Bunscoil Bhríde Fortnightly Bulletin – 4th December 2025

Dear Parents / Guardians,

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

Carol Service: Our school Carol Service will take place in the Church on Tuesday 16th December at 7pm. All classes from Third to Sixth will take part in the Carol Service. Ms. Rowley, Ms. Marrinan, Ms. Brogan, Ms. Gorman and Ms. Dillon will conduct the choir and provide musical accompaniment. We look forward to what has always been a very special and enjoyable night in our school calendar.

Parents’ Day: As you know, we will celebrate Parents’ Day in our school on Wednesday 17th 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. We understand that lots of our parents will be unavailable to attend on the day, so please do not feel any pressure to come. All of the girls will be included in performing for the visitors who attend and welcoming them to their classrooms. We also understand that some parents may experience timetable clashes between siblings’ classroom visits. Please be assured that we will be very flexible on Parents’ Day. If you are scheduled to be in one child’s classroom while another child’s session is taking place, you are welcome to visit the second classroom as soon as you finish. The class will happily repeat their songs or performances and show you around when you arrive.

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 1^st Class – Ms. Beary & Ms. Greally	Room 5 Room 3
10am – 10.30am	2^nd Class – Ms. Geraghty 6^th Class – Ms. Coughlan	Room 4 Room 6
10.45am – 11.15am	1^st & 2^nd Class – Ms. Dillon 3^rd Class – Ms. McEvoy	Room 11 (upstairs) Room 8 (upstairs)
11.15am – 11.45am	4^th Class – Ms. Brogan 4^th Class – Ms. Ruttledge	Room 10 (upstairs) Room 9 (upstairs)
11.45am – 12.15pm	5^th Class – Ms. Flood 5^th & 6^th Class – Ms. Marrinan	Room 12 (upstairs) Room 7 (upstairs)

Credit Union Art Competition: Well done to Alina Farrell in Ms. Gorman’s Bluebells Class and Jade Alenkhe in Ms. Flood’s Fifth Class, whose winning Credit Union Art Competition posters progressed to chapter level – a wonderful achievement! There were a number of other winners within the Mountmellick Credit Union leg of the competition across all classes. They will be announced and their prizes awarded at a prize-giving ceremony here in the school in the coming weeks (day to be confirmed by Mountmellick Credit Union).

Debating: The Bunscoil Bhríde Debating team will take on Scoil Mochua, Celbridge next Friday, the 12th of December in round two of the Concern Primary School Debating Competition. They will oppose the motion “Tourism does more harm than good.” We wish our debaters the very best of luck and commend them and their mentors, Ms. Costello and Ms. Dillon on their hard work and preparation.

Basketball: Our basketball team played their final match on Tuesday, taking on St. Brigid’s N.S., Kildare Town. It was a super game, with both teams performing brilliantly. Unfortunately, we lost by two points at the final whistle, but were extremely proud of our performance. We are currently waiting on confirmation of our place in the semi-finals from Cumann na mBunscol. Training has concluded until after Christmas break. Again we commend the girls and their coaches Ms. Gleeson and Ms. Flood, on their dedication to after-school training each week.

Hot School Meals: As you know, The Lunch Bag officially launched their Hot Meals Programme in our school yesterday, with all children receiving instructions for parents on how to download the app that facilitates the ordering of food from the extensive menu. Each child received specific log-in details for the app. Please ensure you have downloaded the app and selected lunches from the menu for your child(ren). Please contact The Lunch Bag at info@thelunchbag.ie with any queries. If you know your child will be absent on a particular day, due to a scheduled appointment etc, please ensure you turn off the calendar on the app for that day to avoid food waste. We have requested that The Lunch Bag provide the children with small lunchboxes into which their lunch will be placed to facilitate it being sent home for the first few weeks of the Programme. This will allow parents to see how much of the food the children are eating and to gauge which meals they like / dislike. It is important that this lunchbox is placed back in your child’s bag each morning to facilitate the carriage of the leftover food home (all packaging within this lunchbox is fully compostable).

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).

Use of social media: Please be advised that social media apps such as Tiktok and Snapchat have a minimum user age of 13 and are wholly unsuitable for children in primary school. We are aware of a small number of children using these apps and can only assume parents are unaware of the dangers they present and the harm they can cause to children. Children at primary school level are emotionally and socially ill-equipped to deal with social media and we would urge all parents to exercise parental responsibility and to ensure children who are online at home are fully supervised at all times. Please check out www.webwise.ie and inform yourselves of the dangers of the apps your children may be using and please take steps to address this usage.

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.

Mobile Phones and Smartwatches: Please be advised that mobile phones and smartwatches (or any watch that has capacity to record or take photographs) are not permitted at school. If found at school, they will be confiscated and a parent will be required to come in to collect them. Please see our Mobile Phones and Electronic Devices Policy.

Christmas Assembly: Our whole-school assembly for December will take place on Thursday 18^th December. We will be treated to tin whistle tunes from all of our middle classes, ukulele tunes from our senior classes and Christmas Carols from all classes. We look forward to a musical extravaganza!

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 the week of our Christmas holidays. 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 11.45am on Friday 19^th 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