Green Flag Award
We were thrilled to receive our first Green Flag for ‘Litter and Waste’ from An Taisce at a special ceremony in the Helix this week.
Our Green Schools team have worked so hard and we can’t wait to have our official flag raising for our whole school community in June – watch this space for more details!
Newsletter 18.5.18
Newsletter
18th May 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Discover Science and Maths Award
We were delighted to hear this week that we have achieved a Science Foundation of Ireland Discover Science and Maths Award. This award is given to schools who can show that the whole school engage with science and maths learning across the school year. We will receive our special plaque for STEM Excellence in the coming weeks. We can’t wait to show you!
Thanks as always to our super teachers, who always have creative and exciting ways to get children engaged with their learning. Special thanks to Mr. Kerr who gathered all of the information for our application and kept us all focused on the prize!
Winners – ‘Different Families, Same Love’
Over the holidays we heard that Ms. Lougheed’s 3rd Class won 3rd Prize in the ‘Different Families, Same Love’ competition. The competition celebrates diversity in families and the children wrote their own stories on the theme. Well done children!
Aladdin Jr. Performance – SAVE THE DATE
You may have heard that our end-of-year performance this year will be the musical Aladdin! We are very, very excited about it and we are already rehearsing hard! The children from 2nd – 6th Class will be performing this year. Our younger children will have their own chance to perform at our Green Schools Flag Raising on 20th June.
The performance of Aladdin will be on Wednesday, 27th June in the evening and we’re thrilled to tell you that it will be in Liberty Hall Theatre. We are very excited to give the children the opportunity to perform in a real-life theatre. Please keep the date free and we will let you know more information about tickets in the coming weeks.
News this week
4th Class went to a screening of ‘Coco’ at Cineworld on Monday as part of the International Cinemagic Festival.
On Tuesday, we hosted vistors from Chadron State University in Nebraska, USA who were in Dublin to learn about our school system. They were very impressed with the children’s learning and were delighted to see an Irish primary school.
Today, 5th Class have had a fabulous visit to SurfDock, taking part in a whole range of fun watersports.
Careers Week
Before the mid-term break, we had a fantastic Careers Week. It was an opportunity to find out about a whole range of different kinds of jobs and to give the children a chance to think about what they might like to do when they grow up.
6th Class visited Lir Academy for a tour of their theatre. They learnt all about the many different careers you can have in the theatre – acting, directing, sound, lighting, costumes and lots more! Later in the week, they visited Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) to have a look at a university campus and find out more about third level education.
4th Class were invited to the Facebook offices to learn more about careers in social media. 2nd and 3rd Class visited the Glanmore Foods factory which makes all of our school lunches and Senior Infants visited the airport to find out about the different jobs you can have there!
Back at school, we had a whole range of visitors across the week. On Monday, Claire from Facebook Dublin told us about working in social media while Barry spoke about his job as a chef and even demonstrated how to cook a very tasty fish dish!
On Tuesday, Glenn the pilot told us all about taking to the skies, Shauna explained how she became a personal trainer, and Franc, the archaologist shared his very interesting work investigating the past. Later, Natasha spoke about working in a Montessori pre-school.
On Wednesday, our lovely postmaster from Berkeley Road, Sean, came to visit and tell us all about his very busy job.
On Thursday, we had a visit from a former Irish Ambassador, Mr. Hayes who has had a fascinating career. We also met Diana who works as an artist.
Friday saw the arrival of international rugby star, Maz O’Reilly with Mitch from Dublin City Council’s Health and Wellbeing team. Both had really interesting stories about their determination to do a job they love. In the afternoon, one of the Gardaí from Bridewell Station came to talk about his very important job.
It was a wonderful and inspiring week, full of interesting stories and activities. Thank you to all our visitors for giving their time so willingly. A special thank you to Síle McDonnell, our Home-School-Community Liaison teacher who put the whole week together and coordinated it all so well. We can’t wait for the next one!
Young Achievers
The annual Young Achievers Awards also took place before the break in the Lighthouse Cinema. Thank you to the parents/carers who came to support their children. Well done to all of our winners – we are so proud of you!
Dates for your diary
21 May – 3rd and 4th Class to Pine Forest
22 May – Green Schools Award Ceremony
22 May – Santry Athletics
23 May – Junior Infants to Newgrange Farm
Week of 28 May – Active Schools Week
4 June – Bank Holiday – School Closed
5 June – Internet Safety Talks
8 June – 6th Class to Carlingford
12 June – ‘Time to Read’ Celebration
20 June – Green Flag Raising
21 June – 1st Class to the Zoo
27 June – Aladdin Jr. Performance
28 June – 6th Class Graduation
29 June – School Closes at 12 noon
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to 2nd and 6th Class who shared our top attendance prize with an outstanding 100% attendance record in both classes!
And finally…
We send our best wishes to all our Muslim families for a peaceful month of Ramadan.
