Newsletter 8 – Oct 20th, 2023
Dear Parents/ Guardians,
We are down to our last week of the first term. Can you believe it?
Admissions for First Years in Greystones for 2024/2025 – The closing date for receipt of applications to St. David’s, Secondary School, Temple Carrig Secondary School and Greystones Community College is this coming Monday October 23rd.
Open Night/Information Night for Junior Infants (2024/25) – Tuesday 24th October from 7.30pm to 8.15pm
Admissions for Junior Infants 2024-2025 – Enrolment for Junior Infants for 2024/2025 will open on Monday 6th November 2023. Application forms will be available to download from the school website from 6th to 27th November. Alternatively, you can pick up a hard copy from the office. The Admissions Notice and Admissions Policy are available to view on our school website.
Important Notice Rita, our Lollipop Lady, will not be outside the school at home time today Friday 20th October. She will be off work next Monday and Tuesday also. Please remind your children to cross at the pedestrian crossing and to take extra care when crossing,
Happy Birthday – – Five people are celebrating birthdays this week – Annabelle O’ Gorman (10yrs), Alessia Di Ruzza (12yrs), Finn Doherty (8yrs), Seán Gill (9yrs) and Holly McManus (9yrs), We wish them all a very happy birthday and hope they enjoy their special day. Breithlá sona daoibh go léir a pháistí.
Flu Vaccination Programme for Schools – If you have registered your child for the free flu nasal spray vaccine, they will receive it at school on Tuesday 24th October. Vaccination will be scheduled over the school day to suit the operational needs of the school.
Please Note: For parents with more than one child in the school, you will need to have filled in one consent form for each child. The pharmacist cannot vaccinate any child without the online consent form being completed in advance.
Maths Week 2023 – Who said Maths couldn’t be fun? We all know how important maths is and this week has allowed us to celebrate all things mathematical in a fun way while promoting the importance of maths at the same time. Throughout the week the children have enjoyed completing maths trails, solving daily puzzles set by the principal, and acting as mathematicians and data researchers to create a special maths board all about numbers at our school. Did you know that ⅛ of the pupils at our school are left-handed? This is just one of the interesting maths facts we learned about our school this week.
It was lovely to see the children from Ms. Corcoran’ s First Class buddying up with Ms. Dent’s Junior Infants to teach them some maths games.
There was a great excitement in the hall on Wednesday last as 6 teams from 5th and 6th battled it out for the coveted title of “St. Brigid’s Maths Wizards 2023/2024”. All 6 teams gave it their best shot and deserve high praise for the great effort they put in solving some very challenging problems. Maith sibh a pháistí. The winners on the day were The Nerds. Congratulations to Ava Doran, Ben O’ Gallagher, Cillian Smith and Harry Gormley who made up the team.
The older classes are having great fun working on the Marshmallow Challenge and the winners of this challenge will be announced next week.
At the request of the Student Council, we brought back the “Guess the Number of Sweets in a Jar” for 2023. Room 4 were the winners at the Junior end of the school with Aarav guessing the exact number of sweets which was 77. At the Senior end of the school, Rooms 15 and 20 were the winners with Freddie G and Caireann from Room 15 and Louis K from Room 20 guessing 72 exactly. Well done on your excellent estimating skills a pháistí ! The three winning classes will each receive a jar of sweets to be shared between all the children in the class which I am sure they will be delighted with.
We are looking forward to an even bigger and better maths week next year.
It Takes a Village Workshop for Parents – “Fostering Relationships & Making Connections”. Thursday, October 19th
For those of you who attended last night’s workshop, I hope you enjoyed the evening. Ian Power and Alice O’ Donnell shared some very useful tips with us, and you couldn’t but be impressed by the two young TY students from Greystones Community College who stole the show with their insightful thoughts and views on building relationships and making connections. A big thank you to Andrea Splendori who was MC for the night and to all the ITAV Volunteers for the work they put in in advance.
Halloween Bakesale – Friday 27th November from 9.00am in the school hall. Please see the email sent to all families on Wednesday about the Cake Sale for further details.
Halloween Dress Up Day – Friday 27th November. The Staff are looking forward to seeing the children in their Halloween costumes next Friday. We are always amazed at how creative the children are at putting their costumes together. Any child who does not want to dress up may wear their tracksuit to school instead.
Some practical points re Hallowe’en Dress Up Day in school:
- No accessories, i.e. nothing a child needs to hold in their hand or things that can be put down for others to potentially pick up and handle.
- Be mindful of the length of the costume – avoid costumes that are too long and may be a tripping hazard – bear in mind we have lots of staircases in our school!
- Costumes – including shoes – should be comfortable and practical for sitting in the classroom for the day, and for going out on yard at break times.
- Be mindful that the costume isn’t going to scare a younger pupil. If you think a Junior Infant will be frightened, then perhaps you could consider an alternative costume.
Gaeilge – Frásaí na Seachtaine # 7 – This week’s phrase is: “An féidir liom labhairt leat ?” – Can I talk to you?
No Basketball After School Fri 27th October – There will be no basketball after school for 5th class next Friday 27th October.
Midterm Break – School will finish at the normal closing time next Friday 27th October and reopen on Monday 6th November.
Until next week
Slan go fóill,
Máire Costello
Principal