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Newsletter 8.9.17

Newsletter

8^th September 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Praise Assembly

We had our first ‘Praise’ assembly of the year this morning. The whole school came together in the hall to celebrate all of the good news from across the school. Each class has their very own praise book, a special place to write all of the positive learning and attitudes from across the week. At assembly, we read out all the good news and say well done to all those who have made a special effort this week.

Collecting children at home time

Over the summer, we widened the entrance space into the playground so that we have more room for families entering and exiting the school.

Sometimes at home time, parents wave at the teacher from across the playground to signal they are there. It is often difficult for our teachers to see who is there, as there are so many people. Sometimes a child may go home with a friend or with another family – this can cause worry and confusion for parents and teachers if we aren’t sure who has collected each child.

We would like parents/carers to come into the playground and walk right across to their child’s class to collect the children. This gives everyone a chance to say hello and goodbye, an opportunity to pass on a message and most importantly, the class teacher can ensure each child has gone home with the right adult. Please help us by walking over directly to your child’s class and making sure the teacher sees you. Thank you!

Books, books, books

Our support team have been busy this week cataloguing the thousands of books we use for guided reading. We have a huge number of books for children to read in school and at home and the school has invested a large amount of money in recent years to increase our supply. We have several books missing from our sets of six. We would be grateful if you could have a check at home and send in any school books that might have got lost behind a chair or cupboard – we need them back!

Road Safety

As we start back to school, it is a good time to remind your child about being safe on the road. The ‘Safe Cross Code’ is a great way to remind children to:

1. Look for a safe place
2. Don’t hurry, stop and wait
3. Look all around and listen
4. Let all the traffic pass you
5. Walk straight across
6. Keep watching for traffic

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to 4^th Class with 100% attendance this week and to Ms. Sheridan’s 1^st Class and Ms. Collins’s 2^nd Class with 99%. We hope now that most children are back from holiday we will see many more classes with attendance about 95% each week.

Dates for your diary

12^th September – 5^th Class to ‘Fighting Words’ writing workshop

19^th September – Doodle Den begins

4^th-11^th October – Book Fair

27^th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday

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

Best wishes for a lovely weekend,

Éadaoin Kelly – Principal

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Term Dates 2017-2018

Term dates for 2017-2018

Newsletter 1.9.17

Newsletter

1^st September 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Welcome back!

I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday. It is lovely to see all our children back at school. They have settled in so well and are busy showing their new teachers how fantastic they are!

We extend a special welcome to our Junior Infant class and to the children who are new to the school this year.

Welcome back to Ms. McDevitt who returns from maternity leave, Ms. McBride and Ms. Lougheed return to us full-time and we welcome Ms. Marron who is new to the school this year.

Look out for information about welcome meetings for parents/carers in the coming weeks. This will be a 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.

Holiday Works

I hope you like the improvements to the playground outside. Colm, our caretaker has been very busy over the summer building the beautiful raised beds. Thank you Colm! Our thanks to Hines and Bennett Construction for the new walls and railings.

Inside, we have had the floor professionally cleaned, a new wifi and phone system installed, doors upgraded and classrooms painted. It has been a busy few months!

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 outside and inside to look after the children from 8.40 a.m. but the school cannot take responsibility for children before then.

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.

Our efforts in improving attendance have really worked well and we want to see the same improvement in punctuality. We want every child to be on time for school, standing in the line each morning ready to go inside with their class and teacher at 8.50 a.m.

From Monday, children who are late, will have to enter through the office door and sign into our late book. We will be recording a reason for the lateness and how many minutes of learning time has been missed.

Dates for your diary

12^th September – 5^th Class to ‘Fighting Words’ writing workshop

19^th September – Doodle Den begins

4^th-11^th October – Book Fair

27^th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday

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

Letters from the Office

We often have requests from families for letters and forms to give to the Social Welfare Department, Passport or Embassy, St. Vincent de Paul or other organisations. We are happy to provide these but they can take some time to produce.

