Bunscoil Bhríde Fortnightly Bulletin 6th May 2021
Dear Parents / Guardians,
We hope all is well with you this fortnight. Our news is as follows:
- Covid Safety: I want to thank you all for your continued cooperation in adhering to our Covid Response Plan. In order to ensure our school remains a safe place, we are appealing to you all not to send sick children to school. If your child as any symptoms or is any way unwell, it is vital that you phone your GP to arrange a test. We continue to rely on parents to keep us informed. If you receive a positive diagnosis for your child outside of school time, please send an email to maria.rogerson@bunscoilbhride.ie informing me in confidence, as it will be important that a risk assessment is carried out promptly to contain onward transmission. Please remember that a child who receives a negative Covid result, must not return to school until 48 hours after symptoms have stopped.
- Return to School Declarations: Please remember to complete a Return to School Declaration on the Aladdin app before your child returns to school after having been absent (even just for one day). Return to School Declarations must also be completed for the day after your child returns to school after having been taken out of school early.
- Feel Good Friday: Last Friday all classes in the school celebrated Feel Good Friday; an initiative of the Active School Committee. Three local sporting heroes, all of whom are past pupils of our school; Niamh Gorey, Caoimhe Byrne and Éadaoin Connolly spoke with all of our classes virtually and set us all a challenge each. The videos of these challenges and the photos of the classes taking part can be viewed on our school website at www.bunscoilbhride.ie. I want to thank Ms. Ruttledge and Ms. Ryan for organising Feel Good Friday.
- Transition to secondary school: Our 6th class pupils have been busy preparing questions for the First Year students at Ard Scoil Rath Iomgháin this week. Mr. Quirke, the Deputy Principal has arranged a Zoom call with our Sixth Class pupils on Thursday next, which will be attended by some first year students. The goal of the Zoom call will be to allow the girls to hear all about life at secondary school and to have as many of their questions answered as possible. We hope this will help to ease the transition to secondary school.
- Credit Union Quiz: All classes from 3rd to 6th will take part in a virtual quiz organised by the Credit Union on Friday next. The quiz will be hosted by Fergal D’Arcy from Today FM. We look forward to testing our general knowledge.
- Young Readers Festival: To celebrate the Young Readers Festival, Ms. Gorman’s Third Class will take part in a virtual workshop with author and illustrator of ‘Be an Irish Explorer’, Bex Shelford. The girls will get the opportunity to invent their own Explorer Page. They will join Bex for an introduction of the creation of Be an Irish Explorer from drawing and writing to publication followed by an illustration workshop where the class can invent their own pages.
- ICT: I am delighted to announce that two further Interactive Panels have been installed in our school, in Rooms 2 and 12, bringing to five the total of classrooms in our school boasting an Interactive Panel. We are also due to receive a further 16 tablets, which will be available for use in our junior rooms.
- Oral Language: The theme for the month of May is ‘Debating’. All classes will be focusing on this theme for the month and we would ask that you support us at home, by questioning your child, asking her to justify her choices and to support her arguments. Oral arguments that cause your child to have to reason with you and formulate and deliver a response reflecting a point of view are always to be encouraged, even in Junior Infants!
- Road Safety Talks: All classes took part in a virtual road safety talk yesterday, with Barry Anderson of the Road Safety Authority. Please remember to continue to remind the children about road safety when walking / cycling. We encourage as many children as possible to walk / cycle / scoot to school.
- Picker Pals: Ms. Fahy’s First Class have started the Picker Pals programme. Picker Pals is a fun environmental activity programme for primary school children, their families, schools and communities. Through fun stories and songs and a special pack containing everything needed for litter-picking, Picker Pals motivates children to lead litter-picking adventures with their families. All of the children will get a chance to take home the Picker Pals materials to lead a litter pick around their home in the coming weeks. We look forward to hearing of the girls’ progress.
- Parents’ Association News: Please see message below from the Bunscoil Bhríde Parents’ Association.
Kind regards,
Maria Rogerson
Bunscoil Bhríde Parents Association
The Parents Association would like to thank the school for all their hard work and dedication to keep our school open and giving our children a bit of normality in these very unusual times.
A sincere Thank You to all the staff at Bunscoil Bhríde.
The PA is a bridge between the school and the parents. If any parents would like to get involved in the parents association even if it is remotely please contact us on pabunscoilbhride@gmail.com
| We would like to thank all the parents who submitted their request forms to Kildare County Council for the installation of a Pedestrian Crossing at the school entrance, as well as the new pedestrian crossing at the top of the town. As we can see our requests were a success and it is hopeful that the pedestrian crossing lights will be working very soon. Clothing Bin We have installed a clothes bank along the Church wall near the existing bottle bins, this is to help the Parents Association with fundraising as our usual fundraisers have not been able to go ahead this year. |