Feis Átha Cliath
Our wonderful dancers in 5th and 6th Class attended Feis Átha Cliath today. The children performed in several competitions, including four-hand and eight-hand dances. They had to compete against teams from six other schools around Dublin.
The children have been practising for several weeks and their hard work paid off. Four teams were awarded medals! This is a huge achievement and we are very proud.
Have a look at some of the highlights of the day:
ABC Showcase
A special showcase event was held today in Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Grangegorman. This event was organised by the ABC programme, which has been given several million euro to run education programmes in the local area.
In our school, the Doodle Den programme for Senior Infants and the Incredible Years parenting programme are all funded through ABC. Miss Kelly spoke at the event about the positive impact the programmes have had on the children in our school.
You can read more about Doodle Den here: http://www.twcdi.ie/our-programmes/doodle-den
You can read more about Incredible Years here: http://www.archways.ie/our_programmes/incredible_years/
We hope to continue these programmes next year and take on some new ones too.
Science Fair
We have had two fantastic afternoons showcasing science learning across the school. Last Friday, our Infant classes invited parents to come in and help with their experiments. We had a great turnout and we were amazed by the range of different activities. The space stations in Senior Infants were super and the Junior Infants had great fun blindfolding their adults to guess different kinds of food and describe if they were sweet, salty or bitter!
This afternoon, it was the turn of the older children. Again, we saw a wonderful range of topics on show, everything from volcanoes to photosynthesis and electrical circuits.
We will be submitting all of this learning for a special award for ‘Science Excellence’ shortly. Our thanks to Mr. Kerr who has coordinated this work.
Newsletter 22.4.16
Newsletter
22nd April 2016
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
What a busy week! We have a bumper edition of our newsletter for you, there has been so much happening. Have a look at our website or Twitter page for photos: @stmarysdorsetst
Young Achievers
Congratulations to the winners of our ‘Young Achievers’ awards for this year. These children are nominated in eight categories by the other children in the school and school staff. Each child showed exceptional talent and strength in their winning category. They received special certificates at a ceremony at the Lighthouse cinema on Wednesday. Well done to you all, and thanks to Claire Shortall, our Home-School teacher for coordinating!
Award Winners for 2016:
Amelia, 6th Class: Drama
Sid, 6th Class: Academic
Darius, 6th Class: Community
Briana, 5th Class: Helping Others
Haroldas, 5th Class: Art
Denisa, 4th Class: Bonus award for personal academic achievement
Matrida, 4th Class: Music
Maureen, 3rd Class: Dance
Leighton, 3rd Class: Sport
Rebeca, 3rd Class: Creativity
Science Fair
We have had two fantastic afternoons showcasing science learning across the school. Last Friday, our Infant classes invited parents to come in and help with their experiments. We had a great turnout and we were amazed by the range of different activities. The space stations in Senior Infants were super and the Junior Infants had great fun blindfolding their adults to guess different kinds of food and describe if they were sweet, salty or bitter!
This afternoon, it was the turn of the older children. Again, we saw a wonderful range of topics on show, everything from volcanoes to photosynthesis and electrical circuits.
We will be submitting all of this learning for a special award for ‘Science Excellence’ shortly. Our thanks to Mr. Kerr who has coordinated this work.
Mission
Our thanks to Sr. Mary, Frances and Pasi, our school mission team this week. They have worked with all of our classes in assemblies and in class. The children performed beautifully on Thursday evening in the church, sharing the songs and stories they had worked on during the week – we heard the story of creation, the story of Noah and the ark and some lovely singing, including an Irish blessing. Thank you to the parents and carers who came to support the children at this special event. The final event is our family Mass on Sunday at 11.45 a.m. in the church. The children will be singing and involved in the readings, so please do come along.
SAVE THE DATE – Wednesday, 1st June
On Wednesday, 1st June, the school will close at 12 noon for staff training. The government are introducing a new language curriculum for English and Irish and this half-day will allow our teachers to have time to prepare for this change. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
ABC Showcase
This afternoon, several teachers attended a special showcase event in the DIT Grangegorman. This event was organised by the ABC programme, which has been given several million euro to run education programmes in the local area.
In our school, the Doodle Den programme for Senior Infants and the Incredible Years parenting programme are all funded through ABC. Miss Kelly spoke at the event about the positive impact the programmes have had on the children in our school.
