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Inniu, chuireamar ceolchoirm Gaeilge i láthair sa halla. Bhí seans ag gach rang amhráin nó rann a chasadh do na ranganna eile agus bhaineamar go léir an-taitneamh as.
Today, we presented an Irish concert in the hall. Every class had a turn to sing a song or say a poem for the other classes. Everybody really enjoyed the show.  Today was a day of firsts in our school's history - we hosted our first concert in our PE hall on the Second Floor. The hall underwent a transformation as a 'stage' was erected and a curtain effect helped to lend the day a sense of occasion. The school was abuzz with parents and family members all eager to see our performances and the children couldn't wait to show off the songs they've been practising for weeks. Each class had been paired up with a parent volunteer, who taught their assigned class a song in their native language. Our first Multi-Cultural Concert saw Catalan, Polish, Croatian, Malaysian, Italian and Swahili all represented, as well as English and of course, Irish! Guests were also treated to another first - Second Class proudly played a tune on their tin whistles. Meanwhile, downstairs in the entrance hall, members of the Parents' Association were busily preparing a feast for the eyes, as well as the taste buds, in the form of a fabulous cake-sale and very well stocked table of prizes for the raffle. Several hundred euro was raised (exact amount to be confirmed) towards the purchase of a range of Science resources - be sure to watch this space to see photos when the order arrives. Finally, a first for the school in terms of our online presence - we have set up our own YouTube channel. We hope to develop this aspect of our web presence over the coming years - it will be a useful tool for family who cannot make it to school events, and may even be used as a learning tool by the children. For the moment, check out our channel to view videos of today's performances - we hope you enjoy reliving the show! We hope you and your family have a healthy and restful holiday and look forward to seeing you again in the New Year. On 25th November we had our first Fire Drill of the year. All of the staff and children of both Scoil Níamh and our school evacuated the building to practise safety procedures in the event of a fire. Our building was evacuated within three minutes! We were very pleased with our speedy and safe exit, and with the children's behaviour as we lined up and took attendance. Well done all! Today we had a visit from four members of Dublin Fire Brigade. Brian, John, Steven and Sarah came from Tallaght Fire Station to talk to us about Fire Safety, and about what it is like to be a Fire Fighter. They took lots of time to answer our questions individually and the children really enjoyed the chat. Did you know that the Mobile Library visited our school on 25th September? The children from First and Second Classes had an opportunity to borrow two books, which they will return when the library visits again this month. Below is a schedule for the library's visits between now and the end of the term.   Garda Frank visits First Class In the past couple of weeks, the children in all of our classes have been very lucky to have a visit with Garda Frank Howe, from Rathcoole Garda Station.
Garda Frank talked with us about Road Safety - using the Safe Cross Code, and also about being sure to buckle up when we're in the car. He told us that it might have been a long time since our parents learned the safe cross code, and about the importance of buckling up, so it is Our Responsibility to remind our parents and siblings to stay safe! We also talked about staying safe in October, when there are often fireworks and bonfires around our communities. Garda Frank also took time to answer some of our many, many questions! We hope we'll get to see Garda Frank again in the future! We've had an amazing response to our sad news last weekend that our flowers were vandalised. Children and parents were understandably shocked and disappointed that anyone would do this. Thank you to everyone who showed support at this time. It really does show that we have a great community here at Citywest ETNS!
One parent, Rachel, took it one step further. She went out and bought bulbs and flowers and came to the school to plant them with the children. What a considerate, kind-hearted thing to do! Our First Class pupils had a lovely afternoon in the sun, digging, planting and cleaning up and our window boxes look beautiful again! What a wonderful message for our children to learn - even though there may be people who do nasty things, it can always be overcome with positive attitude, a kind heart and team-work! Hopefully these lovely flowers will be allowed to grow and flourish and to give us happy thoughts for months to come! Citywest ETNS are delighted to announce the election of our very first Student Council, following requests from First Class for the formation of a council, and subsequent campaigning by a number of First Class students. Every student and member of staff was involved in this democratic process, in which an Election Committee worked with Caitríona to lay the groundwork for Election procedures to be adhered to in elections in the coming years. 
The Election Committee explain the procedure for the nomination of candidates and the subsequent campaign.
The pupils in 1st class thought they would enjoy having some equipment to play with out on yard. They put together a very thorough proposal, which was discussed at length by the teachers. Together we (1st class pupils and teachers) decided to run a pilot programme.
So, for the past week, 1st class pupils have organised their own rota and used a separate yard area to play with skipping ropes for one break each day. They will report to Caitriona next week and tell her how its going and how it can be improved. Once we (again, 1st class pupils and teachers!) consider that we've ironed out any teething difficulties, we expect to invite Senior Infant pupils to take a turn too! We might even eventually progress to inviting Junior Infant pupils! So far, the teachers are very impressed at how responsible the 1st class pupils have been. We are also proud of the other children in the school, who haven't been too distracted by the extra goings-on!  We have had a hugely successful Mother Language/Book Week. In all, 13 adults visited us and read stories to us in 8 different languages. Our visitors included fathers, step-fathers and grandfathers; mothers, grandmothers and big sisters. The children really enjoyed it. It was so lovely to see a child's face light up when they heard their "home" language being spoken at school! Some children spoke more during the discussion after a story than we've heard them speak before - what a wonderful chance for these children to express themselves freely using a language they are comfortable with! Other children enjoyed learning new languages and listening to the mother language of their friends.
See photos of each visit here: Polish stories with - Kamila - Lucasz - Peter and Peter's parents - Katarzyna Lithuanian story with Jurgita Spanish story with Ruth Italian story with Emmanuela Hindi story with Anjala Catalan story with Sandra Irish story with Ailish English story with Sophie Thank you so very much to everyone who visited us. We hope you enjoyed your visit as much as we did! dziękuję ¡gracias धन्यवाद ačiū Gràcies Thank you grazie Go raibh maith agat! |
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