Peace Proms 2019
3rd and 4th Class are rehearsing for the Peace Proms.
Have a look at the Dance Moves below and keep practising at home!
Newsletter 30.11.18
Newsletter
30th 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 3rd and 5th 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 4th Class about the role of the Gardai in our community.
We were very proud of the 2nd 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, 5th and 6th Class went to our local secondary school, Mount Carmel, to see their production of the musical Grease.
On Wednesday, 5th Class went to the National Library to see an exhibition about World War 1 as part of their history learning, while 6th Class visited the EPIC Emigration Museum as part of their learning about the Irish Great Famine.
Yesterday, 1st 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 5th and 6th Class went to special workshops on holograms at Marsh Library. The children in both 4th 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:
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 4th Class
14 December – 3rd and 4th 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 – 3rd and 4th 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 6th 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 6th 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
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Newsletter-30.11.18.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]
Newsletter 9.11.18
Newsletter
9th November 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
1st Class appear on RTE News2Day
On Monday, Ms. Oppermann’s 1st 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. 5th and 6th 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!
2nd 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 – 3rd and 4th Class
3rd and 4th Class will perform in the Peace Proms concerts on Saturday, 2nd 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
14th November – 5th and 6th Class at Science Workshop at Marsh Library
15th November – 4th Class to Hugh Lane for science workshop
Friday, 23rd November – School closed for children – staff training day
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to 6th 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
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Newsletter-9.11.18.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]
Aladdin Connect
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
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Letter-re-Aladdin-Connect.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]
Newsletter 26.10.18
Newsletter
26th 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, 4th 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, 3rd 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 5th 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, 6th Class visited the National Archaeology Museum on Kildare Street.
On Thursday, Ms. Oppermann’s 1st 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
5th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
23rd November – School closed for children – staff training day for Language Curriculum
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to Ms. Lougheed’s 3rd Class – second week in a row – top attendance of 98.3%!
| We are now closed for one week’s holiday. We re-open on Monday, 5th November. |
Enjoy the break!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Newsletter-26.10.18.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]
Newsletter 19.10.18
Newsletter
19th October 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Maths Week
What a wonderful Maths Week we have had! The children have been superstars, engaging with each challenge and workshop with great enthusiasm. On Monday, our assembly introduced a series of challenges to complete over the week. On Tuesday, Mr. Carney hosted some very exciting Lego workshops for classes and on Wednesday, Mr. Kerr led problem-solving workshops across the school. Throughout the week, we’ve had maths trails in the building and in the yard for our Infant classes and on Thursday, all the children from 2nd to 6th Class walked to the Botanic Gardens to take part in our annual Maths Trail.
We have been delighted to see the children so excited about Maths – they have behaved excellently and all the teachers commented on their superb participation throughout the week. Well done everyone! A special thank you to Mr. Kerr who coordinated all the events during the week.
News this week
Last Sunday, we had our first Family Mass of the year. Thank you to all the families who attended and to the children who led the liturgy with such confidence.
On Tuesday, Senior Infants visited the Ilac library with Julianna, our Reader in Residence.
On Thursday, we were delighted to see so many parents/carers join Fr. Pat to discuss the First Communion programme for this year – thank you for coming along.
Sponsored Disco and Pumpkin Challenge
Thank you to the families who have already generously donated to our sponsored disco next Friday. We welcome all donations – big or small – children can bring the money to their class teacher throughout next week. The disco itself will take place on Friday and we thank the Parents’ Association for all of their hard work organising this great event.
A new addition to this year’s proceedings -we’re having a ‘pumpkin carving’ competition. Families are invited to bring their carved pumpkin into school on Friday next week. Pumpkins will be accepted on Friday morning ONLY, will be displayed for the children to see during the day and must be collected and brought home at the end of the day for your family to enjoy for Hallowe’en. Please do take part if you can!
Dates for your diary
26 October – Annual Sponsored Disco
26th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday
5th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
23rd November – School closed for children – staff training day for new Primary Language Curriculum
Attendance and punctuality
Another excellent week of attendance with every class meeting our target of 95%. The winners of our trophy this week were Ms. Lougheed’s 3rd Class with 98.3% – well done!
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Newsletter-19.10.18.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]
Newsletter 12.10.18
Newsletter
12th October 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
News this week
Yesterday, 3rd and 4th Class visited Liberty Hall Theatre to meet author, Andy Griffiths, who wrote the ’13–Storey Treehouse’ series of books. The children had lots of fun considering the kinds of trees you might use to build a treehouse! Our thanks to Julianna, our ‘Reader in Residence’ from Dublin City Libraries who invited us to the event.
Ms. McCaughey’s Class have been reading the book ‘Supertato’ as part of their learning about ‘Superheroes’ this term. They created their very own supertatoes – you can check out the photos on our Twitter page @stmarysdorsetst. The authors, Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet even tweeted back to tell us how great they were – well done children!
Yellow Flag Programme
We are very excited to be chosen as one of the schools taking part in the ‘Yellow Flag’ programme this year. The programme promotes inclusion and diversity in schools and we want to continue our good work this year to achieve this award. We have a new ‘Diversity Team’ of children, staff and parents/carers. If you are interested in being involved, please do let us know. The team met for the first time today and are very excited to get started!
Language Explorers
Our second week of the ‘Language Explorers’ programme took place today. The children are looking for different languages in the environment. Have a look at food packaging in your home – how many different languages do you see? What about your clothes labels? You can help your child to find items to bring to school to show us!
