Bunscoil Bhríde Fortnightly Bulletin – 22nd January 2026

Dear Parents / Guardians,

We hope you are all well. Our news is as follows:

• Catholic Schools Week: Catholic Schools Week will be celebrated in our school next week, from 27^th to 30^th January.  This year’s theme is ‘Normal lives, Called to Holiness’.  Because we are a Catholic School, this is a very special week in our calendar and it will be celebrated in many different ways in each classroom.

• Grandparents’ Day: As part of Catholic Schools Week, we will celebrate Grandparents’ Day on Friday next. I want to thank the Bunscoil Bhríde Parents’ Association who will be providing tea/coffee for the visiting grandparents in our school hall. If anyone is available to help them out with the serving of tea/coffee, we’d be really grateful if you would contact Catríona in the office to let her know. Any donation of baked goods for our grandparents would be greatly appreciated and can be dropped to the school on the morning of Grandparents’ Day. We understand lots of children will not have grandparents available to attend, which is why teachers will be ensuring that the visitors will be shared out amongst all the children, to include everyone. If grandparents find that their grandchildren’s classroom times overlap, they can simply visit one classroom first and then join the second classroom afterward. We will be very flexible and accommodating with timings. Importantly, we are asking that no photographs be taken in classrooms by our visitors. Photos will be taken by teachers and will be available to view on our website www.bunscoilbhride.ie

Timetable for Grandparents’ Day

Friday January 30th

Time	Class	Classroom
9am – 9.30am	Junior Infants – Ms. Feeney   Jun & Sen Infants – Ms. Costello	Room 1   Room 2
9.30am – 10am	Senior Infants – Ms. Gleeson   1st Class – Ms. Beary & Ms. Greally	Room 5   Room 3
10am – 10.30am	2nd Class – Ms. Geraghty   6th Class – Ms. Coughlan	Room 4   Room 6
10.45am – 11.15am	1st & 2nd Class – Ms. Dillon   3rd Class – Ms. McEvoy	Room 11 (upstairs)   Room 8 (upstairs)
11.15am – 11.45am	4th Class – Ms. Brogan   4th Class – Ms. Ruttledge	Room 10 (upstairs)   Room 9 (upstairs)
11.45am – 12.15pm	5th Class – Ms. Flood   5th & 6th Class – Ms. Marrinan	Room 12 (upstairs)   Room 7 (upstairs)

• Cumann na mBunscol Quiz: Aoife O’Loughlin, Becky Walsh, Saoirse Mullally and Libby O’Loughlin will travel to Newbridge today to represent our school in the Cumann na mBunscol Quiz.We wish the girls the very best of luck.

• Rathangan Quiz: Our Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Class pupils are busy preparing for our annual quizzes, which will take place in February in our school and in Rathangan Boys’ School respectively.  Teams will be mixed and the children will get the opportunity to work with the boys in practising their general knowledge and having lots of fun in the process. We would urge you to help the children develop their general knowledge at home over the coming weeks in preparation.

• Rushes wanted: All classes will begin making St. Brigid’s crosses next week. We are in need of rushes to make the crosses and will need a large number. We would be really grateful if you were in a position to gather rushes for us and drop them into the school. Our Parents’ Association will also be making crosses, which they will sell to raise money for our school.

• Oral Language: The theme for the month of February is ‘Socially functional language’ (introductions, giving thanks, complaints). All classes will be focusing on this theme for the month and we would ask that you, the parents, support us at home, by encouraging your child to use appropriate socially functional language and by modelling good use of such language at home. We would also encourage you to discuss with them what they’ve learnt in school on this topic.

• Lego Donation Request: We are seeking donations of Lego for some of our classrooms. If you have Lego at home that is no longer in use, we would be really grateful if you would donate it to the school.

• Heavy school-bags: We are attempting to address the issue of children carrying school bags that are too heavy to and from school, by asking them to unpack fully their bags every morning and only repack books marked for homework. Your help in tackling this issue is required as many of the items contained in school-bags are unnecessary ancillary items e.g. multiple heavy pencil-cases etc. Please go through your daughter’s bag with her and remove any unnecessary items.

• Dates for the Diary for this term: All important events and dates for the diary for the remainder of the school year can be found by clicking on the calendar icon within the Aladdin Connect app. Please keep an eye on this calendar as events will be added throughout the year and may be subject to change.

• School Closure and February Bank Holiday: The school will close on Monday next, 26^th January, for staff inservice in the new Primary Curriculum Framework. We will also close on Monday 2^nd February for the February Bank Holiday, and will reopen on Tuesday 3^rd February. We hope everyone enjoy the long weekend.

Kind regards,

Maria Rogerson