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Doodle Den Graduation

Our amazing Senior Infant children graduated from ‘Doodle Den’ last week!

Doodle Den is an after-school literacy programme, funded by the Grangegorman ABC programme and run by the School Completion Programme!

The children have attended Doodle Den for 90 minutes, three days a week, all year. They have learned so much and had a very fun time! Thanks to Ms. Todd, Amy and Orlaith who have led the group and kept everyone smiling. Great to see such happy faces. Thanks also to the parents/carers who supported the children in the programme all year and at their very special graduation ceremony. Roll on next year!

6th Class visit to Carlingford

6th Class had a super day visiting Carlingford Adventure Centre. The sun was shining and much fun was had by all.

Newsletter 8.6.18

Newsletter

8^th June 2018

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

News this week

On Tuesday, we had some really interesting talks on internet safety from Zeeko Education. They spoke with parents/carers first about how to keep your child safe online. They then spent time in each class from 2^nd – 6^th Class. After school, they met the teachers and we talked about how we keep children safe online when they are in school and how we can support parents/carers with what happens at home.

One of the key messages for children when playing games or chatting online, is to ‘stop, block, tell’ if a stranger is trying to talk to them or says something they do not like.

Also on Tuesday, 3^rd Class went on a very special tour. First to the Viking Splash where they travelled on the special Viking bus and boat. Later, they visited the National Museum and saw a Viking longship and skeleton! The children were able to share lots of information from their learning about the Vikings and learnt lots more too!

On Thursday, Ms. Marron’s Senior Infants visited the airport – they met pilots, co-pilots, air hostesses and lots more! They even got to check-in their bags and show their passports.

Today, 6^th Class are in Carlingford Adventure Centre for an exciting day of outdoor activities. Also today, some classes had their sports day outside in the sunshine. The children tried lots of different activities and were beautifully behaved for each adult they worked with. Well done!

After-School Clubs

We’ve had a great selection of after-school clubs running this term. Our ‘Food Revolution’ club finished a few weeks ago – look out for the recipe book on our website in the coming days. A sincere thanks to our volunteer, Marina Engels, who gave her time so willingly to run the club with the ever-helpful Dolores. Our thanks also to New Communities Partnership for their English language club, staffed by volunteers all year.

Thank you to Ms. Marron and Audrey F for their art club, Ms. Lougheed and Mr. Carney for our award-winning athletics club and to Ms. Conlon for inspiring some new engineers in our STEM club.

These clubs have all finished for the year and we look forward to even more exciting ventures next year.

Ms. Lennon’s singing club finishes next Thursday – parents/carers are invited to a mini-concert at 3.15 p.m. to celebrate!

Drama lessons will finish on Wednesday, 20^th June while our girls multi-sports club will finish on Tuesday, 19^th June. Romanian classes will finish on Tuesday, 26^th June.

Dates for your diary

Sun. 10 June – Family Mass at 11.45

12 June – ‘Time to Read’ Celebration

21 June – 1^st Class to the Zoo

22 June – Green Flag Raising

Sat. 23 June – 3^rd Class ‘Cruinniu’ event

27 June – Aladdin Jr. Performance

28 June – 6^th Class Graduation

29 June – School Closes at 12 noon

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. McBride’s 1^st Class with 98.6% attendance this week – the second week a row!

Doodle Den Graduation

We had a lovely graduation ceremony on Thursday for our Senior Infants taking part in the Doodle Den programme. The children have worked so hard all year and have made great progress in their literacy learning at this very special after-school club. Well done children and thanks to the parents and carers who came to celebrate with us. Special thanks to Ms. Todd, Amy and Orlaith who have been wonderful Doodle Den facilitators this year.

Parents/carers in Junior Infants, if you would like your child to take part in Doodle Den next year, please chat to Ms. Todd about it.

Tickets for Aladdin Jr.

Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday for our performance of Aladdin Jr. in Liberty Hall Theatre on 27^th June. All of the children in 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th Class are involved. Ms. Brophy will have all the information ready for you early next week.

Romanian Classes

There will be a meeting for Romanian families interested in continuing our Romanian after-school classes, in partnership with the Romanian Embassy, next year. If you would like to attend this meeting, please come along on Monday, 18^th June at 9.00 a.m. to meet Anka Borzasi our teacher.

