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.

St. Thomas All-Ireland Club final: Best wishes to Manager Kenneth Burke and all the St. Thomas’
players in their upcoming match vs O’Loughlin Gaels in the All-Ireland Club final on Sunday. We hope
they can bring back the Tommy Moore Cup for a second time. Thanks to the club who very kindly
gave a St Thomas’ flag to every pupil in the school. The children can wear their St. Thomas’ colours
on Friday if they have them.

Reading World Cup: Our annual Reading World Cup is ongoing at the moment for children from 1 st –
6 th class. This is one of our initiatives to promote reading in the school. 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 22 nd of January.
The theme is Communities of Service. 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 26 th 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 email 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 11:30am-11:45pm
1 st & 2 nd 11:50am-12:10pm
3 rd & 4 th 12:00pm-12:40pm
5 th & 6 th 12:50pm-1:10pm

Christmas Concerts: I would like to congratulate & commend the children for their performances at
this year’s Christmas Concerts. In addition, I would like to thank the teachers for preparing the
children so well.

Swimming Lessons: Children from 3 rd to 6 th will commence Swimming lessons on Wednesday 31 st of
January for 6 weeks up to the Easter holidays. The letter with further details will go out this week. 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 2024: The school is now taking enrolments for September 2024. 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. The admissions notice has also been posted
on the school’s website

Progressive 25 Fundraising Card Game: Our sincere gratitude to all who worked so hard over the
last few months to make the Fundraising Card Game on Sunday January 7 th such a success. In excess
of €13,000 was raised between ticket sales & the raffle. A huge effort went in to raise this money &
massive credit goes to the members of the Fundraising Committee Jamie, Laura, Veronica, Brian,
Maria, Jillian, Regina, Karen and especially John. Your efforts are very much appreciated. A special
word of thanks also to Hubert Geoghegan for all his help.

Table Quiz: Due to the cold weather promised this week it has been decided not to go ahead with
our Inter-schools fundraising table quiz this year. We will be entering teams in the Credit Union table
quiz coming up soon.

St Brigid’s College Musical: The children from 5 th & 6 th class have been invited to see the musical
Shrek presented by the students of St Brigid’s College, this Wednesday 17 th of January at 10am

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

Dates for your attention: School Closures

Staff Meeting Wednesday 17 th January children go home at 1:45pm buses will run as normal
Bank Holiday Monday 5 th of February.
Mid-Term Break Thursday 15 th & Friday 16 th Feb.
St Patrick’s Day Bank Holiday Monday 18 th 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.