It's hard to believe that December has rolled around so quickly! We were thrilled to be able to get out our PJP Christmas Grotto and turn the foyer into our own Winter Wonderland.

It was super to see parents return to the school for face to face parent meetings and a sincere thank you to everyone for attending.

Concert for 2nd and 3rd Classes

We are looking forward to our PJP Christmas Cracker Nights which take place next Tuesday 13th December (Second class performances) and Wednesday 14th December (Third Class performances). The stage has been built and rehearsals are underway for what promises to be two highly entertaining evenings - far more so than any World Cup Event!

We are appealing for some Raffle Prizes for both evenings, any donations would be gratefully received.

SVP Christmas Appeal

A big thank you to Ms. Bradshaw and her class who are coordinating this years SVP Christmas Appeal. Each class in our school will be tasked with creating a hamper for a needy family/individual and this will be delivered directly to the family homes by SVP Volunteers and staff members. Matthew and Sarah have written an article explaining the process and this can be found in this newsletter.

While for most families, Christmas is a time of great joy we think of the families in our school community who are struggling for different reasons. Please do not be afraid to contact me directly should your family need financial support this year.

We will issue a final school news for the year before the Christmas Holidays.

In the meantime please stay safe and well.

Le gach dea ghuí,

Ms. Markey

Rehearsals are in full swing for the PJP Christmas Cracker!

Please remember that school will close for Christmas Holidays on Wednesday 21st December. Classes will be dismissed at the following times:

2nd and 4th:11:40

3rd and 5th: 11:45

6th: 11:50

School reopens on Thursday 5th January.

St Brigid's Bank Holiday : School Closure 6th February

The school will be closed on Tuesday 7th February to facilitate staff training in relation to the Primary Language Curriculum.

Midterm Break 13th - 17th February inclusive.

Please remember our school Calendar is available on the website.

This is a new section of our news letter as we want to introduce some of the different staff members who help with the running of the school to the whole school community.

In our school we have a distributed leadership model. A number of our teachers are part of the In-School Management Team and they help Ms. Markey by taking responsibility to run different parts of the school programmes. We have a number of Assistant Principals and will introduce them to you over the next few Newsletters.

First up is Ms Kieran. Ms Kieran is teaching second class this year after working as a Special Education Teacher for the last three years. She is an Assistant Principal with particular responsibility for looking after the Sacramental Preparations as well as coordinating our School Assemblies throughout the year. She spearheaded the introduction of the Spellings for Me programme and is heavily involved with the iPads for our junior classes.

Ms Kieran works closely with Father Martin and Ronan Ormsby and all of the class teachers to organise the Sacraments of Penance, First Holy Communion and Confirmation as well as the Ceremony of Light.

Any queries relating to these areas can be sent directly to Ms. Kieran via email c.kieran@pjp.ie

St. Vincent De Paul is Ireland’s largest voluntary charitable service. The volunteers work to provide practical support to people in need of it. The volunteers bring food bags and shop vouchers to the people who need it. In Ms. Bradshaw’s class, we are currently assigning families in need to every class. Each class will be making a hamper for a family in need. Each class member will have to bring in a non- perishable household item. Two of Ms. Bradshaw’s class members will be coming to each class to give you a list of foods to buy in the near future.

On 20th December, the hampers will be collected by volunteers and teachers, packed into cars and driven to the assigned families. These hampers will be a way for the families in need to celebrate Christmas, in a way that they wouldn’t have been able to before. Even though it may not seem like much, it will mean the world to these lovely people.

This week , children from 5th and 6th class visited the National Sports Centre for the big rehearsal before our concert in the RDS in February. We were so excited going on the bus and a huge thank you to all the parents that volunteered help supervise - it really was very much appreciated.

We got to meet some of the other schools that we will be performing with and we also got to meet the fabulous conductor, Greg Beardsell.

We cannot wait to visit the RDS. It’s such a wonderful opportunity for us and Thursday was a real sneak peek of what to expect!! We will be performing classics such as Amazing Grace , a Pop Medley and even a Dance Medley! So there will be something for everyone .

This will be the third time Pope John Paul's NS will have performed in the Peace Proms but only the second in the RDS, as in 2021 we were online due to the pandemic.View our 2021 performance in the video below.

Follow our Peace Proms journey here: https://www.pjp.ie/school-choir/

On 21st to 25th November, the whole school engaged in an Anti-Bullying and Friendship Week.

This was a wonderful opportunity to promote our Golden Rules that we introduced in September. The children engaged in a series of whole-school activities throughout the week from Random Acts of Kindness Day, to letters of gratitude, a poster competition and a Team up Against Bullying Day. We enjoyed a trip to the Yellow Door for some hot chocolate with our twenty-six poster competition winners. We captured some wonderful images of the week and have a short slideshow link that can be viewed on our school website!

We have had a hugely positive response to chess this term at PJP NS. Ms Lonergan and Mr Whiting began teaching chess to some of the third and fifth classes they support once a week. The program they use is based on teaching chess along with social skills. Mr Whiting is a seasoned player, whereas Ms Lonergan has only begun playing chess since the summertime - so they are the perfect team!

The popularity of the game in the classes has led both teachers to establish an after-school chess club on Wednesdays with almost 60 children playing chess, with children from all different class levels. Some of the children began learning how to play twelve weeks ago, beginning with just pawns, and are now playing full chess!

Ms Farrelly’s class third class was one of the classes that was taught chess this term and absolutely love to play every Wednesday afternoon. They even participated in an online chess tournament last week on the website lichess, using the school iPads.

