There was great delight and pride in our school last week as Callie, a student in 1st class, won the Zurich Young Portrait Prize. Callie entered a picture into the competition - a picture she created of her Senior Infants teacher, Sarah C. She went to the National Gallery of Ireland last Tuesday for the grand opening of the exhibition, only to find out that she had won in her age category!

A huge well done to Callie, we are all very proud of this brilliant achievement. The exhibition is on display in the National Gallery until the 12th January 2020 - you can read more about it here.

As October begins, take a look back at a very busy September in Citywest ETNS. Have a read of some of the big events happening in the school!
 
New staff and students 
We welcomed our new students to Junior Infants and to other classrooms throughout the school. We also welcomed new staff members – read all about our staff here.
 
School Strategy Plan 
We published our Strategy Plan for 2019 - 2021, which is an overview of the various projects ongoing throughout the school. It lists various aspects of our school life as being in the Embed phase (part of school culture), Implement phase (have been piloted and just need refining) or Pilot phase (will be tried and tested). The Strategy Plan outlines a shared vision of the school aims for the next 2 years. 

Staff Training 
Teachers had a curriculum training day, which provided information on the implementation of the new Language Curriculum. This curriculum is now in place for all classes. Read more about the new curriculum here. 
ANAs also took part in First Aid training during the month of September. We now have 16 Occupational First Aiders on staff. 

Core value for September
Each month we celebrate one of the core values of the Educate Together curriculum. For September, our value was kindness. We had a record number of children in the Golden Book for showing kindness. 

Fundamental Movement Skill
Each month, we focus on a fundamental movement skill to practice at assembly, on yard, at home. This month, we were learning about kicking. Click here to find out which skill we will be learning about each month. 

Parent Information Evening
On Thursday the 19th September, we held our annual Parent Information Evening, where parents and guardians are invited to classroom talks by their child's teacher. In addition, Caitríona held talks on the School Strategy Plan for the coming two year. There was also an excellent anti-bullying talk, which was facilitated by the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre. 

Strike for Climate
On Friday the 20th September, our school took part in the global Strike for Climate movement. It was incredible to see such a powerful representation from our students, who really made their voices heard. You can read more about it here.  

2nd Level Campaign meeting
Our school hosted an important information night as part of the Educate Together 2nd Level Campaign, who are seeking to ensure that the new secondary school in Citywest will be under the patronage of Educate Together. You can stay up to date with the latest developments here.  

We were in the Echo
Believe it or not, we were featured in the Echo newspaper twice this month! The first article featured our new Junior Infants, while the second article was about our Strike for Climate. 

Sports Training
Sports training has returned this school year, with GAA training now taking place for 5th and 6th classes during various breaks throughout the week. Basketball training has also commenced twice a week for children in 4th class. 

New school song
Our new school song for this term is 'All You Need is Love' by the Beatles. We are looking forward to performing it together at the end of our assemblies.


It has certainly been a busy September. All of this, not to mention all of the learning taking place in classrooms, team teaching commencing, fabulous artwork being created, small group work on handling conflict, new ipads arriving to the school.. it's hard to keep up! Check back to see what is happening in October!