Dublin 7 Educate Together National School

Newsletter

08 11 2024

Junior Infant Owls

Good afternoon parents and guardians,

I hope you have had a nice week.

We are well and truly settled into our new term now and looking forward to Science week next week. Our science week will be centred in our new STEAM room where every child will get an opportunity to work with the equipment. We were lucky enough to get a grant last year to buy state-of-the-art equipment which we hope will ultimately enhance the current STEM/ STEM and the Arts learning opportunities for all our children.

GAA training began today for the Junior and Senior infants on the ball court on the roof. Our coach is Fearghal from St Oliver Plunkett’s Eoghan Ruadh. 

Padraig’s class went swimming this week and are the beneficiaries of the excellent tuition in the De Paul pool until Christmas. Thanks, Padraig, for organising that for us.

Rowing continues for 5^th class.

Reminder today is the last day to place your order for County Photos.

Thanks Maria and Joanna for organising today’s coffee morning. Next week, the parents and guardians of children in Rebecca’s class are invited to a coffee morning in the staffroom after dropping the children to their classrooms.

Exponential numbers

The children in Niamh’s 6th Class were busy learning about exponential numbers in Maths this week. We used physical cubes to represent cubed numbers and really enjoyed the practical element of using real materials. Next week we will challenge ourselves to numbers to the power of 10!

STUDENT COUNCIL

Role of the student Council: Student councillors are elected to represent the rights and responsibilities of everyone in the school. They give a voice to the pupils, from Junior Infants right up to 6^th Class. This helps pupils feel that they have a role to play in the workings of the school, working in partnership with staff and school board. It is also a valuable early lesson in democracy at work.

You might like to speak to your child about this at the weekend.

There will be 4 councillors, each one representing 2 class levels.

6^th class Councillor represents 6^th Class and Junior Infants

5^th class Councillor represents 5^th Class and Senior Infants

4^th class Councillor represents 4^th Class and 1^st class

3^rd class Councillor represents 3^rd Class

2^nd class Councillor represents 2^nd class

ALC pupils will be represented by their own class level candidate.

As well as being the voice of represented classes, each member may have a particular responsibility.

COUNCIL TASKS & DUTIES

• Go around classes to canvas issues.
• Surveys carried out on pupils.
• Petitions on behalf of pupils.
• Newsletter/magazine.
• Student Awards.
• Recycling organisation.
• Communication with principal (policies, Active Week, Arts Week, School planning)
• Attend Board of Management/Staff meetings.
• Accompany Principal to events, ceremonies, meetings.

Student Council election process will begin next week. This is the first year we will elect candidates from 2^nd. The actual election won’t be until Dec 10^th.

This is the timeline

Our new Student Council will have big shoes to fill. Our current student council members Alice, Frank and Chloe have been incredible representatives, wonderful student voices for their peers.

 Blue Star Programme

As part of the Blue Star Programme each child in Patrick’s class completed a project on an EU country, learning a bit about their history, culture and national traditions.

Digital Detox

We are excited to invite you to take part in our upcoming Sponsored Digital Detox Day on 20th November.   Could your family go on a Digital Detox for one hour? How about a day?   If so, you’ll have a chance to find out whether your family can go without their phone, computer, iPad, or television for 24 hours….  

If possible, we are encouraging children to seek sponsorship from friends and family with all monies raised going directly to the school for readers, library books  and soft furnishings for our new library, updating our IT resources, yard games and provision of sensory equipment for our children with additional needs. Sponsorship forms will be sent home with the children next week.  They will also be able to take part in a school colouring competition (on the back of the sponsorship form) and there will be prizes for the best picture (one for JI, one for SI etc.).

We hope this day will provide a wonderful opportunity for everyone to reconnect with each other and the world around us, free from the distractions of digital devices whilst also raising much needed funds for the school.

Thanks

Have a lovely weekend,

Fionnuala

Gráinne and Marie’s charcoal ash trees