ST. BRIGID’S GIRLS’ SCHOOL, THE
PARK
NEWSLETTER
-
DECEMBER 2011.
School "Text a Parent" system
We have approximately 15% of parents who still have not joined the School Text-a-Parent System. This is a very efficient way of reminding parents of upcoming events, meetings, special closings, staff meetings, or unscheduled closings in cases of severe weather. We would especially urge our Infant parents to join this system. If you need the code and instructions again, or are having difficulty joining the system, please call into our Secretary, Ms Toomey, any time, and she will help you or click here to see how to do this.
Lost Property
We have already
accumulated a huge amount of lost property – even some brand new tracksuit tops
and jumpers (without names on them!).
This lost property will be on display in the school hall on Friday next,
16th December from 8.45a.m. – 3p.m.
It will be disposed of after
that, as we have no facility to store it.
Maths in St. Brigid's
The “National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy 2011 – 2020”, notes that
children perform less well in the area of measurement than in other areas of the
Maths Curriculum. For this
reason, we would like to enlist your help in improving the children’s
understanding of measurement. In
school, we teach the metric system.
However in many homes children’s weight is still measured in stones and pounds,
their height in feet and inches.
This can be very confusing for children and does nothing to reinforce their
learning and understanding of measures.
Therefore we urge all parents to use the metric terms with your children
in all day-to-day activities e.g. baking, discussing distances, measuring your
child’s height and weight etc. We
appreciate your co-operation and look forward to seeing great strides being made
in this area. (In centimetres and metres, we hope!!)
Supervision - Mornings and Evenings.
Please note that the school opens at 8.45a.m. and finishes at 2.25p.m. (1.25p.m. for infant classes). The school can only accept responsibility for the children during these times. No arrangements exist for the provision of supervision of children who arrive to school before the official opening time, or who remain after school hours
Coats Please!
Many girls come to school without coats – perhaps because they are travelling by
car and don’t feel the need of them !
However the children go to the yard at the break times each day and need to be
wrapped up well on these cold days.
Car park / School Gates
The school car park is for the use of
Staff only. Parents
should never pull into the grounds of the school in the mornings or at school
closing times. It is highly
dangerous and can also delay staff trying to park and get to class.
A few parents have begun to pull in, or park, at the top gates.
Besides causing congestion, this is a very dangerous practice.
This area is a crossing point for people accessing the school from the
Park. On a busy morning a small
child might not be visible to a car turning or reversing in this area.
For the sake of the children’s safety,
parents should never pull in, park, or turn at the main school gates.
Internet technology has evolved rapidly and through internet availability on
mobile and camera phones, parents need to understand that access to the internet
is becoming increasingly diverse. We
have established that many of our pupils have access to the internet in their
bedrooms, or on laptops, where they are unsupervised.
Some of our pupils have encountered issues while using social networking
sites. Many of our older girls are registered on “Facebook” even though the
minimum age for registration is 13 years.
Parents need to actively get involved and supervise their children’s use
of the internet. There are simple
practical steps you can take to limit the risks, and clear advice you can give
your child. The following websites
are very useful and have links to safety tips etc.
www.internetsafety.ie
and www.webwise.ie
The girls in 6th class have had a workshop with the “e-safety”
group and we hope to provide the same workshop for the 5th classes in
the New Year. The best safety tip
however is to
Get involved with your child’s use of
the internet!
Board of Management Voluntary Donation
The Board of Management wish to thank most sincerely all those who very kindly
contributed to this years’ Voluntary Donations Appeal.
All donations have been receipted.
Any further donations are still more than welcome from families who may
still wish to contribute at any time during the school year.
Art Matters
As part of a
Parish Initiative to promote “getting to know our neighbor in the local
community” 8 girls from 6th class joined forces with the Senior
Citizens Group from Cabinteely and Foxrock for “Craft Fun and Afternoon Tea! The
project co-coordinator was Mary Delaney from St. Brigid’s Parish Centre, and it
was a fun and very creative session, enjoyed by all.
Mrs. Monelly’s 4th
class are embarking on an art project with visiting artist Terry O’Farrell as
part of the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown’s “Artist in Residence” Scheme.
Themes and plans are being worked on at the moment.
