Dear Parents,
Half-day for Inservice on Friday 2nd February and Bank Holiday on Monday 5th February
School will finish early tomorrow for inservice for staff. Junior and Senior Infant classes will finish at 11.40am and boys from first to sixth class will finish at 11.45am. There will be no school on Monday 5th February for the Bank Holiday. School will reopen again on Tuesday 6th February at 9am.
Computer coding for fifth and sixth class for term two
Computer coding for fifth and sixth class recommenced for term two this week. Our school secretary set up an online payment link of €20 for each boy last week.
Comprehension Strategy, Writing Genre and PE Strand
We are taking a whole school approach to writing genres and comprehension strategies. This month we will focus on ‘Report’ and ‘Recount’ as our writing genre. ‘Clarifying/Monitoring’ will be our comprehension strategy. Ms. Copley’s third class displayed some of their impressive samples of ‘Acrostic Poetry’ writing in our hall. The boys have depicted a snowy scene which is definitely worth a read and the handwriting and presentation is very neat and tidy. We look forward to seeing Mr. McHugh’s third class work at the end of February.
Quiz teams
Well done to our three quiz teams who took part in the Credit Union Quiz in St. Lorcan’s in Palmerstown last Friday. Our under 11 team came first. One of our under 13 teams came third (after a tie break for first place) and the other under 13 team came fourth. The three quiz teams include:
Under 11 team: Senan Mullan, Finn Ford, Finn O’Toole & Caleb Ubando
Under 13 team: Finn Brunton, Adam Finucane, Finn Crawford & Pearce O’Connor who deputised for Jonathan Hsiao
Under 13 team: Evan Gormley, Aedan Forster, Jazim Khan & Stephen Byrne who deputised for Ross Nolan
Thanks to Ms. Geraghty and Ms. Staunton for preparing the boys for this competition during their lunch break.
Green Schools
Lucan Tidy Towns are visiting the school this Saturday morning to help clear the beds for our school garden. We would be really grateful if any parents and pupils were available to help out. We will meet in the senior yard at 10.30am. Please bring tools, gloves etc. We are very grateful to Lucan Tidy Towns for their expertise so that the boys can have the opportunity to grow plants, fruit and vegetables in our school.
Our green school committee met numerous times this week to discuss single use plastics. The third classes have been out litter picking around the school grounds. We are working towards our next green flag under the theme of 'Global Citizenship – Litter and Waste'. Thanks to Ms. Murray and our Green Schools Committee for organising this initiative.
Cultural Awareness
Last Friday we were entertained by some wonderful poetry and facts about New Zealand. Brody Bligh (Mr. Joyce’s fifth class) recited a poem and Otis Bligh (Ms. Staunton’s second class) gave us some interesting facts about New Zealand. We look forward to hearing about the culture, history and language of Japan tomorrow.
Table Tennis
This week, St Mary’s Team I (Ted McHugh, Aodh McGonigle, Finn Crawford & Daniel Abbott) travelled to St Ronan’s in Deansrath for their return league fixture in Division 1. After suffering a 6-0 defeat in the previous encounter, St Mary’s I continued their recent improvement with a 3-3 draw.
Today, in Division 3, Team III (Peichiu Liu, Sam O’Brien, Finn O’Sullivan & Ruairí Dowling) defeated Ballyroan 5-1 in a closely-fought match. The scoreline doesn’t reflect some of the great battles, including Peichiu’s great singles victory despite being 2-0 down initially.
Thanks again to Mr. Clandillon and Mr. Lynch for all their help with our table tennis teams.
Le dea-ghuí,
Dara Burke, Principal.