Garda Talk

Garda Niall Kennedy came into the senior classes on Tuesday 22 nd January.
He gave a fantastic talk on drugs, cyberbullying and self defence. It was a very
informative discussion which will be beneficial to the children transitioning to secondary school.

Visit from Andrew Doyle

Andrew Doyle TD visited the school on Friday January 25th 2019 along with Liz Dillon
from his office. We gave Andrew Doyle a tour of the school.

A PE hall, Special Education Needs Rooms and Principal’s office were amongst the issues discussed with them. He is making representations to the Minister of Education Joe McHugh and it would be great if he could persuade the Minister to visit us so he can view our plans first hand. Please do not forget to remind TD’s and councillors of this situation as they canvas you for votes for the local elections and Andrew Doyle TD who is running in the European elections, all taking place on Friday May 24th . Simon Harris is also aware of our situation since April 2018 when he visited the school. Unfortunately there has been no progress to date.

Rugby

Aidan Kearney from Wicklow Rugby Club coached all classes Junior Infants to Sixth
class for an 8 week block. He introduced Rugby skills to the children through games
and fun activities. These sessions were thoroughly enjoyed by all ages.

Avondale Cross-Country Running

The children from 3rd to 6th class participated in the Wicklow Invitational Cross-Country
Relays in Avondale on February 12th . There were lots of schools competing on the day.

All our pupils ran really well and great day was had by all. Thank you to Lisa Fitzpatrick
and Mikey O’Doherty for helping on the day.

Visit by Ashley Wynne, Wicklow Tennis Club Coach

On Monday February 18th Ashley Wynne coach from Wicklow Tennis Club visited the
school with Hannah Gormley past pupil helping. Children from 2nd class to 6th class
enjoyed a great tennis morning. Thank you to Ashley and Hannah who gave their time
free of charge and hopefully with summer approaching more children will have been
encouraged to get outside with their rackets!

Book Vouchers

To celebrate world book day 7th March 2019 all children in the school were given €1.50
book tokens.

Arklow Music Festival

The entire school took part in the Arklow Music Festival which ran from Saturday 2nd of
March to Sunday 10th of March. The school received a high number of medals, certificates and highly commended places. We congratulate all who participated as the
benefits are endless for the children. Many thanks to Kate the drama and dance
teacher for all her help.

Gymnastics

Kate is currently training the children in gymnastics. Teachers are amazed at the
progression they are seeing each in flexibility, confidence, agility and skill.

Pancake Tuesday

All classes enjoyed making and eating pancakes on Pancake Tuesday!

Fighting Words Workshop

Ms. Gibney’s room enjoyed “Fighting Words” a story writing workshop in Cabinteely on
the 6th of March and Mr. Furlong’s room also enjoyed a workshop in Glencree on the 20th of March. These workshops were founded by Roddy Doyle. The children worked withexperienced authors and illustrators to write a class story and were then given the opportunity to complete their own story. Thank you to Rebecca Pallas who went along
with Mr. Furlong on the day.

Bridge Street Books

Fourth Class were invited to attend a workshop in Bridge Street Books, Wicklow given
by Bray author and illustrator Alan Nolan on Thursday 14th March. It was very
entertaining and inspiring. He spoke about his childhood and how his interest in reading
as a child led to his becoming an author. The children had lots of questions for him and
really enjoyed the event. Thank you to Alison Fleming and Roisin Scales who came
along to help.

Spar FAI 5-a-side Schools Competition

On Tuesday 19th March girls and boys from 4th , 5th and 6th class travelled to
Bridgewater Park in Arklow (home of Arklow Town Soccer Club) to participate in the
FAI 5-a-side soccer tournament for primary schools.

We had four boys’ teams and four girls’ teams. It was a great day with lots of football and some great goals. Well done to all the teams. Thank you to Martina Donohoe, Rebecca Pallas, Noel O’Dwyer, Roisin Scales, Matthew Burke and Mikey O’Doherty for helping on the day.

