Newsletter 13.12.19
Newsletter
13th 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.
| Tuesday at 1.00 p.m. – Junior Infants, 1st Class, Ms. McBride’s 2nd Class, Ms. O’Donovan’s 3rd Class, 4th Class and 5th Class. |
| Wednesday at 1.00 p.m. – Senior Infants, Ms. Yeates’s 2nd Class, Ms. Carrick’s 3rd Class, Ms. Nolan’s 4th/5th Class and 6th Class. |
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
6th 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.
5th 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 4th 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.
1st Class visited the Central Library for a screening of ‘The Snowman’ which included a live performance of ‘Walking in the Air’! Meanwhile,
2nd and 3rd 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 3rd 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
15th December – Parish Carol Service in the Church at 3.30 p.m. – all welcome!
17th and 18th December – Christmas Performances
19th December – 6th Class to EPIC museum
20th December – School closes at 12 noon
6th January 2020 – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
…and finally…
Thank you to the children from 2nd to 6th 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
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Newsletter-13.12.19.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]Newsletter 12.11.19
Newsletter
12th 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 – 3rd Class
Well done to our 3rd 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, 1st 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 18th November. Our teachers will be available late in the afternoon on Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th 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, 15th 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 2nd Class with 100%
Dates for your diary
Week of 18th November – Parent-Teacher Meetings
20th November – 6th Class to Ombudsman for Children Conference
4th December – 5th Class to City Hall Culture Club
17th and 18th December – Christmas Performances
20th December – School closes at 12 noon
6th January 2020 – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
…and finally…
Well done to the 2nd 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
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Newsletter-12.11.19.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]Newsletter 18.10.19
Newsletter
18th 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 2nd to 6th 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, 15th 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 15th.
Attendance and punctuality
Our winners of the attendance trophy this week are Ms. Carrick’s 3rd Class with 99.1%!
Dates for your diary
23rd October – Language Explorers – Parent Meeting
24th October – Annual Sponsored Disco and Pumpkin Competition
24th October – School closes for Teacher Training (Fri 25th) and Mid-Term Holiday
4th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
5th November – 3rd Class to Peace Proms rehearsal at National Sports Arena
Sunday 10th Nov – Family Mass
Week of 18th November – Parent-Teacher Meetings
…and finally…
Let’s hope there isn’t too much rain this weekend – see you on Monday!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Newsletter-18.10.19.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]Newsletter 11.10.19
Newsletter
11th October 2019
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
| Please note: Our teachers have to attend a training day on Friday, 25th October for thePrimary Language Curriculum and school will be closed to children on that day. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. |
Mental Wellness Awareness Week
We have had a wonderful week celebrating Mental Wellness Awareness Week. We started at assembly on Monday, talking about the 5 ways to wellbeing.
Each day, our team of Anti-Bullying Ambassadors planned some secret missions for classes to promote kindness and care for one another. Our adult wellbeing team also planned events for our staff – yoga, teatime treats and pumpkin painting!
Our classes have all had kindness missions to carry out for others – we loved 4th Class and their tunnel of happiness on Tuesday and 2nd Class received balloons with a positive message from their friends – to name but a few!
This morning, we’ve had a room full of parents/carers hearing about internet safety and keeping children safe and well online from our Community Garda team, as well as taking part in a relaxation class with Step by Step. Thank you to all those who came along, we hope you found it helpful.
Our thanks to all those who planned an event and especially to Ms. Kilkenny who kept us all inspired and energised throughout the week.
Our Wellness Week was run in conjunction with Dublin City North’s Children and Youth People’s Services Committee (CYPSC) to share key messages about the importance of looking after our mental health. Remember it’s okay not be okay.
The five ways to wellbeing include – ‘connect’ with people, ‘be active’, ‘take notice’ of the world around you and take time to appreciate it, ‘keep learning’ as new skills will keep your mind active and ‘give’ to others as this helps us feel better ourselves. You can visit www.yourmentalhealth.ie for more advice.
News from last month
It was great to see lots of parents/carers at our ‘Secondary School Open Morning’. Lots of schools have their open days at this time of year and we recommend that you visit lots of schools to decide where would suit your child best.
6th Class had a great visit to the National Museum to see the exhibit on Ancient Egypt.
Lots of classes have been out to Blessington Street Basin this week looking for the signs of autumn.
