Show Racism the Red Card
5th Class attended the awards ceremony for the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ poster competition this week. They met Roy Keane and were featured in a number of national newspapers! We were so proud of them for taking part in such an important campaign. The children presented their posters in assembly – they were super!
Read MoreNewsletter 28.4.17
Newsletter
28th April 2017
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Welcome Back!
It is lovely to see everyone back at school following our two week holiday. I hope you all had a good rest!
A reminder that Monday 1st May is a Bank Holiday and school will be closed. We are open as usual from Tuesday, 2nd May.
DEIS Inspection
As you know, we had inspectors from the Department of Education at school this week for an evaluation of our ‘DEIS’ (Delivering Equality of opportunity In Schools) programme. The two inspectors spent three days with us, visiting every class and support setting and looking at teaching and learning across the school. They were looking particularly at English and Maths lessons but also saw some of our lessons that teach children about their emotions and building resilience, like the ‘Friends for Life’ programme in 6th Class and the ‘Incredible Years’ programme in Senior Infants.
The inspection also included surveys of 6th Class parents/carers and children, interviews with staff and a group of parents, talking with children, meeting Síle, our Home-School teacher and Conor, our School Completion Programme coordinator, and visiting the breakfast club and after-school clubs.
Today, the inspectors came back and gave feedback about what they saw. I am delighted to let you know that they saw lots of good teaching and they were very pleased with the many programmes we have in place to ensure children make good progress in their learning.
The inspectors particularly commented on the children’s positive attitudes to learning, the welcoming environment and the structures and systems we have in place to support learning. They loved watching our younger children playing and talking in the farm shop in Junior Infants and in the garden centre and airport in Senior Infants. They commented on the progress children were making in programmes like Reading and Maths Recovery, Literacy Lift-Off and Ready, Set, Go Maths. They were delighted to see parents supporting their children’s learning in the ‘Maths for Fun’ stations in Junior Infants.
They were particularly impressed with our attendance figures and our target of 95%. Well done to all families who work so hard to help us achieve this!
Our school planning had already identified a number of actions for next year, and the inspectors agreed that a number of these actions should be started as soon as possible.
The first is to establish a Parents’ Association, so that parents and carers have another way to communicate their thoughts and ideas to the school and support our work. Síle will be letting you know about ways you can get involved. We would love to have an active parent group, so keep an eye out for more information.
Our teaching team will also be looking at ways we can make our assessment practices even better by further analysing our test results. We are very confident that we will be able to implement these recommendations.
The inspection team will now finalise a draft report and once this has been agreed by the Board of Management, it will be published on the Department of Education’s website and we will send you a copy for your information.
I would like to say a very big thank you to the entire staff who worked so hard in preparation for the inspection, including during the holidays. They work so hard to give our children the very best learning opportunities each and every day and I know you are as grateful as I am for their hard work and dedication.
The children, as always, were wonderful! They really took the opportunity to show their very best learning, they spoke confidently about their learning and experiences of school.
The results of the questionnaires for both children and parents were overwhelmingly positive and we thank you all for your participation.
Pushkin Art Competition
We were delighted to hear that Miranda from 4th Class was chosen as the 1st Prize Winner of the Pushkin Art Competition, part of the Festival of Russian Culture. Miranda was presented with her prize yesterday at a reception with the Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Russian Ambassador at the Mansion House in Dublin city centre. What a fantastic achievement – well done Miranda and thank you to Ms. Kilkenny for preparing all of the art work for the competition.
Dates for your diary
1st May – Bank Holiday – School Closed
3rd May – 2nd Class to Nat. History Museum
3rd May – Young Achievers’ Awards
5th May – 6th Class to Caravaggio exhibit
11th May – 5th Class to Hugh Lane Gallery
16th May – 5th Class to Aviva Stadium
19th May – Ms. Calvey’s Class to the Ark
Sunday, 21st May – First Holy Communion for 2nd Class Catholic children at 11.45 a.m.
