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Our Green Schools Action Day

Today, we celebrated our first Green Schools’ Action Day. We are working towards our first Green Flag for Litter and Waste. Each class displayed their learning from the last few weeks alongside a range of activities.

Earlier this morning, 6th Class were visited by the team from Thorntons Recycling, who talked to them all about where our rubbish goes, once they’ve collected it from us!

In 2nd Class, there was a visit from Recreate Ireland, who helped to design and make a home and habitat for our turtle Green Schools’ mascot, using recycled materials.

For homework this week, our families completed a special Green Schools quiz and told us how to say ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ in each of our home languages. Have a look!

In the afternoon, all of the children and families came together in the Hall to share their learning. The children spoke confidently about their projects and we were so proud of them. The newly-formed 1st and 2nd Class Choir sang some lovely songs about recycling and taking care of our world.

Thank you to our Green Schools team for organising the day!

1st Class visit Hugh Lane Gallery

1st Class visited the Hugh Lane Gallery today. The children looked at some self-portraits in the Gallery and then took part in a very exciting workshop to paint their own self-portraits.

Community Clean-Up

6th Class went out into our local community to do a clean-up after Storm Ophelia. We are working on our first Green Flag for Litter and Waste. As it’s Maths Week too, the children also collected information about the kinds of litter they collected and will display the information at our action day on Friday.

Here’s some great feedback from our Twitter followers!

Our 6th Class were out bright and early for a litter clean-up in our local community. Results of their litter survey will be on display at our @GreenSchoolsIre Action Day on Friday. pic.twitter.com/1lSh0uHSoU

— St. Mary's Primary (@stmarysdorsetst) October 18, 2017

Well done!! We're sure there was a lot to pick up after the storm. Great #climateactionweek activity 🙂 https://t.co/xUSGENmliV

— Green-Schools (@GreenSchoolsIre) October 18, 2017

Fantastic idea after #Ophelia and just in time for #ClimateActionWeek, well done @stmarysdorsetst! #ChangeMakers #GreenSchools https://t.co/ud1f2ro3Ft

— Climate Ambassador (@climate_ambass) October 18, 2017

A big thank you to @stmarysdorsetst 6th class on this brilliant work in our community https://t.co/l6NPYodm4S

— Jay Sher (@jardimdojay) October 18, 2017

Newsletter 13.10.17

Newsletter

13^th October 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

News this week

Last Friday, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th Class had a great time at their soccer workshops, organised by SARI (Schools Against Racism Ireland).

Thank you to the children in 5^th and 6^th Class and all the families who came to our Family Mass at St. Joseph’s Church last Sunday. The children led different parts of the Mass with real confidence – well done!

Junior Infants went on their first outing of the year to Blessington Street Basin on Thursday. Ms. Todd was so proud of them! Ms. Collins’s 2^nd Class visited the sculpture exhibition at the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday. The children walked all the way there and back – well done!

Our Irish dance specialist teacher, Aedín, started working with us again this week. This term, 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th and 6^th Class will all learn Irish dances and after Christmas, the other classes will have their turn.

Green Schools Action Day – next Friday

We have teams of children and adults at school who have been working hard over the last two years to help us become a ‘Green School’. A Green School is a school that teaches children about looking after the environment. Successful schools are awarded a very special ‘Green Flag’ and we hope to apply for our first flag for the ‘Litter and Waste’ theme in December.

We have a children’s team who check we are all recycling properly, the adults have arranged for special compost bins to be installed in our new garden, and we are all learning to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’.

Our Green Schools mascot is a very special turtle (we are still working on his name!) and he is looked after by our ‘Eco Class of the Week’ – the class who are the best at keeping their room clean, remembering to pick up litter, recycling paper and card and following our Green Schools’ Code. Well done to 6^th Class, our winners this week.

To celebrate all of our hard work and learning so far, we will have a very special ‘Green Schools Action Day’ next Friday in the Hall from 1.00 – 2.30 p.m. Each class will display their learning and we will have lots of special activities for children and parents to meet. All families are very welcome to join us.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. McBride’s 1^st Class who have top attendance this week of 99%!

Dates for your diary

16^th October – Maths Week

20^th October – Green Schools Action Day

26^th October – Meeting for parents/carers of 1^st Holy Communion children at 9.00 a.m.

27^th October – Meeting for parents/carers of Confirmation children at 9.00 a.m

27^th October – Annual Sponsored Disco

27^th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday

6^th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

30^th November – School Closed for Staff Training in New Language Curriculum

Let’s hope the sun stays out for the weekend!

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Junior Infants visit to Blessington Basin

Our Junior Infants had a great day at Blessington Street Basin, on their first visit out of school!

Newsletter 6.10.17

Newsletter

6^th October 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Book Fair

The Scholastic Book Fair is at our school this week. The children have all visited today to have a look at what is on offer. There is a beautiful selection of books for all ages. The fair will be open for parents/carers to buy books from Monday morning, just before school, and again, from 1.30 – 1.45 and 2.30 – 2.45 in the Parents’ Room. It will finish on Wednesday morning. Please come along. For every book bought by parents, the school receives a free book from Scholastic so, not only are you getting a beautiful book for your child, you are also helping the school!

Latest News

5^th and 6^th Class have completed a great boxing programme with ‘Boxing in the Community’ over the last few weeks. The children have listened really well and learned lots of new skills. The top boxers in the class will have the opportunity to attend some special boxing sessions in the club next week.

1^st Class went for a lovely walk around Blessington Basin on Thursday. They were looking for ‘signs of autumn’ and spotted lots of trees with their leaves changing colour and we even heard some fairy doors were spotted!

