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We had a wonderful online graduation with 6th Class and their families this afternoon. The children designed beautiful graduation caps, dressed up, had balloons and posters and all the staff joined them to celebrate. Here’s a snippet of our trip down memory lane…

This group have been outstanding leaders in our school. They have led our Green Schools team, led inclusion and diversity in our Yellow Flag team, been Play Leaders for Active Schools, been Young Interpreters, Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, Friendship Keepers and more!

They are scientists, geographers, historians, mathematicians, singers, dancers, musicians, explorers, team players, creators, inventors – talents that we know they will continue to develop in the years ahead. We are so proud #Classof2020 – go forth – be great!

Following new legislation and guidance from the Department of Education, all primary schools in Ireland are being asked to update their Admission Policy.

We are attaching our draft policy for your consideration and we welcome your feedback.

Please email office@stmarysprimaryschool.ie if you have any questions, would like any information clarified or have a suggestion for changes.

The draft policy will be available for consultation to staff and parents/carers until Wednesday, 29th April 2020. Once it is ratified by the Board of Management it will then be sent to our Patron, the Archbishop of Dublin. The Diocese will return it to us before September and the new policy will be in place for the beginning of October 2020.

Newsletter

14^th February 2020

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Erasmus Visit

We are so proud of the huge success of our Erasmus Visit from 27-31 January. We hosted 37 children and adults from schools in Greece, Italy, Spain, Romania and the UK for a whole week.

Throughout the week, our teachers and their classes led special lessons for the visitors, using technology to explore themes of inclusion and diversity. 6^th Class showed our partners how to use the ‘Pic Collage’ app to make a poster about the Global Goals. 5^th Class made podcasts with a partner about their lives. 3^rd and 4^th Class made movie trailers about a special story they read together about including everyone. Our children also helped to demonstrate Irish dancing and encouraged our visitors to take part in an Irish dancing céilí, they set up lunchtime games to help everyone get to know one another, and they were friendly, welcoming and consummate hosts for the entire week. They were a credit to us and a credit to their families – thank you children!

In the afternoons, our teachers brought our visitors to see the sights and sounds of Dublin city – they went rock climbing, visited the Natural History Museum, the Hugh Lane Gallery, 14 Henrietta Street, a walking tour of Dublin and even went on a day tour to Wicklow.

I think they were exhausted at the end! But there were tears saying goodbye at our movie festival on the Friday afternoon and we received many lovely messages of thanks for our kindness and hospitality.

I want to thank our entire staff team who went above and beyond (as always) to ensure our visitors were looked after – collecting groups from the airport and hotels, making breakfast and lunch, organising activities, hosting dinners and much more. It was a huge amount of work and I am so grateful for the enthusiasm and goodwill of our team in making it such a success. Special thanks to Fiona Nolan, who is our Erasmus Coordinator. Not long now until our first group of children will go to Greece for our first mobility abroad – very exciting!

International Food Fair

Thank you to the many families who came to our International Food Fair on Tuesday, 28^th January and especially to those who brought a dish that represented their home country. The food was delicious as always and our Erasmus visitors were amazed at the wide variety of food from all over the world.

News this week

On Monday, we welcomed Fala Buggy, our Creative Associate, to talk to the children in assembly about creativity in our school. The children had lots of ideas about what we already do and are going away to think about what more we could do to be creative at school.

On Tuesday, some of our Green Schools team went to a workshop about water with Ms. Palmer and Ms. Collins. They got straight to work when they got back, conducting a water survey in school.

On Thursday, Barretstown children’s charity came to do a really lovely workshop with Senior Infants.

Today, some of our 6^th Class children took part in a special focus group to help Children’s Books Ireland plan some of their work. They talked all about reading and how much they love books!

In 4^th/5^th and 5^th Class, the children worked with David Swift, from Heritage in Schools, in a World War II themed workshop today. David brought lots of interesting artefacts for the children to see and they loved every minute!

Peace Proms

On Saturday 1^st February, the children in 3^rd Class took part in the annual Peace Proms concert in the RDS. The children had been preparing to sing in the concert for many months and sang beautifully on the night with 2,500 other children and the Cross-Border Orchestra of Ireland. It is a fantastic night and I know all of the parents/carers who came along really enjoyed it!

Thank you to Ms. O’Donovan and Ms. Carrick who prepared the children so well and to Ms. Palmer and Ms. Hayes who accompanied the children on the night.