Congratulations to Ellie Brennan, Aimee Byrne, Jade Connolly, Samara Dempsey,
Leila Fitzpatrick, Ríonach Fleming, Nicole Peterson and Lucia Whelan on qualifying for
the FAI Schools Spar 5s Wicklow County Finals in the B Cup section.

The Wicklow County Finals will take place at Arklow Town FC, Bridgewater Centre Park, Arklow on Wednesday April 10th 2019. Sixth class children will travel to Arklow to support the team. We wish them all the best of luck!

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Children from Ms. Gibney’s class made their Sacrament of Reconciliation on Thursday
21 st March. Fr. Scully and Fr. Pádraig O’ Cochláin, celebrated the ceremony with the
children. The children performed the story of Zacchaeus, did readings and sang
beautifully with Mrs. O’ Doherty and the school choir.

Dublin Zoo Outreach Programme

On Thursday 21st March an Education and Outreach Officer from Dublin Zoo visited our school and provided fun, interactive sessions using biofacts such as skulls, skins and other interesting specimens, for a full day.

These sessions were tailored based on the age of the pupils. All sessions combined a presentation, biofacts and video clips of animals at Dublin Zoo. The sessions helped to develop the skills of questioning, observing, predicting, analysing and communicating, and were very well presented by Enya from Dublin Zoo.

Eric ‘The Birdman” Dempsey

Eric Dempsey a Heritage in Schools Specialist visited the school on Monday 25th
March. He gave a presentation to all classes on Irish Bird Life. Eric is a Heritage
Specialist in conjunction with the Departments Heritage in School Scheme.

Eric is a renowned author of many books on birds in Ireland and is often heard on television and radio. We enjoyed Eric sharing his expertise with us all.

Last year we won €400 in the Wicklow Co. Council Tidy Towns competition when we entered our school garden. We used €100 of this towards the cost of the heritage specialist visit and the Heritage council paid the balance of €100.

Wildlife Expert

On Thursday 28th March Oran O’Sullivan who is a wildlife expert, came to talk to 4th and 5th class about signs of spring in the countryside around us and how to identify and
observe birds at this time of the year. We went on a short nature walk around the
school grounds after his presentation. It was very pleasant and informative. This visit
was part of a prize won by our school last year in the Wicklow County Council
Biodiversity and Pollinators Poster Competition.

HSE Hearing and Vision Screening

On April 2nd the HSE visited the school to carry out Vision and Hearing screening on
Junior Infants.

Service of Light Ceremony

On Wednesday 3rd of April the candidates for Confirmation celebrated ‘The Service of
Light Ceremony’. This is a lovely ceremony where parents promise to keep the light of
faith burning in their lives and reinforce the message that they will always be there to
support and guide their child / children throughout life. Thank you to Fr. Scully for the
lovely Ceremony, to the children from other classes who participated in the choir and to
Siobhan Kennedy-Perri who accompanied the choir.

Trip to Dublin Zoo

Following the Dublin Outreach Zoo Programme, a trip to Dublin Zoo was organised
for Thursday 11th April 2019 for Ms. Walsh’s room. The children really enjoyed the fun
facts they learned in school and had a fantastic day out seeing the animals enjoyed a Rainforest Ranger workshop on the day.

Grandparents Day

Grandparents Day will take place on Thursday, 2nd May from 9.00am to 10.30am. We look forward to seeing grandparents of the children in each class come and talk to the children about their schooldays, games they played and to chat informally to the children.

Refreshments will be available.

• 9.00am – 9.30am: Ms. Walsh’s (Room 1) Jnr & Snr Infants  Ms. Doyle’s (Room 2) Snr Infants & 1 st Class –
• 9.30am – 10.00am: Ms. Gibney’s (Room 3) 2nd & 3rd Class & Mr. Furlong’s (Room 8) 3 rd & 4 th Class.
• 10.00am – 10.30am: Mrs. O’Doherty’s (Room 7) 4th & 5th Class & Mrs. Burke’s (Room 5) 6th Class

Transition to Secondary School Talk

We were lucky enough to win a free session with Graham Richmond an experienced
teacher and counsellor, who will give a free talk to parents on helping their children with the transition to Post-Primary school. This talk will take place in the school on Thursday, 2nd May at 7.30pm. Parents from all classes are invited to attend and we hope to see as many parents as possible, as we may not get this opportunity again. The talk
usually takes 45 – 60 minutes, including a Q & A session.

