Newsletter
13th April 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely holiday. It is great to have the children back at school looking well-rested and ready for an exciting and very busy term of learning and fun.
Green Flag Award
We heard today that we have been awarded our first Green Flag by An Taisce. We have been working hard to reduce our waste, pick up litter, use our compost bins, and remembering to reduce, reuse, recycle. It is a big achievement and one we should be very proud of.
Our thanks to all of the children who have worked so hard and have learned so much about caring for our environment and of course, their wonderful teachers. Special thanks to our Green Schools team – children from each class who have led the project and the adults who have supported them, especially Ms. Todd, Ms. Palmer, Ms. Sheridan and Ms. Marron. Thanks also to Colm our caretaker who has supported all our Green Schools work and to Laura Mulligan, our parent representative on the Green team.
Four members of the team will go to a special award ceremony in the Helix in May to receive the flag and we hope to invite you all to a special flag-raising in June.
News this week
Julianna, our Reader in Residence, returned to work with Senior Infants, both during school and with an after-school club.
All our after-school clubs are back up and running. Most are full, but do contact the office if you’d like a space and we’ll let you know if there’s availability.
We welcomed several student teachers this week from the Institute of Education in DCU. Ms. Quinn is working with Ms. Todd in Junior Infants, Ms. Burke is working with Ms. O’Donovan in Senior Infants. From Monday, Ms. Collins will have Mr. Finnegan and Ms. O’Sullivan in her class and Ms. Conlon will welcome Ms. Finn and Ms. Halfaoui.
Doodle Families
We have been offered the opportunity to run the ‘Doodle Families’ programme this term. This programme is aimed at families with children in 1st Class who have already taken part in ‘Doodle Den’ in Senior Infants. It will run on Tuesdays from 3.00 – 4.00 p.m. and work on supporting parents and children with English literacy.
It is a family programme, so both children and their adults from home attend. We will look after the children between 2.30 and 3.00. A parent/carer must come to the programme in order for your child to take part. If you’d like to find out more, have a chat to the Doodle Den team or call in to see Síle, our Home School teacher.
KPMG Bold Girls workshops
From next week, Ms. Graham and Ms. Lougheed’s Classes will welcome volunteers from KPMG for special workshops on the ‘Bold Girls’ initiative of Children’s Books Ireland. The sessions will look at gender stereotypes and help the children to see that girls can do just as much as boys! KPMG have donated a large number of books that explore strong female characters, books that are written by female authors and illustrators and books that tell the stories of strong women in history, science and sport – to name but a few! This is a really exciting project and we can’t wait to get started!
Dates for your diary
17 April – Doodle Den children on farm visit
18 April – ‘Time to Read’ 2nd Class children to visit ‘Business in the Community’ offices
18 April – Feis Átha Cliath – 5th/6th Class
18 April – Meeting for new parents of children coming to Junior Infants in September
18 April – First session of ‘Doodle Families’
19/20 April – Science Fair
20 April – 6th Class to the Ark
26 April – 2nd Class to Natural History Museum
Sunday, 29th April – First Communion
7-11 May inclusive – Mid-Term Break – school closed
Attendance and punctuality
Great to see so many families back to school on time after the holidays.
Well done to Ms. Graham’s Class who had top attendance of 98.2% this week – super!
Let’s keep it up now and work hard to see a minimum of 95% across each class each week in May.
Our annual Science Fair is happening next week. Classes are inviting parents and carers to join them for some very exciting learning. Check out the dates for your child’s class below:
Junior and Senior Infants:
Thursday, 19th April from 1.00 – 1.30 p.m.
1st, 2nd and 3rd Class:
Friday, 20th April from 1.15 – 2.00 p.m.
4th, 5th, 6th Class:
To be confirmed
And finally…
Our condolences to the parish community and especially the priests of the parish on the death of Fr. Peter Cryan this week. Fr. Peter lived in St. Joseph’s Berkeley Road for many years until his recent illness. May he rest in peace.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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