Newsletter
03 10 2025
Good afternoon parents,
What a busy week it’s been! As you know, County Photos were in with us today. They were so quick and efficient—it’s obvious they have lots of experience working with children, and we really appreciated how smoothly everything went.
Next week, we’ll be chatting with the children about our upcoming Student Council elections. We’re all looking forward to them. They’ll be taking place during Democracy Week (October 13th–17th).
Today was one of those rare days when the children couldn’t get outside for either break because of the weather. Hopefully, they’re not too full of energy at home this evening!
Potato salad
Enda’s 6th had a busy week in the kitchen putting together potato salad from the potatoes that were planted by last year’s 6th class. The abundant harvest was a result of hard work co-ordinated by Anna. The following of step-by-step instructions linked in with the work the class have been doing on procedural writing. Reviews of the potato salad ranged widely from “10 out of 10” to “it’s too salty” to “I don’t want to eat that”. In any case, it was all eaten. Capall na hoibre an bia.
School lunches
As you may be aware, schools across Ireland have recently been offered the opportunity to engage with hot school lunch providers as part of a national initiative to support student nutrition and wellbeing. While we fully support the aims of this initiative and recognise the importance of healthy meals for children, we would like to explain why our school is continuing to explore the best solution and provider that aligns with our values.
Our Approach to Finding the Right Solution
1. Food Quality
We want to ensure that any meals offered to students are nutritious, enjoyable, and of consistently high quality. It is important to us that children are happy with the food provided so that the programme achieves its intended benefits.
2. Food Waste
We are mindful of the need to minimise food waste. Any solution we adopt must encourage children to eat well and avoid surplus meals going to waste, in line with the values of sustainability and responsibility that we promote at school.
3. Packaging Waste
Many hot lunch providers use individually packaged meals, often in single-use plastics or non-recyclable materials. Our goal is to find a solution that aligns with D7ETNS’ commitments and reduces unnecessary waste.
4. Impact on the School Day
We need a system that fits smoothly within the school day without erosion of teaching and learning time, or playtime, especially for younger children.
5. Building and Infrastructure Considerations
Our current facilities must be able to safely store and distribute meals. We are exploring options that work efficiently within our space and infrastructure.
6. Ethical and Practical Considerations
Any provider we work with must reflect our core values of fairness, health, and environmental responsibility, including transparency around ingredient sourcing and employment practices.
This is an ongoing process. We are carefully considering all factors and exploring solutions that meet the high standards our school community expects. We will continue to monitor developments and remain open to reviewing our approach when a provider can meet these criteria.
In the meantime, we continue to encourage families to provide healthy packed lunches, and we greatly appreciate your support in promoting wellbeing and sustainability within our school.
This aligns with our Healthy Eating Policy https://d7educatetogether.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Healthy_Eating_Policy_2022_KB_V03.pdf
Additionally, in case you weren’t aware, Glanmore provides a supply of fresh fruit and freshly packaged sandwiches to our school daily. These are freely available to all children. We are very happy to increase this order. The fruit is kept at the back of every classroom, and sandwiches are available for collection at reception for those who wish to order them.
We are currently in the process of increasing our sandwich and fruit order to the school as an interim measure. We will be in contact shortly with more details on this.
Parent Guardian Staff Association (PGSA) Annual General Meeting
Note from PGSA
Date: October 20th
Time: 7.30pm
Location: School Gym
Dear Parents, Guardians, and Staff,
You are warmly invited to attend our Annual General Meeting on October 20th. This is a great opportunity to connect, share ideas, and help shape the year ahead for our school community.
We 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 from 7pm to 7.30pm
We look forward to seeing you there!
PGSA Committee
Gaeilge lessons for parents/guardians
Gaeilge lessons for parents/guardians are starting on Thursday 17th of October! They will be a fun way to get to know other parents/guardians in the school community and reconnect with the language (or indeed get to know it for the first time).
We will have one class for absolute beginners: parents/guardians who have never taken Irish lessons before.
We will have two classes for improvers, one for people who have seldom used Irish since school, another who use the language occasionally. There will be 8 weeks of lessons, and the cost will be 50 euro, payable on the day of the first lesson.
