Dear Parents & Guardians,

Please find below a list of recent and upcoming events.

Kilchreest N.S. Table Quiz: There was an excellent turnout for our annual fundraising quiz held on Wednesday 23^rd January.  This year we had a change of venue and we are very grateful to Sean Connolly and the staff of St. Brigid’s College for making their hall available to us. A number of schools have been in contact to compliment us on how well organised our quiz is.  For this we have to thank all our collectors, correctors and all our staff for helping out on the night.  Special thanks to our Infant teacher Ms. Kelly for co-ordinating the event.  The quiz raised approximately €1200, which will now be used to purchase readers for our new L.L.O. programme.

Credit Union Quiz Teams: This year we entered 6 teams in the Credit Union table quiz in Loughrea.  Our teams performed very well with one of our U-13 and one of our U-11 teams finishing in 5^th place in their respective competitions. Thanks to Ms. Keely for going to the quiz on the night and for preparing the children. Thanks to all the children who worked hard and gave up some of their break-times to prepare for the quiz.

World Book Day: Is on Thursday 7^th March.  Children can dress up as a character from their favourite book on that day. This ties in nicely with our Oral Language theme for the month “Characters”.  It would be very helpful if you had the time to listen to your child talk about their favourite character from a book they have read.

Enrolments: We are now taking enrolments for September 2019. If you know anyone who might be interested in enrolling their child in the school, please ask them to contact the office on 091 840112.

Best of Luck:  We would like to pass on our best wishes to the St. Thomas’ senior hurling team in the All- Ireland club semi-final vs Cushendall on Saturday.

Swimming Lessons: Children from 3^rd – 6^th will commence swimming lessons on Wednesday 13^th February for 7 weeks.  Thanks to all the parents who have agreed to help with the supervision.  We are still short of names of fathers who are available to volunteer. If any fathers are available, you can contact Patricia Clarke at 086 0451292 or contact the school office.

School closures:

• Mid-term Break: Thursday 21^st and Friday 22^nd
• Patrick’s Bank Holiday: Monday 18^th March.

Dates for Sacraments/Masses:

First Penance:                                 Thursday 11^th April @ 7:30pm

Confirmation:                                  Tuesday 30^th April @ 3:00pm

First Holy Communion:                 Saturday 25^th May @ 12:00pm

6^th Class Graduation Mass:          Tuesday 25^th June @ 12:00pm

Seachtain na nGaeilge:  We will celebrate Seachtain na nGaeilge from 11^th – 15^th March.  A number of activities will take place throughout the week to celebrate our language and culture.  There will be Lá Glas/ceolchoirm on Thursday 14^th. The children can wear green clothing on the day and we will have a concert in the school hall where children will sing Irish songs, recite poetry, play traditional Irish music and perform some Irish dances.  Due to space restrictions we will not be able to invite parents in.

Teaching Practice Student: Cassandra Mitchell, St. Patrick’s, Drumcondra, student will be doing a teaching practice placement in 1^st and 2^nd class for three and a half weeks starting Wednesday 27^th February until Friday 15^th March.

Religious Inspection:  Sr. Breda Coyne visited the school on Monday 4^th February to talk to the children on the Grow in Love religion programme.  Sr. Breda was very impressed with the children and they were delighted to get the night off homework.

Junior Entrepreneur Programme:  The children in 5^th and 6^th class are currently involved in the JEP Programme.  They have come up with 5 ideas for a start-up business.  They put together business plans which they presented in Dragon’s Den.  We will be settling on one idea soon which the children will then have to promote, produce and sell.

It is a very worthwhile programme and the children are learning a lot about life in the business world. The children also had a visit from local business man, Paul Lyons of Bó Steel to talk about his experiences.  We thank Paul for being so generous with his time.  Once a product has been chosen they will be doing some market research and they may be in contact with you.

If you have any queries regarding any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above number.

Could I ask every parent to send in their children’s PPS number as they ae needed for the DES – POD system.  Please put it in your child’s homework diary.

Yours sincerely.

Francis O’Connor

Principal.