On Friday, we hosted our annual Winter Concert in our brand new PE hall - and it was just as well we had such a large room because SO MANY parents, grandparents and other family members came to watch us perform!
This year, as last year, every class sang a selection of songs - one of which was in a language other than English, and which had been taught to them by a parent volunteer.
Heartfelt thanks to Maya Middlekoop, Anna Jeziorska, Ashwini Kulkarni, Biba Osterman and Emanuela Fermo - all of whom gave of their time to share a song in their mother language with one of the classes. The teachers and children really enjoyed learning songs in another language and we know that our audience loved the wide variety of world voices. In the end, we had songs in Chinese, Polish, Hindi, Croatian, Italian and Spanish. A special mention goes to Hector in Second Class and Kellly in Third Class, who in the absence of parent volunteers for their classes, taught their friends a song in their own language. Well done to all involved!
For those of you who couldn't make it to the performance on Friday, take a look at the videos below - didn't the children do well?!

Today we had two important visitors to our school. Children from First, Second and Third Classes have been preparing for their visit for several weeks - as well as children from First and Second Classes at our neighbour school, Scoil Níamh.
Eugene and Damian are members of the Irish Air Corps and they came to present us with a tricolour: the Irish Flag. They present us with the flag in advance of the commemorations of the 1916 Rising and in celebration of the Proclamation of Independence. Next year, 2016, will mark 100 years since this important moment in Irish history.
We were delighted to be able to record this event using YouTube and to livestream it to the children in the Infant classes in both our school, and Scoil Níamh.

At approximately 5 minutes: the reading of the Proclamation of Independence begins.
9 mins, 50 seconds: Air Corpsmen ask the children questions about the flag, caring for the flag.
12 mins, 30 seconds: Presentation of the flags to the Principals of both schools
15 mins, 20 seconds: Flag is unfurled
15 mins, 50 seconds: Instructions on how to fold the flag
18 mins: Children ask the Air Corpsmen some questions​
25 mins, 50 seconds: All stand to sing the national anthem

After they presented the tricolour and a copy of the Proclamation of Independence to both our schools, the Air Corpsmen asked us some questions and answered some of our questions. They taught us how to care for the flag and how to fold it correctly. Finally, we all stood to attention and sang the National Anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann.
Teachers from both schools were very proud of how well-behaved all of the children were. They listened with patience and interest throughout the whole event, and did us all proud with their heartfelt rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann.

Our Winter Concert will take place in the PE hall this Friday. As with last year, a raffle will immediately follow the concert. Times are listed below.

• 11:20am- Parents of Junior & Senior Infant Children
• 1:00pm- Parents of 1st, 2nd, 3rd Class Children
• 12:40-13:00- Raffle - All parents welcome to attend

Tickets cost €5 for 5 and will be available for purchase from the school office all week. If sending money with your child for tickets, please put the money in an addressed envelope. Parent volunteers will also be selling raffle tickets and school calendars on Tuesday (15th) and Thursday (16th) December between 1pm and 2.10pm. 

We are grateful, as always, for your continued support. 

A low-cost counselling service has been established in conjunction with PCI College, to serve the Tallaght/ Saggart/ Rathcoole area.  This is an initiative of Stephen Hunter, who wants to develop this low cost service and make counselling available to everybody irrespective of  their financial circumstances.

​Read more about this service here.

We've just taken delivery of the latest issue of the yearly Citywest ETNS calendar. It is packed full of photographs of all of the children in the school, learning and playing together.
Pick up a copy to take home, and why not another one for work, for €10. Funds raised from the sales of this calendar will be used to buy resources to support your child's learning.

Calendars are on sale in the office.

Last December we hosted our first ever Multi-Cultural Concert. The whole school community agreed that it was a fantastic event - parents, children and teachers worked together to create an event that celebrated the diversity that is at the heart of our school.
This year, we are hoping to recreate the magic we achieved last year. This time, we have more classes and more parents, so we are optimistic that we can out-do last year's performance!

Watch performances by the rest of the classes from last year on our YouTube channel here.

Do you speak a language other than English? We need you to volunteer to teach one class a song in your language. That way, we will end up with each of our ten classes performing a song in up to ten different languages!
The song you teach the children needs to be short enough that they can learn it in a matter of weeks - a nursery rhyme would be ideal, particularly if you can find a link to it on youtube so that the class can practice it with their teacher in your absence.
Ideally, you would be available to visit the classroom a second or third time to practice with the children.

If you are available, please let us know by filling in the form below. We look forward to singing with you!

Yesterday, a group of parents and children got together and got their creative juices flowing in the form of a fabulous array of decorations to adorn our school for Christmas.

Watch out around the school for some of our creations!

KEEP CALM AND LEARN IRISH

Where: Meeting room (New wing)
When: Mondays, 8.45-9.30
What: Relaxed lessons for beginners with an emphasis on conversational Irish. These lessons are suitable for anybody in our school community - whether you have learned Irish before or not. You will gain a basic grasp of Irish vocabulary and sentence structure. Your confidence with the language will grow, helping you support your child's learning of Irish.
How much: €3 per week

We would like to gauge the interest in these lessons. If you would be interested in attending, please complete the form below. We will be in touch with you in the new year to confirm a start date.

This past week the General Purpose hall in our new wing has been put to wonderful use, as it hosted the Scholastic Book Fair. The book fair brings benefits to all, as it gives families an opportunity to invest in new books for their homes, as well as helping the school to build our stock of books - every book sold at the fair helps to get free books for our school. And the timing couldn't be better, with a spacious new library in the new wing, we will need lots of books to fill up those shelves!

Children from each class had the opportunity to visit the book fair and sample some of the merchandise!