Newsletter 19.9.18
Newsletter
19th September 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Meet the Teacher
It was great to see so many parents/carers at our ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings in Junior and Senior Infants on Monday morning, yesterday in 4th, 5th and 6th Class. and again this morning in 3rd and 3rd/4th Class.
Our teachers have shared lots of information about the learning that will happen in your child’s class this year and how you can help them at home.
Tomorrow (Thursday), we are looking forward to seeing the parents/carers from 2nd Class and the 1st Class meetings are on Friday.
If you have any further questions or would like to speak to your child’s teacher on an individual meeting, please just ask for an appointment and we will arrange a time that suits. Our door is always open and it is always better to speak to us sooner rather than later! If you have a worry or concern, come in and let us know and we will do our best to help.
After School Clubs
We are delighted to be running a range of after-school clubs this term. There has been huge demand for places and most clubs are now full. We hope most children have been allocated at least one of their choices.
Your child will have a slip confirming their place in the club, if they have been allocated one. If they have not received this slip, unfortunately, that means we have not been able to allocate them a place this time round.
Please check the timetable attached and make sure you collect your child on time after their club each week.
If you have any questions about clubs, you can call into the school office.
Secondary School – Open Days
We were delighted to welcome staff from our local secondary schools to talk with parents/carers from 4th, 5th and 6th Class yesterday morning. We hope you found the opportunity helpful. Each secondary school has its own open day, where you can visit the school in person. This is a great way to get to know the schools and find out more about what they have to offer.
Parents/carers of children in 6th Class will need to make decisions about the secondary school their child will attend in the coming weeks. Please make sure you complete an application form for the school you are interested in. Sile, our Home-School-Community Liaison teacher is happy to help with this – please come and chat to her if you have any questions.
Doodle Den
We are delighted that our after-school literacy programme for Senior Infants, Doodle Den, will be starting back this week. We welcome a new teacher, Gillian Murphy, and one of our own team, James Byrne, as the Doodle Den leaders for this year. Doodle Den will take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1.30 – 3.00 p.m.
Dates for your diary
Week of 17th Sept – Meet the Teacher
18th Sept – Secondary School Open Morning
26th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday
5th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
New Menus
We are still waiting for the last few menus to be returned to us. We are looking forward to trying out the new food from our suppliers Glanmore Foods in the coming weeks.
If you have not yet returned your child’s menu choices, please do so as soon as you can.
Collecting your child at home time
The playground is very, very busy at home time and there are often lots and lots of children and adults. It can be difficult for teachers to see everyone.
Each class has a space in the playground where they wait at the end of the day. We ask parents/carers to please walk over to your child’s class to collect them and make sure the class teacher sees you. Please do not take your child from their line, before they have reached their usual spot – this can cause confusion and panic if the class teacher does not see them leave.
If your child is being collected by a different adult, please make sure you let the class teacher know beforehand.
Attendance and punctuality
Our top attenders last week were 5th Class with 98%. Our target is at least 95% for every child and for every class.
Remember that school starts at 8.50 a.m. We still have families arriving after 9.00 a.m. on a regular basis. This is not acceptable. We understand that occasionally, the alarm doesn’t go off or there’s bad traffic. On those days, we just ask you to get to school as soon as you can. However, this should not be happening every day. Please make every effort to be in the line waiting for your child’s teacher at 8.50 a.m.
…and finally…
The weather is very unpredictable at the moment – please make sure your child has a coat and that all clothing is marked clearly with your child’s name.
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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Newsletter 7.9.18
Newsletter
7th September 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
News this week
Yesterday, 5th Class were invited to visit a brand-new museum at 14 Henrietta Street. The townhouse building was divided into tenements and has been fully restored so the children were able to see what life was like in Dublin over 300 years ago. Mr. McGuire tells me that the children asked great questions and were beautifully behaved – well done!
Attendance and punctuality
We are so pleased to see so many children back at school for their first full week. Attendance has been very good across the school – well done everyone!
Our top attenders this week were 4th Class with 100%! They were very closely followed by Senior Infants with 99%.
Remember – our target is at least 95% for each child.