Time to Read

We have had the launch of our ‘Time to Read’ programme with children from Ms. Yeates’s 2^nd Class, Eight children will read every week with a volunteer from Business in the Community for the next 20 weeks. This is our fifth year taking part in this programme and it is always fantastic to see the children enjoying reading so much.

Safer Internet Day

Tuesday was Safer Internet Day and the children have been reminding themselves of all of the learning they have done on internet safety. This is a topic we return to over and over again with classes. We find that children are very able to tell us the ‘right answer’, they have lots of information and lots of strategies to use if they have a problem, but find it very difficult to do the right thing in practice.

Children are spending more and more time online or playing games on phones or tablets. There are huge risks to this, not least the number of adults waiting to take advantage of children who are vulnerable. I would remind all parents/carers of the importance of knowing what your child is doing online – what apps they use, who they talk to, what games they are playing. Talk to your child about what is happening in those games or on that app and make sure they know not to share private information and how to get help if they need it.

www.webwise.ie is a brilliant website for parents/carers with lots of the most up-to-date advice about how to support your child with everything from Fortnite to Roblox, TikTok to Instagram and Snapchat.

Parish News

Thank you to the children in 5^th and 6^th Class who led our Family Mass last Sunday. The Confirmation candidates also took part in their Ceremony of Light on Wednesday this week. Thank you to all the parents/carers for your support and apologies for the short notice.

A reminder that we have another Family Mass this Sunday, 16^th February. The children making their Communion from 2^nd Class will lead the liturgy this week.

Admissions Policy

The Department of Education have asked all schools to write a new Admissions Policy based on new legislation. We will be consulting with families on our new policy shortly.

Stay Safe Meeting

Ms. Brophy will lead a meeting for parents/carers about the Stay Safe programme, which all classes are doing this month, on Wednesday, 26^th February at 9am

Dates for your diary

Sunday, 16^th February  – Family Mass

Wednesday, 19^th February – school finishing at 12 noon due to staff training for new language curriculum

20 and 21 February –

Mid-Term Break – School Closed

26^th February – Stay Safe Meeting for Parents/Carers

27^th February – Book Fair arriving

2^nd March – 6^th Class to Science Blast at RDS

5^th March – World Book Day

13^th March – Confirmation – 5^th and 6^th Class

16, 17, 18 March –

St. Patrick’s Day Holiday – School Closed

3^rd April – Easter Holidays – finish at 12 noon

20^th April – Back to school

…and finally…

We have been all loved-up at school today – sharing kindness and care with one another. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly – Principal

Newsletter

17^th January 2020

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to all and a very happy new year to everyone. It is great to see the children settled back at school. They are so enthusiastic about their learning and we’ve a busy term ahead!

News this week

On Wednesday, our local Community Garda Cian  came to speak to 4^th Class about the role of the Garda and the different ways they help us.

Today, Francesca from Language Explorers joined us at our Friday assembly to share the great learning we did last term and to say thank you to the parents who supported the project and joined classes to share their home languages. Thank you!

This morning, Ms. Nolan met with parents from 5^th Class to talk about the upcoming visits we have planned. A group of children and teachers will be heading to Greece in March and another group will visit London in June – it’s very exciting!

Active Schools

We were awarded our first blue Active Flag in 2017. We now need to renew our commitment to children’s physical activity and we are working hard to encourage children to really think about how they are getting their 60 minutes of exercise every day.

Our whole-school walk on Tuesday and Thursday mornings is a big part of this and it is a great way to get a quick burst of energy, some fresh air and 20 minutes of physical activity before the day starts. Please encourage your child to be active and enthusiastic about this challenge. It is important that children arrive on time so that they do not miss this opportunity.

And don’t forget – parents/carers are also welcome to join us! If you’re inspired by Operation Transformation, use this chance to come along and improve your fitness for 2020.

Erasmus Visit and International Food Fair

We are busy preparing for a very special visit at the end of this month. Children and teachers from our five Erasmus partner schools will be visiting Dublin for a week from 27-31 January and we will be hosting their visit at school. We have a busy week planned and one of the events we would love to share with them, is our annual International Food Fair.

We are hoping to have our Food Fair on Tuesday, 28^th January at 1.00 p.m. We invite all families to join us for this special occasion and ask everyone to bring a dish that represents their home country. It is always a wonderful afternoon and with lots of extra guests, we hope you will be happy to make a little more for them!

Dates for your diary

21^st January – Launch of ‘Time to Read’ programme with Ms. Yeates’s 2^nd Class

27-31 January – Erasmus Partners Visiting School

28^th January – International Food Fair at 1.00 p.m.

29^th January – Irish dancing céilí at 1.00 p.m.