Christmas Carol Service
Our Christmas Carol Service will be held in the school hall on the night of
Monday, 19th December at 7.30p.m.
Girls from 5th and 6th classes will sing in the choir, under
the direction of Mrs. Orla Gillan and our school orchestra, under the direction
of Ms. Michelle le May, will play on the night.
This is always a beautiful service and parents of the girls involved are
invited to attend.
St. Vincent De Paul Christmas Hampers.
We are making up
Christmas Hampers for our local St. Vincent de Paul Society, for the less
fortunate members of our community.
We would appreciate items such as chocolates, biscuits, non-perishable foods,
toiletries etc for our Hampers.
These should be brought into school on
or before Thursday next, December 15th.
Christmas Cards Project
We had a great response to our “Design a Christmas Card” project this year. This project was originally designed to support fundraising for the Christmas Fair, but as the cards were not ready on time, the school here co-ordinated the project instead. The funds raised will go towards the cost of funding our visit to Croke Park this year and means that we will only have to ask pupils for €2 each to fund the G.A.A. final costs for the team and the cost of buses for our pupils, who are attending as supporters.
Christmas Closure
The School will close on Thursday, 22nd December at 11.50a.m and re-open on Monday 9th January 2012. We, the staff of St. Brigid’s Girls’ School wish each one of you – parents and children – a very happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.
G.A.A.
St. Brigid’s entered two teams in this year’s Cumann Na mBunscol Gaelic Football league. We are proud to be one of four schools in Dublin to field two teams in the competition. Both squads this year were comprised of girls from 4th – 6th classes. The girls who competed in the Corn Na Loach competition finished 3rd in a very strong group. Unfortunately this was to be the end of their participation in the league this year. Our Corn Austin Finn team also finished 3rd and then entered the shield competition. The girls had a tough ¼ final against Mary Help of Christians NS. This match was followed by an even tougher semi-final against our namesakes from Castleknock. With 5 minutes to go before the final whistle, our girls were two points ahead. Our defence held strong against a merciless onslaught from the Castleknock girls. Those on the side-line held their breath as free after free was given. Thankfully the girls bore the pressure well – better than the parents and teachers! – and earned their place in the shield final against Presentation N.S. Terenure which will be played in Croke Park on Wednesday, 14th December. We would like to thank Johnstown, Hollypark, Knocklyon and Belgrove for playing us in friendlies over the last few weeks. We are hugely indebted to Pat Ring for his coaching expertise and to all at Foxrock Cabinteely G.A.A. Club for their support. Finally we would like to say how proud we are of all 37 girls who played for their school this year. They showed great commitment at their training sessions and represented St. Brigid’s excellently in all their matches.
Money Matters - Budget 2011
We are delighted that there was no change to the pupil/teacher ratio for Primary
schools in this year’s budget. Any
raise in the pupil/teacher ratio would have a serious and direct impact on class
sizes in St. Brigid’s Girls’ School.
Please keep up the pressure on our local T.D.s to maintain the pupil/teacher
ratio as it is.
Green Schools
This year, in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Tidy Schools Competition, St. Brigid’s
Girls’ School came 1st in the Biodiversity category for Primary
Schools.
We are also taking part in the “Christmas Decoration from Recycled Materials” Competition sponsored by D.L.R. Green Schools. This competition caught the imagination of the girls who created the most inspired decorations. After much deliberation and consultation with several members of staff, “Santa’s Hut” by Chiezda Furukiya in Ms O’Farrell’s 3rd class was selected and sent to the Town Hall in Dun Laoghaire as our entry in the competition. It will be included in the Christmas Tree display in the Town Hall. All the other winners from each class, will be on display here, in the school hall until Christmas. Do have a look! They are worthy of being included in any Christmas Craft Fair anywhere!
Food Dudes
The pupils
in St. Brigid’s Girls’ School have been invited to participate in the Food Dudes
Healthy Eating Programme beginning in January 2012.
The programme is comprised of positive role models, repeated tastings and
rewards and has been proven to increase children’s consumption of fruit and
vegetables in the long term. The
Irish programme is being organised by Board Bia and funded by the Department of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the E.U. School Fruit Scheme.
All fruit, vegetables and rewards are delivered to the school, free of
charge. Details
to follow in January 2012.