Meet the Teacher meetings
Thank you to all the parents/carers who came to our ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings over the last few weeks. We hope you found them helpful and as always, do let us know if you have any more questions or concerns about your child’s learning at school.
DEIS Planning
Our school is part of the ‘DEIS’ (Delivering Equality of Opportunity In Schools’) programme and every three years we have to update our DEIS action plan. We plan in five key areas – literacy, maths, attendance, parent and community involvement and retention and progression to secondary school. We use lots of different pieces of information to set targets for the school in each of those five areas. Last week, our teachers met and discussed lots of possible activities we could do to help.
We would love to hear your views. Do you have ideas about how the school could improve attendance? What do you think about the parent classes we run – are there enough, are they at the right time, is there something stopping you taking part that we could help with? What other ways could parents/carers be involved in school life and with their child’s learning? If you have ideas – please let us know. You can talk to Síle or email us- office@stmarysprimaryschool.ie.
Parents’ Association
Our Parents’ Association are looking for new recruits! They will be holding their first meeting next week on Tuesday (15th) at 9.00 a.m. in the Parents’ Room.
Let Síle know if you are interested or if you have any questions. Please do come along and join them, all are welcome!
News from Síle – Classes for Parents
On Mondays, we have parents’ yoga classes at 9am in the library on the top floor. On Tuesdays, cookery classes take place in Mount Carmel Secondary School at 9.30 am – please let Síle know if you are interested and she can show you where to go.
Next week, our English language classes for parents/carers are starting on Thursday morning – again, let Síle know if you are interested and she will give you the information.
Attendance and punctuality
We’ve had a very good week of attendance across the school – well done to everyone who has been here every day!
Our winners of the attendance trophy this week had 100% attendance! Well done to Ms. Nolan’s 4th/5th Class!
Dates for your diary
7th October – Mental Wellness Week
13th October – Family Mass in St. Joseph’s Church, Berkeley Road at 11.45 a.m.
14th October – Maths Week
24th October – Annual Sponsored Disco
24th October – School closes for Teacher Training (Fri 25th) and Mid-Term Holiday
4th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
…and finally…
Don’t forget our first Family Mass of the year takes place on Sunday (13th Oct) in St. Joseph’s Church, Berkeley Road. All children making their Communion and Confirmation should make an effort to be there.
Have a lovely weekend everyone,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
Newsletter 6.9.19
Newsletter
6th September 2019
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Welcome back!
With one week already done, it is great to see the children back at school, so ready to learn! Our staff have worked very hard to prepare the school and classrooms to be welcoming and inviting spaces for the children.
A special welcome to the children and families who are new to the school this year, especially our new Junior Infant children who are settling in so well.
Look out for a letter inviting you to our ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings, which for most classes will happen during the week of the 16th September. 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 we can work together to keep our children happy, safe and learning!
Morning Time – come on in!
We have made a small change in the morning time. Children are welcome at school from 8.40am and wait in the yard or go to breakfast club. School officially starts at 8.50am.
We want to give parents/carers more time to visit classrooms, so from now on, teachers will be waiting for the children in their classroom and parents/carers are invited to come into school and walk their child up to their classroom. We hope that this will give you a chance to see your child’s classroom and learning, have a quick word with the teacher if you need to and have a better feel for the building and our community.
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 €22 each, or €24 for larger sizes.
Having spent so much money on new uniforms and tracksuits – please make sure your child’s name is clearly marked. Every day we find jumpers with no names and it is a challenge to return it!
Parking and Traffic
The small streets outside the school can be very busy before and after school. With lots of very small children, buggies and families coming in and out, I would like to remind all parents/carers to drive slowly and carefully around the school to ensure we keep our children safe.
Parent Classes
Síle, our Home-School-Community Liaison (HSCL) teacher has asked me to let you know that Cookery Class for parents/carers will be starting again in Mount Carmel Secondary School on Tuesday mornings. Any parents/carers who are interested, can call into Síle at 8.50 a.m. and she will show you where to go.
On Wednesday morning next week, we are hosting a ‘Roadshow’ for families. We have invited a number of local after-school clubs, family agencies and adult education support services to the school in the morning at 9.00 a.m. If you want to find out information about what is available for you and your child in our local area – this is your chance!
Secondary School Transfer
Parents/carers of children in 5th and 6th Class have been invited to a ‘Meet the Teacher’ meeting with their child’s class teacher in the classroom on Tuesday, 10th September.
