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18^th January 2019

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Visit from Minister of Education

We were delighted to welcome the new Minister for Education, Joe McHugh TD, to our school on Wednesday. The Minister met with children and staff during his visit and was very interested to hear about the work that we do.

He met some of our Young Interpreters, and was so impressed, he has invited them to meet him in Government Buildings to tell him more about it!

Ms. Graham’s Class then took part in a photocall with the Minister and the team from ‘Webwise’, the online safety website (www.webwise.ie) and PDST – the Professional Development Service for Teachers and their Director, Ciara O’Donnell. The photos have been taken in advance of ‘Safer Internet Day’ on 5^th February and we will be able to share them with you then. The children were wonderful ambassadors for the school and even sang an impromptu chorus of ‘This is Me’ for the Minister as he left. Well done Ms. Graham’s Class!

Thank you to all the staff who contributed to the preparation for the visit.

News this week

On Tuesday morning, Senior Infants visited the General Post Office, known as the ‘GPO’ on O’Connell Street, as part of their learning about the post office this term. The children were very excited to see the post office in action and had lots of questions to ask.

After-School Clubs

We have had enormous interest in our after-school clubs this term. We have tried our very best to allocate a club to everyone and we apologise to those who may be disappointed. We tried particularly to allocate places to those who didn’t get a club place last term.

The children have a note in their bags today to confirm their places and all clubs (except English Language, which won’t start until February) will run from next week. Please make sure you take a note of the name of the club your child is attending, the day it takes place and the time it finishes. I would also ask you to ensure you are on time to collect your child after clubs.  Thank you.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. O’Hare’s 1^st Class with a perfect 100% attendance record this week!

Dates for your diary

2 February – 3^rd and 4^th Class perform at Peace Proms concert in the RDS at 2.00 p.m.

5 February – Safer Internet Day – Zeeko Internet Safety talks for parents and children

10 February – Family Mass at 11.45 a.m.

21 and 22 February – Mid-Term Break – School Closed

27 February – First Penance

6 March – Science Blast at RDS

14, 15, 18 March – School Closed

12 April – School closes for Easter Holidays

29 April – School re-opens for summer term

Enrolment for September 2019

We are accepting applications for Junior Infants for September 2019. The closing date for applications is Friday, 1^st February 2019. Please call into the office to collect an application form if you need one – and make sure to let your friends, family and neighbours know too!

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

Newsletter

14^th January 2019

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to all and a happy new year to everyone. We hope you had a lovely holiday and we are delighted to see everyone back and ready for an exciting term of learning.

The children have settled back quickly and last week we talked about our new years’ resolutions and our aims for our learning over the coming months.

After-School Clubs

Please look out for club letters this week. Our thanks to the staff who give their time to run these clubs after-school. Please remember that your child does not automatically have a place in a club – you must wait for the office to confirm. Please ensure we have an accurate phone number for you and check your text or app messages for confirmation.

Christmas Raffle

Thank you to the Parents’ Association who organised our Christmas raffle in aid of DEBRA Ireland. I’m delighted to let you know we raised 224 euro in total. Thank you also to those who donated items for the Crosscare Homeless Shelter next door.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to 6^th Class who had top attendance of 98.3% last week and won our attendance trophy.

It has been an excellent start to the term, with nearly everyone back from holiday on time. This makes a huge difference to the children’s learning – well done everyone!

Dates for your diary

15 January – Senior Infants visit the GPO

2 February – 3^rd and 4^th Class perform at Peace Proms concert in the RDS at 2.00 p.m.

5 February – Safer Internet Day – Zeeko Internet Safety talks for parents and children

10 February – Family Mass at 11.45 a.m.

21 and 22 February – Mid-Term Break – School Closed

27 February – First Penance

6 March – Science Blast at RDS

14, 15, 18 March – School Closed

12 April – School closes for Easter Holidays

29 April – School re-opens for summer term

New Year Reminders

As the weather continues to be cold, and with warnings that it may become colder, I would ask you to remind your child that they must wear a coat to school each day and they are not allowed to take their coat off when outside playing. This ensures the children keep warm while getting some fresh air, but also ensures coats do not get mixed up or lost. We appreciate your help reinforcing this message with the children at home.

