The Department of Education have notified us that they expect that we will begin the move to our new school building on Monday the 9th of December. With a move of this scale, it will be a very busy couple of weeks for all involved. Children will be taking part in some lessons over the next 10 days, which will help to prepare them for the move. 

Parents and guardians have been sent a timetable for the move, which is as follows:

• Monday 9th: Children attend school for a half day, finishing at 11.15am. Moving company will begin moving rooms across to new building.  
• Tuesday 10th & Wednesday 11th: School closed for all pupils. Moving company continue to move rooms, with staff organising classrooms and ensuring health and safety procedures are in place for all.
• Thursday 11th: The day we have all been waiting for - the first school day in our new building! Families will be welcome to visit the school at collection time on this day (details to follow).

As with all building projects, there may be unforeseen delays and these dates may change, but we are very hopeful that this will be our timeline for moving.
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This is such an exciting time for our school community. We will need to work together to make this an enjoyable experience for all. Stay tuned for more updates! 

As we spend the last few weeks in our temporary school building, the excitement for our new school is increasing and increasing! This week, our school crest was spotted on our beautiful new building - check it out in the photo above.
We are so proud to see our fabulous crest up there - if you've forgotten the process behind creating the crest, read about it here. We just cannot wait to get moved in!

New school update
Yesterday, we received an update from the Department of Education that we will not be moving into our new school before the 9th of December. We are still awaiting a definite moving date, but we know that it will not be before the 9th. When we do get the keys, the school will be closed for 2 days to facilitate the move. 

School move preparation
While we wait for the school to be ready for us, we are doing lots of preparatory work:
- Staff met with the moving company, who delivered 920 boxes to our school. Packing and sorting of school resources begins this week. 
- Parents met to discuss a plan for traffic management on our new campus.
- Pupils are being given the opportunity to learn about the new school building, with the school floor plans being passed around to all classes. 
- Our Board of Management are in ongoing discussions with the Department of Education and our neighbouring school CSCNS to ensure a smooth transition to our new building.
- These photos of the school give us a very exciting glimpse of what awaits us!

Value of the month - Caring
This month, we are focused on the value of caring. This enables us to open the discussion on how we can care for one another, care for ourselves, care for our school and home, care for the environment... and so much more! The Golden Book on Friday was full of wonderful examples of children being caring. 
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Learn Together - Belief Systems
As part of our Ethical Education curriculum, pupils are given the opportunity to visit various places of worship to learn about some of the major world religions. During a child's time in our school, it is hoped that they will visit a place of worship to learn about Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity, Hinduism, along with welcoming guest speakers to learn about Humanism and Atheism. 
This month, it was the turn of our 2nd Class pupils. Last Thursday they visited a Hindu Temple to learn more about Hinduism.

Sport in the school
There is lots of sport going on in our school during the month of November:
- GAA training for 5th and 6th classes takes place 4 times per week.
- Basketball training for 4th classes takes place twice a week. 
- Our local GAA coach has returned for another year. He is currently teaching hurling to our 1st class pupils.
- Tag rugby with coach Joey from Leinster Rugby commences on Monday for children in 4th and 5th classes. 
- Our Fundamental Movement Skill for November is running, which we learn about at assembly each week.

Weaving Wellbeing 
Co-teaching commences on Monday - it is where two teachers teach a lesson together. The focus for this learning block is on wellbeing.
Children from 2nd - 6th classes, they will be participating in a programme called 'Weaving Wellbeing', which was rolled out last year to great success. 
Children in Senior Infants will be participating in a similar programme called 'Fun Friends', while children in 1st class participate in 'Zippy's Friends'. 
Each of these programmes focus on social and emotional learning, aim to help to reduce anxiety, increase coping skills, encourage children to recognise and label various emotions and how to deal with them. 

Check it out! We are so excited about this half term, as it means we will soon be moving into our new school building. While we have been so happy in our current temporary accommodation, it will be wonderful to get settled into our own purpose-built school. 

During the week, a few members of our school community were lucky enough to get a tour of the building. They managed to take lots of photos, so here's a sneak peek of what we can expect!