From now on, we will issue these letters, stamp forms or photos, on Thursdays only. You can request the letter at any time and we will add your name to the list. We will then send the letters home with your child on Thursday afternoons.

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. Copies of your child’s booklist will be issued next week, for your information and records.

Tracksuits can be ordered with Liz and cost €21 each, or €23 for larger sizes.

Updating Information

Early next week, we will also send out copies of our educational visits form to be signed for local visits this year. If we have not received a signed photography policy, we will also ask you to return this to us.

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.

Thank you.

Term dates for 2017-2018

Eid Mubarak to all of our Muslim families celebrating today.  عيد مبارك

Enjoy the weekend!

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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Celebration Assembly

This morning we had our final assembly of the year. We presented certificates and medals to children with 95% attendance or more, with medals for children who missed only 1 or 2 days, and a Gold Medal to 25 children who were at school every single day!

We also presented ‘Class Citizen’ awards to Isabelle, Jarrette, Lania, Ruman, Maryam, Basil, Rezwan, Shivee, Maureen, Andrew and Arun for their exceptional attitudes to learning, kindness and helpfulness.

Our ‘School Citizen’ award was given to Laya Sabu in 5^th Class for her outstanding contribution to school life. Laya was chosen by the whole school staff and we were delighted her family were able to join us for the ceremony too. Well done Laya!

Newsletter 30.6.17

Newsletter

30^th June 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Moving on…

Yesterday, we said goodbye to our 6^th 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!

‘Adventures in Other Dimensions’

We had super performances from children all across the school in our end of year show, written by our 6^th class children. It was amazing to have every single child on the stage. They did so well – wonderful singing, dancing and acting all round. Our thanks to Ms. Graham and the whole staff team who worked so hard to put the show together. Thanks to Aedin our dance teacher, to Colm and Ms. Oppermann for the beautiful sets, to Ms. Glynn, our ticket guru, Mr. Carney our sound engineer and Richard who came in to do the lighting. Well done and thank you to everyone!

Classes for 2017-2018

Below are the class teachers and support teachers for next year:

• Todd’s Junior Infants will move to Senior Infants (Room 4) with new teacher, Ms. Marron
• Ms O’Donovan’s Junior Infants will move to Senior Infants (Room 5) with….Ms O’Donovan again!
• Ms Barry’s Senior Infants will move to 1^st Class (Room 9) with Ms. Sheridan
• Ms Brophy’s Senior Infants will move to 1^st Class (Room 10) with Ms. McBride
• 1^st and 2^nd Class will be in new classes with Ms. Collins in Room 13, Ms. Graham in Room 11 and Ms. Murphy in Room 14.
• Bourke’s 3^rd Class will move to 4^th Class (Room 15) with Ms. Conlon
• Miss Kilkenny’s 4^th Class will move to 5^th Class (Room 16) with Miss King.
• King’s 5^th Class will move to 6^th Class (Room 18) with Miss Kilkenny.

Ms. O’Callaghan, Mr. Kerr, Ms. Devereux, Ms. Shortall, Mr. Carney, Ms. Oppermann, Ms. Palmer, Ms. Brophy and Ms. McDevitt will make up our super support team!

We are delighted Ms. McDevitt will return to us after her maternity leave and we have several new teachers joining the staff too.

We send our love to Ms. Roche who has been on maternity leave and will be taking a further break to embark on an adventure in Abu Dhabi with her young family. Ms. Glynn will also be taking a break to go travelling and we look forward to hearing all about her adventures! We also say goodbye to Ms. Barry, Ms. Bourke, Ms. Calvey and Ms. Dolan who are leaving us today. We wish them all the best and say thank you for their work at St. Mary’s this year.

The children have had a chance to look in their new classroom this week and the teachers have met to discuss the children’s learning needs so that we are ready for September.

Achievement Assembly

This morning we had our final assembly of the year. We presented certificates and medals to children with 95% attendance or more, with medals for children who missed only 1 or 2 days, and a Gold Medal to 25 children who were at school every single day!

