Today our joint initiative with our neighbour-school, Scoil Níamh, went ahead despite the weather being less than cooperative! In the end, teacher Deirdre and gardening expert Michael had to make the decision to stop the work as the weather just got too dreary, but not before Children from Senior Infants, First Class and Third Class braved the elements and planted crocus, daffodil and snowdrop bulbs around the surrounds of our school.

Introducing the children to the New Wing. ^

The celebrations later! ^

We had such an amazing turn-out for our big event last Friday. It was fantastic. Now we have two wonderful opportunities for parents to get involved in the school - this week!

First we have rescheduled our gardening day for tomorrow, Tuesday 24th November! We would love to involve one or more parents in this day. Its a great chance to work with the children AND improve our school space. Any parent is welcome, whether its for the whole day or for an hour. Just let us know here and then turn up tomorrow:

Next, we have our annual Book Fair. The book fair is a great opportunity for families to do some book shopping. For every 10 euro spent at the book fair, the school is given books to the value of 6 euro! It is a fantastic fundraiser, particularly as we are setting up our new library!

Your child will have the opportunity to visit the library and read some fantastic books each day during the fair. Please come and visit it too. You can buy books, or just have a look, each day of the fair at these times:

• Thursday 26th Nov
  
  • ​1pm to 1.30pm
    
  • 2pm to 2.30pm

• Friday 27th Nov
  
  • ​8.15am to 8.40am
    
  • ​1pm to 1.30pm
  • 2pm to 2.30pm

• Monday 30th November
  
  • ​8.15am to 8.40am
  • ​1pm to 1.30pm
  • 2pm to 2.30pm

​

• Tuesday 1st December
  
  • ​8.15am to 8.40am
  • ​1pm to 1.30pm
  • 2pm to 2.30pm

While teachers will supervise the children at the book fair during the school day, we would love to invite some parents in to help with the times people will be buying books. Please consider helping out once or twice. Its not much to give up - half an hour of your day - but it will be of great help to the school!

It's here, it's here! The big opening is today! Yippee!
All our little superheroes are welcome to dress up as superheroes for the big day. We have been encouraging the children to think of the everyday heroes in our lives - nurses, bus drivers, mammies, granddads and, most especially, THEMSELVES! - as well as superheroes of all gender, size and skin colour. While the stereotypical superhero is white lean male, there are so many inspiring women and people of colour and different size out there who have been superheroes on this earth. We would LOVE to see the costumes reflect that beautiful diversity! See you at the disco!

Wow! What an AMAZING day! Thank you SO much to EVERYONE who came to celebrate it with us. We hope you were all as impressed with the new wing as we were!

After Eldon's and Aoife's classes had had a chance to settle in to their new surroundings, each of the other classes had a turn to take a tour of the building. 

Later, there was a children only disco for the older children, followed by a disco for the infants with their parents.

After all the dancing had been done and everybody had gone home, members of the school staff, Parents' Association and Board of Management had a well-earned break in the new meeting room.

The building crew and school staff are busy putting the finishing touches to our fabulous new wing ahead of our grand opening tomorrow!

We can't wait to show it off to everyone!

We look forward to welcoming the families of children in Junior and Senior Infants at 12 o'clock and the families of children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes at 1.30pm.

Our schedule for the day is as follows:
In the morning, Dylan and Ava, two of our Senior Infant pupils, will cut the ribbon and allow us into our new wing. This event will be attended by Eldon's and Aoife's classes and will be live-streamed into all of the other classes. We will post the video of the event here on our website later in the day.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, all of our pupils will get the first tours of the school, with every class visiting by 11am.

The children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes will then have their disco, finishing before 12pm.

At 12pm, parents and families of children in Junior and Senior Infants are welcome to join us for a tour of the new wing, while the children are out at play. With the children due back to their classes after 12.15pm, we will be asking parents and families to retire to the new meeting room for refreshments. They will be joined in the PE hall around 12.30pm by their children, where we will all dance our socks off for half an hour or so, before parents bring their children to collect their coats and bags and head home.

At 1.30pm, parents and families of children in older classes (1st, 2nd and 3rd classes) are welcome to enjoy some refreshments in our new meeting room. They will be joined at 1.45pm by their children, who will lead them on a tour of the new wing.

We are so proud to show off this amazing new space for our school and we really hope you will join us on this special day.

We are thrilled to announce the opening of our new wing tomorrow, 20th November. We have planned an action-packed day for both the children and their parents.

In the morning, we will have a Grand Opening of the wing, which will be conducted by the Senior Infants who will then move into their new classrooms (Aoife and Eldons' classes). Throughout the late morning, the other classes will have a chance to come in and have a look around the new classrooms, PE hall, library, etc.

Later in the day, the children will have a disco - the Junior and Senior Infants will be welcoming their parents to the new wing and having a Superheroes disco, organised by the Parents' Association, in the brand new hall. This will commence at 12.00. Parents will have a chance to boogie on down with their children, before taking them home directly from the hall at home time.

The older children (First - Third Classes) will have their Superheroes disco next, before welcoming their parents and giving them the tour of the building at 1.30. Children will be dismissed directly from the new wing at home time.

Children are welcome to dress up in the theme of Superheroes for the disco - but please be creative in your interpretation of this theme! Your child has discussed this theme in school and how so many people in our lives are superheroes. Nurses, fire fighters, parents, and so many more all do the work of superheroes every day and we would love to see the children honouring these everyday superheroes in their costumes tomorrow.

Following careful study of the 7-day weather forecast, we have provisionally set next Wednesday, 18 November, as the day for our Gardening Day with Scoil Níamh. This day may change dependent on the weather.

All of the children in Senior Infants, First, Second and Third Classes will be participating in this initiative. It is an opportunity for the children from our school to meet and work with the children from our neighbouring school, Scoil Níamh. They will be working with a gardener and some parent volunteers to plant bulbs in the flower beds around our campus.

Please ensure your child is dressed warmly for this activity!

This week is Science Week! The pupils of Citywest ETNS will be working as scientists this week on some fun and exciting experiments. Science Week gives us a chance to look at the importance of science, technology and engineering in the world around us, and to learn some cool and interesting new facts.

​Watch out on the class websites, and be sure to ask your child about some of the great experiments taking place over the next few days.

​Take a look at http://www.science.ie/ to learn more about Science Week, or to find some simple experiments to try at home!