School Garden

Our work is just starting on our school garden with Wendy Nairn. We have had three
gardening weeks so far with good weather. We planted potatoes this week. It is great
to have our tunnel this year for starting off our seeds. It is also great for gardening
classes. We got new outdoor signs this year on wildflowers and birds and we hope to
get more in the future. Thank you to all the parents who got or who are getting Garda
vetted so that they can help out with the garden. If you would like to come along Wendy
welcomes all at 9.00am on Wednesday.

If you would like to help, but need to be Garda vetted, please find out how to do so here.

Accord Dublin Schools Programme

Accord will visit the school on Thursday 30th May and give a follow-up talk on growing up to 6th class.

Paddy Griffin Photographer

Paddy Griffin, Southern Photography will visit the school on Tuesday 5th June to take
photographs. Details of how to order your photographs will be sent out before that date.

Annual School Tours

School tours have been booked for all classes in the school.

• Junior Infants & Senior Infants will are going to Woodfield House, Enniscorthy on Wednesday 29th of May.
• 1st and 2nd class are going to Explorioum, Sandyford on Wednesday 19th of June,
• 3rd , 4th and 5th classes are going to Dublin Zoo on Wednesday 19th June also.
• 6th class are booked to go to WIT Greenway on Thursday 20th June.

Further details will be sent out after the Easter Holidays.

Any parents who are Garda vetted would be most welcome to come and help with the above tours, please let us know if you are available to help by ringing the office asap.

iPads

As a result of fantastic fundraising by the parents, we have been the lucky recipients of
12 brand new iPads and 12 sturdy covers. We have also purchased a charging trolley.

A total of €5140 was made from the Christmas Market, Raffle and Bucket Collection.

The iPads, covers and trolley cost €5,015.

We would especially like to thank Nicole Charalambous who sourced and purchased the above for the school. We are always very grateful to have expertise and support from parents.

Mystery Raffle / Christmas Cards

The ‘Mystery Raffle’ took place in the school on the 15th March. Funds raised were
€704 of which €100 went to the P.A. The balance of €604 plus €307 which was made
on the Christmas card fundraiser will go towards a heating and plumbing job in the
school that was done over the midterm break. The total bill came to €1403.10.

Voluntary Contributions

Thank you to all parents who have paid voluntary contributions for the school year
2018/2019. As there is always a shortfall from the Department of Education, these
contributions are necessary to pay the running costs of the school. The request for payment for Voluntary Contributions for 2019-2020 will be going out in
May.

Yearly Contributions Total May 2019 October 2020:

• One Child €100.00 €50.00 €50.00
• Two Children €130.00 €65.00 €65.00
• Max per Family €160.00 €80.00 €80.00

Trocaire Boxes

Please return all Trocaire boxes to the school before 3rd May.

Dates for your Diary:

• FAI County Finals – Wednesday 10th April
• Trip to the Zoo Ms. Walsh’s Room – Thursday 11th April
• Transition to Secondary School Talk (Parents) – Thursday 2nd May at 7.30pm
• Grandparents Day – Thursday 2nd May
• School Closed – Tuesday 7th May
• Confirmation – Saturday 11th May at 11.00am
• First Holy Communion – Sunday 12th May at 10.30m
• School Closed (Polling Station) – Friday 24th May
• School Closed – Tuesday 4th June
• Photographer in School – Tuesday 5th June
• Accord Follow up talk (6th Class) – Thursday 30th May

School closes for Easter Holidays on Friday 12th April at 11.30am and will reopen on Monday 29th April.

 

Wishing all our pupils and their families a very Happy Easter!