And finally…

Tickets for the Peace Proms concert on Saturday, 2^nd February are almost sold out. If you want to go along to the RDS to see your child – you will need to buy a ticket online. Sile can help you, if you have any trouble.

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

Newsletter

20^th December 2018

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Christmas Performances

What a special week it has been! I hope you enjoyed our Christmas performances as much as we have. The children have sparkled and dazzled us and we are very proud of them.

3^rd and 4^th Class opened the show with their ‘Greatest Showman’ medley, a preview of just one of the songs they are learning for the ‘Peace Proms’ concert in the RDS in February.

5^th and 6^th Class sang in beautiful harmony for ‘Starman’ and ‘Somewhere only we know’, another sneak preview of their upcoming concert with the National Children’s Choir. We have a very musical Spring 2019 ahead!

We then had all of the children from Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 1^st and 2^nd Classes perform their nativity ‘Superstar’. The children spoke with such confidence and sang beautifully. They really helped us to think about the real message of Christmas and reminded us all to ‘shine our light in the world’.

Such wonderful performances do not happen without the time and dedication of our staff, who have practised the songs, sourced and made costumes and rehearsed lines. Thank you to each and every one – and particularly Ms. McCaughey, who so expertly brought all of the parts of ‘Superstar’ together over the last few weeks.

News this month

Thank you to all the families who attended our last Family Mass of the year. Special thanks to the children from 3^rd and 4^th Class who led the readings and prayers. Last week, our Catholic children attended a special Advent prayer and penitential service with Fr. Pat and Fr. David in preparation for Christmas.

Our thanks to the volunteers from KPMG who completed the #BoldGirls workshops with 2^nd and 3^rd Class this week – they have really enjoyed taking part.

Well done and thank you to all the parents/carers who came to take part in our Christmas art sessions in classes around the school. It is always lovely to see families working on projects together.

Last Friday, 3^rd and 4^th Class went to a special Peace Proms rehearsal at the National Sports Centre in Blanchardstown. The children practised their songs and dance moves with children from lots of other schools across Dublin.

Last week, 5^th and 6^th Class had workshops on Relationships and Sexuality Education and learned about how they are growing and changing as they get older.

On Tuesday, we had a visit from the Garda Band who played some festive favourites for us and got us all in the mood for Christmas.

Restorative Practice

We welcomed Michelle Stowe to school last week. Lots of our staff have worked with Michelle to learn about ‘Restorative Practice’ which puts good relationships at the centre of all we do, and gives us a framework for dealing with conflict when it arises.

Michelle worked with the children in 4^th and 5^th Class this time – sharing the values of Restorative Practice with them and training a small group to be ‘Friendship Keepers’. This group will support children in the playground to be good friends to one another.

Time to Read launch

We were delighted to launch our ‘Time to Read’ programme with Business in the Community earlier this month. We have eight new volunteers working with us this year. They will come each week and read with children from 2^nd Class to help and support their confidence in reading.

Home learning projects

I have been amazed to see so many outstanding and creative projects in classes across the school this term. The children have showed such interest in their learning and we have seen lots of additional research and work being done at home. A special mention to the families who have worked together to create Mexican-themed musical instruments in 5^th Class, a whole range of super projects from recycled materials in 3^rd Class and dinosaur habitats in 2^nd Class. They have been truly wonderful – well done!

Art Class for Parents/Carers

We were delighted to see the beautiful art work created by our parent art class on display this week. Each parent who took part received a beautiful hamper of art supplies to continue their creative work at home. Special thanks to Cliodhna, one of our SNAs, who led the group with Jessie from Step-by-Step Family Project and to Síle, our Home-School-Community Liaison teacher who coordinated the class.

Dates for your diary in 2019

7 January 2019 – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

2 February – 3^rd and 4^th Class perform at Peace Proms concert in the RDS at 2.00 p.m.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. Yeates’ 2^nd Class who have the best attendance across the school for this term with 97.3% – an excellent record!

Thank you

As we head towards the holidays, I want to take this opportunity to thank our incredible staff for their hard work this term. I feel very lucky to work with such a great team with so much energy and enthusiasm. Each class teacher, support teacher, SNA, volunteer, our secretary Liz and caretaker Colm, go over and above to ensure the children get the very best learning opportunities we can offer them. I know you will join me in thanking them and wishing them a very happy holiday and some well-deserved rest and relaxation.