Saturday 1^st February – Peace Proms – 3^rd Class

Sunday 2^nd February – Family Mass

12^th February – Confirmation Ceremony of Light

Sunday, 16^th February  – Family Mass

20 and 21 February –

Mid-Term Break – School Closed

26^th February – Book Fair arriving

13^th March – Confirmation – 5^th and 6^th Class

16, 17, 18 March –

St. Patrick’s Day Holiday – School Closed

3^rd April – Easter Holidays – finish at 12 noon

20^th April – Back to school

…and finally…

A reminder that we are a Green School and children are asked to take all of their lunch waste (food and packaging) home with them and put them in your compost, recycling and waste bins at home. Please support your child with this effort and make sure you empty lunches from school bags each day.

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

Newsletter

19^th December 2019

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Christmas Greetings

The term finishes tomorrow at 12 noon. We have had another fantastic term of exciting learning and while we’re all tired and ready for a holiday, we have achieved lots and must take some time to celebrate and give thanks.

Our teaching team give 110% every day and are so dedicated to their work and to providing fabulous learning opportunities for every child. I thank them very sincerely for their energy and commitment. Thank you to Sile, our Home-School-Community Liaison teacher, who does so much to support families in need. Her door is always open!

Thank you to Colm and Liz for their work behind the scenes – as always, we couldn’t do it without you!

My thanks to all the parents/carers who have helped out this term – joining classes on a trip, coming to do Maths for Fun or Language Explorers, being part of the Parents’ Association, donating clothes, meeting your child’s teacher, sharing positive comments on Twitter and Seesaw, watching a performance – thank you to each one of you. Your support makes all the difference.

Today, I have also written to the many organisations, volunteers and community groups who work with us to provide enriching experiences for the children and their learning. We thank them for all of the opportunities they provide for us and the time they give to help us across the year. Thank you everyone!

Christmas Performances

It was lovely to see so many families joining us for our Christmas performances this week. The children and the adults working with them have been preparing and getting ready for a number of weeks and it was great to see all the hard work pay off. Each class performed on stage, with every child taking part. The singing was beautiful and the poetry was even better! Well done to the children who not only performed the poems but especially to those who wrote their own! From Japanese Haikus, to an empowering message about just being yourself and an acrostic poem about Christmas – we had it all. The children spoke clearly and confidently and we are very proud of them.

As always, special thanks to our class teachers and special needs assistants who prepared the children so well and to our support teachers who helped ensure the event ran smoothly.

Dates for your diary

Friday, 20^th December – School closes at 12 noon

Monday, 6^th January 2020 – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

…and finally…

Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy the break. Our best wishes to all celebrating Christmas – have a joyful and peaceful time. Happy New Year to all and we will see you in 2020!

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly – Principal

Newsletter

13^th December 2019

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Christmas Performances

Next week, all classes will perform a short Christmas song or poem and parents/carers are invited to come along to see them. We will do the performance twice, once on Tuesday and once on Wednesday. We would ask, just so that there is enough space for everyone, that parents/carers attend just one performance.

Yellow Flag Award Ceremony

We were proud to receive our Yellow Flag for our work on inclusion and diversity last month. Three children from the Diversity Team, Ruman, David and Christian, went with Miss Nolan and I to Government Buildings at Leinster House. The children spoke in front of TDs and Senators about the work they had done and we were very proud of them. They also featured on News2Day. We look forward to celebrating at school when we have our flag raising ceremony in the new year.

Visit from Tomi Reichental

We were honoured to welcome Tomi Reichental, a Holocaust survivor, to school last month. Tomi spoke to the older children about his experiences and reminded them to always be kind to one another. Tomi talked about how small whispers of unkindness, racism and discrimination can begin in our communities and how important it is for us to stand up and say that it is wrong, always challenging those who may try to spread unkind words and messages.

Tomi’s visit also featured on RTE News and we were proud of the children who spoke about how inspired they were by him. Thank you to Ms. Graham who organised the visit.

News this month

6^th Class were invited by the Ombudsman for Children to a special event called ‘Child Talks’ in Dublin Castle where they listened to a range of young people speaking passionately about subjects and issues affecting their lives.

5^th Class have had a busy few weeks. They went to a performance at the Ark and were invited for a ‘Culture Club’ tour of City Hall, complete with afternoon tea! They also joined 4^th Class at the Hugh Lane gallery to launch the ‘Zoom’ art project which both classes took part in last year.

