December Newsletter
October newsletter
SCOIL MHUIRE SENIOR NEWSLETTER
October 2019
Welcome
We welcome all the new families who are attending Scoil Mhuire Senior for the first time. We welcome back all other families. Hopefully everyone has settled in well. Please God we will have a good year and continue to support each other in providing as good an education as possible for all the children in the school.
Gerry King Stuart Conaty
Principal Chairperson Board of Management
Mid term break
School will close at 2.40pm on Friday 25th October and reopen on Monday November 4th at 9.00am.
Healthy eating
We thank you for continuing to support our healthy eating policy. Friday is “Treat Day”. Please remember it is “Treat Day” not “Feast Day”!
Parking
To ensure the children’s safety please continue to observe the guidelines in relation to parking, dropping off and picking up your children from the school grounds. Please remember no parking in the staff car park or on the roundabout. The bus bay outside of the school wall is for buses only so please leave this area clear at all times.
Supervision
Formal supervision of children begins at 9.00am and ends at 2.40pm.
Book Rental/Requisites
The scheme of charging €25 for book rental and €25 for requisites (art, craft, personal accident insurance, photocopies etc.) is going really well. There are still a number of pupils with outstanding fees. Please call to the office to make payment arrangements.
Excellent Attendance Awards
Congratulation to all the children from 4th, 5th and 6th classes who were presented with Certificates of Excellence for full attendance last year.
Parent / Teacher Meetings
Group meetings were held at the end of September. These meetings were held after school hours so that as many parents as possible could attend. If you wish to discuss any aspect of your child’s education with his/her class teacher, please ring or send a note to the teacher to make an appointment.
Confirmation 2019
Confirmation will be celebrated on Tuesday 3rd March at 11.00am in Cill Mhuire.
Choir
Practice has already begun for Peace Proms 2020 and will resume after Halloween.
Scoil Mhuire Senior Opens New Running Track
Scoil Mhuire Senior marked European Schools Sports Day, September 27th, with the opening of our new all-weather running track. The 470m track runs along the perimeter of their two excellent sports fields. It will facilitate the physical fitness development of all children in the school by enabling them to walk, jog and run in all weather conditions.
Scoil Mhuire Senior, well known for its many successes in Gaelic football, hurling, soccer, basketball and spikeball also has a very successful history in athletics. The boy’s team won Gold in the Kildare Cumann na mBunscol Cross Country Championship for the last two years and Silver in the 2018 South Dublin Cross Country Championships against a highly competitive field. The Scoil Mhuire girls’ team won Silver in Kildare in 2018. While the school is proud of these many successes the primary focus in Scoil Mhuire Senior is not on winning but on inclusivity and the personal physical development of each child at their own pace.
Scoil Mhuire Senior achieved an Active Schools Flag in 2017 and is in the process of renewing it. This initiative promotes inclusive physical activity throughout the school day. Every child in the school completes a Daily Mile and can now do so on a fabulous running track. Scoil Mhuire Senior takes running seriously and fitness levels, concentration in class and well-being have improved as a result. The children are more positive, focused and happy while recognising that physical activity is fun. Principal Mr Gerry King worked closely with John Killeen of Killeen Civil Engineering in the creation of this superb running track which will benefit the children of Scoil Mhuire Senior for many generations to come.
Cross Country
On Thursday 17th October a large squad of 32 runners competed in the 19th annual West Wicklow Cumann na mBunscol Cross Country Championships at Valleymount National School. All of our teams ran great races over the tough hilly cross country terrain. Some highlights of the day included a 2nd place finish by the Third Class girls’ team and a 3rd place finish from the Fourth Class boys’ team. The Sixth Class boys’ team rounded out a great day with a convincing gold medal winning performance by placing four runners in the top 5 individual places. With 50 to 70 runners in every race, Scoil Mhuire had a number of children finishing in the top 3 of their respective races. Dean Hanniffy, Faye Kavanagh, Andrew McAuley, Lucy Tyrell, Aaron Murphy and Adam Poole all finished in podium place positions. Well done to all the runners who competed on the day and to all the children who have been participating in cross country this year.
Active School / National Fitness Day September 26th 2019
The Active School initiative is once more up and running in Scoil Mhuire Senior. This initiative promotes inclusive physical activity throughout the school day. Every child in the school completes a Daily Mile. Balls, hoops and skipping ropes on the yard encourage fun and energetic play. Fitness levels, concentration and well-being have improved. The children are more positive, focused and happy. They recognise that physical activity is fun and everyone can find something that they enjoy doing. This school year we aim to renew out Active School Flag as required by the programme.
National Fitness Day provides a platform to help get Ireland fitter. The day is a celebration of physical activity in Ireland. Research shows if you exercise in company (with friends) you are more likely to stick at it. The social atmosphere creates a positive environment which helps us to have fun.
