6^th December 2018

Dear Parents and Guardians / A Thuismitheoirí agus a Chaomhnóirí,

Mulch

Thanks to Stephanie for helping Martin with the mulch distribution on Friday.  There will be one more opportunity before Christmas to give a dig out on Friday 14^th Dec.  Let us know if you’re interested.

Chess Tournament with NDNSP for National Chess Month

Well done to Harry who did really well in the Chess tournament last Friday and to all who took part.  Thanks to David for organising it.

A Few Highlights from the Week

Active Schools

We have started working towards getting our Active School’s Flag. We are continuing to encourage activity on a daily basis. As we are working towards gaining an Active Flag, we intend to introduce an Active Yard during Big Lunch. This will include the children doing structured activities and games such as ball games, skipping, and hula hoops. We are aiming to have a disco on our yard every week too!

We are participating in the daily mile challenge which means every class goes for a run every day. We are committed to ensuring that every class has active breaks throughout the school day. We use the Go Noodle website (www.gonoodle.com), which is full of fun athletic and dance activities. The children earn points and move up a level, which challenges their strength and fitness.

As part of the Active Flag initiative, we are starting to give active homework. Each child will all receive a Super Trooper pack, which includes a journal, a wall chart and a letter to parents. The journal contains daily exercises that are designed to help children increase their balance, co-ordination, strength and endurance, in a fun way. The exercises are explained at the back of the journal. Parents are also encouraged to participate in these fun activities! The journal needs to be signed each week and returned alongside their homework.

Super Troopers is the first ever health homework programme in Ireland. It encourages children and their families to become more active and learn about healthy lifestyles. The programme includes short, fun activities around physical activity, wellbeing and nutrition. As we all know a healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body. For this reason, there are many opportunities in the booklet to allow for reflection on what makes us happy, how we are feeling etc. The booklet also contains healthy recipes to try out at home!

Hour of Coding

Barring a few technical problems the Hour of Coding was a huge success, giving children throughout the school an opportunity to learn more about technology and coding.  Thanks to all the many volunteers who made it possible and again to Aga and David.  This was an wonderful opportunity for the children to enjoy an additional learning activity through parental participation.  These are two websites that may be of interest to children to continue coding at home.

https://hourofcode.com/ie

https://code.org/

 St Vincent de Paul

The Student Council along with guidance from Naomi will be organising hampers for the annual SVdeP Christmas Appeal.  The children will be given a list of suggested items to bring in for the appeal.  Please bring these in by Wednesday 12^th Dec and if you have any spare boxes we would be grateful for these too.

Upcoming

• Grandparents Day will be celebrated by 2^nd Class tomorrow by inviting their grandparents in to their classroom. They have put lots of working into recording interviews with them already.
• We are initiating involvement with an intergenerational project which will involve 2^nd Class visiting St. Clare’s nursing home next week.
• Our 6^th Class children are invited to a drama in St. Pats College next Tuesday where they will explore Children’s Rights.

Library

Thanks very much to the team of parents who have been working hard in the background to further develop our whole school library.

Percent for Art

The final stage of installation of the art is taking place this weekend.  We are really excited to see it in all its glory.  We will celebrate this on the 20^th Dec at 7:30pm and we are giving you one final opportunity to let us know if you’d like to attend by tomorrow.

Upcoming Dates for you Diary

Wed 20^th February : School will be closed for pupils to facilitate continuous professional development for teachers of the Primary Language curriculum.

Frása na Seachtaine:  “Tá sé fuar amuigh” – It is cold

Le meas,

Róisín Conlon,

Príomh Oide