25th May – 4th Class to ‘Squirrel Scramble’
29th May – Junior Infants to Newgrange Farm
Thursday 1st, Friday 2nd, Monday 5th, Tuesday 6th June – School Closed for Mid-Term
9th June – 6th Class to Carlingford
27th June – Whole-School Performance
29th June – 6th Class Graduation
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to 5th and 6th Classes who both had a fantastic 100% this week! Wonderful!
Best wishes for a lovely weekend,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
Read MoreNewsletter 7.4.17
Newsletter
7th April 2017
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Holiday Reminder
We close today for the two week Easter break. School will re-open on Monday, 24th April at 8.50 a.m. Breakfast Club will be open as usual from 8.40 a.m.
News this week
4th and 5th Class along with our Green Schools team took part in the National Spring Clean on Tuesday. They had special equipment to help clean our local streets and around Blessington Street Basin. They also recorded the kinds of litter they found for a survey. We have lots of bags ready for collection by Dublin City Council!
Also on Tuesday, we met the parents of our new Junior Infants for September 2017 who are very excited to get started! The children will have the chance to visit the school over the coming weeks and we will be speaking with the adults in their pre-schools to help get them ready for the move to big school!
Thank you to the parents who joined Junior Infants for ‘Maths for Fun’. The parents helped the children to play fun maths games in their class for the morning and everyone really enjoyed themselves! Do let your child’s teacher, or Síle know if you would like to help out.
On Wednesday, Miss Dolan’s Class visited Pearse Street Library for the launch of a springtime reading initiative. They met Minister English and had their photo taken. Everyone was very impressed by their excellent listening and behaviour. Well done!
The children involved in the ‘Time to Read’ programme were invited to visit the Business in the Community offices on Wednesday to see where their volunteer readers work every day. They had great fun and even got to try some interviewing and filming!
Feis Átha Cliath
Our very talented Irish dancers in 5th and 6th Class attended a dance competition known as a ‘Feis’ on Wednesday. The children danced in groups of four and groups of eight. We were delighted to hear that three groups won medals on the day – well done!
Board of Management meeting
The Board of Management met yesterday afternoon and were delighted to welcome some of the children from the children’s teams to the meeting to hear all about the super projects they have been running this year in the Green Schools team, the Active Schools team, the Safety and Anti-Bullying team and the Intercultural/Young Interpreters team. We were so impressed with how much as been achieved and all led by the children themselves!
Dates for your diary
Monday, 24th April – School Re-Opens
1st May – Bank Holiday – School Closed
3rd May – 2nd Class to Nat. History Museum
5th May – 6th Class to Caravaggio exhibit
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to 1st Class with top attendance of 97.8% this week!
Have a lovely holiday. We look forward to seeing you on Monday, 24th April!
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly – Principal
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Read MoreNewsletter 24.3.17
Newsletter
24th March 2017
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
International Day – Thank You!
What a fantastic week we had last week! We began celebrating ‘Seachtain na Gaeilge’ or ‘Irish Week’ with our céilí dances and a tricky table quiz for the older children all in Irish!
Then on Thursday we had our International Day which began with performances from 1st and 2nd Class with our super music tutors from Masamba Samba School. The children were fantastic and had learnt so much so quickly. We were really impressed. Next, we had our sean-nós after-school club with a traditional Irish brush dance.
Later in the afternoon, lots of parents and carers came to join us for a family Céilí outside and then we had our annual International Food event in the hall to finish off a great day.
If you haven’t had a chance to see the Family Learning Project, a beautiful tapestry of all the countries represented in our school, then do pop into the hall to have a look.
All of the action from the day was filmed by RTE’s ‘News2Day’ programme – you can see a video on our website or Twitter account @stmarysdorsetst! It gives a great overview of the day, of our school spirit and how we celebrate our diversity.
Our thanks to all of the families, children and staff who contributed to our events in many different ways – bringing food, dancing, contributing to the intercultural project, made projects or flags or came to an event.
Kindness Week
This week was ‘Kindness Week’. We have all been doing ‘random acts of kindness’ for one another and the children have been learning about our invisible buckets that you can fill with kindness by saying or doing something nice to someone!