As part of our Active Schools initiative Scoil Mhuire marked the day by beginning with a whole school ‘Wake up, Shake Up’ Wakka Wakka dance routine. The atmosphere first thing in the morning was electric and the children returned to class invigorated. Circuit training took place throughout the day. The children worked up a lather doing squats, leg lunges, jumping jacks and high knees. A daily mile was completed by all children to freshen up their heads and loosen their limbs. The day was rounded off with a whole school gathering to perform the Wakka Wakka dance routine once again.
School Self Evaluation and Physical Education
The school continues to self-evaluate in the teaching and learning of English, Mathematics and Physical Education. The main areas being focused on are Comprehension (English), Problem Solving (Mathematics) and getting all children involved in physical activity with emphasis on inclusivity and fun.During the last school year, the children were taught 10 problem solving strategies and 9 comprehension strategies (one per month). This approach will continue during this school year. The focus on maths lessons every Friday is on Problem solving. You can help your child. There are many excellent websites available such as: www.mathsisfun.com
www.maths2art.comuk www.haveyougotmathseyes.com www.matific.com
Regarding Physical Education you can help your child by creating opportunities for him/her to engage in physical activity and in promoting healthy eating.
Summer Work
During the summer we replaced all the desk tops in the school. We also installed 26 hand dryers in the pupils’ toilets.
Science Club
Children from 3rd class have been participating in Science Club every Wednesday after school. The club has focused on food testing, sound, viscosity, optical illusions and lava lamps. This week they finished with a pumpkin style bang! Thank you to all the fantastic young scientists for their good behaviour and enthusiasm.
Scoil Mhuire Essay Winner!
On Friday the 26th of September all the 5th class children from the parish went on a trip to the Curragh Racecourse. The children from each school were asked to write an essay about their experiences on the day and what they learned. Neala Kildea was the overall winner from Scoil Mhuire and was presented with a €25 voucher at the parade ring on the Parish Race Day.
Maths Week
All the children were very busy last week doing various Maths Activities. To help the children realise that maths are very much part of our everyday lives all children were encouraged to use their Maths Eyes at home, take a photograph and write a problem to demonstrate this and email it to their teacher. Each day the children did puzzles, tables and maths games on the iPads, solved problems using various strategies, completed trails using QR Codes on iPads and also undertook trails both inside the school building and outside. Some classes were lucky to do some baking and cooking as part of their Maths activities. At a whole school event on last Friday there was the “Tables Challenge” and our own version of “Countdown”.
Teacher Inservice
The school will be closed on Monday December 16th. The teachers will attend inservice in Kildare Education Centre on the day on the New Primary Language Curriculum which is being introduced. Our school self-evaluation this year will also focus on the teaching and learning of English and Irish.
Green Schools
We are now into our second year of our theme of Biodiversity. We have a great committee working hard in the school and we would like to welcome our new third class committee members. During Climate Action Week, we had lots of exciting events take place to raise awareness about how we can help to improve our environment and protect biodiversity. Our 5th class children took part in a brilliant workshop facilitated by Envirokids where they learned all about climate change, recycling and biodiversity. They even won themselves some cool prizes! We hosted an art and writing competition and our winners will be announced soon. For our final event, we hosted a climate change quiz and the winning team took home some lovely prizes. The whole school learned a song called ‘Do It Now’ which encourages everyone in the school community to make a pledge to help prevent climate change. The Green Schools team would like to remind everyone to continue using sustainable travel on Wednesdays (Walk on Wednesday). It is great to see so many children scooting and walking to school and playing their part in helping the environment. Well done everyone!
Girls’ Soccer
The girls did very well in all games in our group. They are looking forward to the soccer blitz later in the year.
Hurling
Our senior boys competed very well in the division. Unfortunately we were just denied a place in the semi-final of the competition.
Boys’ Gaelic Football
Under 11 training began in early September. We had up to 40 boys out training every day. The team played Naas, Kildare and Caragh and put in great performances in all three games. The under11 B blitz will take place in the school on Tuesday 22nd of October.
Rainbows Rainbows is a fun, peer-support programme that helps children come to terms with loss caused by death, separation or divorce. Applications forms will be circulated after Halloween.
Loitering and Vandalism
A number of teenagers both boys and girls hang around the school, in the alcoves particularly on weekend nights and during holiday periods. Many of them are from the estates adjacent to the school. They are causing damage – littering, graffiti, leaving burn marks on PVC windows and doors, climbing on roofs, breaking tiles etc.
If they are your children your relations or you know them please discourage this practice. Video footage will be analysed from now on and information will be shared with the Gardai. It is your school, built for your community. The time and money spent on clean up and repairs could be put to better use providing resources for the children attending the school.