Our thanks to all our parents/carers for your continued commitment and support. Special thanks to our Parents’ Association for their efforts this term and to our Board of Management who volunteer their time to help move the school forward.

And finally…

Don’t forget we finish at 12 noon on Friday 21^st December for the holidays. We will re-open on Monday, 7^th January at 8.50 a.m.

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

3rd and 4th Class are rehearsing for the Peace Proms.

Have a look at the Dance Moves below and keep practising at home!

Newsletter

30^th November 2018

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

What a busy few weeks we have had!

Parent-Teacher Meetings

We have had an excellent turnout for our annual parent-teacher meetings – thank you for taking the time to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss their progress and next steps. We have had lots of great feedback and we hope you found them helpful.

If you missed your meeting slot, please do speak to your child’s class teacher to re-schedule. We’d also value your feedback on the Aladdin Connect app and how you found using it to book your appointment. Let us know what you thought!

New Primary Language Curriculum

Last Friday, our teachers spent the day working on the new primary language curriculum. We focused particularly on Gaeilge (the Irish language) and how we can support children to transfer the skills they have in learning English to Gaeilge. We also looked at how we could teach other subject, like PE and Art, through Gaeilge. We will be encouraging the children to speak ‘as Gaeilge’ as much as possible with a particular focus on our morning routines and greeting one another at the start of the day in Irish. If you’d like to join us –DuoLingo is a great app for learning new languages.

In other news …

Last week, the dental nurse visited 3^rd and 5^th Class to talk about looking after our teeth. It is so important that children brush their teeth at least twice a day. We also had a visit from Cian, our local Community Garda, who spoke to 4^th Class about the role of the Gardai in our community.

We were very proud of the 2^nd Class children who are making their First Communion in May. The children had their enrolment ceremony at our Family Mass on Sunday. They read prayers, presented gifts and did a wonderful job! Thank you to all the families who joined us.

This week, 5^th and 6^th Class went to our local secondary school, Mount Carmel, to see their production of the musical Grease.

On Wednesday, 5^th Class went to the National Library to see an exhibition about World War 1 as part of their history learning, while 6^th Class visited the EPIC Emigration Museum as part of their learning about the Irish Great Famine.

Yesterday, 1^st Class joined our ‘Reader in Residence’ Julianne at the Ilac library for a story session.

Science Week

Earlier this month, it was Science Week and 5^th and 6^th Class went to special workshops on holograms at Marsh Library. The children in both 4^th Classes also had a special workshop at the Hugh Lane Gallery. They learned about the science of conserving art works – fascinating stuff!

Congratulations to Anka Borzasi

This week, Ms. Kelly was invited to a special reception at the Mansion House by the Romanian Ambassador, Her Excellency, Manuela Breazu for Romanian National Day.

At the ceremony, Anka Borzasi, our Romanian class teacher, was presented with a very special award from the Romanian President for her work in promoting Romanian language and culture in schools in Ireland. Congratulations Anka – we are so proud to be part of this wonderful programme.

Art Class for Parents/Carers

Our new art class for parents/carers is up and running and has been very successful. It’s an open invitation, so if you’d like to take part, just let Sile know. Thanks to Cliodhna, one of our SNAs, who is sharing her artistic talents with us!

ABC Programme – Updates

Our school is part of the Grangegorman ABC Programme, which funds programmes like Doodle Den and Incredible Years. We have been working with other schools and community organisations to continue this work and a new action plan for the community was published last week. Ms. Kelly spoke at an event to launch a new action plan for the programme with Minister for Finance and local TD, Paschal Donohue. We are working together to look at issues affecting the local community and how we can make sure all of our service can support children and families in the best ways possible.

Today, Mr. Carney is hosting a training event for other local schools, after-school projects and early years services in our ‘Sensory Circuits’ programme which we run every morning, which is also funded through the ABC programme.

NCCA Consultation – RSE

Yesterday, we took part in a consultation day with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). The purpose of the consultation was to speak to groups of parents, children and staff about how Relationships and Sexuality Education is taught in schools in Ireland, as part of a national review.

