Bunscoil Bhríde Fortnightly Bulletin – 1^st December 2022

Dear Parents / Guardians,

We hope all is well with you this fortnight. Our news is as follows:

• Concerts: Six of our classes will hold their class plays next Tuesday and Thursday night, with three classes performing each night. See timetable below. As you know, our hall is quite small so space is limited. We will not have seats for children and any children who have to come will have to sit on the knees of an adult. Children from our school should not come, where possible. They will have had the opportunity to see all the class plays during the school day. The timetable for the concerts is outlined below. All concerts will begin at 7pm, with doors opening at 6.30pm (please note that the doors will not open before 6.30pm). Entry: €5 per adult, with concessions for parents who have children performing on two/three/four different nights (to obtain your concession, please mention at the door on the first night that you have another child performing on a different night). We look forward to two nights of top-class entertainment. The remaining six classes will perform in May (see the Calendar in the Aladdin app for dates).

Our Parents’ Association will be selling school calendars on both nights at a cost of €12.50 to facilitate anyone who has not already ordered via the Aladdin app.

Concert Date:	Class Performing:
Tuesday 6th December	Ms. Geraghty’s Second Class Ms. Coughlan’s Third Class Ms. Costello’s Fourth Class
Thursday 8th December	Ms. Dillon’s First Class and Ms. Rowley’s Bluebells Class Ms. O’Connor’s Third Class Ms. Ruttledge’s Fifth Class

• Parents’ Day: Our first-ever Parents’ Day will take place in the school on Friday 16^th December. Please see timetable below. This is a lovely opportunity to visit your daughter’s classroom and see her and her classmates perform songs / poems / tunes they have learnt this term.

Time	Class	Classroom
9am – 9.30am	Junior Infants – Ms. Ryan   Jun & Sen Infants – Ms. Gleeson	Room 1   Room 2
9.30am – 10am	Senior Infants & 1st Class – Ms. De Faoite   1st Class – Ms. Dillon	Room 5     Room 6
10am – 10.30am	2nd Class – Ms. Geraghty   3rd Class – Ms. O’Connor	Room 4   Room 8 (upstairs)
10.45am – 11.15am	3rd Class – Ms. Coughlan   4th Class – Ms. Costello	Room 11 (upstairs)   Room 10 (upstairs)
11.15am – 11.45am	4th Class – Mr. O’Sullivan   5th Class – Ms. Ruttledge	Room 9 (upstairs)   Room 3
11.45am – 12.15pm	5th & 6th Class – Ms. Banks   6th Class – Ms. Frawley	Room 12 (upstairs)   Room 7 (upstairs)

• Peace Proms: Our Sixth Class girls who are taking part in Peace Proms will travel to the National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown on Thursday 8^th December to engage in a practice workshop ahead of the main event on February 4^th. Well done to the girls and their mentors Ms. De Faoite, Ms. Rowley and Ms. Dillon.

• Basketball: Well done to all of the girls coming to basketball training afterschool every Thursday evening and to their coaches Ms. Gleeson and Ms. Dineen. We are awaiting confirmation of a possible spot in the semi-final of the Cumman na mBunscol Basketball League and look forward to hearing about our next fixture, which is scheduled to take place in January, with date and venue to be confirmed.

• Credit Union Art Competition: Well done to Anna Biechele in Ms. Banks’ Fifth Class, whose poster for the Credit Union Art Competition came in third place in the 8-10 year old age category. Anna’s poster will now progress to chapter level. Well done also to Niamh Bohan, whose entry was highly commended in the 8-10 year old age category. Both girls will receive prizes from the Credit Union and we are very proud of their wonderful achievement.

• Oral Language: For the month of December, our whole-school Oral Language theme is Vocabulary Development. All classes will be engaged in activities based around helping the children to develop their vocabulary. This is something that you can quite easily work on at home with your child(ren). It is only through school and home working closely together that we can achieve the very best outcome for your child(ren).

• Reminder: No medicinesare allowed at school. If your child has a medical condition for which medicine/inhaler etc. must be administered, please contact the school, as Board of Management approval must be granted for this. Please see our administration of medication policy at www.bunscoilbhride.ie for more information.

• World Record Attempt: If you wish your child to take part in the Longest Line of Colouring Pages fundraiser for CARA Projects, organised by Aideen Cross and Niamh Gilligan, please send in her completed colouring sheet along with €2 on 15^th December only (see details in our last Fortnightly Bulletin).

• Books: It’s that time of year when many of you may be thinking of purchasing books as Christmas presents. When books are purchased from Scholastic (https://www.scholastic.ie/), your child’s school earns free books. When you shop, if you enter ‘Bunscoil Bhríde’ as your child’s school, we receive 20% of your spend in credit, towards the purchase of books for our school.

• Carol Service: Our annual Carol Service will take place in the Church on Monday 19th December at 7pm. All classes from 2^nd to 6^th will take part in the Carol Service. Ms. Rowley and Ms. Dillon will conduct the choir and Ms. De Faoite will provide the musical accompaniment. We look forward to a very enjoyable night.

• Santa Stroll: On Wednesday 21^st December we will hold a whole-school Santa Stroll around the school. This will be a non-uniform day and children will be invited to wear Christmas-themed / red clothes. We will walk / dance around the school to Christmas music and look forward to what should prove to be a thoroughly festive experience. We are asking the children to bring in a small donation on the day, all of which will go to Sr. Celine Conway, who is helping less fortunate people of Brazil. Sr. Celine grew up in Rathangan and is a past pupil of our school. We are tremendously proud of the wonderful work she does in Brazil and endeavour to help her every Christmas by raising much-needed funds for her extremely worthy cause.

• Special Visitor: I have heard a rumour that our Parents’ Association have been in contact with a very special person from the North Pole, who may visit the school on Wednesday 21^st December. We look forward to warmly welcoming our special guest!

• Christmas Presents: Again this year, we ask you not to purchase Christmas gifts for teachers. What the teachers really value is the words of thanks and appreciation uttered by pupils and parents. This is worth far more to us than any gift that can be purchased.

• Christmas Holidays: The school will close at 11.50am on Wednesday 21^st December. We would like to wish you all a very peaceful, happy and holy Christmas and every blessing for the year ahead. Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!

Kind regards,

Maria Rogerson