Since our last newsletter so many events have taken place at St Anne’s. Here is an overview of some of them:
Ceremonies:
WE congratulate all the children in 2nd class who made their First Confession on the 26th of February last. Well done on all your preparation for this. It won’t be long until we are preparing for First Communion!
Our students in 6th class had to wait an extra week to receive Confirmation this year. With the surrounding area covered in snow drifts the ceremony on March 3rd was cancelled and re-scheduled for March 10th. It was a beautiful ceremony in the church and we were delighted to welcome parents and friends to the school afterwards. I am very proud of the students in how they engaged with the preparations and I hope the gifts and fruits of Confirmation will serve them as they go forward in their lives.
I wish to express my thanks to the many parents who assisted in the school event and to Fr Kelly, Fr O Byrne and Jean Roche for their support and guidance in preparing the children for Confirmation
Internet Safety
Safer Internet Day was marked in St Anne’s recently. Classes discussed use of internet and social media devices and a poster competition was held to draw attention to importance of being vigilant in their use and reporting any issues that are of concern.
We hope to hold a talk for parents on this matter in Term 3 and will be in touch with you in due course.
Spelling Bee
Congratulations to Kyle who represented St Anne’s recently in the Spelling Bee competition. We are delighted that you did so well.
Children’s Initiatives:
- Talent Show. Well done to the team from 5th class who organised a talent show recently. It was a tremendous success! It was such a pleasure to see so many children taking part, singers, musicians, dancers, gymnasts and so many more. Congratulations to the winners and all who took part. I was particularly taken with the creative names groups used (Lemon Sherbets, DJMM, Mashed Potatoes to name but a few) and also to those who composed their own songs. It was a privilege to see and hear you all.
- Children in 2nd class also organised a talent show for 2nd and 3rd. Again it was a great accomplishment in how it was arranged and those who took part were a joy to see
- Artist of Fortnight continues in St Anne’s- there are many lovely pieces of art on display around the school. Thanks to the girls in 5th class for organising this!
- Skip off- Two girls from 4th class, Isabella and Lottie, decided that we needed to have more physical exercise and so they organised a skip-off for 2nd-4th All participants were asked to skip for as long as they could and they were timed. The overall winner, Hugh David, continued to skip for almost 4 minutes- a great achievement!
Seachtain na Gaeilge
We celebrated Seachtain na Gaeilge last week. Bhí na leanaí ag labhairt as Gaeilge agus fuair said Ticéid glas. They received a ticéid glas each time they used an Irish sentence or phrase and entered these tickets into a draw at the end of the week. Bhí said go h-iontach ar fad.
The céilí was a great success- thanks to Natalie the Irish dancing teacher who shared her talent with us for this. The final event was dressing up in green for Lá Glas- have a look at the website for photos of this.
Sports:
Our Badminton team, under the direction of Mrs Knightly, represented us well at a recent blitz- well done to all involved.
Athletics training is on-going in the field on Thursday/Friday morning- thanks to Ms Owens for this.
Soccer training continues with Mr Mansfield; Hurling with Mr Roughan and basketball has commenced with senior class on Tuesday afternoons
Our local GAA club has organised some coaching sessions for classes next term and children in the junior classes will participate in Playball next term also.
We look forward to many other sports events next term, hopefully with the sun shining!
Book Week & Library opening
This was a very busy week in St Anne’s with our Book week which included the book fair and opening of the school library.
Lots of events took place including Share a Book, Reading circles, Designing posters/book covers and writing stories and comic strips.
Our Book Fair was a great success- we had sales of over €3400 and will receive a commission of 50% on that to use to purchase resources/books. Many thanks to all who supported this and to parents who assisted at the desk during the day.
Library Opening:
On Thursday March 22nd an event was held to mark the opening of a school library in St Anne’s School
This marked the culmination of many months of work by the staff, children and parents of St Anne’s
The library was officially opened by Jane O Hanlon, Education Officer with Poetry Ireland. Other guests included Dominic Mc Evoy, Director of Kildare Education Centre, librarians from local libraries, members of the school Board of Management, members of local community groups , parents and friends.
The Principal welcomed everyone to the event, giving a background to the library project. The library was made possible because of an anonymous donation from a member of the school community. It was given in memory of a grandparent who died recently and whose family attend St Anne’s.
A special dedication to Grandparents was unveiled at the event and hangs in prominent position in the library
Special thanks was expressed to Lena O Connell, parent of children in St Anne’s, who offered of her time and creative expertise, to create a magical and colourful space in which to house the library. This was done with the help of Maurice O Neill, Module Architects, Lucan and his team who gave of their time for free.
Once the idea was born, Mrs Knightly, Assistant Principal at St Anne’s, undertook co-ordinating the set-up of the library. Members of the Parents Support Group were on hand to assist in organising and cataloguing the books. Children and parents donated books and many sponsored books from our recent book fair
Now that the library is up and running we continue to have the support of parents and children in senior classes work as library assistants.
The Principal spoke to children about the importance of reading and how ‘A person who reads books lives a thousand lives- otherwise we live only one’. She emphasised how we can all go on many adventures through books, travel to many places and meet many interesting characters through stories. We can all learn so much about ourselves when we engage with books and venture into spaces within our imagination.
This is our vision for the school library, where children become independent readers, get lost in a world of fiction, seek to learn through factual books and share their reading with friends. It is envisaged that many events with storytellers, authors and illustrators will take place there in the future. She asked children to think of ‘A book is a dream that you hold in your hand’ and wished them many dreams with books in the new library.
Children from senior infants who had written their own books were presented with certificates from parent and author, Caroline Finnerty. She spoke to the children about how she got her ideas to write and how she went through editing processes to come up with the final version.
Jane O Hanlon from Poetry Ireland congratulated the school on having a library and presented the school with some poetry books to place in the library. She spoke about the treasures to be seen in books and how creative expression through reading and writing novels and poems is central to children’s development
The event concluded with a tour on the library trail through the school and viewing of the library.
Here’s to many more literary adventures in St Anne’s.
(See our website for photos of the many events)
Finally:
Remember to keep an eye out for events in the coming months, including the PSG clothes collection in April; also the lotto continues over Easter and you can get tickets online if you haven’t already done so
May I wish you all a very happy and restful Easter. We look forward to meeting you all again on April 9th and to many exciting events for Term 3.