Dates for your diary
14 October – Family Mass at 11.45
18 October – 9am meeting for parents of children making their 1st Communion
26 October – Annual Sponsored Disco
26th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday
5th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
23rd November – School closed for children – staff training day for new Primary Language Curriculum
Attendance and punctuality
We are really pleased with our improving attendance. Well done to Ms. Oppermann’s 1st Class, Ms. McCaughey’s 2nd Class, Ms. Glynn’s 4th Class and Ms. Staunton’s 6th Class all with attendance of 97-98%. Our winners this week though, with 100% are 5th Class!
Parents’ Association News
Our Parents’ Association met this week to start preparations for our annual Sponsored Disco at Hallowe’en. They would love some help with decorations, posters and sponsor cards – please let Síle know if you can help even in a small way.
…and finally…
We have our first family Mass of the year this Sunday at 11.45 a.m. in St. Joseph’s Church in Berkeley Road. All families are welcome to join us, especially children making their First Communion this year.
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Newsletter-12.10.18.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]
Newsletter 5.10.18
Newsletter
5th October 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
World Teachers’ Day
Today is World Teachers’ Day and at our assembly this morning, we took the time to say thank you to our fantastic team of teachers for all they do! Earlier this week, our staff wellbeing team organised a lovely breakfast for all our staff to celebrate our great team.
News this week
On Wednesdays, our resident Irish dance teacher, Aedín, worked with several classes to teach traditional Irish folk dances.
On Thursday, Julianna, our ‘Reader in Residence’ visited Senior Infants. Fr. Pat, our school chaplain, also visited us and held some lovely prayer services to celebrate the opening of the school year.
Later on Thursday, 5th and 6th Class were invited to visit the Gate Theatre and watch an open rehearsal with Lovett Theatre. The children were excellent ambassadors for the school and asked some excellent and insightful questions – well done children!
Today, Ms. Graham’s Class visited the Hugh Lane Gallery to see an exhibition.
Kindness Missions
We introduced our new team of ‘Anti-Bullying Ambassadors’ at assembly on Monday. They surprised us when they gave us all a ‘top-secret kindness mission’ to do this week. With the James Bond theme playing, they quickly darted around the Hall giving each class teacher a special envelope with a mission for each class.
All week, we have seen children smiling on the stairs, giving high-fives, sharing compliments and showing kindness to one another in lots of different ways. The teachers also had their own personal missions to do a kind act for one another! What a lovely week it has been. Thank you to all who have participated and especially to Ms. Kilkenny and the Anti-Bullying Ambassadors for organising such a great activity for us.
Language Explorers
We are very proud to be one of the first schools to have the ‘Language Explorers’ programme. The programme is designed to raise children’s awareness of different languages and to be proud of the languages they speak. It is delivered by experts from Trinity College, including Dr. Francesca LaMorgia, who also kindly came and spoke to a group of parents/carers on Thursday about raising bilingual or multilingual children.
Today, Francesca and her team, visited each class to start the programme. The children will have four sessions this month and hopefully will be coming home with lots of news about how they are getting on – and maybe asking for your help in sharing your home language.
After School Clubs
Our after-school clubs are all now up and running. There has been huge demand for places. I would ask that if for any reason your child no longer wishes to attend a club, that you let the office know as soon as possible so that we can offer their place to another child on the waiting list.
A reminder also to please collect your child on time from our after-school clubs.
Schools’ Excellence Fund: Digital Learning
The Department of Education and Skills have chosen our school to take part in a three-year digital learning project with four other local primary schools. Last week, all of our staff met with teachers from Gardiner St., Georges’ Hill, St. Paul’s CBS and Dublin 7 Educate Together, to talk about our plans for the project. It is very exciting to be involved and our thanks to Mr. Kerr, who is coordinating our part of the project with the other schools. We will share more information with you as we go along.
Dates for your diary
11 October – 3rd and 4th Class to Liberty Hall
14 October – Family Mass at 11.45
18 October – Meeting for parents of children in 2nd Class making their 1st Communion
26 October – Annual Sponsored Disco
26th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday
5th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
New Menus
Thank you for returning the new menus. The new food choices have been returned to our suppliers and we hope that we will start to see the new menus in the coming weeks.
Secondary School – Transitions
Thank you to the many families who attended our secondary school transition morning on 18th September. I know many of you are also taking the time to visit our local secondary schools too.
For children in 6th Class, it is important that you make a decision soon and ensure your child’s name is put on the enrolment list for a school for next year.
If you have any questions or need any help with this, please come and talk to Síle and she will be happy to help.
‘One Family’ – a support for parents
Thank you to the parents/carers who came on Tuesday morning to meet Geraldine from the ‘One Family’ support service. ‘One Family’ have recently started working in our area and run excellent courses for parents. If you are interested, please talk to Síle, who can give you more information.
Attendance and punctuality
What a fantastic week of attendance! We are very proud of the big effort everyone is making to come to school each day.
We had a huge list of classes to celebrate in assembly today. Particular well done to Ms. McCaughey’s 2nd Class, Mr. McGuire’s 5th Class and Ms. Graham’s 3rd/4th Class who all had 99% attendance.
Our winners this week were Ms. Glynn’s 4th Class with a phenomenal 100% – amazing!
…and finally…
School will be closed to children on Friday, 23rd November as we have a staff training day for the Primary Language Curriculum. We apologise for any inconvenience and hope that giving you the date well in advance will help parents who need to make alternative arrangements.
Have a lovely weekend!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Newsletter-5.10.18.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]