Dear Parents & Guardians,

We would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. Please find below a list of recent & upcoming events/dates.

Reading World Cup: Our annual Reading World Cup is ongoing at the moment for children from 1st-6th class. This is one of our initiatives to promote reading in the school. As we are doing narrative language throughout the school at the moment it might be a nice idea to get your child to retell the story of the book they are reading in sequence.

Catholic Schools Week: We celebrate Catholic Schools next week. Starting Monday 23rd of January. The theme is Walking Together in Faith & Love. Once again the importance of the role that grandparents play in the lives of children is emphasised. We are going to celebrate Grandparents Day on Friday 27th of January. We would like to invite the children’s grandparents to visit the children in their classrooms. We would appreciate if you could let us know through your children’s diaries or Seesaw if grandparents are attending. The children will share some of the work they are doing in school with their grandparents. The schedule for the visits are:

Infants 1pm-1:15pm

1st & 2nd 1:20pm-1:40pm

3rd & 4th 2:00pm-2:20pm

5th & 6th 2:30pm-2:50pm

Christmas Concerts: I would like to congratulate & commend the children for their performances at this year’s Christmas Concerts. In addition to thanking the teachers for preparing the children so well I would also like to thank Tin whistle teacher Yvonne & Laura from Dance It Out Ireland for their help on the day.

Swimming Lessons: Children from 3rd to 6th will commence Swimming lessons on Wednesday 15th of February for 7 weeks up to the Easter holidays. The letter with further details will go out this week & needs to be returned by Wednesday 25th January. To comply with our school policy & child protection guidelines, we require a male & female parent to be present to assist with supervision in the dressing rooms. Further details about this will issue in the letter.

Enrolment for September 2023: The school is now taking enrolments for September 2023. If you know anyone that might be interested in enrolling their child for September, please ask them to make contact with the school office by phone or email.

Table Quiz: Due to being unable to find a suitable venue we were not able to host our Inter-schools fundraising table quiz this year. We will be entering teams in the Credit Union table quiz coming up soon.

Clothes Collection: We are having another fundraising clothes collection on Tuesday 21st of February.

St Brigid’s College Musical: The children from 5th & 6th class have been invited to see the musical Beauty & the Beast presented by the students of St Brigid’s college, this Wednesday 18th of January at 10am. St Brigid’s College are providing a bus to transport the children & they have requested that each child bring €5 to help cover the cost of the bus & entry to the musical.

St. Thomas All-Ireland Club Semi-final: Hard luck to Manager Kenneth Burke & all the St. Thomas’ players on their recent defeat to Dunloy. I’m sure the whole community are very proud of what the group have achieved in winning five county titles in a row.

Tin whistle Lessons: Tin whistle lessons re-commenced for children from 1st-6th classes on Tuesday 10th January with Yvonne Barrett. Yvonne will communicate with you directly re payment.

Parents/Guardians/Visitors entering school: We would ask that parents, guardians & all visitors to the school come to the front door & buzz the intercom when seeking entry to the school.

Dates for your attention: School Closures

Staff Meeting Wednesday 18th January children go home at 1:45pm buses will run as normal

Bank Holiday Monday 6th of February.

Mid-Term Break Thursday 16th & Friday 17th Feb.

St Patrick’s Day Friday 17th March

If you have any further queries in relation to any of the above, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Francis O’Connor

Principal.