And finally…

Amy Healy, one of our special needs assistants, leaves us today to start her maternity leave. We wish her all the best over these next exciting few weeks and look forward to sharing her good news with you all soon.

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend,

Éadaoin Kelly – Principal

5 Tips for Parents from Common Sense Media

Choose the good stuff (and not too much!). When your children ask to see, play, or download something, don’t just take their word for it — check up on it. Say no if you’re not comfortable with it. And when you approve something, help your children enjoy it along with their other activities.

Don’t use screens right before bed and keep them out of the bedroom overnight. Children really need their sleep. Screens in the bedroom — especially in the hour before bedtime — interfere with the entire process of winding down, preparing for rest, and waking up refreshed and ready to tackle the day.

Turn off the TV if no one is watching it. A lot of parents of young children keep the TV on for company. But so-called background TV has been shown to get in the way of parents talking and interacting with their children — which are key to helping children learn language and communication. Background TV can also expose children to age-inappropriate content.

Make time for enjoying media with your children, especially reading. Reading to your child is one of the best things you can do. It’s great for bonding, but it also sets the stage for learning. Feel free to read books or articles to them in your home language. Or just make up stories — it’s the rhythm, sounds, and communication that are important for children to hear.

Practice what you preach. Remember, your children are watching you. When your children are little, create a family media plan to help you balance media and tech (theirs and yours) with all of the other things that are important to you. This isn’t just for them; it’s for you, too. Schedule in downtime, chores, homework, outdoor fun, reading, meals, etc. And then figure out how much extra is available for TV shows, games, apps and other media activities.

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Senior Infants visit the Airport

Our Senior Infant classes have had some brilliant visits to Dublin Airport over the last few weeks. The children have applied all their learning to a real-life context and had the opportunity to practice all of the new language they have learned. Thank you to the staff at the airport who have been so welcoming and generous with their time.

3rd Class Viking Visit

3rd Class have been learning all about the Vikings this term. Today, they had a great morning aboard the Viking Splash, before visiting the National Archaeology Museum to see the Viking exhibit, including a Viking longship and skeleton! 3rd Class amazed their museum guide Annie with their knowledge.

Active Schools Week

Active Week 2018 took place from 28th May to 1st June. We started with yoga sessions for children, parents and teachers on ‘Mindfulness Monday’. On Tuesday, 4^th Class went to DIT Grangegorman to take part in a special sports day with other local schools, organised by the Community Garda team in the Bridewell Station. They had a super time! Back at school, we had ‘Try-It-Out’ Tuesday organised by Mr. Carney, where children got to try activities like badminton, rugby, javelin and the high jump!

Each morning, Ms. O’Callaghan led our ‘Wake and Shake’ in the yard, getting everyone’s heart rate going before the work of the day. On Wednesday, we had our official sports day for 1^st to 6^th Class in Kings’ Inn. The children took part in a range of fun activities and were great sports! On Thursday, we had ‘Drop Everything and Dance’ at lunchtime while 5^th and 6^th Class took part in a local GAA football blitz organised by the Community Garda team in Mountjoy Station. We finished with Frisbee Friday!

Newsletter 1.6.18

Newsletter

1^st June 2018

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Active Schools Week

We have had a very busy week, full of physical activity for ‘Active Schools Week’. We started with ‘Mindful Monday’ with yoga sessions for each class throughout the day. We also had our weekly yoga session for parents and an after-school relaxation session for our staff.

On Tuesday, 4^th Class went to DIT Grangegorman to take part in a special sports day with other local schools, organised by the Community Garda team in the Bridewell Station. They had a super time!

Back at school, we had ‘Try-It-Out’ Tuesday organised by Mr. Carney, where children got to try activities like badminton, rugby, javelin and the high jump!

Each morning, Ms. O’Callaghan led our ‘Wake and Shake’ in the yard, getting everyone’s heart rate going before the work of the day.

On Wednesday, we had our official sports day for 1^st to 6^th Class in Kings’ Inn. The children took part in a range of fun activities and I’m told they were great sports!

On Thursday, we had ‘Drop Everything and Dance’ at lunchtime while 5^th and 6^th Class took part in a local GAA football blitz organised by the Community Garda team in Mountjoy Station.