There was great excitement last week when the ‘Sam Maguire’ cup, won by the Dublin football team, arrived at school with Evan Comerford, one of the Dublin team. We celebrated the five All-Ireland wins in a row that Dublin have achieved.

1^st Class visited the Central Library for a screening of ‘The Snowman’ which included a live performance of ‘Walking in the Air’! Meanwhile,

2^nd and 3^rd Class went to the Sean O’Casey Theatre this week for a special performance of ‘Nabber the Blue-Nosed Reindeer’ to get them in the Christmas spirit!

Parking and Traffic – Keeping Children Safe

We have had a number of complaints from local residents in recent weeks about parents parking outside their gates and driving very fast down the lane. We also have some parents who are turning the wrong way onto St. Mary’s Place which is dangerous.

Please can all parents/carers who bring children to school by car, remember to slow down and drive very carefully around the school, especially at the office entrance. There are lots of small children who could run out into the road and we do not want any accidents. Please take care and keep all of our children safe.

#TimeforDEIS campaign

Our school is a ‘DEIS’ school which means we receive Government funding under the ‘Delivering Equality of Opportunity In Schools’ programme.

One of the features of this programme is smaller class sizes. We know that children benefit from working in a class with a smaller number of other children. However, in recent years, while class sizes in other schools have got smaller, the class size in DEIS schools like ours, has stayed the same.

Thank you to the parents/carers who have already taken the time to support the INTO’s #TimeforDEIS campaign to ask the Minister for Education to reduce class sizes in DEIS schools from next September.

If you haven’t had a chance, you can still help us by clicking on the link below, filling in your contact details and sending an automated email to the Minister for Education and our public representatives, asking them to look at this issue.

Erasmus Programme – News

This year we are taking part in an Erasmus programme with schools around Europe. Last week, I spent three days in Aspe, Spain, meeting the adults from our partner schools in Greece, Romania, Italy, Spain and the UK. We made lots of exciting plans. We are looking forward to welcoming children and teachers from all of the schools when they come to Dublin at the end of January. Children and teachers from our school will visit Greece and the UK later this year too.

Creative Schools

We are taking part in the Creative Schools initiative and have already started work. We have been given a Creative Associate, Fala Buggy, who will work with us to create a special project and help all of our classes to explore their creativity. Fala visited us this week and met with our Student Council to find out more about their work and to hear their ideas for what we could work on together. Very exciting times ahead!

Board of Management

The first meeting of our new Board of Management for the new term, 2019-2023, took place this week. The Patron of our school is the Archbishop of Dublin, who appoints two nominees – Fr. Martin McDonald, our Chairperson, and Catherine McHugh. Our two parent nominees are Kennedy Kere and Mariana Balau. Our teacher nominee is Síle McDonnell, and as principal, I also sit on the Board. Marian O’Connor and Michael Blanchfield, are our two Community nominees.

Attendance and punctuality

Our winners of the attendance trophy this week are Ms. O’Donovan’s 3^rd Class with 97.1%. The children in Ms. O’Donovan’s Class are so keen to come to school every day – they are hard to beat!

I know there has been a lot of sickness in classes this week and attendance has been very poor as a result. We look forward to seeing everyone back to school feeling much better next week for lots of Christmas fun.

Dates for your diary

15^th December – Parish Carol Service in the Church at 3.30 p.m. – all welcome!

17^th and 18^th December – Christmas Performances

19^th December – 6^th Class to EPIC museum

20^th December – School closes at 12 noon

6^th January 2020 – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

…and finally…

Thank you to the children from 2^nd to 6^th Class who offered to learn some Christmas songs at the last minute to sing at the Parish Carol Service this Sunday. The children have worked really hard in a very short amount of time and we’re looking forward to hearing their lovely singing on Sunday. The Carol Service is open to all and will take place in St. Joseph’s Church on Berkeley Road at 3.30 p.m. Do come along if you can!

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

Newsletter

12^th November 2019

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Every School Day Counts

We are taking part in the ‘Every School Day Counts’ attendance initiative being promoted by Tusla’s Education Support Service this month.

It is a special month of promotion of attendance, reminding children and families of the importance of coming to school every single day. We will have prizes for children making a special effort to be in school five days in a row each week. We will also be sharing top tips with parents/carers for getting into a good routine in the mornings.

Peace Proms – 3^rd Class

Well done to our 3^rd Classes who sang beautifully at their Peace Proms rehearsal at the National Sports Arena last week. They will be singing with thousands of other children from around the country at their concert in the RDS on Saturday, 1^st February 2020 at 8.00 p.m.  

