Dear Parents, Guardians, Pupils and friends of our school,
Welcome to this week’s newsletter and my first newsletter as the new principal of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Firstly, I am delighted to be back in Ferrybank having spent almost ten happy years in Ferrybank BNS. Since I took up my new position over two weeks ago, I have been hugely impressed by the excellent work that takes place on a daily basis throughout the school. I am very thankful for the warm welcome I have received from both the staff and the children and look forward to working with the school community going forward.
I am very grateful to lead such a wonderful school and staff and I must pay tribute to Ms. O’ Reilly for her hard work and dedication to both her job and the school over many years. I would also like to wish her the very best and I hope that she enjoys many healthy and happy years in retirement.
My aim as principal, in working with the Board of Management, is to continue to provide the safest possible school environment for all staff and children while ensuring that the highest quality teaching and learning occurs daily in our school. I look forward to working with the school community in ensuring this while maintaining and building on all of the great work done by Ms. O’Reilly.
Although I have had the pleasure to meet many of you recently at the parent-teacher meetings, I look forward to meeting you all in time.
Your sincerely,
Mr. Nagle
Opening Times
Please do your very best to ensure that your daughter arrives at school on time. The gates open at 9.10am and the school day starts at this time. The gates will remain open until 9.20am. Please try to have your daughter at the school for 9.10am. Many thanks.
Mid-term Break
The school will close tomorrow Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th for Mid-term break. The school will reopen on Monday, February 20th @ 9.10am.
Parent Teacher Meetings
Many thanks to all who attended their child’s parent-teacher meeting recently. If you have not attended your child’s parent teacher meeting, please make an appointment with the class teacher to do so. Parent teacher meetings are important in maintaining a strong link between school and home and it is vital that you take the time out to attend.
International Mother Language Day 2023
On Tuesday 21 st of February 2023 we will celebrate International Mother Language Day.
This year’s theme is ‘Multilingual Education – a necessity to transform education’. Some of
our incredible 6 th and 3 rd Class girls are going to share their language skills in reading books
in their first languages to the younger classes throughout the day. We will also look forward
to hearing a selection of greetings in different languages throughout the week. We are proud
of the many languages spoken in our school community and how the girls use their language
skills to help their learning. Our Dual-Language storybooks will be displayed for the girls to
browse and see their languages and the English language in print and in story. Remember,
multilingualism is a gift that lasts a lifetime.
Miss Kelly
St. Brigid’s Special Assembly
5th class did a wonderful job presenting their special assembly on Friday, to celebrate
St. Brigid’s day. To begin, we sang ‘a song to Brigid’ followed by playing the tune on our
recorders. Together as a class, we told the stories and traditions surrounding St.
Brigid.
St. Brigid was born in AD 450 in Faughart, near Dundalk in Co. Louth. Her father,
Dubhthach, was a pagan chieftain of Leinster and her mother, Broicsech, was a
Christian. Brigid’s father named her after one of the most powerful goddesses of the
pagan religion – the goddess of fire, whose manifestations were song, craftsmanship,
and poetry, which the Irish considered the flame of knowledge.
She lived during the time of St. Patrick and was inspired by his preachings and she
became a Christian. When Brigid turned eighteen, she stopped working for her father.
Brigid’s father wanted her to find a husband but Brigid had decided that she would
spend her life working for God by looking after poor, sick and elderly people.
Brigid founded many convents all over Ireland; the most famous one was in Co. Kildare.
It is said that this convent was built beside an oak tree where the town of Kildare now
stands. Around 470 she also founded a double monastery, for nuns and monks, in
Kildare. The Abbey of Kildare became one of the most prestigious monasteries in
Ireland, and was famous throughout Christian Europe.
St. Brigid’s Cross: Making a St. Brigid’s cross is one of the traditional rituals in Ireland
to celebrate the beginning of early spring, 1st February. The crosses are made of
rushes that are pulled rather than cut. They are hung by the door and in the rafters to
protect the house from fire and evil.
We created our very own unique St. Brigid’s crosses from coloured card, to hang on our
doors at home.
Miss Walsh
Wellbeing Survey
Thank you to all the Mums and Dads who filled in the Wellbeing survey during the Parent- Teacher meetings last week. The results will be a huge help to us planning our Wellbeing review. If anyone didn’t get a chance to fill out a survey, please ask your teacher or Tracey to sent you one. If you have one at home you completed, could you please send it back.
Mrs Shanahan
Safer Internet Day
We had a very enjoyable Safer Internet Day at our school on Tuesday 7th February. All classes took part in our competition and we were delighted with the response.
The competition winners are:
Junior Infants – Ava
Senior Infants – Eliza
1st Class – Anna
2nd Class – Zoey
3rd Class – Tina
4th Class – Sofia
5th Class – Nicola
6th Class – Julia M
Each winner received a voucher and a Safer Internet Day Wristband. In 3rd Class we discussed our Scenario Cards in our groups in the GP room. Lots of discussion took place.
Remember how to stay safe online using the slogan.
STOP
SCREESHOT
BLOCK
TELL
Mrs Ryan & Mrs Shanahan
World Book Day
World Book Day is on 2nd March 2023, children of all ages will come together to share the joy of reading for pleasure.
World Book Day changes lives through a love of books and shared reading. World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. It is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.
We will be celebrating World Book Day here at Our Lady of Good Counsel GNS in many ways, library visits, story time, creative writing challenges and of course dressing up!
Maybe you would like to start thinking about what character you would like to dress up as for World Book Day. It could be a character from one of the books you have read or a story you have heard. By using your imagination and all your creativity we know that you will all be amazing as always.
Try to use things that you already have at home to make your costume or maybe recycle something you have used before. We look forward to seeing all the wonderful costumes and reading lots of books!
