Dear Parents / Guardians,
We hope you are all well. Our news is as follows:
- Debating Final: Excitement is building across the school as our fantastic debating team prepares for the finals of the Concern Primary Debating Competition! Having secured a place in the top two teams across Kildare and West Wicklow for the second consecutive year, this is a truly remarkable achievement for our school. The final will take place on Friday 13th March in Kildare County Chambers, Naas, where our team will face Scoil an Linbh Íosa, Ballycane, Naas, proposing the motion: “In ten years time, no country should be using fossil fuels”. Our debaters, guided by Ms. Costello and Ms. Dillon, have dedicated an incredible amount of time and effort to their journey through the competition. Their research and delivery have been inspiring, and the whole school has learned from their insights. In preparation for the big day, all Third to Sixth Class pupils will have the opportunity to hear the team’s speeches in the halla. This session will also include an open debate, where pupils can challenge points and engage in discussion. We are immensely proud of the team and their mentors and wish them the very best of luck in the final!
- Cross-Country: Cross-country training for children from 3rd to 6th class will begin this year on Wednesday next and will be ran by Ms. Costello, Ms. Marrinan and Ms. Brogan, who are very generously giving their time. The training will run every Wednesday from 2.30pm to 3.15pm here at the school. All parents of children in 3rd to 6th class are asled to please give / do not give permission for your daughter to attend cross-country training on Wednesdays and to attend the Cumann na mBunscol Cross-country Competition in Rathcoffey on Thursday 26th March, should she be selected for the team.
- World Book Day: We will celebrate World Book Day this year on Friday next, 6th March, with all classes participating in various different book-related activities. Our aim is to encourage children to read at home and to learn to love books. We would ask that you support us in this endeavour by encouraging reading and by taking your child to the library regularly. All children are asked to dress as a character from their favourite book on Friday (ensuring that they are appropriately attired for the weather). Book tokens to the value of €1.50 will be distributed to all children next week.
- Third and Fourth Class Quiz: The 3rd and 4th class boys joined us for our annual Rathangan table quiz yesterday. The teams were a mix of boys and girls from both 3rd and 4th class. Our classrooms hummed with chat and excitement as the enthusiastic quizzers put their general knowledge skills on show! Well done to the winning teams.
1st place: Evie Coss, Eimear O’Loughlin, Joey Cassidy and Shane Dunne
2nd place: Amy Nenestean, Alex Smullen, Diarmuid Lynch and Noah Ledwith
3rd place: Amedeea Petrescu, Billy Dempsey, Rebecca Kearns and Ollie Dunne
- Fifth and Sixth Class Quiz: Ms. Flood’s, Ms. Marrinan’s and Ms. Coughlan’s Fifth and Sixth Classes will walk up to Rathangan B.N.S. tomorrow morning to take part in our annual quiz, in which they will work in mixed teams with the boys. We wish them the very best of luck, as they compete for medals and homework passes!
- First Confessions: We would like to wish the very best of luck to our Second Class pupils, who will receive the sacrament of First Penance on Wednesday 11th March at 7pm in Rathangan Church. They have been busy preparing and practising their prayers and hymns for the occasion with their teachers, Ms. Geraghty and Ms. Dillon. We hope it will be a very special, holy and memorable occasion for them.
- Seachtain na Gaeilge: Tá Seachtain na Gaeilge beagnach buailte linn arís (9ú – 13ú lá de mhí Márta). Beimid go léir ag úsáid cúpla focal chomh minic agus is féidir i rith Seachtain na Gaeilge. Beidh an Céilí Mór ar siúl againn ar an Máirt, an 10ú lá de mhí Márta. Beidh ‘Lá Glas’ ar siúl ar an Aoine, an 13ú and beimid go léir ag caitheamh éadaí glasa ar an lá sin. Beir bua agus bain taitneamh as Seachtain na Gaeilge!
Please attempt the cúpla focal at home with your child(ren). We will kick off Seachtain na Gaeilge with An Céilí Mór sa halla on Tuesday 10th March, with all classes getting the opportunity to practise their Irish dancing. All the classes will engage in various activities to mark Seachtain na Gaeilge throughout the week. Friday 13th March will be a non-uniform day to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge and we will dress in green on that day. Photographs of Seachtain na Gaeilge, together with the Céilí will be available to view on www.bunscoilbhride.ie
- Assembly: Our whole-school assembly for the month of February takes place in the halla today and will be led by Ms. McEvoy’s Third Class and Ms. Dillon’s First and Second Class.
- Vision and Hearing Screening: Staff from the HSE will carry out vision screening and hearing screening with our Junior Infant pupils here at the school today and tomorrow respectively.
- School Tours: Parents of children in all classes have received payment links for the school tours for this year. Payments can be made in installments up to Friday 29th May. You can make a payment by clicking on the ‘Money’ tab in Aladdin Connect.
- Parking: Please share this information with anyone who drops off / collects your child: Parents are asked not to drive around the church or park alongside the church wall facing the school, not to park in the yellow boxes, in the wheelchair parking spaces or between the wheelchair parking spaces. Parking is in a single row alongside the Noone Engineering wall and in THREE ROWS along the middle white lines. Let’s keep everyone safe!
Also, let’s all remember we are a Green School (with eleven Green Flags!). If at all possible, we would encourage as many families as possible to leave the car at home and children to walk or cycle to school.
- Oral Language: The theme for the month of March will be ‘Descriptions and Descriptive Language’. All classes will be focusing on this theme for the month and we would ask that parents support us at home, by using rich, descriptive language as much as possible, drawing children’s attention to such language in stories and discussing with them what they’ve learnt in school on this topic.
- Punctuality: School starts at 8.50am. It is vital that your child attends for school on time. Arriving even 12 minutes late for class each morning effectively means your child is missing out on one hour of tuition every week.
- Footwear Reminder: For health and safety reasons, canvas runners (e.g. Converse), Ugg boots etc. cannot be worn in school. All footwear must provide sole support and be suitable for running.
- Parent Volunteers: We frequently require parent volunteers to accompany us on school trips, work with classes or get involved in various activities here in the school. Under the National Vetting Act, all volunteers coming into our school must be Garda vetted through our diocesan office (Kildare and Leighlin). The process is very straightforward, but can take up to four – six weeks to complete. Please let us know if you wish to be vetted. We would urge as many of you as possible to do so.
- Our website: Please check out our wonderful website www.bunscoilbhride.ie. It contains lots of photographs and information about all the events taking place in the school and in the individual classrooms. Each class has a blog under the ‘Classes’ tab on the home-page. Some of our school policies are also available to view on the site. A substantial amount of work goes into regularly updating it and it is well-worth a look.
Kind regards,
Maria Rogerson