Paradise Place ETNS Newsletter

News this week - 28 June 2024

Dear parents, carers, staff and friends,

Thank you and happy holidays!

We finish for our summer holidays today at 12 noon.

I want to thank all of the children for a wonderful year of learning. You've worked very hard and made lots of progress and we're very proud of you.

Thank you to all our parents/carers who support us each day. We are grateful for your kind words and positive feedback for our work. We are very lucky to have such a wonderful community of supportive parents/carers.

As we reach the end of the year, it is a time of change. We have been saying our goodbyes to the 6th Class children this week and also to a number of staff members who are moving on. Aoife Bonner, our autism class teacher, is off on a career break, we hope she has a brilliant time and we look forward to having her back with us soon. Today, we say goodbye to Jane Carey, Ellen O'Keeffe, Angela Tovar and Páid Sadlier. Each of them have contributed so much to our school community over the last few years and we thank them for all of their hard work and dedication. We said a special goodbye yesterday to Sorcha O'Donovan, who has worked here for 9 years. Sorcha has been travelling up and down from Portlaoise for the last year and is finally making the move closer to home. Sorcha has been a smiling, welcoming and friendly face in our Infant classes for much of her time with us and we thank her for all of the care and support she has given the children.

I want to say a big thank you to all of our wonderful staff - teachers, inclusion assistants, Colm and Liz. You do phenomenal work to create the amazing learning opportunities we offer children every day. The last term has been a very busy one and you've embraced it with energy and enthusiasm. You deserve every moment of your holiday - rest well and thanks for everything.

2024-2025 School Year

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Children will start back to school on Monday, 2nd September 2024.

We welcome back Katie Collins and Shauna Marron to the teaching team. Katie has been on maternity leave and returns to us with a new job-share partner, Fiona. Shauna worked with us in 2017-2018 before moving to Dubai and we are delighted she is returning to work with us again. We also welcome Andy Wightman, who is moving to Dublin from the UK and also brings a wealth of experience to the team.

Classes for next year are as follows:

Junior Infants - Carla Manifold and Claire Murphy

Senior Infants - Síle McDonnell

1st Class - Alannah Drumm

1st/2nd Class - Molly Curtin

2nd Class - Gráinne O'Callaghan

Autism Class - Lorna Staunton

3rd Class - Alison Moore and Gregor Kerr

4th Class - Sean Gallagher and Andy Wightman

5th Class - Shauna Marron

6th Class - James O'Shea

Support Teachers: Bríd Brophy, Patricia Graham, Rita Kind, Claire Yeates, Yvonne Dickson, Derek Carney/Catherine Conlon, Michelle Roche, Aoife Kilkenny, Katie Collins/Fiona Ní Leathleabhar

Inclusion Assistants: Áine, Aoiffe, Audrey, Conor, Dolores, Gemma, Lina, Una-Kate

Graduation

We had a beautiful graduation ceremony with our two 6th Classes yesterday. The children wrote and shared some very personal and inspiring graduation speeches. We were privileged to hear a number of them, shared so eloquently and confidently. We also heard a beautiful original song by up-and-coming singer-songwriter, Isabelle Murray.

As always, this is a bittersweet time. We know the exciting times that await our 6th Class children as they move on to secondary school, and yet we are sad that their time with us is coming to an end.

We wish our 6th Class graduates the very best as they move on. We've asked them to remember to be kind and respectful and to know that they can always come back if they need us. They will always be part of our school family and community. Our best wishes to all the families, especially, those leaving us for the last time. We have loved having you and will miss you!

Performances

Thank you to the parents/carers in our infants - 1st Classes who joined us for lovely end of year celebrations. Thanks also to the families of children from 2nd - 6th Class who joined us for our end of year performance this week. The performance was very-ably led by our talented 6th Class children, and featured beautiful singing from the other classes and some brilliant dancing from our dance club. Well done children!

Huge thanks to each of our class teachers who led their classes in their performances - not an easy feat at this time of year when it is so busy. You did a wonderful job. Special thanks to the 6th Class team who coordinated the whole thing - especially James O'Shea who wrote and directed the play, Sean Gallagher who put all the music together, Aoife Kilkenny who led the set design, costumes and make-up and all the staff who supported with supervision, painting, costume changes and lots more.

Uniform Update

Thank you to all the parents/carers who gave us their feedback on the hoodies! There were lots of different opinions but we think most people preferred the smaller logo, so we'll go with that. We will work with the supplier over the next few weeks and get back in touch with you as soon as we know more about ordering for September.

Summer Camp

We're looking forward to seeing the children who have signed up for summer camp next week. Camp runs for two weeks from 1st - 12th July at the usual school times. The children can wear comfortable clothes and will have breakfast and lunch provided.