Dear Parents,
I wish to bring the following notices to your attention.
The Final Term
Although it is the last term it is certainly an important one for all. Teachers are pressing ahead to get course work completed and very important revision takes place during this term. Therefore, it is more important than ever that your child is in school every day and continues to focus properly on their work.
School Calendar
There are some other important dates for your diary in this term:
- Friday 24thMay: School will be closed for local and European elections.
- Friday 31stMay and Tuesday 4th June: School holiday
- Friday 21stJune; 6th class Graduation @ 12p.m.
- Wednesday 26thJune; School closes for the Summer holidays
School Culture Initiative
We took time over the last school year to focus on the Catholic Culture of our school. We spent time together as a staff and with other staffs from other schools exploring the issue of a catholic school identity. An important part of the process was examining our root beliefs and values. Root beliefs are deeply held convictions agreed by all staff working in the school. Each root belief has a corresponding VALUE. Over the coming school year you will be hearing more about these beliefs and values. Our school has agreed on the following five root beliefs and values:
- Working as a community strengthens learning. LEARN
- A safe and caring environment fosters kindness, love and respect. RESPECT
- Faith will guide us through life’s good times and challenges. BELIEVE
- Everyone’s gifts, talents and uniqueness should be celebrated and nurtured. NURTURE
- Sowing the seeds of happiness and friendship helps us to grow. CONNECT
We look forward to second class making their First Communion on Sunday next, 19th May in St. Paul’s church at 11a.m.
Standardised Assessments
Over the coming weeks your child will take the New Drumcondra Primary Tests in Mathematics and/or English Reading, and the school will share the results with you.
There will be differences between your child’s results on the new tests and their results on older tests. We expect that the scores may be lower overall but please note that these are national norms and will be similar in schools that are administering the new tests. Previous norms were based on 2006 pupils whilst these tests have been based on 2018 norms.
Please click here for a detailed explanation.
Cake and Book Sale
Our Parents Association would like to thank all the parents who baked or supplied books for the cake and book sale on Friday last. Once again it was a huge success raising €1200. Our thanks to the parent volunteers on the day who co-ordinated the sale in the hall.
Crafted Project
Fourth class have been taking part in the CRAFTed programme run by the Laois Education Centre and the Design and Craft Council of Ireland where they had the opportunity to work alongside a crafts person. They were partnered with Gosia Sobkowicz, a candle maker, perfumer and owner of Candella. Over the past few months Gosia has worked with the children on a wide range of interesting activities and engaging them in the candle making process. The class got the opportunity to make scented candles, candles from beeswax, rainbow candles and a large candle for the school.
On Thursday 16th May, some children from the class along with Ms. Maher and Gosia will be presenting their project in the Laois Education Centre. The children have loved working on this project and thoroughly enjoyed working with Gosia.
Sports
Congratulations to our boys B team who have reached the final of their Cumann na mBunscol hurling competition. Mile buíochas to Ms. Laura-Marie Maher, Mr. Costelloe and Ms. Bohan for their continued work with hurling/camogie teams in the school.
Ms. Casey is organising lunchtime football leagues for 2nd, 3rd and 4th classes on Wednesdays and Fridays. The children are really enjoying them and they will continue into June. Sixth class have been a brilliant help managing teams and refereeing games.
A huge thanks to all the parents for attending and supporting the rounders teams in the competition in Longford recently. The children had some great games and have plenty more to come. Training for rounders with Mr. Slevin and Ms. Boyle takes place after school on Wednesday and Friday afternoons.
School Tours
The following are the dates for this year’s school tours.
Juniors and Seniors – 23rd May
First and Second classes; Friday 14th June
Third and fourth classes; Friday 14th June
Fifth and Sixth class tour; Tuesday 18th June
Bluiríní;Snippets
- The attendance for the school is 96.39% and 25 children have full attendance thus far this year. Well done to them.
- Slevin’s class have been busy looking into the life cycle of chickens. 24 eggs were placed into an incubator on the 10th of April. 21 days later, on May 1st, the chicks started hatching much to the excitement of all the children. We finished up with 11 chicks which are being reared in a brooding box in school. They will stay in school for approximately three more weeks and will then go to some of the children’s homes. Boys and girls in all classes have really enjoyed holding and looking at the chicks and learning about their lifecycle.
- We save the best till last!. Ms.Maher’s junior infants class made a short video depicting their busy day. See it here
Siniú,
Cyril Duggan
Príomhoide