G. King
Principal
October 2019
Welcome
We welcome all the new families who are attending Scoil Mhuire Senior for the first time. We welcome back all other families. Hopefully everyone has settled in well. Please God we will have a good year and continue to support each other in providing as good an education as possible for all the children in the school.
Gerry King Stuart Conaty
Principal Chairperson Board of Management
Mid term break
School will close at 2.40pm on Friday 25th October and reopen on Monday November 4th at 9.00am.
Healthy eating
We thank you for continuing to support our healthy eating policy. Friday is “Treat Day”. Please remember it is “Treat Day” not “Feast Day”!
Parking
To ensure the children’s safety please continue to observe the guidelines in relation to parking, dropping off and picking up your children from the school grounds. Please remember no parking in the staff car park or on the roundabout. The bus bay outside of the school wall is for buses only so please leave this area clear at all times.
Supervision
Formal supervision of children begins at 9.00am and ends at 2.40pm.
Book Rental/Requisites
The scheme of charging €25 for book rental and €25 for requisites (art, craft, personal accident insurance, photocopies etc.) is going really well. There are still a number of pupils with outstanding fees. Please call to the office to make payment arrangements.
Excellent Attendance Awards
Congratulation to all the children from 4th, 5th and 6th classes who were presented with Certificates of Excellence for full attendance last year.
Parent / Teacher Meetings
Group meetings were held at the end of September. These meetings were held after school hours so that as many parents as possible could attend. If you wish to discuss any aspect of your child’s education with his/her class teacher, please ring or send a note to the teacher to make an appointment.
Confirmation 2019
Confirmation will be celebrated on Tuesday 3rd March at 11.00am in Cill Mhuire.
Choir
Practice has already begun for Peace Proms 2020 and will resume after Halloween.
Scoil Mhuire Senior Opens New Running Track
Scoil Mhuire Senior marked European Schools Sports Day, September 27th, with the opening of our new all-weather running track. The 470m track runs along the perimeter of their two excellent sports fields. It will facilitate the physical fitness development of all children in the school by enabling them to walk, jog and run in all weather conditions.
Scoil Mhuire Senior, well known for its many successes in Gaelic football, hurling, soccer, basketball and spikeball also has a very successful history in athletics. The boy’s team won Gold in the Kildare Cumann na mBunscol Cross Country Championship for the last two years and Silver in the 2018 South Dublin Cross Country Championships against a highly competitive field. The Scoil Mhuire girls’ team won Silver in Kildare in 2018. While the school is proud of these many successes the primary focus in Scoil Mhuire Senior is not on winning but on inclusivity and the personal physical development of each child at their own pace.
Scoil Mhuire Senior achieved an Active Schools Flag in 2017 and is in the process of renewing it. This initiative promotes inclusive physical activity throughout the school day. Every child in the school completes a Daily Mile and can now do so on a fabulous running track. Scoil Mhuire Senior takes running seriously and fitness levels, concentration in class and well-being have improved as a result. The children are more positive, focused and happy while recognising that physical activity is fun. Principal Mr Gerry King worked closely with John Killeen of Killeen Civil Engineering in the creation of this superb running track which will benefit the children of Scoil Mhuire Senior for many generations to come.
Cross Country
On Thursday 17th October a large squad of 32 runners competed in the 19th annual West Wicklow Cumann na mBunscol Cross Country Championships at Valleymount National School. All of our teams ran great races over the tough hilly cross country terrain. Some highlights of the day included a 2nd place finish by the Third Class girls’ team and a 3rd place finish from the Fourth Class boys’ team. The Sixth Class boys’ team rounded out a great day with a convincing gold medal winning performance by placing four runners in the top 5 individual places. With 50 to 70 runners in every race, Scoil Mhuire had a number of children finishing in the top 3 of their respective races. Dean Hanniffy, Faye Kavanagh, Andrew McAuley, Lucy Tyrell, Aaron Murphy and Adam Poole all finished in podium place positions. Well done to all the runners who competed on the day and to all the children who have been participating in cross country this year.
Active School / National Fitness Day September 26th 2019
The Active School initiative is once more up and running in Scoil Mhuire Senior. This initiative promotes inclusive physical activity throughout the school day. Every child in the school completes a Daily Mile. Balls, hoops and skipping ropes on the yard encourage fun and energetic play. Fitness levels, concentration and well-being have improved. The children are more positive, focused and happy. They recognise that physical activity is fun and everyone can find something that they enjoy doing. This school year we aim to renew out Active School Flag as required by the programme.
National Fitness Day provides a platform to help get Ireland fitter. The day is a celebration of physical activity in Ireland. Research shows if you exercise in company (with friends) you are more likely to stick at it. The social atmosphere creates a positive environment which helps us to have fun.
