Newsletter
20 01 2023
1st Class Ice Art
Good afternoon Parents / Guardians,
I hope you have had a nice week.
I managed to visit our new school this week and delighted to report all is progressing very well there. The GDA have also reported at our recent Community Liaison Committee meeting that construction of the new school is now c.85% complete. Services connections are ongoing, including some works on Grangegorman Upper to facilitate new connections to the building. The hoarding will come down mid-February which will give us a better view of our new school.
We also had a Board of Management meeting last week.
Please find the Agreed Report below. Thanks, Ben, for this.
D7ET BoM Meeting 2023-01-12 – Agreed Report
Present: Fionnuala McHugh, Olivia Fox Gill, Paul Butler, Ben North (minutes), Stephen Kenny, Katrina Maguire, Mary Meaney (chair). No absences / apologies.
The Board of Management met on 12th January. The Board discussed procedures for appointing a new Community Nominee. Noted that there were no child protection or bullying incidents to report. Approved a change to the Admissions policy, in line with Dept of Education directions. Noted its thanks to the Student Council for their fundraising work for the Capuchin Centre, and to the PGSA for their work on the Winter Bazaar. Noted that after-school activities are going well. Discussed the process of acquiring furniture and fittings for the new building. Noted its intent to operate a second special class for children with autism from September 2023 and discussed the process for this. Noted a letter from a company offering to run an after-care service; agreed that such a service would be welcome and a benefit to the school community; noted that FMcH had sought and received advice from ET as to how to proceed; agreed to conduct a call for expressions of interest for this. Reviewed the summary accounts. Noted various staffing matters.
Rowing
Rowing continues for 5th class.
Ice art
Children from Michelle’s first class enjoyed exploring the freezing process and learning about some elements of winter this week. They enjoyed a frosty walk to Grangegorman with their artistic hats on to look for fallen foliage for their ice decorations. Fingers were crossed for a freeze overnight and we weren’t disappointed. Beautiful ice decorations were hung on the tree on the roundabout and some solstice songs were sung. They really enjoyed the experience and recounted the process in their writing copies, samples which can be seen outside the classroom.
RSE meeting
Thank you to Ciara, Padraig and Veronica for hosting the meeting for 5th class parents / guardians last night. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to attend. Resources and links have been sent to all families.
Student Council
Thank you to all members of our Student Council for walking to the Capuchin Centre this morning to deliver funds raised during our Winter Solstice Celebration. Our students met Alan Bailey, Volunteer Coordinator at the centre.
Spelling Bee
Heartiest congratulations to Manual Bodnarescu for winning D7ETNS Spelling Bee Final today. Competition was tough. Manuel and Eoghan Phillips had a difficult final round.
Well done to all our 5th and 6th class finalists.
6th class graduation – June 28th
Our 6th class graduation will take place on June 28th . We are assuming the venue will be in our new school. 5th class parents and guardians can look forward to trialling our servery in our big GP room!
Yard time
Senior Infants were very creative today during yard. They made a nice lounger and chilled out in the cool sunshine.
5th class projects
Writers, radicals, trailblazers, trendsetters, artists-martial and visual, world-weavers, teachers, thinkers, talkers, listeners pioneers, prisoners and prophets-they were present today for our ‘People who Shaped the World’ projects. Wesley’s 5th class put a huge amount of effort into researching their chosen person and the presentations were as entertaining as they were enlightening!
Well done everyone.
Have a lovely weekend,
Fionnuala