Last term was a busy and exciting time for our school. Our pupils were tasked with choosing a name for their class, relating to the nature of Ireland.

After weeks of deliberations, the class names were announced and our pupils got to work. Our pupils engaged in a wide variety of learning activities related to their class name. From construction and clay to fact files and poetry, an abundance of learning and teaching took place. 

Our Class Names Showcase took place in December. We welcomed parents and guardians into our corridors and classrooms; our pupils did the rest.

Our class names are displayed clearly (and colourfully!) around our school. Check out some photographs below!

We are looking forward to celebrating more learning with our community this term. Stay tuned for updates!

Our pupils in 1st and 2nd class have had a busy first term of learning.

Since September, the children have explored a wide variety of topics, from materials, clay and colour wheels to salmon, snails and sand play. 

Check out some of their work on display around our school. 

This year, the Student Council has led the student body in having their say in relation to the types of fun days and events that we have in the school. In previous years, we have had various types of themed days and events - themed around a number of activities and curricular areas, such as Maths Week, STEM Week, World Book Day, Seachtain na Gaeilge, Friendship Week, etc.

When the Student Council asked the children at the senior end of the school (3rd-6th classes) for ideas, they gathered dozens of fun, wonderful, creative ideas. They then shortlisted those ideas and took them to the children at the junior end of the school (Junior Infants - 2nd classes), and had those children vote for their favourite ideas from within that list.

This democratic process made it clear that children across the school love Movie Days and Pyjama Days. Since these do not need to be centrally organised, the Student Council decided to simply communicate that to class teachers, and ask them to organise one of each of these days this year, at their own discretion.

There was also overwhelming support for three additional themed days. These events have now been shared with the staff, who will get working in the background to bring the ideas to fruition. We think you'll agree that they certainly sound exciting! We have also listed the provisional dates for these events:

Art Day - 27 February
Rainbow Colour Run - 17 April
Water Fight - 17 May

These themed days will join the annual staple events of Sports Day(s), 6th Class Graduation, and 2022/23's new addition: Citywest Summer Games - all of which take place in June.
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Keep your eye on our calendar page for any updates to activities in the school!

To help us introduce ourselves, we would like to try a new initiative by providing care boxes for the residents. If you and your family would be interested in putting together a care box for one of the residents, please let us know by completing this form.

We will be collecting the boxes on 12th and 13th December, and one of our classes will deliver them to the nursing home later that week.

You may be aware from our 23/24 School Strategy and recent parent information night that this year we are focusing on deepening and broadening the learning experiences for the children through whole school collaborative and cross curricular projects.  

When it came to considering how to do this, we reflected on our ethos and inclusivity within our community and our goal of striving to be even more "Educate Together". We have been reflecting as a staff community for quite a few years now on the way we name our classes and how we address them. Placing the teacher's name in the class name suggests a certain ownership of the class which we feel doesn't reflect on the actual practices and sense of community within our classes themselves. With our new building in place, classes set up and established in classrooms in the school, we feel the time is right to begin the project and name our classes officially. 

The project has been at the planning stage amongst our staff. We are bound to teach the National Curriculum as set out by the Department of Education and the Learn Together curriculum as set out by our patron Educate Together so the class names need to be someway incorporated into these curricula. We want to include the children's and communities' voices in the decision as much as possible so at the moment we are considering the best way to do this. 

The children will be made aware of the plans to rename the classes later in October (so don't spill the beans until then!) but we want to give you a heads up so that you can engage in the discussion with your child(ren). The children will be given a theme by their class teacher from which they will pick a class name. For example the theme could be sea animals from which the children will be asked to consider what sea animal they would like their class named after (sharks, dolphins, etc). This is not a sneak peak by the way!! We hope that this will prove to be a nice discussion topic for you and your child(ren) and develops further that link between school and homelife.
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Be sure to check in with your child(ren) over the next few weeks as the project progresses to see where their class is at with it. For now there is nothing for you to do but know that when your child announces that they want their class to be called the Shark class you will have a reference as to what they are talking about!

Last week, our Parents Association organised a reading event to celebrate the linguistic diversity in our school community.

Throughout the week, each class in the school had a visit from one of our parents. The parent then read a book to the class in the parent's mother language. 

This is a fantastic way for us to recognise and affirm the linguistic diversity in our community. Many children benefited from having a language that isn't their own, flowing over their ears. They experienced story telling in a different way - appreciating tone of voice, facial expression, and the book's illustrations more than ever before.

Children were also supported by the parent reader, who took time to discuss the story in English.