As part of our Active Schools initiative Scoil Mhuire marked the day by beginning with a whole school ‘Wake up, Shake Up’ Wakka Wakka dance routine. The atmosphere first thing in the morning was electric and the children returned to class invigorated. Circuit training took place throughout the day. The children worked up a lather doing squats, leg lunges, jumping jacks and high knees. A daily mile was completed by all children to freshen up their heads and loosen their limbs. The day was rounded off with a whole school gathering to perform the Wakka Wakka dance routine once again.
School Self Evaluation and Physical Education
The school continues to self-evaluate in the teaching and learning of English, Mathematics and Physical Education. The main areas being focused on are Comprehension (English), Problem Solving (Mathematics) and getting all children involved in physical activity with emphasis on inclusivity and fun.During the last school year, the children were taught 10 problem solving strategies and 9 comprehension strategies (one per month). This approach will continue during this school year. The focus on maths lessons every Friday is on Problem solving. You can help your child. There are many excellent websites available such as: www.mathsisfun.com
www.maths2art.comuk www.haveyougotmathseyes.com www.matific.com
Regarding Physical Education you can help your child by creating opportunities for him/her to engage in physical activity and in promoting healthy eating.
Summer Work
During the summer we replaced all the desk tops in the school. We also installed 26 hand dryers in the pupils’ toilets.
Science Club
Children from 3rd class have been participating in Science Club every Wednesday after school. The club has focused on food testing, sound, viscosity, optical illusions and lava lamps. This week they finished with a pumpkin style bang! Thank you to all the fantastic young scientists for their good behaviour and enthusiasm.
Scoil Mhuire Essay Winner!
On Friday the 26th of September all the 5th class children from the parish went on a trip to the Curragh Racecourse. The children from each school were asked to write an essay about their experiences on the day and what they learned. Neala Kildea was the overall winner from Scoil Mhuire and was presented with a €25 voucher at the parade ring on the Parish Race Day.
Maths Week
All the children were very busy last week doing various Maths Activities. To help the children realise that maths are very much part of our everyday lives all children were encouraged to use their Maths Eyes at home, take a photograph and write a problem to demonstrate this and email it to their teacher. Each day the children did puzzles, tables and maths games on the iPads, solved problems using various strategies, completed trails using QR Codes on iPads and also undertook trails both inside the school building and outside. Some classes were lucky to do some baking and cooking as part of their Maths activities. At a whole school event on last Friday there was the “Tables Challenge” and our own version of “Countdown”.
Teacher Inservice
The school will be closed on Monday December 16th. The teachers will attend inservice in Kildare Education Centre on the day on the New Primary Language Curriculum which is being introduced. Our school self-evaluation this year will also focus on the teaching and learning of English and Irish.
Green Schools
We are now into our second year of our theme of Biodiversity. We have a great committee working hard in the school and we would like to welcome our new third class committee members. During Climate Action Week, we had lots of exciting events take place to raise awareness about how we can help to improve our environment and protect biodiversity. Our 5th class children took part in a brilliant workshop facilitated by Envirokids where they learned all about climate change, recycling and biodiversity. They even won themselves some cool prizes! We hosted an art and writing competition and our winners will be announced soon. For our final event, we hosted a climate change quiz and the winning team took home some lovely prizes. The whole school learned a song called ‘Do It Now’ which encourages everyone in the school community to make a pledge to help prevent climate change. The Green Schools team would like to remind everyone to continue using sustainable travel on Wednesdays (Walk on Wednesday). It is great to see so many children scooting and walking to school and playing their part in helping the environment. Well done everyone!
Girls’ Soccer
The girls did very well in all games in our group. They are looking forward to the soccer blitz later in the year.
Hurling
Our senior boys competed very well in the division. Unfortunately we were just denied a place in the semi-final of the competition.
Boys’ Gaelic Football
Under 11 training began in early September. We had up to 40 boys out training every day. The team played Naas, Kildare and Caragh and put in great performances in all three games. The under11 B blitz will take place in the school on Tuesday 22nd of October.
Rainbows Rainbows is a fun, peer-support programme that helps children come to terms with loss caused by death, separation or divorce. Applications forms will be circulated after Halloween.
Loitering and Vandalism
A number of teenagers both boys and girls hang around the school, in the alcoves particularly on weekend nights and during holiday periods. Many of them are from the estates adjacent to the school. They are causing damage – littering, graffiti, leaving burn marks on PVC windows and doors, climbing on roofs, breaking tiles etc.
If they are your children your relations or you know them please discourage this practice. Video footage will be analysed from now on and information will be shared with the Gardai. It is your school, built for your community. The time and money spent on clean up and repairs could be put to better use providing resources for the children attending the school.
G. King
Principal
