Newsletter
13th December 2019
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Christmas Performances
Next week, all classes will perform a short Christmas song or poem and parents/carers are invited to come along to see them. We will do the performance twice, once on Tuesday and once on Wednesday. We would ask, just so that there is enough space for everyone, that parents/carers attend just one performance.
| Tuesday at 1.00 p.m. – Junior Infants, 1st Class, Ms. McBride’s 2nd Class, Ms. O’Donovan’s 3rd Class, 4th Class and 5th Class. |
| Wednesday at 1.00 p.m. – Senior Infants, Ms. Yeates’s 2nd Class, Ms. Carrick’s 3rd Class, Ms. Nolan’s 4th/5th Class and 6th Class. |
Yellow Flag Award Ceremony
We were proud to receive our Yellow Flag for our work on inclusion and diversity last month. Three children from the Diversity Team, Ruman, David and Christian, went with Miss Nolan and I to Government Buildings at Leinster House. The children spoke in front of TDs and Senators about the work they had done and we were very proud of them. They also featured on News2Day. We look forward to celebrating at school when we have our flag raising ceremony in the new year.
Visit from Tomi Reichental
We were honoured to welcome Tomi Reichental, a Holocaust survivor, to school last month. Tomi spoke to the older children about his experiences and reminded them to always be kind to one another. Tomi talked about how small whispers of unkindness, racism and discrimination can begin in our communities and how important it is for us to stand up and say that it is wrong, always challenging those who may try to spread unkind words and messages.
Tomi’s visit also featured on RTE News and we were proud of the children who spoke about how inspired they were by him. Thank you to Ms. Graham who organised the visit.
News this month
6th Class were invited by the Ombudsman for Children to a special event called ‘Child Talks’ in Dublin Castle where they listened to a range of young people speaking passionately about subjects and issues affecting their lives.
5th Class have had a busy few weeks. They went to a performance at the Ark and were invited for a ‘Culture Club’ tour of City Hall, complete with afternoon tea! They also joined 4th Class at the Hugh Lane gallery to launch the ‘Zoom’ art project which both classes took part in last year.
There was great excitement last week when the ‘Sam Maguire’ cup, won by the Dublin football team, arrived at school with Evan Comerford, one of the Dublin team. We celebrated the five All-Ireland wins in a row that Dublin have achieved.
1st Class visited the Central Library for a screening of ‘The Snowman’ which included a live performance of ‘Walking in the Air’! Meanwhile,
2nd and 3rd Class went to the Sean O’Casey Theatre this week for a special performance of ‘Nabber the Blue-Nosed Reindeer’ to get them in the Christmas spirit!
Parking and Traffic – Keeping Children Safe
We have had a number of complaints from local residents in recent weeks about parents parking outside their gates and driving very fast down the lane. We also have some parents who are turning the wrong way onto St. Mary’s Place which is dangerous.
Please can all parents/carers who bring children to school by car, remember to slow down and drive very carefully around the school, especially at the office entrance. There are lots of small children who could run out into the road and we do not want any accidents. Please take care and keep all of our children safe.
#TimeforDEIS campaign
Our school is a ‘DEIS’ school which means we receive Government funding under the ‘Delivering Equality of Opportunity In Schools’ programme.
One of the features of this programme is smaller class sizes. We know that children benefit from working in a class with a smaller number of other children. However, in recent years, while class sizes in other schools have got smaller, the class size in DEIS schools like ours, has stayed the same.
Thank you to the parents/carers who have already taken the time to support the INTO’s #TimeforDEIS campaign to ask the Minister for Education to reduce class sizes in DEIS schools from next September.
If you haven’t had a chance, you can still help us by clicking on the link below, filling in your contact details and sending an automated email to the Minister for Education and our public representatives, asking them to look at this issue.
Erasmus Programme – News
This year we are taking part in an Erasmus programme with schools around Europe. Last week, I spent three days in Aspe, Spain, meeting the adults from our partner schools in Greece, Romania, Italy, Spain and the UK. We made lots of exciting plans. We are looking forward to welcoming children and teachers from all of the schools when they come to Dublin at the end of January. Children and teachers from our school will visit Greece and the UK later this year too.
Creative Schools
We are taking part in the Creative Schools initiative and have already started work. We have been given a Creative Associate, Fala Buggy, who will work with us to create a special project and help all of our classes to explore their creativity. Fala visited us this week and met with our Student Council to find out more about their work and to hear their ideas for what we could work on together. Very exciting times ahead!
Board of Management
The first meeting of our new Board of Management for the new term, 2019-2023, took place this week. The Patron of our school is the Archbishop of Dublin, who appoints two nominees – Fr. Martin McDonald, our Chairperson, and Catherine McHugh. Our two parent nominees are Kennedy Kere and Mariana Balau. Our teacher nominee is Síle McDonnell, and as principal, I also sit on the Board. Marian O’Connor and Michael Blanchfield, are our two Community nominees.
Attendance and punctuality
Our winners of the attendance trophy this week are Ms. O’Donovan’s 3rd Class with 97.1%. The children in Ms. O’Donovan’s Class are so keen to come to school every day – they are hard to beat!
I know there has been a lot of sickness in classes this week and attendance has been very poor as a result. We look forward to seeing everyone back to school feeling much better next week for lots of Christmas fun.
Dates for your diary
15th December – Parish Carol Service in the Church at 3.30 p.m. – all welcome!
17th and 18th December – Christmas Performances
19th December – 6th Class to EPIC museum
20th December – School closes at 12 noon
6th January 2020 – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
…and finally…
Thank you to the children from 2nd to 6th Class who offered to learn some Christmas songs at the last minute to sing at the Parish Carol Service this Sunday. The children have worked really hard in a very short amount of time and we’re looking forward to hearing their lovely singing on Sunday. The Carol Service is open to all and will take place in St. Joseph’s Church on Berkeley Road at 3.30 p.m. Do come along if you can!
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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