Newsletter
March 4th 2024
5th class at Science Blast on Tuesday
Good afternoon parents and guardians,
We have had another busy week here in school. Fáilte mór to our new secretary, Nicola, who joined us on Wednesday. Nicola will work part time with Celine in the office. I hope she enjoyed her first 3 days in D7ETNS!
There was great excitement yesterday as we celebrated World Book Day in school. We know we are lucky in D7ETNS as our students need little encouragement when it comes to reading. Our school is full of voracious readers so having a day dedicated to reading was wonderful.
All classes read ‘Begin Again’, by Oliver Jeffers. This is a picture book that resonated with our youngest and oldest students equally, taking us through the history of humanity and looking at our dreams of the future. Every class explored different aspects of the story and showcased their response at assembly today. We had sublime poetry, entertaining dramas, written responses, stunning artwork and very interesting discussion.
Thanks, Carmel and the 6th class students for organising the book swap.
Thanks to all our surprise readers for taking the time to come into the classrooms.
Thanks, Dubray, for inviting us to meet authors and for welcoming many classes.
Finally, thanks Ciara, Carmel, Carol D and Deirdre for coordinating.
Next week Ciara, Padraig, Peadar and Katrina have organised a host of wonderful activities for Seachtain na Gaeilge. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.
I hope the parents and guardians from Deirdre’s Senior Infants enjoyed their coffee morning this morning. Thanks Jake, Clare and Holly for being wonderful hosts.
We look forward to welcoming the parents/ guardians of Carol D’s Senior Infants next Friday to a coffee morning in our staffroom.
Finally, a little bit of housekeeping.
Please do not bring dogs into our school grounds.
If you drive your child to school, please avoid making a 3 point turn on Orchard Terrace.
If you are planning on not returning to D7ETNS in September 2024, please let Celine or Nicola know as we are now working on allocation for 2024 25 school year.
Siblings enjoying buddy reading for WBD.
Science Blast
On Tuesday the 5th of March, Veronica’s 5th class went to the RDS for ESB Science Blast. We got there by coach, and it took around 40 minutes there and back.
In the RDS there were lots of stands that the different schools and also stands by people that weren’t participating in the competition but were just there to teach children. There are the following stands: Dublin Zoo, The Dunsink observatory, Leinster Rugby. There was a stand with a virtual reality headset and some fun games. There was a questionnaire to win an iPad for your school.
There were 2 stages: The first show was on stage 2. The first bit was experiments like taking a tablecloth off the table with plates and the plates stayed on! After that, StrongWomen Science with Maria and Aoife showed us that everything has a centre gravity by doing tricks on a unicycle.
Then on stage 1, it was a guy called Mark who made a tornado out of fire.
Our project was: What role do plants play in sustainability? We took half an hour shift waiting at the stand so that if a judge came, we would be able to talk to them at any time. We made a website, a scratch game, a video of us making planters and a slideshow.
By Jake Fitzgerald, Aaron Creagh and Niall White
The Case of The Vanishing Painting
By Ruth Kenny, Senan Dunphy and Dylan McGarty
We went to Dubray books to visit the author of the book The Case of The Vanishing Painting. His name is Brian Gallagher. Brian is a full-time writer who writes plays and short stories. He has worked extensively in radio and television, writing many dramas and documentaries. The cover of the book is eye catching. It is nice how the train is in the background. A golden frame is around the book. The edges are like a picture frame of a famous painting. The story is about a valuable painting that goes missing and a pair of twins who try to find the person that stole it.
Brian Gallagher gave us some tips for if we want to be an author when we are older. He said that he doesn’t usually do book series, but he said that he is working on the 2nd book that the twins are in. He might even do a 3rd book he said. We also spent our World Book Day vouchers on some books in the shop.
Schools Climbing Competition – 1st Class
Have the parents/guardians out there ever seen Cliffhanger or maybe The Eiger Sanction?
Keep those in mind…
On Friday 1st March (the snow day, appropriately) Róisín & Katrina’s 1st class were represented in the Schools Climbing Competition in Awesome Walls by a team of four: Jack, Reuben, Rory and Aron.
They each had to climb two routes on a (slightly) smaller 8m high wall, then two on the bigger 13m wall (it feels very high and lonely up there!) The final challenge was again on the 8m wall, where they had two attempts at getting to the top in the fastest possible time.
They had a great time and did really well, especially considering some of them had never climbed before. It’s mainly a team competition, so we’ll wait to see how they did in comparison to the other 1st (and 2nd) class teams who entered that age category.”
Thanks, Daire, for this report.
Well done Aoibhinn, Natalia, Sam and Dulcie who also completed in the 5th and 6th class Schools Climbing Competition in Awesome Walls
Niamh’s 4th Class held a fashion show as Gaeilge last Friday and invited the ALC and Arlene’s Junior Infants to come and watch. They are also learning about éadaí and they helped us label some of the clothes we were kitted out in. We had so much fun!
Niamh B
Community News
Dublin Bus
Dublin Bus have recently launched a new bus that will appeal to all our Bohs fans. Next time you see it in Dublin 7, keep an eye out for John and Catherine Lovely’s granddaughter Katie Lovely. Fortunately for Bohs, Katie has just committed to another season with them. Her manager said she is central to the team’s plans this season. It is no wonder she holds centre position on the double decker so! I am sure Catherine and John are so proud of Katie.
For the new parents and guardians in our community, for many years in D7ETNS, John and Catherine were our caretaker and secretary duo!
Message from ‘Connecting Cabra’
On Wednesday, 20 March 2024, Connecting Cabra are organising a community workshop to work towards a Vision for Cabra. The workshop will take place from 6.30pm – 8.30pm in the function room upstairs in the Homestead Bar on Quarry Rd. We would be delighted if you could attend and participate, and we will be sending out an eventbrite in due course.
In preparation for the “Vision for Cabra” workshop on 20 March, we are collating short 30 sec clips from local people talking about their priorities for Cabra. Ideally we’re looking for specific projects that support a broader positive goal, e.g. “I would love to see the skate park reopened in Cabra so children and teenagers would have a place to play and socialise”. We are contacting all schools in order to capture projects that would enhance the lives of young people in Cabra.
It’s probably easiest if you Whatsapp the clip to me by mobile – my number is 087-6384998 or you can email me a google photos link to the clip.
Guidelines: Ideally hold the camera landscape style; introduce yourself and your role (e.g. Councillor); and then tell us your priority / project for Cabra. 30 second max – longer videos will be edited down. The videos will be collated together and shown at the start of the workshop. Some videos will be used on social media, please let us know if you do NOT want your video used on social media. Videos featuring young people will not be shared on social media unless we have written permission from guardians.
We’re conscious that you are all very busy, so if you wish to email us a quote, we will include it as a slide in the video, or you can nominate somebody to do the video in your place. If we could get the video clips by Friday, 8 March, that would give us time to collate the video.
I have attached two short clips that I did as an example of what we’re looking for. Please let me know if you have any questions. We look forward to working with you on this exciting project.
Annamoe Parade Laneway project – https://photos.app.goo.gl/3Ef6Gor8dW6NZEkX6
Mobility Hub – Blackhorse/NCR (too long) – https://photos.app.goo.gl/rupEV4CHw1sxKti5A
Brian Gormley