Dates for your diary
17th September – Romanian after-school classes starting back
18th September – Doodle Den starting back
Week of 17th Sept – Meet the Teacher
18th Sept – Secondary School Open Morning
26th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday
5th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
Junior Infants
From next week, Junior Infants will be finishing at 1.30 p.m. They have settled in so well and we are very proud of them!
Morning and Afternoon Collections
We have been updating our Child Protection and Safeguarding procedures. It is very important that only adults who have Garda vetting are in the school building when the children are here. We therefore can no longer have parents/carers waiting in the school building to collect children before 1.30 or 2.30. Any parent/carer who needs to collect a child early, must call to the school office first. Children should be collected from their teacher in the designated space in the playground – not in the corridor or on the stairs, or on their way across the playground.
From Monday, the blue gate beside the office will be open at morning and afternoon collection times to help ease the flow of people. You can use either gate but we ask that parents/carers and children do not use the office door to enter or exit the building unless absolutely necessary.
School Uniform
Children should wear their full school uniform or school tracksuit every day. We are finding lots of lost jumpers and cardigans. Please make sure you label your child’s clothes clearly so we can return them if they get lost.
Updating Information
We are finding lots of contact phone numbers are not working. If your contact information has changed, please ensure we have your new address, telephone number or other details. This is particularly important if we need to contact you in case of emergency.
Enjoy the weekend, hopefully we’ll have some sunshine!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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Newsletter 31.8.18
Newsletter
31st August 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Welcome back!
We are so delighted to be back at school and to see so many happy, smiling faces yesterday. The children have already settled very well into their new classes and there is a lovely, calm atmosphere around the building.
A special welcome to our new Junior Infant class and the children and staff who are new to our school this year.
We will be having our annual ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings in the week of the 17th September – look out for a letter with the date for your child’s class. This meeting will give you the chance to meet your child’s new teacher and find out more about their learning in their new class and how you can help them at home.
Attendance and punctuality
We want all children at St. Mary’s to have excellent attendance and our target is at least 95% for each child (this is no more than 9 days of absence across the year).
Please let us know if your child will not be in school by calling the school office on (01) 8300841, emailing office@stmarysprimaryschool.ie or filling out the absence form on our website.
Dates for your diary
6th September – 5th Class to visit Tenement Museum in Henrietta Street
Week of 17th Sept – Meet the Teacher
18th Sept – Secondary School Open Morning
26th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday
5th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
School Books and Tracksuits
Thank you to all families who have already paid the €60 for books, copies and school resources. If you have not made this payment, please call into the school office or pay online. We are happy to take money in instalments if this is easier for you.
Tracksuits can be ordered with Liz and cost €21 each, or €23 for larger sizes.
We have already found a few lost jumpers! Please make sure your child’s jumper or cardigan is labelled clearly with their name and class so we can avoid mix-ups!
Supervision in the Morning
A reminder that children are welcome at school for breakfast club (which starts again on Monday) and to wait in the playground from 8.40 a.m. Children should not arrive to school before this time and we ask that children are not left waiting unsupervised at the gate before this. We have staff available to look after the children from 8.40 a.m. but the school cannot take responsibility for children before then.
Updating Information
If your contact information has changed over the summer, please ensure we have your new address, telephone number or other details. This is particularly important if we need to contact you in case of emergency.
Have a lovely weekend,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
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Newsletter 28.6.18
Newsletter
28th June 2018
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Aladdin Jr. Performance
What an amazing evening we had last night. The children from 2nd to 6th 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:
1st Prize – Maureen (5th Class)
2nd Prize – Darren (Junior Infants)
3rd Prize – Victoria (2nd Class)
Other prizes were won by Liz (School Secretary), Nadia (2nd Class), Martin (3rd Class), Viliam (3rd Class), Miranda (5th Class), Sean (5th Class) and Irene (2nd 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
1st Class – Ms. Oppermann
1st Class – Ms. McBride
2nd Class – Ms. McCaughey
2nd Class – To be confirmed
3rd Class – Ms. Lougheed
3rd/4th Class – Ms. Graham
4th Class – Ms. O’Rourke
5th Class – Mr. McGuire
6th 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:
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, 30th 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!
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!
