Dear Parents,
Appointment of Leo Hargaden as Chairperson of the Board of Management
I would like to welcome Leo Hargaden as our new Chairperson. Leo is the retired Principal of Scoil Lorcáin National School in Palmerstown. I would like to thank Leo for volunteering for this role and we hope to benefit from his wealth of experience in primary education.
As you know, Fr. Philip Curran’s workload has doubled in recent months since he was asked to take over another parish (Esker). I would like to thank Fr. Philip for all his time and effort as the former Chairperson of our Board of Management. On a personal note I am very grateful for all the support he has given me since I was appointed Principal.
New Chaplin and School Mass
Our new school Chaplin is Fr. Ubaldo Muhindo. Fr. Muhindo celebrated our school Mass on Tuesday for boys from 2nd to 6th class. I would like to wish Fr. Muhindo all the best in his new role.
Comprehension Strategy, Writing Genre and PE Strand
We are taking a whole school approach to writing genres, comprehension strategies and our PE strand. This month we will focus on ‘Procedure’ and ‘Narrative’ as our writing genre. ‘Visualisation’ will be our comprehension strategy. Ms. Clarke’s third class have displayed some of their samples of ‘Report’ in our hall. The boys wrote about ‘Dolphins’ and the content is very informative, well-presented with neat handwriting. We look forward to seeing a display from Ms. Murray’s fifth class at the end of the month. We will focus on the strands of Games and Activities in PE.
Bob-a-Job
All boys in school received their own Bob-a-Job sponsorship card this week. We hope that the boys will receive up to €1 for every job that they complete at home. The boys will note the completion of their chore on their card. We encourage parents to email photos of the boys as they work on their jobs. The closing date for all cards and money will be Tuesday 25th October. Some boys are busy already and we received some photos by email during the week and they have now been uploaded on our Facebook page so please keep those photos coming.
There’s no chance of Adam Hosback’s (Ms Staunton's second class) sister tripping up as he ties a double knot in her runners. Benjamin Dufus (Mr O’Brien’s fifth class) is a great man to have around the house as he makes light work of any IKEA flat pack. James Keogh (Ms Ward’s Junior Infants), Ollie O'Neill (Ms. Killane’s Senior Infants), Anthony Costello (Ms Walsh’s second class), Tom Norry (Ms. Walsh’s second class) are so particular with their hoovering and refuse to let dust or dirt get the better of them. Andrew Rath (first class) on the other hand prefers the old fashioned brush and dust pan. Tom Ferguson (Ms Friel’s Junior Infants) enjoys the rural life and he likes to escape to the country and help out with the farm animals. Bamise Adesanya(Ms. Walsh’s second class), Phillip Tracey (Junior Infants), Liam Tracey (Ms. Geraghty’s first class) and Charlie Gavan (Ms. Kilane’s Senior Infants) like to leave the bins out in good time for collection the following day. The O’Connell boys certainly work well as a team as Luke, Liam (Ms. Ward’s Junior Infants) and Michael O’Connell (Ms. Geraghty’s first class) collect all the leaves around their house. Taha Ahmad (Ms. Ward’s Junior Infants), Eoghan Maher (Ms Donovan’s third class) also make a big effort to keep their lawns leaf free. Who needs Neven Maguire in the kitchen when you have someone as talented as Thomas Cooney (Ms. Donovan’s third class) and James Regan (Ms Maguire’s Senior Infants) to rustle up a tasty meal. Max O'Neill (Ms. Friel’s Junior Infants) is a dab hand with a sponge and a bucket of suds when it comes to washing his father’s car. The dogs in the Ware household will never go hungry when you have the reliable Eoghan Ware (Mr.Lynch’s fourth class) to cater for their every need.
Pre-loved uniform & clothes sale – Friday 21st October
Need an extra school jumper or a spare track suit? Well, come to the school hall on Friday 21st October in the morning at school drop off or in the afternoon at school collection and pick one up for a very small price.
All money raised will go back into the school for the benefit of our boys! Many thanks to Catherine Kelly (SNA), who kindly agreed to put the clothes on the wall near the school gate today (weather permitting) to allow parents one final chance to reclaim some of their belongings. Thanks to our Parents’ Association (PA) for organising this fundraiser. All remaining clothes will be given to St. Vincent de Paul or the clothes bank.
PA AGM – Tuesday 15th November on Zoom at 7.30pm
Our PA AGM will take place on zoom on Tuesday 15th November at 7.30pm. Our guest speaker will be Professor Donal O’Shea who will talk about children’s diet. There will be more information closer to time.
Two drinking bottles
We would like to encourage parents to give their sons an extra bottle of water during the school day, particularly on days that the boys have PE.
Gaelic Football
Our Junior A football team put up a great fight against St. Joseph’s Terenure on Tuesday and the Junior B team played well against Ballyroan yesterday. Many thanks to Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Dineen, Mr. Clandillon, Mr. Keegan, Mr. Walsh and Mr. O’Brien for all their time and effort. Please see the attached flyers from Lucan Sarsfields GAA and Westmanstown Gaels.
Paternity Leave
Our son, Cathal, was born this summer and I plan to take two weeks paternity leave from Monday 17th October. If parents have any issues during this time then please make an appointment to meet our Deputy-Principal, Mr. Fintan Clandillon.
Le dea-ghuí,
Dara Burke, Principal.
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