We hope to continue these programmes next year and take on some new ones too.
Attendance and Punctuality
Attendance has been excellent again this week, with 96.5% of children attending across the school. We were particularly thrilled to have 98% attendance on Thursday – our highest so far this year!
Well done to the following classes who have attendance above our target of 95% for this week:
6th Class (Miss Graham) 95.1%
Junior Infants (Miss Brophy) 96.7%
3rd Class (Miss Collins) 97.4%
4th Class (Miss Kilkenny) 98.1%
Senior Inf/1st (Miss Todd) 98.5%
Junior Infants (Miss McDonnell) 98.8%
1st Class (Miss Palmer) 98.9%
Congratulations to 5th Class who are winners of our attendance cup for the third week in a row with 99.1% – amazing!
Dates for your diary
Sunday, 24th April – Family Mass at 11.45am
27th April – 5th/6th Class to Feis Átha Cliath
28th April – Scratch Finalists to RDS
2nd – 6th May – Mid-Term Break
12th May – Confirmation at 11.00am
29th May – First Communion at 11.45am
1st June – School closes at 12 noon for staff training in new language curriculum
6th June – Bank Holiday – school closed
10th June – International Day
30th June – School finishes at 12 noon
Community News: Opening of Centenary Garden at Hardwicke Street – 1916
On Sunday, there is a special opening event of the new centenary garden on Hardwicke Street. The garden remembers especially the children involved in the 1916 Rising. The project has been completed by a local gardening group in the area and the opening will take place this Sunday, 24th April at 1.30 p.m. Stop by and take a look!
Ozanam House – summer camp
We have application forms for a summer camp run by Ozanam House during the holidays. If you are interested in your child attending, please see Claire.
We are receiving lots of information about other summer camps – if you are looking for an opportunity for your child, please let Claire know and we will also post information on the Parents board on the ground floor corridor.
Have a lovely weekend – let’s hope the sun stays out!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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Parish Mission
Our thanks to Sr. Mary, Frances and Pasi, our school mission team this week. They have worked with all of our classes in assemblies and in class. The children performed beautifully on Thursday evening in the church, sharing the songs and stories they had worked on during the week – we heard the story of creation, the story of Noah and the ark and some lovely singing, including an Irish blessing. Thank you to the parents and carers who came to support the children at this special event. The final event is our family Mass on Sunday at 11.45 a.m. in the church. The children will be singing and involved in the readings, so please do come along.
Here are some photos from the celebration on Thursday:
Young Achievers
Congratulations to the winners of our ‘Young Achievers’ awards for this year. These children are nominated in eight categories by the other children in the school and school staff. Each child showed exceptional talent and strength in their winning category. They received special certificates at a ceremony at the Lighthouse cinema on Wednesday. Well done to you all, and thanks to Claire Shortall, our Home-School teacher for coordinating!
Award Winners for 2016:
Amelia, 6th Class: Drama
Sid, 6th Class: Academic
Darius, 6th Class: Community
Briana, 5th Class: Helping Others
Haroldas, 5th Class: Art
Denisa, 4th Class: Bonus award for personal academic achievement
Matrida, 4th Class: Music
Maureen, 3rd Class: Dance
Leighton, 3rd Class: Sport
Rebeca, 3rd Class: Creativity
Newsletter 15.4.16
Newsletter
15th April 2016
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Congratulations!
We are delighted to let you know that a team of 5th Class children who entered a project in the ‘Scratch’ computer programming competition have been selected as National Finalists!
Andrei, Briana and Emilin spent many hours developing their project using the ‘Scratch’ online tool. With help from Sid in 6th Class, Pirooz, our volunteer programming expert and Mr. Kerr, the children submitted a very high quality piece of work. We are so proud that this has been recognised as one of the best in the country!
The children will now present their project at a special event in the RDS at the end of the month and we will have our fingers crossed for them!
Events this week
On Tuesday, we met with parents and carers for our new Junior Infants for September. They heard all about the lovely learning that happens in our school and we look forward to welcoming them to our community.
On Thursday, 5th and 6th Class visited the Patrick Pearse Museum in Rathfarnham to continue their learning about 1916. They were really impressed with the museum and learnt lots!
Also on Thursday, the Board of Management had their meeting for this half-term. They discussed staffing needs for next year, school finances and approved policies for photography (which we will share with you shortly) and whistleblowing for staff.