We also presented ‘Class Citizen’ awards to Isabelle, Jarrette, Lania, Ruman, Maryam, Basil, Rezwan, Shivee, Maureen, Andrew and Arun for their exceptional attitudes to learning, kindness and helpfulness.

Our ‘School Citizen’ award was given to Laya Sabu in 5^th Class for her outstanding contribution to school life. Laya was chosen by the whole school staff and we were delighted her family were able to join us for the ceremony too. Well done Laya!

Board of Management News

We heard recently that Fr. David Donnellan, the Chairperson of our Board of Management and Parish Priest at St. Joseph’s will be leaving to take up a new post in Clarendon Street. While we’re glad Fr. David will not be too far away, we do need to say a big thank you for his contribution to the school over the last number of years. He has been hugely supportive of the school’s work and given his time and energy to managing the school so willingly. We will miss him – thank you Fr. David! Fr. Martin McDonald will be join the parish over the summer and we look forward to introducing him to you in September.

Congratulations…

to Miss King who will be getting married over the summer and coming back to us as Mrs. Fay in September. We hope Miss King and her fiance, Tony, have a fantastic wedding day!

Thank you!

At this time of the year, it is important that we take some time to say thank you to everyone who contributes to our school community. Thank you to the children, parents, carers, staff and Board of Management for your support and commitment to our school this year.

Thank you especially to those who helped with visits, volunteered, came to meetings and attended parent classes.

I want to say a special thank you to all of the school staff. They are such hard workers, always looking to find ways to make learning interesting and exciting for the children. They work so hard to make sure each child is successful. It is a pleasure working with such a great team! A particular thank you to Liz, our school secretary and Colm, our caretaker, who keep our school running smoothly each and every day.

And finally…

We wish all families a happy summer holiday! We look forward to seeing you all back with us on Thursday, 31^st August at 8.50 a.m.

See you then!

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

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6th Class Graduation

Today we said goodbye to our 6^th 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!

End of Year Show

‘Adventures in Other Dimensions’

We had super performances from children all across the school in our end of year show ‘Adventures in Other Dimensions’, a play written by our 6^th class children. The story was all about computer game worlds and the show included visits to the land of Pokemon, Minecraft, Super Mario and a very special ‘Justin Bieber’-only version of ‘Just Dance’.

It was amazing to have every single child in the school on the stage performing. They did so well – wonderful singing, dancing and acting all round. Our thanks to Ms. Graham and the whole staff team who worked so hard to put the show together. Thanks to Aedin our dance teacher, to Colm and Ms. Oppermann for the beautiful sets, to Ms. Glynn, our ticket guru, Mr. Carney our sound engineer and Richard who came in to do the lighting. Well done and thank you to everyone!

Newsletter 23.6.17

Newsletter

23^rd June 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Reading Event with KPMG

On Tuesday, we welcomed volunteers from KPMG to a special reading event in the school. The volunteers came from all over the world, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, USA and lots more! The team welcomed the children from Ms. Calvey, Ms. Collins and Ms. Bourke’s Classes to read a part of ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl. Then the children were led by author and illustrator, Chris Judge, to complete a ‘Monster Doodle’, a giant drawing of some very scary looking monsters!

We were thrilled that KPMG donated a huge number of books to our school. So many in fact, that on Tuesday, every single child in the school was able to bring home a brand-new book for them to keep. Huge thanks to Karina Howley in KPMG and Elaina Ryan from Children’s Books Ireland for including us in this fabulous opportunity.

School Inspection Report

Our ‘DEIS’ inspection report was published on the Department of Education’s website this week. We will send a copy home next week with every child for your information. We are very pleased with this positive report and as always, I thank our super staff team for all they do to support the children’s learning so successfully.

News this week

The school has been a hive of activity this week as we prepare for our end-of-year performance. Rehearsals are in full swing and you are in for a real treat next week. Every child will perform in all three shows.

End of Year Performance

Please check with your child’s class teacher about any costume or special clothing they need to wear for the performance and make sure they have it ready for Monday.

