Bunscoil Bhríde Fortnightly Bulletin – 8th January 2026

Dear Parents / Guardians,

Happy new year! We hope you are all well and that you had a lovely Christmas break. Our news is as follows:

• Welcome: I want to warmly welcome Ms. Fitzgerald and Ms. Burrell to our staff. Ms. Fitzgerald and Ms. Burrell, who are job-sharing, are permanent members of the staff of Kildangan N.S., and have joined our Special Education Support Teaching team. They will remain with us until the end of February.

• Grandparents’ Day: As part of Catholic Schools Week, we will celebrate Grandparents Day on Friday 30^th January this year. Grandparents Day is an initiative of Catholic Schools Week and it affirms and values the place of grandparents, not only in the lives of their grandchildren, but in the community in general. Grandparents are invited into all classes (see timetable below) and are encouraged to share their memories of school in the past and stories of the past with the children. The Bunscoil Bhríde Parents’ Association have kindly volunteered to provide tea/coffee for the visiting grandparents in our school hall. 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. While we hope lots of grandparents will visit our school for Grandparents’ Day, we are very conscious of the fact that not all children have grandparents living and also that not all grandparents will be able to make it to our school. Every year there are a number of children in every class who do not have a grandparent attend, and, as always, there will be arrangements put in place in all classrooms for the sharing of available grandparents, so all children will be included and will get the chance to learn about life and school in the past. It will be a fun, warm and welcoming day for all grandparents and children.

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)

• Rushes wanted: All classes will begin to make St. Brigid’s crosses in the coming weeks. 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.

• 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.

• School Closure: The school will close on Monday 26^th January for staff inservice on the new Primary Curriculum Framework.

• Chess Club: Chess lessons will be starting back up on Tuesday evenings after school from 2.30pm to 3.30pm for pupils in 5th and 6th class. We are also very excited about an upcoming chess tournament in February, where we will be travelling to St. Brigid’s Primary School to take part in a friendly event with three other schools. This will be a non-competitive day out, giving the children a wonderful chance to showcase all the skills they have learned, meet other young chess players and enjoy the experience of representing our school. I want to thank Ms. Marrinan and Ms. Brogan for kindly volunteering their time to run our chess club. 

• Relationships and Sexuality Education (R.S.E.): R.S.E. lessons will begin in all classes next week. You all received a letter from your daughter’s teacher via Aladdin this week, together with a Home/School Links sheet detailing the content to be covered with your child’s class. It would be very helpful if you could discuss what is being learnt at school with your daughter(s) at home. Please feel free to contact the school with any queries you may have.

• Stay Safe: Senior Infants, Second Class, Fourth Class and Sixth Class will begin the Stay Safe programme in the next few weeks and will continue with the programme over the coming months. I would like to remind you again about the importance of discussing the issues covered in class with your child at home. The lessons covered over the course of the programme are as follows: Feeling Safe and Unsafe, Bullying, Touches, Secrets and Telling and Strangers. More information about the programme can be obtained on the website; www.staysafe.ie

• January Assembly: Our whole-school assembly for January (marking Catholic Schools Week and St. Brigid’s Day) will take place on Tuesday 27^th January and will be led by Ms. Beary’s and Ms. Greally’s First Class and Ms. Brogan’s Fourth Class.

• School Tours: All teachers will be sending permission requests next week for attendance at their school tours in June. Please ensure you have responded to the permission request on Aladdin Connect. Payment requests will issue the following week to facilitate parents paying in instalments over the next few months.

• Cumann na mBunscol Quiz: The Cumann na mBunscol Quiz will take place on 10^th February next in Ballymany N.S., Newbridge. All pupils from Third to Sixth Class will take part in a quiz in the school in the coming weeks to determine the team that will represent our school in the competition. Please practise some quizzes (general knowledge questions) with your daughter in preparation for this and for our Annual Rathangan Schools’ Quiz later in February, in which all children from Third to Sixth Classes will take part.

• Running Initiatives: As an Active School, laps are an important part of our school day. As part of our efforts to encourage pupils to stay active and build confidence in their fitness, we have introduced a fun new way to motivate them during running activities. The girls will now use lollipop sticks to track the number of laps they complete. Each time a child finishes a lap, they will collect a stick as a visual reminder of their effort and progress. This helps pupils focus on improving their own personal bests in a positive and encouraging way. This approach promotes motivation, goal-setting, and a sense of achievement while keeping running enjoyable for all pupils. ‘Rathangan Runners’ have organised a 9-week Couch to 5k Programme taking place on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7.30pm at the soccer pitch. We would encourage all of our families to take part.

• Oral Language: The theme for the month of January is ‘Questioning’. All classes will be focusing on this theme for the month and we would ask that you support us at home, by encouraging your child to pose fully-formed questions and ensuring that they have knowledge of and make use of all the question words (What? Why? Where? When? Who? How? etc.). We would also encourage you to discuss with them what they’ve learnt in school on this topic.

• Aladdin Connect app: Please check your child’s details on the Aladdin Connect app (including the numbers you have listed as emergency contacts) and ensure they are correct. Please contact us if you need assistance making any updates to this information.

• Names on Uniforms: Please ensure that your child’s name is clearly marked on her uniform and tracksuit jumper, her coat and hat.

• Late Arrivals/Early Departures and Absences: Children arriving late to school or leaving early must have their arrival / leaving time recorded on Aladdin Connect. This can be done by parents. If your child is arriving late to school, please accompany her to the front door of the school. All absences must be explained. This can be done by selecting the reason for absence on Aladdin Connect. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Please contact the school if you are having any issues with using the Aladdin Connect app.

• Coming to school: School begins at 8.50am and children should be dropped to school as close as possible to this time. The gate will open and supervision will be provided from 8.40am. The church car-park is a public space and children should not be dropped outside the school gate before 8.40am.

• Hot School Meals: While fruit will be available at school for children to take most days, they will still need a small snack for small break, as our Hot Lunch does not arrive until lunch-time at 12.15pm. 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. As you know, the children have been provided 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). If you find your child is not eating the Hot Lunch, and you wish to discontinue it and send in your own lunch for her, please let us know, so that we can remove your child from The Lunch Bag order. The lunches are a considerable cost and as a Green School, we hate to see food waste.

Kind regards,

Maria Rogerson