Immediately afterwards, our local secondary schools will be available to talk to parents/carers in the school library about the choices available for children’s secondary school places. Open days are taking place in secondary schools this month – all of the information will be available for you on Tuesday so please come along.
If you are a parent/carer of a younger child but are interested in finding out more about our local secondary schools – please feel free to come to the library on the top floor on Tuesday morning.
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
10th September – 5th and 6th Class ‘Meet the Teacher’ and ‘Secondary School Open Morning’ at 9.00 a.m. on the top floor
11th September – Roadshow for Adults at 9am
11th September – 6th Class to National Museum – Egyptian exhibit
Week of 16th Sept – Meet the Teacher
25th October – School closes for Mid-Term Holiday
4th November – School re-opens at 8.50 a.m.
Supervision in the Morning
A reminder that children are welcome at school for breakfast club 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. You can update this information on the Aladdin app yourself, or call in to see Liz in the office.
…and finally…
It has been a very busy few days at school. I want to thank Colm our caretaker for his hard work over the summer, Liz our secretary who is finally emerging from a pile of tracksuits(!), and all our teachers and SNAs who have come back with their smiles, energy and enthusiasm. It’s going to be a great year!
Have a lovely weekend everyone,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Newsletter-6.9.19.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]Newsletter 28.6.19
Newsletter
28th June 2019
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
End of Year – Thank You
As we come to the end of the year, we must take time to thank all those who have supported us throughout the year.
The children have had a fantastic year of learning, led of course, by our wonderful team of creative, inspiring teachers and SNAs who make sure learning in our school is fun and exciting every single day. You are all simply wonderful and we are so lucky to have such a great team. Enjoy your well-deserved break!
Thank you to all the parents/carers who support us with everything we do. Particular thanks to those of you who have generously donated uniforms over the last few weeks.
Well done to our children’s teams who do so much to involve us in so many initiatives and projects. You’ve done amazing work!
Thanks to Liz and Colm who do so much in the office and around the building – we couldn’t do it without you.
Thank you to Parents’ Association and Board of Management – you do such great work.
My thanks to Síle, our HSCL teacher, who works so hard for all of us to help and support families and our community.
What a wonderful year it has been with so much to celebrate! Congratulations to all!
Summer Concert
What a lovely summer concert we had on Wednesday. Thank you to each class for their contribution to a super show. We were so proud of the fantastic singing, poetry reciting, rapping and dancing from each one of you. Thank you to our teachers who prepared the children so well.
Celebration Assembly
Today, we came together for our celebration assembly. We celebrated the children who have had excellent attendance and met our target of 95% with certificates and medals.
We also awarded our Class Citizens plaques to children who have made an outstanding contribution to their class this year. Congratulations to all of them! Special congratulations to our School Citizen, Dilan Ramnarain, who will chair our Student Council next year.
Yellow Flag
We were thrilled to hear we have been awarded our Yellow Flag for our work on inclusion and diversity this year! The assessors praised the ‘fantastic’ students on our Diversity team, the adults who led the programme, especially Ms. Nolan, the ‘welcoming and encouraging approach’, the ‘fun and interactive’ learning opportunities, and how well the children could articulate their understanding of their learning and what they knew of inclusion and diversity.
Huge congratulations to everyone – we look forward to receiving our flag at a special ceremony in the autumn term.
6th Class Graduation
We had a lovely graduation ceremony for our 6th Class children who graduate today and move on to secondary school. The children have been wonderful ambassadors for St. Mary’s and we spent time talking about special memories and saying thank you. We wish them all the best!
Recent news
It has been a busy few weeks, with 2nd , 3rd and 4th Classes visiting the aquarium in Bray. 5th Class had a great day at Harbour Splash in Dun Laoghaire.
We had two very successful sports days – thank you to Mr. Carney and Ms. O’Callaghan for organising the activities.
Yesterday, 5th and 6th sang beautifully at the One Family graduation day in the Human Rights Commision – well done children!