Tickets were issued yesterday. There are two tickets per child to ensure we can fit everyone into the hall. We ask you to please return any unwanted tickets so we can give them to someone else! Any swaps or extra tickets will be available from Ms. Glynn outside the hall on Monday.

Dates for your diary

26^th/27^th June – Whole-School Performance

• Monday, 26^th at 1.00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 27^th at 1.00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 27^th at 6.00 p.m.

29^th June – 6^th Class Graduation

30^th June – School closes at 12 noon

31^st August – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

Summer Camp

We’re sorry but unfortunately we won’t be able to run a summer camp this year. Our new neighbours in ‘Dorset Point’, the new student accommodation building beside the school, will be completing some works to restore our yard and put in some new railings and walls at the front of the school. The works will start immediately so unfortunately, for health and safety reasons, we cannot have children on site.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to Ms. Barry’s Senior Infants who have top attendance this week and will look after our trophy for the last week of term. Well done!

Have a lovely weekend,

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal

[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Newsletter-23.6.17.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]

KPMG Literacy Event

On Tuesday, we welcomed volunteers from KPMG to a special reading event in the school. The volunteers came from all over the world, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, USA and lots more! The team welcomed the children from Ms. Calvey, Ms. Collins and Ms. Bourke’s Classes to read a part of ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl. Then the children were led by author and illustrator, Chris Judge, to complete a ‘Monster Doodle’, a giant drawing of some very scary looking monsters!

We were thrilled that KPMG donated a huge number of books to our school. So many in fact, that on Tuesday, every single child in the school was able to bring home a brand-new book for them to keep. Huge thanks to Karina Howley in KPMG and Elaina Ryan from Children’s Books Ireland for including us in this fabulous opportunity.

Newsletter 16.6.17

Newsletter

16^th June 2017

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Active Schools Week

We have had such an active, busy and fun week! Our morning ‘Wake and Shake’ and ‘Slí na Sláinte’ walks have been brilliant and our thanks to all the families who joined us.

Throughout the week, the children have taken part in a range of activities: water relays, fitness classes, boxing, badminton, high jump, dancing, games, and lots more! And today, every class has had a chance to learn how to play ‘Ultimate Frisbee’!

At break time the children have ‘danced til they dropped’ and they’ve even had active homework. Every child has been encouraged to have at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. A big well done to everyone who took part – keep it up!

Thanks to our Active Team – all the children who led activities throughout the week, to Ms. Collins, Ms. Kilkenny and especially Mr. Carney and Ms. O’Callaghan, who put the programme together and organised us all throughout the week.

News this week

On Tuesday, 5^th Class visited the National Gallery and learned more about the artist Monet. On Wednesday, our neighbouring contractors, Bennett Construction visited 1^st and 2^nd Class to talk to them about safety around building sites. Senior Infants went to the Phoenix Park for a fun day out on Wednesday and Ms. Collins’s Class are there today!

Parents’ Internet Safety Session

Thank you to the parents who attended our internet safety talk this week. It was great to see so many there. It is very important that we are all watching what children are doing on computers, keeping computers in a family room (not bedrooms) so children are in full view of an adult and talking to your child about what they are doing so you can support them and make sure they are safe online. The children in 3^rd – 6^th Class also had a session and got some top tips for keeping themselves safe too.

Dates for your diary

26^th/27^th June – Whole-School Performance

• Monday, 26^th at 1.00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 27^th at 1.00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 27^th at 6.00 p.m.

29^th June – 6^th Class Graduation

30^th June – School closes at 12 noon

31^st August – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.

End of Year Performance

Tickets will be available shortly for our end of year show but please note due to space restrictions in the hall, the tickets will be limited. Please note the timings above, especially for the evening performance. All children will need to be in school for these performances.

Attendance and punctuality

Well done to 3^rd Class with top attendance this week of 98.9% – super!

I hear it’s going to be a beautiful weekend – enjoy the sunshine!

Éadaoin Kelly

Principal