The sun is going to shine this weekend, I hope you go out and enjoy it!
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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Newsletter 30.4.18
Newsletter
30th April 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
News last week
On Thursday, Ms. Collins’s 2nd Class visited the Natural History Museum and had a great day learning all about the animals on display.
Also on Thursday, Ms. Graham and Ms. Lougheed’s Classes were invited to the Gate Theatre to watch a special performance by ‘Theatre Lovett’. We’re told they were the best behaved audience in the theatre for years – well done!
First Holy Communion
Well done to the twelve 2nd Class children who made their First Holy Communion on Sunday in St. Joseph’s Church.
The children looked beautiful in their special outfits. They were very well prepared, walking beautifully in the procession, presenting their gifts and reading with great confidence. The art work in the Church was beautiful too. We were so proud!
Thank you to Ms. Collins and Ms. Graham for all of their hard work preparing the children for their special day. Thank you to Fr. Pat who helped us prepare and celebrated Mass for us. Thank you to Amy, Audrey, Liz and Ms. Brophy for supporting the children on their big day.
Special thanks to the children from the school choir who sang beautifully and to Ms. Marron who played the piano to accompany them.
News from our Anti-Bullying Team
Last week, our team of Anti-Bullying Ambassadors challenged each class to write their very own rap, with an anti-bullying theme. We are encouraging the children to be ‘upstanders’ and stand up to bullying behaviour when they see it. This is the opposite to being a ‘bystander’ and saying nothing when you see someone else being hurt. Our children can speak really clearly about the importance of being an upstander and talking to an adult if someone is being unkind.
We had a very special assembly on Friday where each class or group performed their rap. We were so impressed with the creativity of each one – they were great! You can see a small selection on our Twitter page @stmarysdorsetst, or ask your child to give you a demonstration! Thanks to our Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and to Ms. Devereux and Ms. Shortall for organising it all!
Science Fair
Our 4th, 5th and 6th Class Science Fairs were a huge success last week. 4th Class kept us busy with their brilliant cardboard challenge games they designed and made. Meanwhile, in 5th and 6th Class, there were volcanoes, light bulbs, solar systems and LOTS of slime and sticky experiments! Thanks to our teachers again for supporting the children’s creativity.
Mr. Kerr has collated all of our Science and Maths learning over the year and submitted our application for a special award – we have our fingers crossed!
Active Schools
It was national Active Schools Week last week and while we intend to celebrate fully in May, that did not stop us being active this week!
We had a visit from Stephen who gave us an introduction to playing rugby. The children from 2nd to 6th Class really enjoyed it. On Tuesday, 5th and 6th Class learnt the skills of tug-of-war with Cathy and the girls’ team proved the strongest! No doubt a re-match will be on the cards when we have our full Active Schools Week at the end of May.
Dates for your diary
Week of 30th April – Careers Week
30th April – 6th Class to Lir Theatre
2nd May – Young Achievers’ Awards
4th May – 6th Class to DIT
7-11 May inclusive – Mid-Term Break – school closed
18 May – 4th Class to the Ark
22 May – Green Schools Award Ceremony
22 May – Santry Athletics
23 May – Junior Infants to Newgrange Farm
Week of 28 May – Active Schools Week
Careers Week
This week, we welcome a whole host of special visitors for Careers Week. We will be talking to the children about lots of different kinds of careers and our visitors will explain about their jobs and the kind of work they do. Our older children will have the opportunity to visit Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) to visit a university campus and find out what it is like to study at third level.
Attendance and punctuality
Our top attenders last week were Ms. O’Donovan’s Senior Infant Class with a very impressive 99.1%! They were so excited and proud to take our attendance cup back to their class.
And finally…
We are working to confirm the term dates for 2018-2019 and we will share them with you shortly. Please note that we intend to return to school on Thursday, 30th August. If you are booking flights etc. please ensure you are back in time for the first day of school.
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
| REMINDER:
MID-TERM BREAK
We are closed from 7th May to 11th May 2018 inclusive.
|
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First Communion
Well done to the twelve 2nd Class children who made their First Holy Communion on Sunday in St. Joseph’s Church.
The children looked beautiful in their special outfits. They were very well prepared, walking beautifully in the procession, presenting their gifts and reading with great confidence. The art work in the Church was beautiful too. We were so proud!
Thank you to Ms. Collins and Ms. Graham for all of their hard work preparing the children for their special day. Thank you to Fr. Pat who helped us prepare and celebrated Mass for us. Thank you to Amy, Audrey, Liz and Ms. Brophy for supporting the children on their big day.
Special thanks to the children from the school choir who sang beautifully and to Ms. Marron who played the piano to accompany them.
Science Fair
We held our annual Science Fairs this week to showcase some of the fantastic science learning that happens in our school. We were delighted to see so many parents/carers joining us for lots of fun experiments.
