Newsletter
9 02 2024
Good afternoon everyone,
I hope you have had a nice week.
We had a busy day today with our photographers in school. We got individual, sibling, class and staff photo done!
The parents and guardians from Donna’s class had a coffee morning in the staffroom. Thanks, Inga, for organising this. Thanks to James, Sonaí and Niall from 5th for catering and hosting the coffee morning. It is lovely for the parent and guardians of younger children to see how responsible our older children are in school. Next Wednesday, February 14th we will host a coffee morning for parents and guardians in Arlene’s class.
Thank you to the family who donated the iPad following a request in a recent Newsletter. Unfortunately, this one was too old, and we couldn’t download the communication app onto it. If you have an iPad you no longer use, do you mind donating it so we can use it as a communication device for a student in our ALC?
Dates for our diaries
Parent reps on our PGSA have been asking about our Junior Infant Curricular meeting. Arlene, Anna, Donna and Carol have agreed to host this at 8.35am in our GP room on the ground floor here in reception on Friday March 1st.
Families of children with additional needs have also been asking if we are hosting Summer programme in our school. Yes, this will run from July 1st – 12th.
6th class graduation is on June 26th. 5th class parents and guardians usually do the catering at this event.
We have not agreed our Calendar for 2024-25 school year. As soon as we do, I will let you know.
Finally, we would be very grateful if a few parent volunteers could help us relocate some stones from the front of the building next Wednesday morning from 8.30am-9.30am. We are having some small issues with the door openings and the drainage stones. If you are available to help, can you email grainne@d7educatetogether.com
Well done Eva
Congratulations Eva Corsi 5th who is runner up in the DCU Science Week Multimedia Competition. She won a €75 Book Token. Her artwork was about what it means to be a human in today’s world. Eva is obviously very creative as I think I remember her winning another competition when she was in 2nd class.
Letter from 5th class
Dear parents and guardians,
We are some of the children from Veronica’s 5th Class, and we are hoping you can help us with our Science Blast project “What Role Do Plants Play in Sustainability?” Science Blast is an exhibition for kids to showcase their skills in research and STEAM. As part of our project we have designed planters and we are also going to make them. The planters we make will be used to brighten up our school yards as we think there is a lot of concrete, and we want to have more greenery. We would very much appreciate if you would have a look in your home for any spare wood or anything else that we could use to make our planters for ESB Science Blast.
If you do have anything we could use, please bring them in on Wednesday 14th of February at drop off and leave them under the canopy in front of the P.E shed. If you also have some equipment we could borrow like screwdrivers, hammers etc. please label them with your child’s name and class and place them in the storage box. We will take care of them and return then to you on the 22nd of February. We would also be very grateful if you could spare your time to help us construct the planters on Tuesday the 20th of February from 9am. If you are free on that day and willing to help us, please let Veronica know (veronica@d7educatetogether.com). We will be exhibiting our project at the RDS on 4th March 2024, and we will keep you updated on how we get on.
Many thanks,
Veronica’s 5th class
The Theme of the month in Junior Infants is ‘Baby Clinic’. Thanks to Rebecca who visited Carol H’s class today told them all about bathing her babies one at a time and feeding them. She spoke about their enormous bed with a cot attached and what a great big brother Muiris is. The children learned all about how important it is to be gentle and loved having Féidhlim and Rose in the class.
Book Fair
Our Book Fair has been in full swing this week, thanks to the trojan efforts of our parent volunteers Jennifer, Danielle and Andy, and of course our outstanding Library Committee.
Some of the more popular books are on order and will be sent home with children next week.
4th, 5th and 6th classes will have a chance to visit the Book Fair on Monday.
Please place any orders by Tuesday morning at 9am. This gives us time to order any books that we may need to restock, before we finish up on Wednesday.
Lego Spike
Veronica’s 5th class worked with Lego Spike kits borrowed from Drumcondra Education Centre to see if it is something we should consider purchasing for our school.
What is Lego Spike?
Lego Spike is an educational lego set that contains motors and sensors that can be coded through the website. There are lots of different building ideas with simple step-by-step instructions.
What did we do?
We split into 4 groups and we each took turns to make different builds and we even made a robot, a car, a theme park, and a mini golf course. After we built our chosen things, we coded them to move, change colour and play sounds. It was very educational and fun, and we really liked it.
What did we think of it?
Our class thought that it was fun as it covered lots of different subjects but also that it was a little overpriced. We also thought it might be good for younger classes.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
It’s educational
It’s fun
It’s good for learning coding
Cons:
It’s very expensive
There are lots of small pieces that could get lost.
There are not a lot of pieces
Sam, PJ, Evin and Oscar
Community News
St Brendan’s GAA have started a social Gaelic football group for Mothers and Others. They’ll be starting this season on Monday 12th at 7-8pm in Grangegorman, with training sessions generally taking place at the same time each week. All skill levels are welcome! Most who have joined so far have come as absolute beginners and we are a very welcoming friendly group just looking to add a bit of fitness into our weekly routine. If interested, please WhatsApp Louise for more details on 0868690197
Have a lovely weekend,
Fionnuala