We had some really interesting discussions. Particular thanks to the Parents’ Association who met with the NCCA team. If you are interested in finding out more, visit the website:

https://www.ncca.ie/en/updates-and-events/consultations/review-of-relationships-and-sexuality-education-rse

Dates for your diary

4 December – Vision and Hearing tests in Infants

6 December – Launch of ‘Time to Read’

Sunday, 9 December – Family Mass

12 December – Chrsitmas Art in 4^th Class

14 December – 3^rd and 4^th Class Peace Proms rehearsal at National Sports Centre

18/19 December – Christmas Performances

21 December – School closes at 12 noon for Christmas Holidays

7 January 2019 – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

2 February – 3^rd and 4^th Class perform at Peace Proms concert in the RDS at 2.00 p.m.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. Graham’s Class with top attendance of 98.5% this week!

It has been a challenging week with the windy, rainy weather. Remember that it’s always better to come late than not come at all.

Comhairle na nÓg

Four of our 6^th Class children represented the school at Dublin’s ‘Comhairle na nÓg’ annual meeting last week. ‘Comhairle na nÓg’ means ‘Youth Council’. I am very proud to let you know that Alexandra from 6^th Class was elected onto the Council to represent all young people in Dublin City. Alex had to speak in front of a big audience at Croke Park to explain why she wanted the job and she did this with confidence and conviction. it is a huge achievement to be elected – congratulations Alex!

And finally…

Don’t forget it’s the annual ‘Late Late Toy Show’ on RTE1 television this evening – always a great show – enjoy it!

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Newsletter

9^th November 2018

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

1^st Class appear on RTE News2Day

On Monday, Ms. Oppermann’s 1^st Class visited Hodges Figgis bookshop for the launch of the new children’s book ‘The First Christmas Jumper’ with its author Ryan Tubridy and illustrator Chris Judge. The children were featured on RTE tv programme, ‘News2Day’. Check it out on our website if you haven’t seen it yet. The children did a wonderful job, we were so proud of them!

Yellow Flag training for teachers

On Tuesday, our teachers had a two hour workshop after school as part of our ‘Yellow Flag’ programme. The training focused on how we include everyone, how we celebrate diversity and how we challenge racism and discrimination in our school. The training was expertly led by Dil Wickremasinghe – thanks Dil!

National Children’s Choir

On Wednesday, we welcomed three other schools for a ‘cluster’ rehearsal for the National Children’s Choir. 5^th and 6^th Class have been working very hard to learn the repertoire for the choir and are singing beautifully in two and sometimes three parts! The children made a beautiful sound and we can’t wait for their big concert in the National Basketball Arena in March.

In other news this week…

Our Junior Infants were very brave this morning getting their vaccinations – well done everyone!

2^nd Class began a series of four workshops on the #BoldGirls initiative with volunteers from KPMG. The children will be learning about strong female characters and authors across history and in some very special books.

Aladdin Connect – new school app

At the back of this newsletter, you’ll see a letter with more information about the new Aladdin Connect app which we are launching next week. For the first time you’ll be able to book your parent-teacher meetings from the app and choose a time that suits you! We think it will be really great – please read the letter carefully and call in if you have any questions.

Peace Proms tickets – 3^rd and 4^th Class

3^rd and 4^th Class will perform in the Peace Proms concerts on Saturday, 2^nd February at 2.00pm. Tickets for parents/carers are available now for a special ‘early bird’ rate. The code you need is DUBSAT2PM. Tickets are selling fast so please book soon to avoid disappointment.

Dates for your diary

14^th November – 5^th and 6^th Class at Science Workshop at Marsh Library

15^th November – 4^th Class to Hugh Lane for science workshop

Friday, 23^rd November – School closed for children – staff training day

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to 6^th Class with 99% attendance this week!

And finally…

I’m delighted to let you know that we raised a total of €1,224.40 for the annual Sponsored Disco – our thanks to the Parents’ Association for all their hard work and to every family who contributed. The funds will be used to buy new resources for the school.

