Nuacht na Scoile Nollaig 2019 - St Patricks BNS ...
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In November, We Remember
Nuacht na Scoile
Nollaig 2019
Principal’s Address
Wishing all our pupils, their families, the
staff, parent’s council and board of
management a wonderful Christmas.
Thank you all for a very productive first
term. It is wonderful to see what we can
achieve when we work together.
Our junior infants have completed their
first term in our school. All have settled in This November, we remembered all the
so well and it is fantastic to have these people that we have lost in our lives. We
boys in our school. placed a leaf with their name on it on our
Remembrance Tree.
The official opening of our new school
Advent
will be in the spring term, more details to
follow when dates are confirmed. Our Sacred Space this month is advent
themed. We have our advent wreath and
Le gach dea-ghuí, our Jesse Tree up.
Pádraig Ó Gealbháin Christmas Shoebox Appeal
Book Fair
In November we held a very successful
book fair. Thank you to all the families
that supported it. The fair raised close to
€5,000 and the school get half this money.
All proceeds will go towards the continued
maintenance and updating of our school
library which will be opening soon.
Christmas Jumper Day
A sincere thank you to everyone that
All boys wore their Christmas jumpers supported the Christmas Shoebox Appeal.
today and brought in €1. All proceeds are With over 200 boxes received the school
going to Pieta House. The children all were overwhelmed. All our shoeboxes
participated in a short yoga/mindfulness have travelled to the Ukraine this year. A
total of 5732 boxes left from county Laois.
session to help raise awareness of minding
your mind and mental health. It was a
really enjoyable experience for all.
Cake Sale Ken Smollen Food Appeal
The idea of giving by receiving is our
The school bake sale raised €1475. Thank
theme for advent. In conjunction with this,
you to all who baked on the day and to all
we have created the idea of a reverse
those that bought treats also. Another
advent calendar. Each boy is given a
successful day! The monies raised is going
calendar door and behind the door is a
towards the lining and marking of our
food item that he must bring in, if possible.
sports hall floor.
Together then, each class in the school will
Cinema Visit create a hamper for the Ken Smollen Food
Appeal. With your support we hope to
6th class were treated to a cinema trip this make 18 class hampers and 1 staff hamper.
week. The boys all travelled to see
Amber Flag
Jumanji.
Astro Turf
The school received great news this term
with the announcement that we were
successful in our grant application through
the Sports Capital Programme. We have
received €45,595 towards our school Astro
Turf. Quotes from contractors are currently
being submitted for the work and we look The school are promoting mindfulness and
forward to seeing work commence here in mental health awareness. Every Monday
the new year and hopefully a game of we have mindful meditations. A committee
soccer will be played by Easter! has been set up and we will be applying
for our amber flag. Each month we will
The pitch inside the running track needs to have a thought for the month. Our thought
have stones picked and be reseeded but for December is “Kindness is free,
hopefully mid spring we shall have this Sprinkle it everywhere.” There will be
play area available to us also. more information on our school website
and the thought for each month going
Parent teacher meetings forward will be shared here.
All parent/teacher meetings were held in
November. If for some reason you were Tech Free Thursday
unable to attend please arrange an
appointment with your son’s teacher in the Tech Free Thursday is back! The boys
New Year. have no homework on this night but
instead are expected to spend quality
family time together.
Social Networks Parent’s Council
We ask all parents to respect the The new Parent’s Council has been
confidentiality and privacy of our school formed. They are off to a great start with
community. We ask all parents to refrain their help at the cake sale, Christmas Craft
from making any reference to our school, Fair and a recent collection at Centra
teacher, pupils or other parents on social raising €633. We hope to keep them just as
media. Mr Galvin and the staff are always busy in the New Year!
available to discuss any concerns you may
have in relation to your son at short notice. Christmas Fair
We strongly encourage this mutual respect.
Dog’s Trust
Thank you to all who supported out
Christmas Fair recently. The boys and
their teachers put in a lot of work creating
these crafts with the assistance of Sandra
O’Neill. Some crafts are still available to
buy on the days of the Christmas
Paul Cleary from Dog’s Trust (pictured performances. Also a special thanks to our
above) travelled around the school recently own school elf, Eddie for his wonderful
telling all the classes about responsible work creating Santa’s grotto and building
dog ownership. He had his dog Magic with the stage for our Christmas performances.
him and it was great fun!
Rainbows Club
Band
The band recently performed at the turning
on of the Christmas Tree lights in
Portarlington and at our Christmas Craft
Fair. Practice is underway for their next
performance in February at the official
opening of our new school.
Rainbows is a programme for children and
Active Advent young people experiencing grief and loss.
It offers support in a safe place where
All classes have being participating in children can share their experience of loss
Active Advent in a bid for our Active through death, separation or divorce with
School Flag. This involved each class others in a similar situation. Rainbows is a
doing a busy break each day of advent. free service which is funded by TUSLA.
The minimum age accepted is 7 years old
BOM
or 1st class. We are hoping to run groups
Our Board of Management 2015 – 2019 on Wednesdays after school for 1 hour for
has come to an end. Thank you to all that 9 weeks. Dependent on our ability to meet
gave their time to be part of the board. group requirements, we are aiming to run
After recent election our new Board for the programme in our school beginning in
2019 – 2023 has been appointed. February 2020. Call into the school
office for an expression of interest form.
Ipads boys are really enjoying looking after the
guinea pigs. Read the full report from the
The school recently purchased a class set ARC below!
of ipads. Teachers have received training
on the educational scope for these in the
classroom. After Christmas each class will
have scheduled times to use the ipads
weekly.
Christmas Performances
The Christmas Performances are taking
place next week. All parents are welcome
to all performances.
Monday 16th 1st class @ 11am
Tuesday 17th 2nd class @ 11am
Wednesday 18th 3rd class @ 11am Holidays
Thursday 19th 4th class @11am Our Christmas holidays commence on
Friday, December 20th at 11.50 and the
Friday 20th Junior Infants @ 9.15am school will re-open on Monday, January
Friday 20th 5th & 6th class @11am 6th.
Salt and Pepper
The boys from the Arc were lucky enough
this term to gain 2 class members – Salt
and Pepper. The boys asked Mr Galvin’s
permission if they could get a pet guinea
pig. He let them get 2!! The boys travelled
over on the bus to Pet Mania in Portlaoise
to buy them. Once the deal was done they
treated themselves to baby chinos in Costa
Coffee. Upon arrival back to the school the
boys had to decide on the names. After
suggestions gathered from the whole
school a Guinea Pig Naming Committee
was formed. After much deliberation the
name Salt and Pepper was chosen. The
Big News from the We went to Pet mania and we got two
female guinea pigs. Their names are Salt
ARC and Pepper. We give them food and we
Report by Jack Gregory, Hugo Borland & Alex Justin take good care of our new little guinea
pigs.
“Give the guinea pigs hay, guinea pig
food, vegetables and fruit,” instructed
Brooklyn Hassam.
“Say hello to our guinea pigs,” welcomed
PJ Coady.
Do you know that two weeks ago the ARC
got two little guinea pigs? We convinced
Mr Galvin that we could look after guinea
pigs. We did some research, and found out
• They live in Peru
• Potatoes are dangerous for them to
eat, crisps are dangerous too “I like when they run,” reported Alex
• There are lots of different kinds, Justin.
like fluffy, long haired and messy
• They are shy
They sniff my fingers sometimes and they
squeak,” commented Rhyley Ryan and
“Remember to wash your hands,” advised
“They are cute,” observed Hugo Borland. Jack Gregory.
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