Last week, Ms. Graham’s Class and Mrs. Fay’s Class visited the sculpture exhibition at the Botanic Gardens. This is a really lovely visit for families. If you are looking for something to do together this weekend – we recommend it!

Parents’ Association

Our next Parents’ Association meeting is on Monday, 9^th October at 9.00 a.m. in the Parents’ Room and all are welcome. You don’t need an invite – just come along!

Attendance and punctuality

A great start to October’s attendance all across the school – 97%! Lots of classes were celebrated in assembly for their excellent attendance and we have THREE classes with top attendance of 99% – Ms. Sheridan’s 1^st Class (again!), Ms. Collins’s 2^nd Class (again!) and Ms. Conlon’s 4^th Class. Well done children!

After-School Clubs

Our after-school clubs are now all up and running. Thank you to all parents and carers for your support in the first few sessions while we all work out who is going where and when! The children have access to some great opportunities and we thank all the adults who are sharing their talents and leading a club.

Dates for your diary

9^th-11^th October – Book Fair

16^th October – Maths Week

27^th October – Annual Sponsored Disco

27^th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday

6^th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

30^th November – School Closed for Staff Training in New Language Curriculum

Have a lovely weekend,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Newsletter 25.9.17

Newsletter

25^th September 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Latest News

We had a great visit from Mark from ‘Skip n Rope’ recently. Mark is a skipping expert! He spent time with all classes from 1^st – 6^th Class on special workshops showing the children how to skip in lots of different ways. 5^th Class visited the ‘Fighting Words’ writing workshop and wrote their very own story with a talented illustrator. We were honoured to welcome the First Secretary to the Japanese Ambassador, Mr. Yamada to school on Thursday. Mr. Yamada visited 6^th Class who have been learning all about Japan over the last few weeks. He shared lots of information about his country with the children and even taught them some Japanese! What a great experience – thank you to Mr. Yamada for giving his time so generously and to Ms. Kilkenny for organising the visit.

Meet the Teacher

Thank you to the many parents/carers who have already joined us for our ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings. It is a great opportunity to see your child’s new class, meet their teacher and find out what they will be learning this year. If you weren’t able to attend, please speak to your chld’s teacher and they will let you know what you missed.

European Week of Sport – Challenge

As part of the European Week of Sport, we are taking part in a special challenge ‘Run Around Europe’. Every Tuesday and Thursday, the children go on a 2km walk/run in the morning. If over 200 children run each time, we can cover up to 400km. We will be adding up these kilometres to see how many European cities we can run to. Good luck everyone!

Parents’ Association

Our Parents’ Association have already held their first meeting of the year. They are keen to ensure that all parents/carers are represented and are particularly looking for parents from our new Junior Infant class to join them. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, 9^th October at 9.00 a.m. and all are welcome. If you’d like to get involved, talk to Sile our Home School teacher

Attendance and punctuality

We had a great week of attendance last week and two classes shared the honour of winning our trophy, both with 100% attendance. Well done to Ms. Sheridan’s 1^st Class and Ms. Collins’s 2^nd Class, excellent work!

Dates for your diary

4^th-11^th October – Book Fair

16^th October – Maths Week

27^th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday

6^th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

30^th November – School Closed for Staff Training in New Language Curriculum

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Newsletter 8.9.17

Newsletter

8^th September 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Praise Assembly

We had our first ‘Praise’ assembly of the year this morning. The whole school came together in the hall to celebrate all of the good news from across the school. Each class has their very own praise book, a special place to write all of the positive learning and attitudes from across the week. At assembly, we read out all the good news and say well done to all those who have made a special effort this week.

Collecting children at home time

Over the summer, we widened the entrance space into the playground so that we have more room for families entering and exiting the school.

Sometimes at home time, parents wave at the teacher from across the playground to signal they are there. It is often difficult for our teachers to see who is there, as there are so many people. Sometimes a child may go home with a friend or with another family – this can cause worry and confusion for parents and teachers if we aren’t sure who has collected each child.

We would like parents/carers to come into the playground and walk right across to their child’s class to collect the children. This gives everyone a chance to say hello and goodbye, an opportunity to pass on a message and most importantly, the class teacher can ensure each child has gone home with the right adult. Please help us by walking over directly to your child’s class and making sure the teacher sees you. Thank you!

Books, books, books

Our support team have been busy this week cataloguing the thousands of books we use for guided reading. We have a huge number of books for children to read in school and at home and the school has invested a large amount of money in recent years to increase our supply. We have several books missing from our sets of six. We would be grateful if you could have a check at home and send in any school books that might have got lost behind a chair or cupboard – we need them back!

Road Safety

As we start back to school, it is a good time to remind your child about being safe on the road. The ‘Safe Cross Code’ is a great way to remind children to:

1. Look for a safe place
2. Don’t hurry, stop and wait
3. Look all around and listen
4. Let all the traffic pass you
5. Walk straight across
6. Keep watching for traffic

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to 4^th Class with 100% attendance this week and to Ms. Sheridan’s 1^st Class and Ms. Collins’s 2^nd Class with 99%. We hope now that most children are back from holiday we will see many more classes with attendance about 95% each week.

Dates for your diary

12^th September – 5^th Class to ‘Fighting Words’ writing workshop

19^th September – Doodle Den begins

4^th-11^th October – Book Fair

27^th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday

6^th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

Best wishes for a lovely weekend,

Éadaoin Kelly – Principal

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Term Dates 2017-2018

Term dates for 2017-2018