Have a lovely weekend,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Dear Parents/Carers,

Our school is delighted to announce that we will shortly roll out the Aladdin Schools Connect to all parents and carers. The school uses the Aladdin Schools software for administrative purposes and ‘Connect’ will give you secure access to messages from the school and to details of your child’s attendance, reports cards etc. via a secure login from your internet browser or Aladdin Connect App

Aladdin Connect is a fantastic way to enhance a school’s communication with parents/carers. It enables parents/carers to stay connected and informed about their child’s education by:

• Ensuring that the school has their most up to date contact information
• Keeping parents/carers apprised of their child’s attendance
• Keeping parents/carers up to date on school and classroom news via noticeboard messages
• Allowing parents/carers view their child’s approved report card

Along with strengthening our home/school partnership, we hope Aladdin Connect will help the school by:

• Helping to improve attendance by allowing parents/carers to keep track of any school days their child may have currently missed, along with late arrival and early leaving information.
• Helping to reduce the amount of class/school notes being sent home
• Helping the school/ teachers communicate with parents when the need arises
• Reducing costs by eliminating the need to send school report cards by post
• Reducing costs by reducing the number of text messages that need to be sent

You can rest reassured Aladdin Schools uses state-of-the-art security to safeguard information entered by the school and data is stored and processed in strict compliance with Irish and European data protection laws.

In the next few days, you will receive a text/email message containing your registration link.  There will be one link per parent or carer which will allow the parent to access information for all their children in the school from one user account. Please do not forward this text/email or share this link as this is a unique registration code for each parent/carer for your child/children in this school. During registration you will choose a password that will be used in conjunction with your email address to securely access the Aladdin Connect going forward. Once you are registered you will be sent an email with links to download the Aladdin Connect App for your mobile device. The main advantage of using the App is to receive immediate alerts for app messages sent by your school.

By default, both parents/carers will have access to view their child’s contact information. If for any reason you do NOT wish to share your own personal contact information within the family circle or if you have any concerns regarding your particular family setup, please contact the school in confidence to discuss or have this facility restricted. In preparation for this please let the school know if your email address or phone number has changed recently.

Your child’s class teacher, Liz, our secretary or I will welcome any feedback or questions you may have.

Yours sincerely,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Newsletter

26^th October 2018

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Sponsored Disco and Pumpkin Challenge

Huge thanks to our Parents’ Association for all their hard work putting together our special events for Hallowe’en this year. They have coordinated our Sponsored Disco, decorating the hall spookily, organising music, lights and sponsor forms and promoting our pumpkin competition.

What a great day we have had! It’s great to see the children all dressed up and having so much fun! Our sponsored disco took place across the day. The children danced ‘til they dropped! We are so impressed with the wonderful pumpkins you have created at home – they are so creative and you have spent so much time on them. And a final thank you for your sponsorship money – we will confirm the total with you after the break.

News this week

On Monday, 4^th Class took part in some art workshops with David from the ‘Big Scream’ festival to create decorations for the Hallowe’en festival. Also on Monday, 3^rd Class visited the Central Library and took part in a ukelele session with the ‘Musician in Residence’ there.

On Tuesday, Garda Cian from Bridewell Station came to speak to 5^th Class about staying safe at Hallowe’en. There are lots of organised community events for Hallowe’en – please keep your child safe by going to one of these safe, family-friendly events and do not allow children to be around fireworks or bonfires without adult supervision.

On Wednesday, 6^th Class visited the National Archaeology Museum on Kildare Street.

On Thursday, Ms. Oppermann’s 1^st Class visited the Hugh Lane Gallery to look at different portraits by famous painters. They then had a special workshop of their own to create their own self-portraits using recycled materials.

Language Explorers

We completed our four sessions of the ‘Language Explorers’ programme this week. Each class has worked really well and learned lots about one another’s languages and the languages around us. In the older classes, children were creating their very own multilingual cities, with shops and signs in lots of different languages. This week they wrote multilingual raps – each line was written in a different home language. In the younger classes, children shared songs and poems in their home languages.

Our thanks to the Language Exploresrs’ team – Francesca, Claudia and Aga for working with us – we loved it!

Dates for your diary

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

23^rd November – School closed for children – staff training day for Language Curriculum

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. Lougheed’s 3^rd Class – second week in a row – top attendance of 98.3%!

Enjoy the break!

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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