Term two has certainly been a busy term and I’m delighted to share some of the events with you in the newsletter and of course with photos in our gallery. 

Easter Egg Hunts: 

Well done to 6th class who arranged the hunts for the junior infants classes and the buddies who helped Ms Sheehy on their hunt today. 

It was great to see such excitement and the Easter bunny left treats for everyone! (Some photos of these on the gallery page)

Sacraments: 

Congratulations to the children in 2nd class who received First Confession last month. They were a credit to their teacher, Mr Roughan, and to you too as parents. We look forward to First Communion at the end of next month and children are working hard in preparation for the day. 

Thanks to the children from 3rd who sang so well at the ceremony and to Ms Mc Evoy and Ms Kelly for leading them. A reminder re mass this Sunday for the Communion class.

May 4th is the date for Confirmation this year and we look forward to celebrating with the children, their families and friends on the day. We will be welcoming Bishop Nulty to Ardclough for the ceremony. A note has gone to all in 6th class re arrangements for the day. As you know we invite family and friends to join us for refreshments after the ceremony. It is a lovely tradition, one which is made possible by the hard work of the parent volunteers and PSG so thanks to you all. 

 

PSG Sponsored Walk

Many thanks to everyone in the PSG for organising the sponsored walk last Sunday. It was a lovely day and a great occasion for the St Anne’s community to come together. We remind anyone who hasn’t brought in their sponsorship card to do so on return after Easter

 

Sports 

Mrs Knightly and other teachers are working with organisers from 3rd class on the school badminton league.

The lunchtime basketball league has just finished too- presentations for this will be done after Easter. 

Leon continues with GAA training and a coach from Barnhall will be working with classes after Easter. 

Congratulations to the Athletics team who represented us so well in Newbridge yesterday- a great result for both boys and girls teams.  Well done also to our football and hurling teams on recent matches and training events

Travel- A note to mention that we may look at arranging buses (with nominal charge) for travelling to matches going forward as it is difficult to arrange lifts. If you have any thoughts on this perhaps you would contact me on it. 

Music: 

Thanks to Maria Mason who is working with the children from 2nd-5th class on violin. Great progress is being made so well done all. I want to say a special thanks to Maria’s helpers from 3rd class who set up the room and instruments for her every week. We will be doing a short concert for parents at the end of June- more to follow on this. 

Well done to our group from 5th and 6th who performed some choral pieces at the St Catherine’s Choral Festival in Rush Co Dublin last week. The children took part in a workshop with Alan Leech from the Chamber Choir and were one of 8 schools who performed that evening too. We hope to share this with parents before the end of the year

Thanks to the representatives from 3rd to 6th class who joined me in travelling to the National Concert Hall to attend the Primary Ensemble Project performance. We hope that we will perform as part of that project in the years to come. 

 

Internet Safety

We welcomed the Zeeko company to the school last week to work with classes from 1st-6th. Children filled in an online questionnaire in advance and they learned about keeping safe and responsibility to report 

You may wish to chat with children on the main messages from the workshop. All were encouraged to have a Chatbudi ( a buddy or responsible adult that they would talk to in the event of seeing something unsuitable, themselves/others being bullied online or being unsure about the appropriateness of content etc)

Thanks to the parents who attended the evening session too and engaged so well with the facilitator. Should you wish to find out further information you may wish to look at the Zeeko site (www.zeeko.ie) 

 

Intel Donation

We are very grateful to Noel Byrne, uncle of children in our school, who arranged for a team of colleagues to put our sensory garden in place. Not only this but Noel did some great fundraising for plants and materials. We hope to have an official opening of the garden next term

In addition to this Intel matched the hours worked by this team and doubled the money which resulted in St Anne’s receiving a donation of over €2000 this week. It was a pleasure to attend the ceremony with Ali and Charlotte from 6th class

We are in the process of putting further outdoor equipment in the yard for children to use during playtime so this money will come in very handy! We are also consulting with the Students Council on their suggestions for this

Other visitor

Thanks to Mairead Early who spoke with our Green team and 5th class recently and we hope to link in with the local Tidy Towns group on ways to support a cleaner environment in Ardclough

LOTTO

A reminder that the lotto can be played over Easter by going online!

Finally may I wish you all a very happy Easter and a restful time over the holidays

We look forward to a great final term – see you all on the 29th 

Kind regards

Mary Manley