Hallowe’en certainly arrived to St Anne’s this morning with monsters and minions, witches and wizards and wonderful original costumes all around. Well done everyone on all your efforts and collaborations getting your costumes ready- all were very creative. Thanks to parents too, who I’m sure had much to do last night and this morning!
It has been an exciting first term so far and many activities are underway here.
The Book Fair was a tremendous success. Thanks to the PSG volunteers and teachers who set up the fair and manned the desk for all sales. An incredible €4000+ was taken in and the school will receive half of this in books for our library. I hope that, between purchases and library loans, there will be many hours of reading for everyone and delving into facts and fiction, over the coming months.
The library is in full operation too. Many thanks to the PSG and parent volunteers who have made this possible and who are offering to support throughout the year. We have librarians from senior classes who support also. All of this enables us to keep the library open and re-stocked. In an age of much digital access, I believe it is even more necessary to have books and stories that children can experience and make sense of their world through.
Keep reading everyone!
Our Goal Jersey Day was also a great success. We were able to donate over €800 to worthy causes, thanks to your donations.
Today, the PSG are inviting parents in to view the new school path around the field. This is a wonderful amenity to have and we are grateful to the Board and the PSG for fund-raising and supporting this project. It gives us access to the field area even on wet days as the path dries quickly. It will be used for lunchbreaks and class movement breaks during the day. I’m sure it will be useful for our athletics teams and for sports day going forward.
Should you wish to try it out…..remember Blue for fast/running and red for slow/walking. Enjoy!!
On the matter of sport, I am delighted that we had a number of teams participating in Cumann na mBunscoil events over the past weeks. Well done to our boys teams, under Mr O Leary and Mr Behan, who made us proud in their games. Congratulations to Mrs Fitzgerald’s football team who were victorious in their competition. We wish Ms Murphy and the girls camogie every success in the final after mid-term.
Much is going on in music too!
We are delighted to partner with Music Generation in offering two new initiatives to the students. 6th class are working on music technology and are busy composing using Garage Band.
Junior and Senior Infants students are marching, tapping, clapping and learning all about beat and rhythms. Having seen this in action, (and trying to participate!), I can assure you it is great fun and lots of learning is going on too!!
Our violin classes are continuing with Maria and it is great to hear the progress that is being made. We hope to have a performance soon and I will let you know the dates for that.
The school choir will be performing in Fingal Festival of Schools’ Voices on November 9th next. They are doing lots of practice for this and I know they will sing really well on the day.
Clubs: I am delighted that there are so many after-school clubs going on at the moment, from lego to coding and dancing to sport. Of course we have some clubs going on during the school lunch breaks too. Well done to the 6th class team who are running a talent show for the younger classes, also to those who ran art competitions also. We hope to have chess club set up after the break.
Environment: We are working with the local biodiversity group in the village and with Paddy Madden on some environmental projects. Currently we will be focusing on planting acorns in one of the beds at the Village Centre and watching how the grow in the years to come.
Each class has an area of focus for the environment over the year and we look forward to seeing how each progresses in that time.
Thanks to the PSG volunteers also who keep the weeds at bay in the front garden and who are planting spring bulbs- again we look forward to the days when these will grow and bloom.
Staffing: I am delighted to welcome Ms Cassells to the staff team this week. This means that we now have full staff of teachers. Ms Deegan and Ms O Brien will now work as part of the SEN team and are contacting parents re support for children this week.
May I take this opportunity to thank sincerely all members of the staff, teachers, SNA, secretary and caretaker, whose commitment and enthusiasm make such a difference to children and to me. Thank you all!
A few notes:
- We hope to offer the opportunity for children to avail of flu vaccinations after Hallowe’en. More to follow on this- parents who are interested will be able to sign up on an app for same
- PE Days and Tracksuits: Please note that PE days change over the year with other events in the hall and also when we have outside facilitators. 3rd classes will be doing swimming after Halloween and that is then their PE day. Children should wear their tracksuits on PE day only please. At this stage, the ‘summer’ uniform of shorts etc should not be worn. Those taking part in school teams etc wear in their uniform and will be given time to change in school. Thanks for your co-operation with this.
- Healthy Eating- a reminder re our healthy eating and nut-free policy also. We will remind children after the break and will outline for all what is the policy on same.
Finally, a word of thanks to you, the parents. Your support for all that goes on here is really appreciated.
May I wish you and family a happy and relaxing mid-term break.
Best wishes,
Mary Manley