News this week
1st Class visited the Ark, cultural centre in Temple Bar on Thursday for a workshop on self-portraits using charcoal. I hear they were beautiful!
Sports News
The children in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Class have begun their six weeks of swimming lessons at Belvedere Pool. I hear they are already making great progress and having lots of fun!
Last week, a team of 5th and 6th Class children went to a basketball tournament in the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght Mr. Carney and Ms. O’Callaghan were so impressed with the children’s focus, attitude and sportsmanship. They ran the games themselves, played with children from other schools and represented our school with pride. Well done!
Next week, another of our sporting teams will take part in a football tournament at Irishtown Stadium. Good luck!
Visit from Department of Education
We received a letter this week from the Inspectorate of the Department of Education to let us know we will be visited by two inspectors as part of a review of our DEIS programme in the week after Easter.
The inspectors will spend three days with us, looking at the teaching and learning in classrooms, talking with staff, Board of Management members, parents, carers and children about their experiences at school.
They will be looking particularly at programmes we use to teach literacy and maths, how our Home-School-Community Liaison teacher supports families, how we work with the School Completion Programme to provide things like free after-school clubs, Doodle Den, Incredible Years and Life Skills sessions and the ways we promote good attendance.
We are looking forward to sharing all of our exciting learning with the inspection team. They will give some feedback to us at the end of their visit and then publish a report which we will share with all families.
Mr. Kerr for INTO President!
We wanted to let you know that Mr. Kerr, who is a support teacher in 5th and 6th Class this year and who many of you will know as one of our very experienced teachers, is running as a candidate in an election for President of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO). The election is coming up very soon and Mr. Kerr has been campaigning hard all over the country to encourage teachers to vote for him.
If he is successful, Mr. Kerr will leave us for a short time, on a one-year secondment after Easter. Luckily for us, the INTO offices are on Parnell Square – so he won’t be too far away and hopefully he will come and visit us!
For now, we wish Mr. Kerr the very best in his preparation for the election and we will have our fingers crossed for his success.
Dates for your diary
Wednesday, 29th March – First Penance service for children making First Communion
Sunday, 2nd April – Family Mass at 11.45am
Tuesday, 4th April – National Spring Clean Day!
Wednesday, 5th April – Feis Átha Cliath (Irish Dance Competition) for 5th and 6th Class
Friday, 7th April – School Closes at 12.00 p.m. for two-week Easter Holiday
Monday, 24th April – School Re-Opens
Visiting teachers
For the next few weeks, we will have two teachers from Dublin City University’s Institute of Education working with us. Mr. Allen will work alongside Ms. King in 5th Class while Ms. Lougheed will work with Ms. Brophy in Senior Infants. We look forward to welcoming them.
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to 3rd Class with 100% attendance this week! Not far behind were Ms. Barry’s Senior Infants on 99%! We’re seeing really impressive attendance figures across the school this month – let’s keep it up!
And finally…
We’ve been speaking to lots of children and parents about staying safe online. We hope to organise a speaker for parents and carers in the summer term. In the meantime, if you are looking for advice on how to keep your child safe when they are using a computer, tablet or phone, there are some great tips, videos and fact-sheets for parents on www.webwise.ie. I would recommend you take a look and if you have any concerns, please come and talk to us and we will do our best to help.
I’m told the sunshine is here for the weekend! Enjoy it!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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Read MoreInternational Day 16.3.17
We celebrated our annual International Day on 16th March 2017. The highlights were recorded by RTE’s ‘News2Day’ programme – have a look below!
.@news2dayRTE went to a Dublin school that is holding an international day to celebrate the 30 different nationalities in the school pic.twitter.com/mlp2K7YWlQ
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 16, 2017
Our day started with a special samba performance by our 1st and 2nd Class children who have been working with Masamba Samba School over the last few weeks and learning to play together beautifully!
What a super performance! #InternationalDay @masamba pic.twitter.com/7bfdF9FEc2
— St. Mary's Primary (@stmarysdorsetst) March 16, 2017
Next up, were our after-school ‘Sean-Nós’ Irish dance club, also from 1st and 2nd Class who performed a traditional brush dance.