Staffing next year
We welcome Chloe Carrick to our staff team next year and I’m happy to let you know there will be lots of familiar faces too:
Class Next Year: New Teacher:
Junior Infants Ms. O’Hare
Senior Infants Ms. McKelvey
1st Class Ms. Lougheed
2nd Class (ex Ms. McBride) Ms. McBride
2nd Class (ex Ms. O’Hare) Ms. Yeates
3rd Class (ex Ms. McCaughey) Ms. Carrick
3rd Class (ex Ms. Yeates) Ms. O’Donovan
4th Class (ex Ms. Lougheed) Ms. McCaughey
4th/5th Class (ex Ms. Graham) Ms. Nolan
5th Class (ex Ms. Glynn) Mr. McGuire
6th Class (ex Mr. McGuire) Ms. Staunton
Support teachers: Ms. Kilkenny, Ms. Graham, Ms. Collins, Mr. Kerr, Ms. Palmer, Ms. Brophy, Ms. O’Callaghan and Ms. Hayes.
Saying farewell…
We say goodbye and thank you to Ms. Glynn, who has worked at St. Mary’s since 2007. Ms. Glynn is off to teach under sunnier skies– we wish her all the best and look forward to hearing about her new adventures! Our thanks and best wishes to Mr. Carney who leaves us on career break for a year of travelling the world – we are envious!
Congratulations…
We send our congratulations to Ms. Oppermann, Ms. Kilkenny and Amy who are all getting married over the summer – we know you will join us in wishing them every happiness on their special day. Congratulations also to Mrs. Fay who is expecting a baby very soon and will be away on maternity leave next year.
And finally…
We close today for our summer holiday. We look forward to seeing you all back at school on Thursday, 29th August at 8.50 a.m.
Our very best wishes for a happy and healthy summer holiday!
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
Celebration Assembly
The whole school came together today to celebrate another successful year.
We started by congratulating all of the children who had excellent attendance this year. All children who met our target of 95% received a special certificate. We had medals for children who missed just 1 or 2 days and gold medals for those who missed 0 days!
We awarded a special group of play-leaders in 5th Class who have led our playground games as part of our Active Team for two years. These children have been exceptional leaders and brought lots of fun and energy to our lunchtimes. Thank you!
One child in each class was chosen as ‘Class Citizen’ of the year for their outstanding contribution to their class. We listened to the positive attributes of each child and how their kindness, friendship, warm smiles and positive work ethics have brought so much to their classes and classmates this year. Look at those proud faces!
Our final award was for ‘School Citizen’ of the Year. This is awarded to a 5th Class student who has demonstrated an exceptional attitude to learning and leadership. Last year’s School Citizen spoke about her experiences of chairing the Student Council, about the privilege of the role but the weight of responsibility too! We are so proud of our new appointee – a very well-deserved winner who we know will represent us very well in 2019-2020.
5th Class – Claymation
Check out these fantastic claymations from 5th Class based on their learning about the Romans this term!
Newsletter 14.6.19
Newsletter
14th June 2019
Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,
Diversity Showcase – Yellow Flag
This week we have been amazed by the wonderful learning displayed at our Yellow Flag showcase. The ‘Yellow Flag’ programme has given us an opportunity to celebrate inclusion and diversity in our school. We have done this in lots of different ways and on Tuesday, we gathered all of the learning together for a visit from the Yellow Flag Programme assessors. Our visitors met with the children’s Diversity team who explained the work they have done over the last few months. Representatives of the Young Interpreters, Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and Friendship Keepers were also there to talk about how their work supports inclusion and diversity. We spoke about how we have learned about our ethnicities and how to tackle racism and discrimination.
After the children’s presentation, the assessors visited the hall where we held a showcase of learning. Each class created a celebration of what they had learned. There were posters, paintings, podcasts and lots more! Children from all over the school, from Junior Infants all the way up to 6th Class, carefully explained their learning to the adults, speaking confidently and clearly about issues that they felt very strongly about.
Our visitors were very impressed. We have to wait for the official letter and feedback to arrive before we can confirm if we have been awarded the Yellow Flag – but I think we can be quietly confident. We were very, very proud of each and every child who took part this week.
Thank you to the parents/carers who came along to see the children’s learning – I know you were just as impressed as we were. Thank you to all of our staff who have supported this programme from the beginning and enabled the children to take part in such rich and thought-provoking learning.
Thank you to our children’s teams who lead us all so well and to the teachers who support them. Special thanks to the Diversity team – children, teachers and parents who have worked so hard and especially to Ms. Nolan who has coordinated the programme this year. It has been a huge piece of work and we have our fingers crossed that we’ll need a new flagpole very soon!
