The Scoop Weekly Newsletter

Email: smccormack@st-andrews.ie
Website: https://www.sac.ie/page/?title=Junior&pid=3
Phone: (01) 288 2785
Facebook: facebook.com/None
Twitter: @standrewsdublin

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome back! It has been a wonderful week of learning across the school and life is simply a joy in the Autumn sunshine.

At this time, it is really nice to 'take a break' from all the news. Supporting children to love learning, grow and expand their interests has always been our goal and we certainly have not lost sight of our mission! On Tuesday, our Choir started up again and it what a lovely treat this was to hear from the covered area first thing. Ms Dee Dee Wheaton started as our new American Studies teacher and I was delighted to pop in on a K1 lesson all about elections and to learn all about the 2020 candidates 'Mr Bear ' and 'Mrs Owl' - I await to hear the final results! Additionally, we made some great changes to our French and Spanish program and we have managed to timetable an additional lesson for P5 & P6.

'Team work makes dream work' and what a brilliant community of learners we are. We are so looking forward to the term ahead: with International Week next week; Friendship Week the one after; and some wonderful magic in the making for a Christmas time. As always, do watch this space for all the news and love from the Junior school!

Kind regards,

Sarah McCormack

To support our Covid measures, we are required to keep all our windows and doors open in classrooms and the school to facilitate adequate ventilation. As it gets colder, please make sure that your child is suitably dressed - extra layers (vests), jumpers/hoodies and even coats will be a necessity in the winter months. We notice that many children who get lifts are not wearing coats.

This is a really interesting webinar by Professor Luke O'Neill on managing Covid-19 in schools and the classroom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&feature=youtu.be&v=HAlJcZTz4aE

Always a highlight in our calendar - International Week! Although we won't be able to have our usual International Evening, here are just a few of the things that will be happening across the school:

1. Next Friday, the children are invited to come dressed in the colours of their national Flag or a traditional costume from their home country. This is a dress down day and no uniform required.

2. We are hosting a new family House competition: to prepare a favourite dish from home and record the cooking (or tasting!) on FlipGrid! We know this won't be quite the same as our usual international shared lunch but wonderful all the same! Extra points for families being involved - https://flipgrid.com/9529b0b8

3. Pupils will be preparing and show-casing a special class project and sharing with a buddy class virtually. We really miss our class collaborations and can't wait for this!

4. We will be starting our whole school read with 'How to Bee' by Australian writer Bren McDibble in P4 - P6 and 'The Best Beekeeper of Lalibela: A Tale from Africa' by Cristina Kessler for K1 - P2. Each year, we pick a whole school read which explores our values and this year we focus on courage with two pioneering girl protagonists!

5. We were disappointed that we didn't get any overseas messages from our international readers and families yet. It's not too late and please find a FlipGrid topic here https://flipgrid.com/41624e24 which will enable you to easily record a video message for our pupils. We would love to hear from you.

Thinking about what we do well and what we can improve on is part of a growth mindset at SACJS! On Monday, Mrs. McCormack presented a back to school Assembly and set all the classes a challenge to reflect on the 1st term and come up with some ideas about what would improve our learning experience but also our general Health & Safety. Here are two wonderful videos from our youngest learners in K1 & K2. It seems we might might be looking into some class pets !

It has been a busy first term & start to Term 2 for P3C. We are in our new pods, and everyone is enjoying getting to know and interact with new students in the class. We are having great fun following the 3 Bee’s and earning marbles for our pods by working as a team!

This week we have been focusing on report writing in English, earlier in the week we wrote some book reports based on our favourite books. This allowed us to think back on why we love these books, what our favourite part of it was and a picture we imagined in our head while we were reading it!

We have also been spending some time talking about SPHE – feeling safe & unsafe. We clarified some areas that make us feel safe, where we feel safe and who makes us feel safe. We listened to some stories and had a lovely class circle time sharing stories of our families and our homes. The class drew & coloured some beautiful butterflies in Art with Mr Cousins, and there are proudly hanging on the wall in the corridor for everyone to see!

On Friday’s we have story time where the class picks a book, and we go outside (if it is nice!) and Ms Collis reads a story. This is a nice, quiet, relaxing time at the end of our very busy week in P3C.

Congratulations too to Ms. Collis and last year's Amber Flag pupils who's hard work won us the prestigious Amber Flag for supporting mental health! Here is Ms. Collis with the certificate which came through this week.

Calling all P3-P6 budding Green Team and Student Council representatives! Next week, all pupils in the top end of the school are invited to prepare presentations and speeches to be elected to be part of our student led teams. Nominations will be completed by Wednesday 18 November, with the first meetings held on Friday, 20 November. Good luck to all!

Always in pursuit of some comradery, and positivity, the Junior School team started a Bake Off challenge and fundraiser this week in support of our chosen Charity Suas. This week, Mr. Adair, Mr O'Brien and Ms. Mary started proceedings with the buns and muffin round! Thanks to Ms. Mary and Mr. Lowrie for organising this very worthy event!

Monday 30 November 2020 - School Closed

Tuesday 22 December 2020 - Term Ends

Wednesday 6 January 2021 - Classes Resume

Friday 12 February 2021 - Half-Term commences

Monday 22 February 2021 - Classes Resume

Wednesday 17 March 2021 - School Closed

Friday 26 March 2021 - Term Ends

Monday 12 April 2021 - Classes Resume

Friday 30 April 2021 - School Closed

Monday 3 May 2021 - School Closed

Friday 4 June 2021 - Term Ends

Please note, as we get back to normal more dates will be added to this section - with two week's notice on all big events. Please do check the Scoop weekly, as it is our main communication between school and home!