17 10 2025
Good afternoon, everyone,
I hope you’ve had a nice week.
Thank you to the parents of children in Arlene’s class who came along to our coffee morning today. And a special thanks to Ted and Sarah for providing the goodies! The aim of these gatherings is to help you build connections with the parents and guardians of the children in your child’s class — it’s a short and friendly social catch-up. Coffee morning will take place next week for the parents and guardians of children in Ciara’s class.
Reminder, the Annual General Meeting of our Parent Guardian Staff Association is next Monday night, 20th . This is a great opportunity to connect, share ideas, and help shape the year ahead for our school community. PGSA look forward to hearing your thoughts on fundraising ideas for upcoming events, parent talk topics and any other suggestions. There are also volunteer opportunities, we need more helping hands to make our plans a success! Whether you’re a returning volunteer or new to the PGSA, your voice and input are valued. Please bring your suggestions! We’d love to hear from you!
Tea/coffee will be available in the staffroom from 7pm.
It has come to our attention that parking can be an issue on Rathdown Road at drop off and pick up time. We’ve noticed that some cars are parking on the double yellow lines near the plaza, which makes visibility difficult for children cycling to school. Please be especially mindful of this on Fridays, when many people drive, park up, and come into the school grounds.
We haven’t mentioned this to the children yet, but we’ll be having a parade next Friday morning. Ciara has helped us plan a practical route on the school grounds, and there’s always great excitement on this day. We’ll also have our first whole-school assembly on Thursday morning. Lots to look forward to next week!
Our admissions opened this week through the website for applications for Junior Infants, September 2026.
If you have a sibling starting next year, please remember that an application must be submitted within the admissions timeframe. As stipulated by Educate Together, late applications — even for siblings — cannot be considered until after all other places have been offered.
Please visit www.d7educatetogether.com to submit your application today.
Finally, just a reminder: if your child attends an after-school activity, please ensure their smartwatch remains on school mode until the activity is over. The same rules apply after school as during school hours — no phones or smartwatches, please.
Student Council
At the end of Democracy Week, we elected our new Student Council. We now have 10 new members, and we met briefly today to take a photo and plan our first meeting for next week. Some of our council members are also on the Library or Active Committees — their enthusiasm is truly commendable! We also made history this week with the same student being elected 2 years in a row!!
Halloween Swap Shop
The Halloween Swap Shop was a massive success and 6th Class would like to extend their thanks to anyone who attended the shop to drop off or pick up over the past two weeks. The costumes flew off the shelves (benches) and the pupils really enjoyed organising the shop and meeting with the parents. In particular, it was very rewarding for the pupils to see the immediate impact they could make in their school community. They would also like to remind parents that there are no refunds – caveat emptor!
There are still some costumes available for pick up. We plan to leave these out during the mornings next week in boxes for anyone who needs a last-minute costume. Anything remaining after that will be used for drama or recycled.
Debating
Enda’s 6th are entering the Concern Primary School Debating Competition and their first debate is scheduled for Thursday next week. The debating panel consisting of India, Jeremy, Luka, Penny, Tom McM and Tom C have been preparing all week, culminating in a live practice debate on Friday in front of all 6th Class pupils. If the practice debate was anything to go by, they will put up a great fight next week against Ballyroan Boys National School. D7ET is opposing the motion: ‘Social Media should be banned for U-16s’.
GAA News
Our Junior mixed team were involved in another epic battle on Tuesday, 7th when they faced the mighty O’Connell’s School in Grangegorman. On a lovely day for football, our opponents started stronger, grabbing an early lead. D7 sprung to life with a few scores of their own, and it was game on.
Playing with a strong breeze in the first half, we didn’t take full advantage, allowing OCS to gain a narrow half time lead. The home team leapt into life in the second half and bagged three green flags in quick succession, unfortunately by now the O’Connell’s boys were beginning to use the wind to devastating effect with the goalkeeper’s kick-outs landing very close to our own goal line.
Despite our heroic efforts, the game got beyond us, and OCS managed to claim a hard-fought victory. D7 never gave in, and once more girls were to the forefront in our valiant effort. We are looking to wrap up the season next week with an in-school blitz involving all the school teams. We are awaiting pitch availability confirmation.
Our Girls’ fabulous run came to an end on Wednesday, 8th , in the Quarter final match v St Patrick’s Glencullen. Despite putting on a very brave show, our opponents got crucial scores at the opportune time. D7 fought to the final whistle but unfortunately were second best on the day. They should be very proud of their efforts throughout the season, and we look forward to seeing the majority of them togging out in the springtime for the camogie competition.
On Tuesday, we wrapped up our GAA season with a school blitz including all the children who had played this season. With over 60 children involved it was a great way to finish off our season.
The competition was fierce, and no quarter was asked for or given as the players gave it their all for the two hours we were there. Following some close matches, we were left with two worthy opponents in the final.
A big thanks to Tom for refereeing and congratulations to everyone involved. We’ll take a break now until springtime when we’ll kick off the hurling / campaigns.
Padraig, Patrick & Martin
A big thank you to Padraig, Patrick, and Martin for generously volunteering their time to coach, schedule games, organise transport, and support and mentor our children throughout the football season.
While the children love their GAA clubs, there’s something special about getting the chance to play with their school friends.
Our pupils represent a wonderful mix of clubs — St Brendan’s, Naomh Fionnbarra, St Oliver Plunkett Eoghan Ruadh, Na Fianna, and even one proud player from Kevins GAA Club. I hope I didn’t forget any club!
Have a lovely weekend,
Fionnuala