Newsletter 20.4.18
Newsletter
20th April 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
News this week
On Tuesday, our Doodle Den children had a very exciting visit to Airfield farm with their Doodle friends from other local schools.
On Wednesday, our ‘Time to Read’ children in 2nd Class visited the ‘Business in the Community’ offices to have a look at where their volunteers work every day. They had lots of fun!
The children in 5th and 6th Class took part in ‘Feis Átha Cliath’ on Wednesday, an Irish dancing competition. The children practised really hard and danced beautifully.
We were delighted to meet a group of new parents of children coming to Junior Infants in September. We look forward to welcoming them to our community in the coming months.
The first session of ‘Doodle Families’ began this week. There are still places available if you have a child in 1st Class and a parent is free to come along too. Remember – sessions are on Tuesdays between 3.00 and 4.00 p.m.
Today, 6th Class visited the Ark Cultural Centre to see traditional Irish music band ‘Moxie’. The children enjoyed a scavenger hunt in the sunshine on their walk to the Ark and had a great time at the gig!
Science Fair
As usual, our annual Science Fairs have been a huge success, with more amazing experiments to come next week in 4th, 5th and 6th Class.
Yesterday, our Infant children were delighted with their activities and it was lovely to see so many parents and carers here to support their children’s learning.
Today, it was the turn of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class. The children have been working so hard to prepare for the day, planning, testing and improving their work so it is ready to show you. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Thanks to Mr. Kerr for coordinating the days and to our teachers for their hard work and creativity.
Dates for your diary
26 April – 2nd Class to Natural History Museum
26 April – 2nd/3rd and 3rd Class to Gate Theatre
Sunday, 29th April – First Communion
Week of 30th April – Careers Week
30th April – 6th Class to Lir Theatre
2nd May – Young Achievers’ Awards
4th May – 6th Class to DIT
7-11 May inclusive – Mid-Term Break – school closed
18 May – 4th Class to the Ark
22 May – Green Schools Award Ceremony
22 May – Santry Athletics
23 May – Junior Infants to Newgrange Farm
Week of 28 May – Active Schools Week
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to 2nd and 6th Class who shared our top attendance prize with an outstanding 100% attendance record in both classes!
And finally…
What lovely sunshine we have today! Let’s hope it stays around for a while. I hope you all get outside and enjoy it! Have a lovely weekend,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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Newsletter 13.4.18
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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Newsletter 20.3.18
Newsletter
20th March 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
News this week and last week
We had two teams attending soccer tournaments last week. The girls were up first on Monday and the boys had their turn on Thursday. Both teams performed really well and showed great sportsmanship. Thanks to Mr. Carney for organising and accompanying the teams.
On Tuesday we welcomed a large group of parents and carers to a special meeting to learn more about the ‘Stay Safe’ programme. It was great to see so many of you there – thank you very much. If you have any questions about the Stay Safe programme and keeping your child safe, come and have a chat with your child’s class teacher and find out what your child is learning in school.
Our older children have been taking part in six weeks of swimming lessons in Belvedere College. We hear they’re doing very well!
On Thursday, a reporter from RTE’s News2Day programme came to speak to some of our younger children about St. Patrick. They appeared on Friday’s programme and spoke really well – well done children!
This week and after Easter, we are welcoming some student teachers to classes across the school from the Institute of Education. They will work alongside our class teachers for several weeks.
Confirmation
Congratulations to the children in 5th and 6th Class who had their Confirmation last Friday. The children worked very hard to prepare for the ceremony. It was a lovely family occasion and the children looked wonderful.
Thank you to the parish team who supported the children over the last few months and especially to Mrs. Fay and Ms. Kilkenny who prepared the children so well. Big thanks also to our super choir who sang beautifully.
Dates for your diary
| We close at 12 noon on Friday (23rd March) for the Easter holidays.
We re-open on Monday, 9th April at 8.50 a.m. |
Attendance and punctuality
Another great week of attendance.
Have a look at these percentages:
Junior Infants – 97.3%
Ms. Marron Senior Infants – 98.3%
Ms. O’Donovan Senior Infants – 97.3%
Ms. Sheridan’s 1st Class – 98.2%
Ms. Collins’s 2nd Class – 96.4%
Ms. Graham’s 2nd/3rd Class – 96.7%
4th Class – 96.5%
5th Class – 98.3%
6th Class – 99.2%
Well done everyone!
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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Confirmation 2018
We were so proud of the children in 5th and 6th Class who made their Confirmation on Friday. The children have been preparing for the special ceremony where they received the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit for several months.
Our thanks to Fr. Paddy Madden, who joined us to confirm the children, to Fr. Martin and Fr. Pat, the priests of our parish, to John Graham, parish pastoral worker, and especially to Mrs. Fay and Ms. Kilkenny, the class teachers.
It was lovely to see the children joined by their classmates for this celebration.