The beginners class will run from 6-7 in the school in my classroom being taught by Sandra.The two improvers classes will take place from 7-8 in the school, one in my class, one in the classroom next-door. Sandra, a former Gaeilscoil principal will teach one, while Ruth an experienced secondary school teacher will teach the other.
Please let me know your name and the class level you think you should join by emailing patrick@d7educatetogether by Friday 10/10/25 to secure a place in the class.
Important note, don’t stress out over or be discouraged entirely thinking about which level you should join, taking part at any level is better than doing nothing.
Patrick
Halloween costume swap shop
Hello Families,
As part of our 6th class Learn Together unit on fast fashion, we are organising a Halloween costume swap shop, next week!
Please drop your unwanted, clean & gently used costumes to the hall, Monday- Friday mornings from 8:20-8:30. Our 6th class helpers will be there to receive them. Please note the following:
- If you have an unused hanger to accompany the donation it would be helpful.
- Any bags used to bring the costumes into school can be left with us. We can then re-use the bags for costume collections the following week.
- Can you ensure that any accessories that accompany the costumes, e.g. wigs, glasses, are attached or all in the same bag.
Your ‘new- to -you costumes’ can be picked up at the same times on Thursday 16th for Junior infants – 2nd class parents and Friday 17th for 3rd-6th parents.
Please note this event will be for parents only!
Thank you for supporting our circular fashion initiative.
6th class.
‘Signs of Autumn” in Grangegorman
Grace’s senior infant class went on a hunt for ‘Signs of Autumn” in Grangegorman. We gathered some lovely natural materials and inspired by the book “The Leaf Man” we made Autumn nature collages.
Senior Boys had a fight on their hands
After two good wins the senior boys had a tough match versus Scoil an tSeachtar Laoch from Ballymun. The boys started very well and got some great opening scores and were a point ahead at half time. However, it was just one of those days that happen in sport. Nothing seemed to go their way. Every ball bounced the wrong way and every pass went astray despite their best efforts. They took their chances well and defended well but Ballymun just nabbed a few goals and we couldn’t pull it back. We expect there will be a draw in the coming days and then we will know who our next match will be against. All the lads played their hearts out with poor Iarfhlaith getting a bad knock on the arm as he jumped for a ball. We wish him a quick recovery. Fingers crossed all the lads will be fit to play and we’ll do well in our next fixture.
Victory at last. D7ET 3-2 : 2-2 Mother of Divine Grace
Our Go Games 5th Class team tasted success for the first time on Tuesday with a narrow victory over Mother of Divine Grace in Ballygall. Playing against the hill, D7 settled into their stride and began to dominate possession. Following a few near misses, we finally grabbed the first point of the game and followed up with a goal.
As the half drew to a close, D7 extended their lead to a goal and two points, keeping our opponents scoreless. As we rotated our squad, we allowed MDG to gain a foothold as they grabbed a few scores themselves. By now it was getting quite physical however D7 were getting first to the ball and were using it wisely to relieve the pressure at the back.
With the game in the melting pot, D7 struck for victory bagging two goals in quick succession. MDG did have the ball in the net, however the whistle had already blown for a foul in midfield. In a frantic last few minutes, our opponents clawed the lead back to a single score but D7 hung out for a nail-biting victory.
There were terrific performances across the park, this week I think the mid-fielders were the difference between the teams. Next up is a home match on Tuesday v O’Connell Schools. Throw in scheduled for 13.00.
Both senior teams will find out over the weekend their opponents for their Quarter Final matches. The Girls topped their group and should have a home fixture on Weds. The Boys ended in a three-way tie at the top of their group so the Cumann committee will draw lots at the weekend to see who tops the group. Either way they should be in action on Thursday, either in the Cup or Shield.
All teams back training on Monday. Let’s get everyone out to keep up the momentum.
Patrick, Martin & Padraig
Buzzfest
BuzzFest 2025 – Phibsborough’s biodiversity and sustainability festival takes place this Sat Oct 4th between 12.30 and 4.00 pm in Phibsborough Library (and gardens) and the Scouts Hall. There are talks (topics incl bees, urban hedgerows, turning your garden in a nature reserve), workshops (ferementing, foraging, slow fashion), food, music (incl a ballet performance!), stalls, children’s colouring competition, facepainting, a repair cafe. A fine Sat afternoon after storm Amy!
