We were thrilled to run Summer Provision this year for our two autism classes. It has been a great two weeks, with lots of fun - check out the happy faces!

Friday 25th June was an exciting day here at school, as we bid farewell to the Class of 2021.

​6th Class had a busy day including a pizza party, a Guard of Honour by the whole staff and student body, individual graduation ceremonies on campus, followed by a Zoom graduation that gave us a trip down memory lane as well as an opportunity to look forward.

It was a proud and emotional day for all of us.

Here are some of the pictures we took.

There was much excitement around our school this week as we hosted our first ever at-home school tour days! This year, we were unable to travel anywhere to go on a school tour... so instead, we brought the tours to us! 6th class had their tour at the end of May, so this week, it was the turn of the rest of the school - have a look!

On Wednesday 2nd June, our younger classes had their very own animal-themed tour day. We welcomed Wooly Farm to our campus and each class took their turn to visit the animals. It was just fabulous!
They also did lots of other fun activities during their tour day - barn dances, animal art, picnics and lots more!

On the 3rd and 4th June, our 2nd - 5th class pupils enjoyed their school tour days. They had a fun day, with access to lots of inflatables - bouncy castles, obstacle course and penalty shoot-out, as well as crazy golf and lots of games. They also took part in a drumming workshop. 

Our autism classes also had their school tour days on the 3rd and 4th June. They had their very own bouncy castle in their soft-play yard, which was a big hit! They also enjoyed lots of water play, as it was such a lovely sunny two days.  

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We were thrilled to hear such happy, excited children around our school this week. Next up, we have our Sports Days throughout the month of June - stay tuned for updates!

The Department of Education has given us a grant to fund the cost of a major art project for our school. It can be any form of art - visual arts, graphic arts, decorative arts, performance arts, literature or music, etc.
Below is the link if you want to have a look at some examples other schools have chosen.
https://www.education.ie/en/School-Design/Per-Cent-for-Art/

We have recently set up our Arts Committee to oversee this project, the aim being to come up with a brief/theme/vision to present to artists who will design a piece of bespoke art for our school.

We would like input from the whole school community to come up with this vision. We have 2 questions for you to consider. The children have a separate way to give their input. This form is for the adults in our community - parents, guardians and staff. Please complete the form by 10th June so that the Arts Committee can put all the submissions together and move on to the next stage of the project. We look forward to reading your thoughts!

We were thrilled to learn that one of our 4th class pupils was the overall winner in a recent competition, run by South Dublin County Council. The competition set the task of creating an environmental poster, along with a slogan. 

We are so proud to have our school represented and to see that one of our pupils earned the accolade of being the overall winner. You can see the winning posters here. 

There is lots of work going on behind-the-scenes at Citywest ETNS this term. We are very excited to see some of our work come to fruition!

• We are establishing an Arts Committee in our school; a group of children and adults from our community who will work together on our Percentage for Art project. As we are now in our new school building, we can begin to make plans for this project and for the creation of a bespoke and long-lasting piece of art for our school. 
• We are currently working on plans for Active Week and Sports Day for June. 
• Our staff continue to meet monthly to work together, to share ideas and to plan for the weeks and months (and years!) ahead. You can read about our staff meetings here. 
• The school calendar for the academic year 2021/22 has been officially ratified and published. 
• Our Board of Management recently ratified the following policies: Code of Behaviour, Protected Disclosure, Substance Use.
• We conducted an overhaul of our weekly assembly, asking our pupils for their thoughts and opinions on what they feel is working well and what changes they might like to see happen.

 
​There is lots of work ongoing at the moment - check back to see some of our plans come to life over the next while! 

We have come to the end of Term 2 - what a term it has been! We were very happy to be able to come together this morning to celebrate our last assembly of the  month of March, with a focus on the value of cooperation. Check out our nominations this week:

• Maja, Millie, Hana and Grace in Amy's 3rd class are nominated for showing great caring this week - when another pupil was upset on yard these girls checked to see if she was OK. They were very kind and helpful and helped this girl to join in the game again.
  
• David in Sarah's 4th Class is nominated for trying to be respectful outside another classroom and asking his friends to be quiet.
• Ben in Deirdre's Senior Infants is nominated this week for showing great cooperation at tidy-up time. Well done, Ben!
  
• Shubhangi in Sarah L's class walked safely in her line - keep it up!
  
• Well done to Alison in Sarah's 4th Class for always doing great physical distancing.
  
• Ritvika in Lisa's 2nd Class has been a great team member to her classmates and her pod. She is always kind and helpful to everyone.
  
• Well done to Jake in Orla's class for showing wonderful cooperation this week, even with some changes to his classroom routine. He has also been making lots of people smile and giving High Fives - well done, Jake!
  
• From Laura's SI, well done to Lake, Marcel, Khadijah, Maja and Isabelle (Blue Pod). They co-operated with one another to create a wonderful structure during play. They showed kindness and patience to one another. Well done!
  
• Borys in Aoife's 4th class carried his friend's bag, as his friend's arm is injured - well done, Borys!

Well done to everyone. When we return to school after the spring break, our Learn Together value will be responsibility. 

Since filling all places in Round 1 of offers in early February, there has been significant movement on our waiting list as 14 families who had originally accepted places changed their minds for a variety of reasons. Due to this, we have been able to offer places to a further 22 families over the course of the last month.

This brought us to an important milestone this morning in reaching the end of the list of applications from before January 2020. The next place that becomes available will be offered via the new enrolment policy.

This leaves 59 children on the waiting list, all categorised according to our new enrolment policy, as follows

• 4 children in Category 5 (older siblings)
• 26 children in Category 6 (older non-siblings)
• 9 children in Category 7 (next oldest non-siblings)
• 1 child in Category 8 (younger siblings)
• 6 children in Category 9 (younger non-siblings)
• 13 children in Category 10 (late applications)

With our classes returning to the school building over the past few weeks, they have been doing lots of wonderful work. A walk through our corridors is such a treat, with lots of new projects and artwork on display! 

It has now been over a year since we could have parents, guardians and family members into our school building and we really miss giving them the opportunity to see around our school... we hope this helps just a little! 

Our Golden Book nominations for the month of March are for showing the value of cooperation. Have a read!

• From Deirdre's Senior Infants, the Green Pod (Erik, Cillian, Muireann, Olivia and Joshua) co-operated really well during their play rota. They all worked together and helped each other build a big house with polydrons.
  
• ​Well done to Jude in Orla's class for showing wonderful cooperation this week. He is doing great work transitioning to each new activity and following instruction. He is also doing super Groupwork in class!
  
• Well done to Hannah from Andrea's class for remembering the first aid box every breaktime.
  
• Well done to Charvi and Irene from Laura's class - they co-operated well with one another to solve problems that arose during play.
  
• Sarah in Sarah L's class worked so well this week. She co-operated with her pod to tidy up quickly.
  
• Well done to Anvi from Ruth M's Junior Infants for encouraging others to work as a team!
  
• Nelly has been working really hard in class and sharing lots of smiles and fun with all her classmates.
  
• Jordan from Ruth Maxwell's class saw an adult approaching and stopped to let them by - well done, Jordan!
  
• Amelia Rose in 2nd class is nominated for always offering to do class jobs. Keep up the great work!
  
• Noah in Andrea's class is in the Golden Book this week for having great jokes to tell his teacher. What a lovely way to make your teacher smile, Noah!
  

What wonderful examples of cooperation around our school this week. Well done to everyone!