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Newsletter 28.6.18

Newsletter

28^th June 2018

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Aladdin Jr. Performance

What an amazing evening we had last night. The children from 2^nd to 6^th Class treated us to an outstanding performance of ‘Aladdin Jr’ in Liberty Hall Theatre, surrounded by their families and friends. We got such lovely feedback on their fantastic acting, singing and dancing – thank you for coming!

We were immensely proud of the hard work the children did in preparation, especially in the hot weather. They were excellent in all ways and a credit to their families.

We have so many people to thank:

Thanks to Ms. Graham, Ms. Devereux, Ms. Lougheed and Ms. Palmer for rehearsing the acting, to Aedín, our dance teacher, and to Ms. Collins and Ms. Nolan for the choreography. To Ms. Marron for helping with the singing. To Mr. Carney and Ms. Conlon for helping with sound and microphones. To Ms. Kilkenny, Ms. Todd, Colm, Ms. McBride, Ms. O’Donovan, Ms. Sheridan, Ms. Hayes, James, Ms. Lennon and Ms. Oppermann for sets and props, to Ms. Sheridan, Ms. Todd and Ms. Sheridan’s mam(!) for sourcing the costumes. To Mr. Cullen, Ms. Shortall, Ms. Staunton, Dolores and Audrey who supported the children backstage. To Ms. Brophy and Ms. O’Callaghan for organising all the tickets and to Mr. Kerr who photographed and videoed the whole process. You are all incredible – and I know I’m only naming one or two of the things you did! Thank you so much, every part contributed to a wonderful evening.

Our thanks to the staff at Liberty Hall Theatre for looking after us so well and helping with sound. Thanks also to Richie who looked after the lighting.

It was a truly special evening and one we will all remember for a long time to come.

Green Flag Raising

We had a beautiful sunny day for our first Green Schools’ Flag Raising last Friday. We have worked hard over the last two years to learn about reducing litter and waste in school and at home. The children know to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ and we are very proud to have secured this very prestigious award.

Our thanks as always to the wonderful children, to Colm our caretaker and especially Ms. Todd, Ms. Palmer, Ms. Sheridan and Ms. Marron who led it all so well.

Graduation

Today we said goodbye to our 6th 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!

Parents’ Association Raffle – Aladdin Jr.

Thanks to Laura and Ludmila from our Parents’ Association for organising a great raffle to raise funds for the show. The winners were drawn by teachers and are as follows:

1^st Prize – Maureen (5^th Class)

2^nd Prize – Darren (Junior Infants)

3^rd Prize – Victoria (2^nd Class)

Other prizes were won by Liz (School Secretary), Nadia (2^nd Class), Martin (3^rd Class), Viliam (3^rd Class), Miranda (5^th Class), Sean (5^th Class) and Irene (2^nd Class). Well done everyone!

Moving on…

Tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to several members of the team. Ms. Devereux and Ms. Shortall are moving to schools nearer their home and families. They have both worked in our school for a very long time and we thank them for their dedication and support to the children and families over that time. We will miss them and wish them all the best in their new schools.

Ms. Conlon is travelling to Mexico for the year and we hope to see her back with us soon. Ms. Todd, Ms. Sheridan, Ms. Marron, Mr. Cullen and Ms. Lennon are all off to pastures new. We thank them for their contribution to St. Mary’s and we wish them well in their new adventures.

Staffing for 2018-2019

Junior Infants – Ms. O’Donovan

Senior Infants – Ms. McKelvey

1^st Class – Ms. Oppermann

1^st Class – Ms. McBride

2^nd Class – Ms. McCaughey

2^nd Class – To be confirmed

3^rd Class – Ms. Lougheed

3^rd/4^th Class – Ms. Graham

4^th Class – Ms. O’Rourke

5^th Class – Mr. McGuire

6^th Class – Ms. Staunton

Support Team – Mr. Kerr, Ms. Kilkenny, Mr. Carney, Ms. Collins, Ms. Brophy, Ms. Palmer, Ms. O’Callaghan, Ms. Nolan and Ms. Hayes.

Summer Stars – Reading

The Ilac Library are running the

‘Summer Stars’ programme again this year. Children can sign up at the library and are given the challenge of reading 8 books over the holidays. They get a reading card to record their reading with small rewards and certificates if they complete the challenge. All the information is available online at:

www.summerstars.ie

Thank you!

I want to thank each and every member of our school community for making this another fantastic year at St. Mary’s Primary School.

The children have been fantastic and have learned so much. Particular thanks to the children who have led our teams – to Laya, Chair of our Student Council, to our Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, Young Interpreters, Play leaders, Green Schools team and Active Schools team – you’ve done super work!

Our parent, carers and Board of Management are always supportive and appreciative of all we do – thank you for your ongoing support.

To Liz our secretary and Colm our caretaker – thank you for all you do behind the scenes each and every day.

To our classroom staff – I am so proud of the work you do, the effort you make and the time you spend making learning so exciting and engaging for our children. Have a very well-deserved holiday and thank you so much.

And finally…

We wish all families a happy summer holiday!

We close tomorrow at 12 noon.

We look forward to seeing you all back with us on Thursday, 30^th August at 8.50 a.m.

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Aladdin Jr Rehearsals

As we move towards the last days of term, the action never stops at St. Mary’s! We are preparing for our end of year production of Aladdin Jr. this week. We are so excited! A team effort like no other – take a sneak peek at our rehearsals last week in the gallery below. Don’t miss it – last few tickets available outside the Hall each morning!

Cruinniú na nÓg 2018

We were delighted to host a special event for the Cruinniú na nÓg festival on Saturday, a national celebration of creativity. The children in 3rd Class worked with Sarah Webb earlier in the week to write about ‘My Mam, My Gran and Amazing Women who live around Dorset Street’. They also wrote a poem together as a group, called ‘Who Are We?’.

Green Schools Flag Raising

On Friday, we had our Flag Raising ceremony for our first Green Schools Flag. We were awarded our first flag for our work on the ‘Litter and Waste’ theme in the An Taisce programme. Over the last few years we have worked hard to reduce litter and waste in our school. Today was a celebration of all of that hard work, by our children, our staff, our community and especially those who have led our Green Team.

Click here to watch a video of the flag being raised.

Our Infant classes sang us some great recycling themed songs, while 1st Class showed off their samba skills with help from the team from ‘Masamba’. What a super day!

Click here to watch a short clip of the samba music!

Different Families Same Love Competition

We were delighted to attend the award ceremony for the ‘Different Families, Same Love’ competition this week. The competition aims to celebrate the diversity of people and families in Ireland and to address homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools. We are proud of our inclusive school that fosters respect and acceptance of all family structures. Our 3rd Class children wrote their own stories  on the theme and we were delighted to be awarded 3rd Prize in the Senior Category. The prizes were presented by INTO Vice-President, Feargal Brougham and journalist Dil Wickremasinghe. Well done everyone!

Doodle Families

We were very proud of the families in 1st Class who completed the ‘Doodle Families’ programme this week. The families have been working together with our staff after-school for eight weeks to support the children’s literacy learning. Our parents/carers have learned more about how to support their children at home and the children have improved their literacy skills in fun, engaging ways. Well done everyone!

Time to Read

We had a very special celebration on Tuesday morning to wrap-up the ‘Time to Read’ programme for this year.

Eight children from 2nd Class have completed the 20 week programme, reading for 30 minutes every week with their volunteer reader from ‘Business in the Community’.

The children also had the opportunity to visit the library and the BITC offices on a workplace visit as part of the programme.

This is our 3rd year working in partnership with BITC and we love the ‘Time to Read’ programme.