National Children’s Choir
Nine children from 5th and 6th Class represented our school as members of the National Children’s Choir singing at the National Concert Hall. This is a huge honour and a definite once in a lifetime experience! The children were excellent ambassadors for St. Mary’s – singing beautifully and receiving lots of compliments for their impeccable manners and behaviour. Make sure you check out the videos of their performance on our website – you won’t be disappointed!
Recent news
6th Class went to their first opera on 23rd May. They saw a performance of Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ at the Gaiety Theatre. Last week, they had a great day at Carlingford Adventure Centre, ziplining through the trees!
All of the 4th Class children were invited to a special sports day in TU Dublin Grangegorman by the local Community Garda team, based in the Bridewell station. The children had a great day of games and fun with children from other local schools.
3rd Class visited TU Dublin Aungier Street last week to take part in the ‘Knowledge Festival’, a great day of coding and fun activities.
Yesterday, 1st Class had an exciting day at Dublin Zoo. The children have been learning all about Africa and animals from around the world so were thrilled to see lots of animals up close!
Today, Senior Infants have visited Dublin Airport as part of their learning about the airport this term. Lots of future pilots!
End of Year Reports
Today, your child’s end of year report is available for download from our Aladdin app. If you haven’t yet set up the app and need help, please come and ask us. If you would prefer a printed copy, please let us know and we will arrange it for you.
Visitors
We were delighted to welcome a group of student teachers from Towson University USA last week. They really enjoyed seeing the children’s learning and comparing our school to schools in America.
Last Friday, we hosted a group of visitors from a range of EU countries who were visiting Ireland with the Sirius Network, who are funded by the EU Commission to research the experiences of migrant families in EU countries. Our visitors were really interested to meet our Young Interpreters and Diversity team and hear about the children’s experiences in school. They also met with me and Sile to talk about teaching and learning in Irish schools and how we support children and families. Our thanks to Sevak, from New Communities Partnership, who coordinated the visit.
Sr. Anne Neylon, from the Dublin Diocese Education team, visited on Monday to support our 3rd and 4th Class teachers with the ‘Grow in Love’ Catholic schools programme. She commented on the lovely relationships and kindness she saw in each classroom.
Time to Read Celebration
We had a lovely morning on Thursday celebrating the eight super children in 2nd Class who have taken part in the ‘Time to Read’ programme this year. The children have spent 20 weeks reading with volunteers from ‘Business in the Community’ and were presented with lovely certificates and bookmarks to celebrate their achievements. The volunteers spoke about their experiences and praised the children for their efforts and progress over the year. Thank you to Ms. Yeates who has facilitated the volunteers each week and to Sile who, as always, liaises with parents/carers and organised the lovely event this morning.
Soccer Success
Congratulations to our girls’ soccer team who won gold at the Blackhall Place soccer blitz at Kings’ Inn last week. The girls played brilliantly and we are so proud of them! Well done to the boys’ team who also took part and played really well. Thank you to Mr. Carney and Mr. Kerr who supported the children on the day.
Doodle Den Graduation
Well done to all our Senior Infant children who graduated from their year of Doodle Den learning last week. Our thanks to Gillian and James who have worked with the children throughout the year.
New Junior Infant children
We welcomed our new Junior Infant children for September 2019 this week for a special play session. It was lovely to meet the children for the first time and they are all very excited about starting school! Sile is meeting with families this month to make sure everyone is ready for the big move and our ‘Stepping Up’ programme with Grangegorman ABC allows us to visit the children in their pre-schools and get to know more about their learning before they arrive.
Attendance and punctuality
Well done to Ms. Graham’s 3rd/4th Class for top attendance this week.
Dates for your diary
17 June – 2nd Class to Bray Aquarium
18 June – 5th Class to Harbour Splash
19 June – 3rd/4th and 4th Class to Bray
26 June – End of Year Performances
27 June – 6th Class Graduation at 1.00 p.m.
28 June – School finishes at 12 noon
29 August – School re-starts for new term
Best wishes,
Éadaoin Kelly
Principal
[embeddoc url=”http://www.stmarysprimaryschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Newsletter-12.6.19.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]National Children’s Choir
We were very proud of the nine children who represented St. Mary’s Primary School as members of the National Children’s Choir at the National Concert Hall on Saturday, 25th May. The children worked so hard to prepare for this concert and performed beautifully.
Have a look at them in action!