in all of the local schools and nine children from our school were nominated by teachers and students across nine categories.
Our winners were:
Creativity – Dilan (3rd Class)
Art – Carl Shane (4th Class)
Music – Milena (6th Class)
Drama – Arun (6th Class)
Dance – Hannah E (5th Class)
Sport – Olaf (6th Class)
Academic – Szymon (4th Class)
Helping Others – Troy (6th Class)
Community Involvement – Anya (5th Class)
The children and their parents/carers attended the ceremony and were presented with special awards – well done to them all!
Romanian Language Institute
This week, we met with representatives from the Romanian Language Institute and the Romanian Embassy who are interested in running after-school classes for Romanian children in our school. The classes will focus on developing children’s Romanian language skills and Romanian culture and traditions. Nearly a quarter of the children in our school are from a Romanian background so we hope this will be something that interests families.
The course is suitable for all ages, from Junior Infants to 6th Class and children will be grouped according to their age.
There will be a meeting for any parents/carers who are interested in finding out more in the school hall on Thursday, 11th May at 9.00 a.m. We hope with enough interest that we can start classes from September 2017.
Parent Questionnaire
Thank you to the families who completed our parent questionnaire which we sent out before the Easter holidays. The results were very positive and we will work to ensure they continue to improve. Some of the top responses (e.g. over 98% of parents responded positively) included – ‘my child is happy at this school’, ‘my child feels safe at school’, ‘my child is taught well at this school’, ‘the school meets my child’s needs’, and ‘the school is well led and managed’.
Responses were lower when parents were asked about the age-appropriate information we give children about drugs and alcohol and parents of children in younger classes were also unsure about how we work with families and children on the transition to secondary school. Parents were also unsure about how the school supports their child to make a positive contribution to the local community.
In the comments section, many parents/carers asked for more after-school provision. We know there are childcare issues for many families in the afternoons and we will do our best to continue to look at ways we can help. The after-school clubs run by the school are funded through the School Completion Programme but we rely on the goodwill and time of our teachers to run them. We will post any information we have about after-school clubs and activities outside of school on the Home-School noticeboard just outside the Hall.
We really appreciate all of your feedback and will do our best to improve our communication to you in these areas. If you have any further comments to make, please feel free to come and chat with me or Síle.
PDST Visit
Today teachers attended workshops throughout the day with Maureen Colleran, an advisor from the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). Maureen worked with teachers to look more closely at our teaching of oral language and ways to encourage and extend children’s speaking and listening skills. We got lots of new ideas that we are looking forward to sharing with the children over the coming weeks.
Dates for your diary
11th May – 5th Class to Hugh Lane Gallery
16th May – 5th Class to Aviva Stadium
19th May – Ms. Calvey’s Class to the Ark
Sunday, 21st May – First Holy Communion for 2nd Class Catholic children at 11.45 a.m.
25th May – 4th Class to ‘Squirrel Scramble’
29th May – Junior Infants to Newgrange Farm
Thursday 1st, Friday 2nd, Monday 5th, Tuesday 6th June – School Closed for Mid-Term
9th June – 6th Class to Carlingford
27th June – Whole-School Performance
29th June – 6th Class Graduation
Mid-Term Reminder
A reminder that we will be closed for four days in June – Thursday 1st June, Friday, 2nd June, Monday 5th June and Tuesday, 6th June. If you are planning any time away this term – this is an ideal time for a short break without the children missing school.
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to Ms. Barry’s Senior Infants who have top attendance of 97% this week. It was a close race with Ms. Brophy’s Class, Ms. Dolan’s Class and 5th and 6th Class very close behind! Well done everyone.
Let’s hope the sun keeps shining for the weekend.
See you on Monday!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Newsletter-5.5.17.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]