Ms Lonergan and Mr Whiting are hoping to expand the club in the new year and continue teaching it to as many children as possible.

In the new year, our Green Schools committee will be back up and running. The school is working towards our 9th Green Flag. We continue to maintain work done on previous themes and work towards our next theme, Global Citizenship Travel. Remember to walk/cycle or scoot to school as often as you can and use a reusable water bottle!

It is great to see so many children walking, scooting and cycling to school. A big well done to the following classes on being the latest Golden Boot Winners:

2nd Class Ms. Clinton

3rd Class Ms. Conneely

4th Class Ms. O' Brien

5th Class Ms. Ní Chonchubair

6th Class Ms. Bradshaw

Peter Grogan is a local author that has retired from his primary school teaching profession three years ago. He decided to write a children’s book based in Ireland called Seamróg the Irish Reindeer. The story was about an elderly couple that sent their reindeer to the North pole to help Santa.

The children in second class had the opportunity to meet Peter with their class teachers. It was clear to see that meeting an author in person increased the children’s interest of books, helped them to understand how books are produced and boost the confidence of our aspiring writers in the school. Peter described the development of the book from his original ideas to his finished project.

Peter reinforced his anti-bullying theme in his book with the students. There was a surge of interest in his book and with the art of writing. Our young audience was very curious to know all about Peter. They were a highly engaging and entertaining interview panel on the morning. Peter thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful contributions from our highly eager students!

A big bualadh bos and maith sibh to all the PJP Pupil's who take part in the recent Santa Parade in the village!

Well done to Sophia Murtagh who made an appearance on The Late Late Toy Show as part of the super choir!

The best of luck to Zoe Belle O'Connor who is taking part in the Gaiety Panto The Jungle Book!

Well done to Izzy Gilmartin who recently won a bronze medal in the National Gymnastics Championships!

What is the Hour of Code?

The Hour of Code started as an introduction to computer science created by Code.org. The program was designed to celebrate coding and raise awareness. It was intended to be a quick way to show that anybody can learn the basics of coding, with the goal of broadening participation in the field of computer science. Today it’s become a global movement, with participation in 180 countries and 45 different languages. Millions of students participate, enjoying tutorials and activities for one hour.

When is the Hour of Code?

The Hour of Code takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week which is held annually, typically in December, in recognition of the birthday (December 9, 1906) of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. This year it takes place between December 5-11, 2022.

Hour of Code at PJP’s

This week, as part of the Hour of Code for Computer Science Education Week, some of our 2nd and 4th classes have been engaging in an hour of code during their STEM lessons with Ms. Hayden.

The students in Ms. Clinton’s and Ms. Burke’s classes have been coding Bee Bots while our 4th class students have been programming with Angry Birds and learning how to ‘debug’ code (find errors in a program and correcting them).

The Hour of Code website has hundreds of free one-hour tutorials designed for all ages in over 45 languages. No experience in code is needed. Check it out at the following link: https://hourofcode.com/ie

On Wednesday 16th November, Room 6 went on a great trip to the Dáil. We arrived at school at the normal time and walked to the DART station. We got the 9.07am DART to Pearse Station and walked to the Dáil for our 10.30am tour.

We had a lovely guide who brought us to sit in the viewing gallery of Dáil Éireann. There we saw a few TDs speak, including Danny Healy Rae. The Cathaoirleach was in the middle of the room.

After ten minutes, we left and went to the Seanad. It wasn’t in session and the room was a bit smaller, but interesting all the same. We learned about previous Taoiseachs and our guide told us lots of other cool facts about the Dáil. After the tour we took some photos outside. We then walked to McDonald’s for lunch and got the DART home. It was a lovely trip.

Thank you to Ms Creavin, Caroline and Niamh for bringing us!

Ms Magner and the Student Council would like to express their thanks to everyone that contributed and got involved in our Trick or Treat for Temple Street Fundraiser. We raised a grand total of €1505!! The majority in copper coins! We were so impressed by all the wonderful costumes! Well done everyone!

We received this wonderful certificate from Temple Street and a letter of thanks . These are displayed on our Student Council noticeboard.

As part of our UNICEF Child's Rights Ribbon Award our next job was to connect our rights to a school subject or event . We opted to focus on rights #2, 14,16,30 about how everyone has the right to their own name, their own language , culture etc. We felt this tied it very well with our "PJP Anti Bullying /Friendship/Kindness Week". The student council created their own display to promote kindness with a minions twist ....

"A MINION reasons to be kind because bullying is DESPICABLE "We hope you like it .

Congratulations to all the new committee members of the Amber Flag. They all received their new badges. We have also started the "you've been mugged initiative" as part of staff wellbeing. It is a random act of kindness to brighten up their week.

We had great fun participating in Friendship week. Congratulations to the winners of the "What makes a great friend" poster competition photo below. We also had games day in the Halla as part of Friendship week. We will be continuing this as part of well-being in second class to develop social skills.

Finally we are busy preparing for wellbeing month in January with more news to follow.

Our Coiste na Gaeilge have been “ag obair go Dian” (working hard). They have been creating posters to display all over the school to promote Irish . Simple phrases such as “Oscail an Doras (open the door) , múch na soilse (turn off the lights) , “Fáilte” (welcome ) .

We have added plenty of useful resources for parents and guardians to help with Irish at home . This are all available on our dedicated Gaelbhratach webpage :https://www.pjp.ie/gaelbhratach/

Some members from the Coiste also designed our December “Gaelzón Board”. They have been recording some useful Gaeilge phrases to help everyone and you can check these out on the school website or Twitter page.