Parish Mission
A reminder that the mission team will be working with classes next week. There will be a short morning prayer for parents each day at 9.00 a.m. There will also be a special prayer service on Thursday 21st in the church and family Mass on Sunday 24th. We look forward to seeing you there.
Attendance and Punctuality
What a super week of attendance! Well done to all classes. Altogether, we have had school attendance of 96.1% which is fantastic. There was fierce competition between classes for the top spot this week, but there was no beating 5th Class with 98.3% and they hold onto the cup for the second week running.
Dates for your diary
Week of 18th April – Parish Mission
21st April – Prayer Service at 7 p.m.
Sunday, 24th April – Family Mass at 11.45am
2nd – 6th May – Mid-Term Break
12th May – Confirmation at 11.00am
29th May – First Communion at 11.45am
30th June – School finishes at 12 noon
Hopefully we’ll see some sunshine this weekend.
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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‘Tommy’s Diary’ – a 1916 inspired story
We are very proud and excited to share a story written by two of our 5th Class children. Inspired by their learning about 1916, they worked together in their own time, to write a story about Tommy, who lived in inner city Dublin at the time of the Easter Rising. Complete with Dublin accents, and written in the form of a diary, the story captures the dramatic scenes at the GPO from Tommy’s viewpoint. Have a read!
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Newsletter 8.4.16
Newsletter
8th April 2016
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Welcome Back
I hope you all had a restful holiday. The children have come back to school with plenty of energy for the term ahead. Our breakfast club has been busy all week which is great to see. There is plenty of space and plenty of food – so do come along at 8.40 am to start the day with us.
Events this week
On Tuesday, 4th Class visited the library. They will be going each week for this term and Miss Todd’s Class will join them as reading buddies.
On Wednesday morning, 3rd Class visited the offices of the Ombudsman for Children where they took part in a workshop on children’s rights. The team working with them were so impressed and tweeted us “a big THANK YOU for visiting, your great energy and kindness made our day!”. What lovely feedback – well done 3rd Class.
Also on Wednesday, 6th Class had their final rock-climbing session at Larkin College. Our thanks to the team there for offering this great opportunity.
Today, Miss Brophy’s Junior Infants visited the pet shop as part of their learning about animals this term. They were very excited!
Parish Mission
St. Joseph’s Parish will be hosting a mission over the next fortnight. The school will be involved in the second week (18th April). We will have visitors from the mission team working with classes throughout the week. There will be a special prayer service on the Thursday evening in the church and the usual family Mass on Sunday 24th April. I will send more details home next week. In the meantime, please keep the dates free if you’d like to join us.
Census Day
We have been asked to remind families that it is Census Day in Ireland on Sunday, 24th April. Look out for the form which will be delivered to your home. If you need any help completing it, do come and ask us.
Attendance and Punctuality
Best attendance this week was 5th Class with 96.7% – well done!
Dates for your diary
12th April – Meeting for new parents for Junior Infants in September 2016 at 1.45
14th April – 5th/6th Class to Pearse Museum
Week of 18th April – Parish Mission
21st April – Prayer Service at 7 p.m.
Sunday, 24th April – Family Mass at 11.45am
2nd – 6th May – Mid-Term Break
12th May – Confirmation at 11.00am
29th May – First Communion at 11.45am
30th June – School finishes at 12 noon
School Meals
A reminder to return the menu forms we sent out before the holidays. If your child wants to change their meal, please complete the form and return it to us as soon as possible.
Have a lovely weekend!
Éadaoin Kelly – Principal
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Proclamations for a New Generation
Our 5th Class took on the task of writing a new version of the Proclamation for our 1916 commemorations. The children learnt all about children’s rights and the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in the autumn term and used their knowledge to inform their decisions on what to include in their new proclamations.
At four minutes past noon on Easter Monday, April 24th 1916, Padraig Pearse read the Proclamation of the Republic outside the GPO on Dublin’s Sackville Street, now O’Connell Street. This was a pivotal moment in our history which still resonates strongly today.
As part of our 2016 programme, all schools were asked to take the opportunity to step into the shoes of Patrick Pearse and write their own version, which reflects the values, ideals and hopes of the generation of 2016.
The 5th Class children shared their proclamations with the whole school at our Proclamation Day ceremony and are displayed in our school. You can read them here:
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