Today is Frisbee Friday, and we’re having loads of fun with the team from Ultimate Frisbee.

Huge thanks to the whole of the Active Team for putting together such a great week of activities – Ms. O’Callaghan, Mr. Carney, Ms. Kilkenny, Ms. Collins and Ms. Lougheed.

Dates for your diary

Week of 28 May – Active Schools Week

4 June – Bank Holiday – School Closed

5 June – Internet Safety Talks

5 June – 3^rd Class to Viking Splash

8 June – 6^th Class to Carlingford

Sun. 10 June – Family Mass at 11.45

12 June – ‘Time to Read’ Celebration

20 June – Green Flag Raising

21 June – 1^st Class to the Zoo

Sat. 23 June – 3^rd Class ‘Cruinniu’ event

27 June – Aladdin Jr. Performance

28 June – 6^th Class Graduation

29 June – School Closes at 12 noon

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. McBride’s 1^st Class with 98.9% attendance this week – super! Ms. Graham and Ms. Lougheed’s Classes weren’t far behind – keep it up everyone.

And finally…

The good weather looks like it will stay around for a while. Please remember to apply sunscreen to children before school to protect them from the sun at break and lunchtime.

Have a lovely weekend,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Newsletter 25.5.18

Newsletter

25^th May 2018

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Athletics Success

Our athletics club have been preparing for several weeks for the annual competitions at Santry Stadium. On Tuesday, over 30 children represented our school in different events.

We were delighted to see two boys win gold medals for their individual sprinting competitions – well done Simon and Huiming!

Later in the day, four boys from 6^th Class took on the relay race. They put on an incredible performance and finished way ahead of any of the competition. If you haven’t yet seen the video of the race on our Twitter page @stmarysdorsetst – you are in for a treat!

Green Flag Award Ceremony

Ms. Todd, Ms. Palmer, Sean and Shivee, representing our Green Schools team, headed off to the Helix on Tuesday to a special awards ceremony. They received our very first Green Flag for our work on reducing ‘Litter and Waste’ in our school.

Congratulations to the Green Schools team, and to all our classes and staff for their hard work to make this initiative such a success. We have a very special flag raising day planned for 20^th June – save the date!

News this week

We were very sorry that the 3^rd and 4^th Class visit to Pine Forest had to be cancelled on Monday. Our coach company let us down. We hope to have new arrangements in place soon.

On Wednesday, Junior Infants had a wonderful time at Newgrange Farm. Thank you to all the parents/carers who supported them on this visit.

‘No Slip, No Trip’

A reminder that with lots of visits happening over the next month, children will not be allowed to leave the building without a signed permission slip. We must have your informed and written consent for them to take part.

Dates for your diary

Week of 28 May – Active Schools Week

4 June – Bank Holiday – School Closed

5 June – Internet Safety Talks

8 June – 6^th Class to Carlingford

Sun. 10 June – Family Mass at 11.45

12 June – ‘Time to Read’ Celebration

20 June – Green Flag Raising

21 June – 1^st Class to the Zoo

Sat. 23 June – 3^rd Class ‘Cruinniu’ event

27 June – Aladdin Jr. Performance

28 June – 6^th Class Graduation

29 June – School Closes at 12 noon

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to 3^rd Class with top attendance!

And finally… GDPR – Data Protection

Like all organisations, we are updating our practices and policies around data protection in light of the new GDPR regulations. A copy of our privacy notice is published on our website and we will send copies to parents/carers next week. If at any time you have questions or queries about the data we hold for you or your child and who we share it with, please do not hesitate to come and ask us.

Have a lovely weekend!

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Discover Science and Maths Award

We were delighted to be awarded the Science Foundation of Ireland Discover Primary Science and Maths award’s Plaque of STEM Excellence for 2018.

This award celebrates the creative and exciting ways our children have engaged with science, technology, engineering and maths across the school this year. It is given to schools who demonstrate deeper engagement across the whole-school in STEM activities and who showcase that learning for the wider school community.

We thank our teachers for leading this fantastic learning, each and every day. Special thanks to Mr. Kerr who leads this project each year, promoting STEM activities, coordinating our Science Fair showcases and collating the evidence for the award. We look forward to next year!