Our dance club showed us their brush dance next! Well done and thanks Ms Sheridan! pic.twitter.com/9PpnkqTvVJ
— St. Mary's Primary (@stmarysdorsetst) March 16, 2017
All around our hall, there were projects created by teams of children, displaying information about each of the countries represented in our school community. The children worked in cross-age teams, from 3rd to 6th Class to research the information for their projects. You can see each project below:
We also unveiled our family learning project, coordinated by Sile, our Home-School Liaison teacher. The intercultural project invited parents and families to create a fabric piece depicting information about their home country. These individual pieces were then brought together to create one tapestry. It is beautiful!
Later in the afternoon, all families were invited to attend our family Céilí Mór. We held the Céilí outside and the children partnered with their parents and carers and showed them the steps. We had great fun!
Our day finished with our annual International Food event, with families bringing dishes from their home countries to share with one another. A wonderful way to end a fantastic day. Thank you to all the families who contributed and came to support the children. Well done everyone!
Seachtain na Gaeilge March 2017
We celebrated Seachtain na Gaeilge, a celebration of Irish language and culture, this week.
In preparation for our annual Céilí Mór, the older children spent time with their partners in younger classes to show them our three céilí dances. Have a look at our practice in progress!
Here's our first outdoor rehearsal for our Céilí Mór #SeachtainnaGaeilge #ActiveSchools https://t.co/en5bdvFvio
— St. Mary's Primary (@stmarysdorsetst) March 10, 2017
Bhí Tráth na gCeist againn ar an Máirt. Bhí an-spórt againn! We had an Irish quiz on Tuesday. We had a great time!
Ar an gCéadaoin, bhí an Céilí Mór ar siúl. On Wednesday, we had our Céilí Mór.
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Newsletter 10.3.17
Newsletter
10th March 2017
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
News this week
5th Class visited the Central Library in the Ilac on Wednesday for a workshop as part of ‘Engineers’ Week’.
Across the whole school, preparations have been in full swing for our annual ‘Céilí’. A ‘Céilí’ is a kind of Irish dancing, with special dances performed in groups. All of the children will participate in a big ‘céilí’ on Wednesday at school and we hope to teach lots of parents how to join in at our International Day on Thursday from 12.30 p.m. This week, we practised a big circle dance in the yard – you can see a video on our Twitter account @stmarysdorsetst!
Active Schools News
Mr. Carney and Ms. O’Callaghan are busy preparing a team of 5th and 6th Class children to go to a basketball tournament next week. The tournament will take place in the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght and we wish our teams the very best of luck!
Dates for your diary
Sunday, 12th March – Family Mass at 11.45am
13th March– Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Week)
15 March – Céilí Mór for all children
16 March – International Day
17 March – St. Patrick’s Day – School Closed
Attendance and punctuality
6th Class have made a long awaited return to top position this week with 100%! Well done to you all. They will hold our attendance trophy for this week.
A reminder that waking up late or going to appointments with the doctor or dentist are not a reason to miss a full day at school. Children should always come to school for a part of the day – either before or after their appointment. If you wake up late, come to school as soon as you can, you should not miss a full day’s learning.
Our thanks to the families who work hard to ensure their child is in school on time every single day – well done!
Reminder – St. Patrick’s Day
A reminder that next Friday, 17th March is St. Patrick’s Day. This is a national holiday in Ireland and the school will be closed all day.
International Day – Thursday, 16th March
Here’s a run-down of events on Thursday. You are very welcome to join us for these, and any donations of food would be gratefully received.
We will also unveil our beautiful parent tapestry of our home countries. The children have worked together on projects for each home country in the school and very excitingly, the film crew from RTE’s ‘News2Day’ programme will be here to film all the action. Don’t miss it!
9.00 am 1st & 2nd Class – Samba Performance
9.30 am Dance Club ‘Sean-Nós’ Performance
12.30 pm Céilí Dance with Parents/Carers
1.00 pm International Food Event in the Hall
Enjoy your weekend,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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