St. Brigid's National School

We recently celebrated Catholic Schools Week in our school. Our pupils engaged with many activities throughout the week and particularly enjoyed the preparation for Grandparents Day.

Eugene Smith from the De La Salle Retreat Centre in Dublin, will visit the school on Friday, 28th February to complete a retreat programme with the Confirmation pupils from Ticknevin, Killina and Kilshanroe. Throughout the day pupils will have the opportunity to focus on key aspects of their Confirmation through interactive activities, games, videos, discussion and creative prayer. The cost of the retreat is €13 per pupil.

The Parish Office wish to inform parents of 2nd class pupils that the The Sacrament of Reconciliation will take place on the 9th April at 1pm in the school.

We continue to work towards improving our attendance and will we focus on a punctuality campaign in March. Pupils arriving late are disrupting the smooth running of the school day. This is causing disruption to the office, to staff and to the class that has already commenced. Children should be in their classes by 9:00 am sharp. Most children need time to settle into the school day and late arrival to school does not allow this to happen. It is a very important life skill for children to know that they must be on time and ready for the day ahead. The number of late hours will appear on the child’s attendance profile on Aladdin at the end of the year.

December Attendance Rate: 86.1%

January Attendance Rate: 91.8%

Children may not be removed early from class unless for HSE appointments or a family emergency. The removal from class causes significant disruption to classes and the running of the school. In the event that a child has a HSE appointment:

1. Inform the school via Aladdin (at least one day in advance).

2. The pupil will be brought to the collection point (green gate).

3. Pupil is signed out by parent.

4. All early removals are recorded on Aladdin.

Yard time: Due to unavailability of staffing during yard times, pupils cannot be removed from yard for early collection so prior notice of HSE appointment is required.

International Lego Day took place recently. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen patented the original 2x4 LEGO brick on the 28th January 1958. In celebration of the 67th birthday of the humble Lego brick, Edenderry Library hosted a Lego Challenge. Pupils from 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes enjoyed their trip to the library and took part in various Lego Challenges.

It was wonderful to welcome so many of our grandparents who joined us to celebrate St. Brigid's Day with a beautiful service, led by Deacon John Dunleavy. What a lovely way to welcome the arrival or spring. Thank you to everyone who helped to make the day happen and I want to sincerely thank our wonderful Parents' Association who gave up their time to help serve tea and coffee to our visiting grandparents.

The activity of weaving St. Brigid's crosses is a traditional Irish custom associated with Lá Fhéile Bríde (St. Brigid's Day), which celebrates the patron saint of Ireland.

We would like to express our thanks to all the pupils, parents, The Parents' Association and staff who helped in any way to collect rushes or make crosses for St. Brigid's Day. We would also like to thank the Parents' Association who gave up their time to sell crosses at parish masses over the last two weekends. A fantastic amount has been raised from the sale of crosses for school funds. Final figure to follow.

The senior classes have been busy learning all about the Aztecs in History. They worked on projects over the last couple of weeks and presented them to the class last week.

The Junior room have been learning about houses and homes in Geography. The children worked in groups to design and create a house using recyclable materials. The children had great fun making their homes and we are so excited to see the finished products.

The Green-Schools Committee would like to remind all families to cancel school lunches if they know in advance that a pupil will be absent.

Take a look at some of the beautiful art created by our pupils during the month of January.

Grandparents Day inspired art.

We sing a song to Brigid, Brigid brings the spring, Awakens all the fields and the flowers, And calls the birds to sing.

Second and Third Class art inspired by St. Brigid's Cloak.

The Senior Room designed their own firework display using a form of scratch art.

Anti-Bullying Week takes place in our school next week (10th-14th February), which incorporates Safer Internet Day. The aim of the week is to promote positive relationships within the whole school community. The Students Council will be organising many fun activities to celebrate kindness and promote respect. On Friday, pupils are invited to wear odd socks to school as we acknowledge and celebrate that we are all different but all equal!

Internet Safety Day: Will take place next week on Tuesday, 11th February with the theme ‘Prepare, Protect, Thrive’. A reminder of parental support available on the Webwise site - Parents

This year World Book Day will take place on Thursday, March 6th and is a global celebration of books and reading. The aim is to encourage children to read at home and to learn to love books. We would ask that you support us in this endeavour by encouraging reading and by taking your child to the library regularly. Book tokens to the value of €1.50 will be distributed to all children on World Book Day. We also invite all pupils to bring their favourite book to school on World Book Day.

Well done to one of our 5th class pupils who represented our school at the Leinster Minor Schools Swimming Gala at the National Aquatic Centre. He qualified for the Backstroke and 100 IM and will now represent our school at the Irish Minor Schools Championships on the 30th of March. He did an excellent job and we wish him all the best in the event in March!

All upcoming events for the reminder of the school year, as they become known to us, will be recoded on the Aladdin Connect app, in the 'Calendar' section. Please check the Aladdin Connect app regularly for notifications.

Please follow and share our school X/formally Twitter account @brigid_ns to receive reports of all the latest news, events, photos, activities and great work being done by the pupils and staff in our school each and every day.

Over the coming weeks I will be sending out a survey to review our Child Safeguarding Statement and an Anti-Bullying survey to parents to help us in the development of a new Anti Bullying Policy, which will be in line with the new national Bí Cineálta procedures.

Should you have any concern please note that the Designated Liaison Person (DLP) is Nóra Lynch and the Acting Deputy Designated Liaison Person (DDLP) is Eilís McCabe.

January was not the month we expected with the unforeseen school closures, but it was great to see normal routine resume recently. The pupils should be so proud of what they achieved over the last few weeks. We have many things to look forward to in the coming months. As we welcome spring, we are excited for brighter, warmer and longer days.

Continued best wishes to you and your families.

Le gach dea-ghuí

Nóra Lynch

Principal, St. Brigid's N.S.