At St Anne’s signs of spring are becoming visible and Christmas seems like a long time ago. We are waiting for the daffodils and tulips to blossom soon in the garden and outside the school gates- some are beginning to appear already!

Christmas Concert:
Before leaving winter behind I want to look back at the Christmas celebrations held in our school and to congratulate all the children and teachers on the wonderful work that was undertaken. Well done to everyone for their participation in the Christmas Variety Concert; it was great to see such wonderful talent on display!
Thanks to Lucy and Luna for their work on the Twinkle Tree (Christmas tree) and to Charlie for making the star for the top of the tree. It was a great coming together of the school community to see so many children design and make decorations for the tree and surrounding area. A special thanks to Tony for creating Santa’s Grotto too- it was inspiring!

School teams:
We have embraced the New Year and many activities are underway already.
Well done to our debating teams who took part in competitions recently and of whom we are very proud. Thanks to 6th class teachers and Ms O Connor for all the work on this- the children put forward some really convincing arguments!
Our badminton teams will be representing the school next month in a blitz and other sports teams will be getting started over the coming weeks. The chess team will be representing us in Kildare town at a chess competition next week- we wish them every success.

Clubs:
Our lunchtime clubs are continuing this term- chess club, film club, yearbook club, ukulele club etc. I wish to commend 6th class children for their enthusiasm in sharing their talents with the younger children and making the clubs day possible in St Anne’s.
Lunchtime training has commenced in soccer and hurling and we look forward to these teams representing the school soon. Thanks to Mr Mansfield and Mr Rowan here.

Catholic Schools:
The sixth classes are busy preparing for their Confirmation ceremony which will take place on February 18th next. We look forward to welcoming Bishop Denis Nulty, Fr O Byrne and Fr Matt, families and friends to the event. Thanks to the children in 4th and 5th classes who are busy preparing hymns for the day.
Well done to the children throughout the school who made cards and created projects for Grandparents Day which we celebrated as part of Catholic Schools Week last week. Thanks also to the parents who came to visit us to tell us about their time in school.

Student Council:
Our Student Council are meeting regularly and have many plans in place for the coming term. We will update you on these shortly.

School Displays:
As you are probably aware, one class displays art work in the front entrance noticeboards each month. Well done to Ms Donoghue’s class whose work is now on display.
Watch out for our ‘Artist of the Fortnight’ displays too- each class will nominate one piece of art per fortnight to be displayed in this area. We will also have a Poetry Tree on which children may hang poems that they have written for all to read.
We have started our School Gallery in the corridor downstairs. You are welcome to come and view photos from past and present and the class photos of this year’s junior infants and last year’s Communion and Confirmation classes. We will continue to build on this over the coming years.

Thank you!
A note of thanks to the PSG who continue to organise events to fundraise for our school. We really appreciate all the work that you do!

Some exercise!
We will be taking part in the 10 @ 10 Event (in association with Operation transformation). This will involve the whole school doing ten minutes (or more!) exercise on next Friday, February 10th.
We hope everyone will enjoy the activities and that the importance of keeping fit will be highlighted!
Photos to follow!!