Language Explorers

We were delighted to welcome back Dr. Francesca LaMorgia and the Language Explorers team last week. Francesca will be working in classes throughout this month to support the children’s language learning, supported by a number of parent volunteers. It is so important for the children to be proud of their home language and to see how knowing more than one language can give them so many advantages in their learning. Francesca will be working with the children to find out what words we use that are the same or similar in different languages, where different words come from and how we can use the languages we know to learn new languages!

Parent-Teacher Meetings

Our annual parent-teacher meetings will take place next week, the week of 18^th November. Our teachers will be available late in the afternoon on Tuesday 19^th and Wednesday 20^th to facilitate working parents/carers. Please use the Aladdin Connect app to book your appointment slot.

Parents’ Association – Sponsored Disco

Our thanks to the Parents’ Association for organising another fantastic Sponsored Disco before the holidays. We raised a grand total of €891.32! Thank you so much for all your donations, we will be able to buy lots of lovely new resources for our classrooms with this money. Well done also to the winners of our pumpkin decorating competition – Blossom, Ele, Raisa, Caio, Ciara and Mathi!

Election of new Board of Management

Reminder – there will be a meeting on Friday, 15^th November at 9 a.m. to elect two new parents/ carers to the school’s Board of Management. If you are interested, please do let me know. Nominations will be sought at the meeting and a ballot of votes will take place.

Attendance and punctuality

Our winners of the attendance trophy this week are Ms. Yeates’s 2^nd Class with 100%

Dates for your diary

Week of 18^th November – Parent-Teacher Meetings

20^th November – 6^th Class to Ombudsman for Children Conference

4^th December – 5^th Class to City Hall Culture Club

17^th and 18^th December – Christmas Performances

20^th December – School closes at 12 noon

6^th January 2020 – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

…and finally…

Well done to the 2^nd Class children who will make their First Communion this year. They had their very special Enrolment Ceremony and led our Family Mass on Sunday – they all did a great job!

Best wishes,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

Newsletter

18^th October 2019

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Maths Week

We have had a super Maths week this week and we are so impressed with all our expert mathematicians! Ms. Collins got things started with a maths-themed assembly on Monday and classes began to solve the 36 problems on display around the school for our maths trail. There were some very tricky questions and the children worked really well together to work out the solutions.

On Wednesday, all classes from 2^nd to 6^th Class walked to the beautiful Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin for a whole-school maths trail. The adults have been full of compliments for the wonderful behaviour and good attitudes of all the children on the day. We had lots of praise today for the older children who looked after their younger partners so well.

Today, we had parents/carers joining us for ‘Maths for Fun’ sessions in several classes and Ms. O’Donovan’s class went to a special Lego workshop in Marsh Library. Several other classes will attend this workshop in November too. A big thank you to Mr. Kerr for organising such a fantastic, fun week of learning for us!

Language Explorers – Opportunity for Parents

Dr. Francesca LaMorgia is offering parents/carers the opportunity to work with her and the children on the ‘Language Explorers’ programme in November. Francesca will be working with children to learn about all of our different languages and she needs help! If you speak a second language and would enjoy helping children learn about languages, please come along to meet Francesca on Wednesday morning at 9am. She will explain everything and there will be certificates and references available for parents who take part.

Parents’ Association – Sponsored Disco

Thank you to all the parents/carers who joined our Parents’ Association this week – it is great to have you all on board! By now, everyone should have their sponsor card and information about our Sponsored Disco on Thursday, next week. Children may dress up if they wish and we will be having our pumpkin decorating competition too. There was such a high standard last year – we can’t wait to see the entries next week!

Election of new Board of Management

There will be a meeting for parents/carers on Friday, 15^th November to elect two new parents/carers to the school’s Board of Management. The new Board will have a term of 4 years and be in place until 2023. If you are interested, please do let us know and we can tell you a bit more about the role. Nominations will be sought at the meeting and a ballot of votes will take place at the meeting on the 15^th.

Attendance and punctuality

Our winners of the attendance trophy this week are Ms. Carrick’s 3^rd Class with 99.1%!

Dates for your diary

23^rd October – Language Explorers – Parent Meeting

24^th October – Annual Sponsored Disco and Pumpkin Competition

24^th October – School closes for Teacher Training (Fri 25^th) and Mid-Term Holiday

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

5^th November – 3^rd Class to Peace Proms rehearsal at National Sports Arena

Sunday 10^th Nov – Family Mass

Week of 18^th November – Parent-Teacher Meetings

…and finally…

Let’s hope there isn’t too much rain this weekend – see you on Monday!

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal