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Celebration Assembly

This morning we had our final assembly of the year. We presented certificates and medals to children with 95% attendance or more, with medals for children who missed only 1 or 2 days, and a Gold Medal to 25 children who were at school every single day!

We also presented ‘Class Citizen’ awards to Isabelle, Jarrette, Lania, Ruman, Maryam, Basil, Rezwan, Shivee, Maureen, Andrew and Arun for their exceptional attitudes to learning, kindness and helpfulness.

Our ‘School Citizen’ award was given to Laya Sabu in 5^th Class for her outstanding contribution to school life. Laya was chosen by the whole school staff and we were delighted her family were able to join us for the ceremony too. Well done Laya!

Newsletter 30.6.17

Newsletter

30^th June 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Moving on…

Yesterday, we said goodbye to our 6^th Class children at their graduation. The children shared their memories, said lots of thank yous to their families, teachers and one another and looked forward to the future. We wish them all the best in their big move to secondary school!

‘Adventures in Other Dimensions’

We had super performances from children all across the school in our end of year show, written by our 6^th class children. It was amazing to have every single child on the stage. They did so well – wonderful singing, dancing and acting all round. Our thanks to Ms. Graham and the whole staff team who worked so hard to put the show together. Thanks to Aedin our dance teacher, to Colm and Ms. Oppermann for the beautiful sets, to Ms. Glynn, our ticket guru, Mr. Carney our sound engineer and Richard who came in to do the lighting. Well done and thank you to everyone!

Classes for 2017-2018

Below are the class teachers and support teachers for next year:

• Todd’s Junior Infants will move to Senior Infants (Room 4) with new teacher, Ms. Marron
• Ms O’Donovan’s Junior Infants will move to Senior Infants (Room 5) with….Ms O’Donovan again!
• Ms Barry’s Senior Infants will move to 1^st Class (Room 9) with Ms. Sheridan
• Ms Brophy’s Senior Infants will move to 1^st Class (Room 10) with Ms. McBride
• 1^st and 2^nd Class will be in new classes with Ms. Collins in Room 13, Ms. Graham in Room 11 and Ms. Murphy in Room 14.
• Bourke’s 3^rd Class will move to 4^th Class (Room 15) with Ms. Conlon
• Miss Kilkenny’s 4^th Class will move to 5^th Class (Room 16) with Miss King.
• King’s 5^th Class will move to 6^th Class (Room 18) with Miss Kilkenny.

Ms. O’Callaghan, Mr. Kerr, Ms. Devereux, Ms. Shortall, Mr. Carney, Ms. Oppermann, Ms. Palmer, Ms. Brophy and Ms. McDevitt will make up our super support team!

We are delighted Ms. McDevitt will return to us after her maternity leave and we have several new teachers joining the staff too.

We send our love to Ms. Roche who has been on maternity leave and will be taking a further break to embark on an adventure in Abu Dhabi with her young family. Ms. Glynn will also be taking a break to go travelling and we look forward to hearing all about her adventures! We also say goodbye to Ms. Barry, Ms. Bourke, Ms. Calvey and Ms. Dolan who are leaving us today. We wish them all the best and say thank you for their work at St. Mary’s this year.

The children have had a chance to look in their new classroom this week and the teachers have met to discuss the children’s learning needs so that we are ready for September.

Achievement Assembly

This morning we had our final assembly of the year. We presented certificates and medals to children with 95% attendance or more, with medals for children who missed only 1 or 2 days, and a Gold Medal to 25 children who were at school every single day!

We also presented ‘Class Citizen’ awards to Isabelle, Jarrette, Lania, Ruman, Maryam, Basil, Rezwan, Shivee, Maureen, Andrew and Arun for their exceptional attitudes to learning, kindness and helpfulness.

Our ‘School Citizen’ award was given to Laya Sabu in 5^th Class for her outstanding contribution to school life. Laya was chosen by the whole school staff and we were delighted her family were able to join us for the ceremony too. Well done Laya!

Board of Management News

We heard recently that Fr. David Donnellan, the Chairperson of our Board of Management and Parish Priest at St. Joseph’s will be leaving to take up a new post in Clarendon Street. While we’re glad Fr. David will not be too far away, we do need to say a big thank you for his contribution to the school over the last number of years. He has been hugely supportive of the school’s work and given his time and energy to managing the school so willingly. We will miss him – thank you Fr. David! Fr. Martin McDonald will be join the parish over the summer and we look forward to introducing him to you in September.

Congratulations…

to Miss King who will be getting married over the summer and coming back to us as Mrs. Fay in September. We hope Miss King and her fiance, Tony, have a fantastic wedding day!

Thank you!

At this time of the year, it is important that we take some time to say thank you to everyone who contributes to our school community. Thank you to the children, parents, carers, staff and Board of Management for your support and commitment to our school this year.

Thank you especially to those who helped with visits, volunteered, came to meetings and attended parent classes.

I want to say a special thank you to all of the school staff. They are such hard workers, always looking to find ways to make learning interesting and exciting for the children. They work so hard to make sure each child is successful. It is a pleasure working with such a great team! A particular thank you to Liz, our school secretary and Colm, our caretaker, who keep our school running smoothly each and every day.

And finally…

We wish all families a happy summer holiday! We look forward to seeing you all back with us on Thursday, 31^st August at 8.50 a.m.

See you then!

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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6th Class Graduation

Today we said goodbye to our 6^th Class children at their graduation. The children shared their memories, said lots of thank yous to their families, teachers and one another and looked forward to the future. We wish them all the best in their big move to secondary school!

End of Year Show

‘Adventures in Other Dimensions’

We had super performances from children all across the school in our end of year show ‘Adventures in Other Dimensions’, a play written by our 6^th class children. The story was all about computer game worlds and the show included visits to the land of Pokemon, Minecraft, Super Mario and a very special ‘Justin Bieber’-only version of ‘Just Dance’.

It was amazing to have every single child in the school on the stage performing. They did so well – wonderful singing, dancing and acting all round. Our thanks to Ms. Graham and the whole staff team who worked so hard to put the show together. Thanks to Aedin our dance teacher, to Colm and Ms. Oppermann for the beautiful sets, to Ms. Glynn, our ticket guru, Mr. Carney our sound engineer and Richard who came in to do the lighting. Well done and thank you to everyone!

Newsletter 23.6.17

Newsletter

23^rd June 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Reading Event with KPMG

On Tuesday, we welcomed volunteers from KPMG to a special reading event in the school. The volunteers came from all over the world, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, USA and lots more! The team welcomed the children from Ms. Calvey, Ms. Collins and Ms. Bourke’s Classes to read a part of ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl. Then the children were led by author and illustrator, Chris Judge, to complete a ‘Monster Doodle’, a giant drawing of some very scary looking monsters!

We were thrilled that KPMG donated a huge number of books to our school. So many in fact, that on Tuesday, every single child in the school was able to bring home a brand-new book for them to keep. Huge thanks to Karina Howley in KPMG and Elaina Ryan from Children’s Books Ireland for including us in this fabulous opportunity.

School Inspection Report

Our ‘DEIS’ inspection report was published on the Department of Education’s website this week. We will send a copy home next week with every child for your information. We are very pleased with this positive report and as always, I thank our super staff team for all they do to support the children’s learning so successfully.

News this week

The school has been a hive of activity this week as we prepare for our end-of-year performance. Rehearsals are in full swing and you are in for a real treat next week. Every child will perform in all three shows.

End of Year Performance

Please check with your child’s class teacher about any costume or special clothing they need to wear for the performance and make sure they have it ready for Monday.

Tickets were issued yesterday. There are two tickets per child to ensure we can fit everyone into the hall. We ask you to please return any unwanted tickets so we can give them to someone else! Any swaps or extra tickets will be available from Ms. Glynn outside the hall on Monday.

Dates for your diary

26^th/27^th June – Whole-School Performance

• Monday, 26^th at 1.00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 27^th at 1.00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 27^th at 6.00 p.m.

29^th June – 6^th Class Graduation

30^th June – School closes at 12 noon

31^st August – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

Summer Camp

We’re sorry but unfortunately we won’t be able to run a summer camp this year. Our new neighbours in ‘Dorset Point’, the new student accommodation building beside the school, will be completing some works to restore our yard and put in some new railings and walls at the front of the school. The works will start immediately so unfortunately, for health and safety reasons, we cannot have children on site.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. Barry’s Senior Infants who have top attendance this week and will look after our trophy for the last week of term. Well done!

Have a lovely weekend,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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KPMG Literacy Event

On Tuesday, we welcomed volunteers from KPMG to a special reading event in the school. The volunteers came from all over the world, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, USA and lots more! The team welcomed the children from Ms. Calvey, Ms. Collins and Ms. Bourke’s Classes to read a part of ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl. Then the children were led by author and illustrator, Chris Judge, to complete a ‘Monster Doodle’, a giant drawing of some very scary looking monsters!

We were thrilled that KPMG donated a huge number of books to our school. So many in fact, that on Tuesday, every single child in the school was able to bring home a brand-new book for them to keep. Huge thanks to Karina Howley in KPMG and Elaina Ryan from Children’s Books Ireland for including us in this fabulous opportunity.

Newsletter 16.6.17

Newsletter

16^th June 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Active Schools Week

We have had such an active, busy and fun week! Our morning ‘Wake and Shake’ and ‘Slí na Sláinte’ walks have been brilliant and our thanks to all the families who joined us.

Throughout the week, the children have taken part in a range of activities: water relays, fitness classes, boxing, badminton, high jump, dancing, games, and lots more! And today, every class has had a chance to learn how to play ‘Ultimate Frisbee’!

At break time the children have ‘danced til they dropped’ and they’ve even had active homework. Every child has been encouraged to have at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. A big well done to everyone who took part – keep it up!

Thanks to our Active Team – all the children who led activities throughout the week, to Ms. Collins, Ms. Kilkenny and especially Mr. Carney and Ms. O’Callaghan, who put the programme together and organised us all throughout the week.

News this week

On Tuesday, 5^th Class visited the National Gallery and learned more about the artist Monet. On Wednesday, our neighbouring contractors, Bennett Construction visited 1^st and 2^nd Class to talk to them about safety around building sites. Senior Infants went to the Phoenix Park for a fun day out on Wednesday and Ms. Collins’s Class are there today!

Parents’ Internet Safety Session

Thank you to the parents who attended our internet safety talk this week. It was great to see so many there. It is very important that we are all watching what children are doing on computers, keeping computers in a family room (not bedrooms) so children are in full view of an adult and talking to your child about what they are doing so you can support them and make sure they are safe online. The children in 3^rd – 6^th Class also had a session and got some top tips for keeping themselves safe too.

Dates for your diary

26^th/27^th June – Whole-School Performance

• Monday, 26^th at 1.00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 27^th at 1.00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 27^th at 6.00 p.m.

29^th June – 6^th Class Graduation

30^th June – School closes at 12 noon

31^st August – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

End of Year Performance

Tickets will be available shortly for our end of year show but please note due to space restrictions in the hall, the tickets will be limited. Please note the timings above, especially for the evening performance. All children will need to be in school for these performances.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to 3^rd Class with top attendance this week of 98.9% – super!

I hear it’s going to be a beautiful weekend – enjoy the sunshine!

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

Newsletter 9.6.17

Newsletter

9^th June 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Active Schools

I am thrilled to let you know that we had a final accreditation visit from the Active School Flag team this week and as a result of our hard work to increase children’s physical activity, we have been awarded the Active Flag! We hope to have the new flag flying very soon. Our thanks to Grainne O’Callaghan who coordinated the school’s efforts, ably supported by Derek Carney, Aoife Kilkenny, Katie Collins, our children’s Active Team and play leaders and the whole school and staff. We are so proud! We are one of only a few schools in Dublin to have this award recognition and it is a huge achievement.

We will be holding our annual Active Schools Week from 12^th-16^th June, next week and we have a whole range of exciting activities planned.

Each class will take part in activities each day so children are asked to wear their school tracksuit and runners/trainers every day.

We will be starting each day with a family activity. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we will have ‘Wake and Shake’ in the morning before we start. All families – parents, carers, siblings, are invited to join in! On Tuesday and Thursday we will have our usual morning walk, ‘Slí na Sláinte’. This takes just 10 minutes, walking around Blessington Basin and again, all families are invited to join us for the walk this week. Please come along and get involved!

Children will have ‘active’ homework to encourage them to meet the target of 60 minutes of physical activity every day.

News this last week

On Wednesday, Ms. Calvey’s Class visited the ‘Little Museum of Dublin’ to learn all about our capital city. The children were really interested to hear lots of facts about Dublin. 3^rd Class went to Trinity Sports Centre for an exciting day of activities, including rock climbing. They were very brave! Yesterday, Senior Infants visited Dublin Airport as part of their learning about the airport. They met with team members from Aer Lingus who were very generous with their time and gave the children the opportunity to try some real-life checking-in!

Today, 6^th Class headed to Carlingford Adventure Centre in Louth for a day of outdoor and adventure activities. They were up early to leave at 8.00 a.m. and won’t be back til 6.30 p.m!

Doodle Den

On Thursday, our 15 Senior Infants who have been attending ‘Doodle Den’ an after-school literacy programme, graduated with flying colours! Thank you to the parents who came along to support and celebrate with them. Our thanks also to Katie Todd, Sorcha O’Donovan and Amy Healy who have worked so hard to support the children at Doodle Den this year. Doodle Den is funded by the ABC Programme and run through the School Completion Programme. We hope to continue with another group in September.

Parents’ Internet Safety Session

On Wednesday next week, 14^th June, we have a special speaker coming to talk to us about keeping children safe on the internet. There is a session for parents and carers at 9.00 a.m. Online safety is a huge issue for families and schools and we encourage as many parents as possible to come along and hear some ideas for keeping your child safe.

After the parent session, our speaker will spend time with the children in 3^rd – 6^th Class, sharing top tips with them for keeping themselves safe too.

Parents’ Association

Thank you to the  parents and carers who came to the training sessino with the National Parents’ Council today. If you weren’t able to make it, don’t worry! You can still be part our our new Parents’ Association to support the school, plan events and make sure the views of parents are represented in the school. Do let us know if you are interested in being involved.

Term Dates 2017-2018

The term dates for 2017-2018 have been published on our website. Please note the children will return to school on Thursday, 31^st August 2017, a day earlier than usual. This will allow us to take a week’s mid-term holiday in May 2018.

Dates for your diary

12^th-16^th June – Active and Wellness Week

13^th June – 5^th Class to National Gallery

14^th June – Internet Safety Talk for Parents

14^th June – 1^st Class to Natural History Museum

26^th/27^th June – Whole-School Performance

29^th June – 6^th Class Graduation

30^th June – School closes at 12 noon

31^st August – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

New Junior Infant class

We look forward to welcoming our new Junior Infant children to school on Wednesday next week for a visit. We are working with local pre-schools to plan several visits for the new children to help them get used to our school and be ready for big school in September.

End of Year Performance

You may have heard that we have begun preparations for our end of year show. 6^th Class have written a fantastic script all about computer games! Every child in the school will take part in singing and dancing in the show which will take place on Monday 26^th and Tuesday 27^th June.

We will have three performances:

Monday, 26^th at 1.00 p.m.

Tuesday, 27^th at 1.00 p.m.

Tuesday, 27^th at 6.00 p.m.

Please note the timings, especially for the evening performance. All children will need to be in school for these performances.

Tickets will be available shortly but please note due to space restrictions in the hall, the tickets will be limited.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Miss Brophy’s Senior Infants who have top attendance this week! Closely followed by 6^th Class and 1^st Class.

We are aware that some families have holidays planned in the coming weeks. If your child is going to be missing from school, please ensure you have communicated this to us in writing. A note in your child’s homework journal or a letter to the office is needed with the dates your child will be away.

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal