We were very lucky to have a special visit from (L to R) Sr Catherine, Sr Margaret Mary and Sr Madeleine today. They shared a wealth of knowledge and experience with our 5th class.

They told us of the origins of the school and how on September 16th 1879, nine Sacred Heart of Mary Sisters arrived in Ferrybank on the steamship Reginald. Prior to this, there were hedge schools or fee paying schools. Two women from the parish were teaching in a small school in the area before St. Brigid’s school was founded in 1879.

Sr Margaret Mary taught at the school from 1954. She taught the infant classes in St. Brigid’s school. At one point, she taught over 52 children in one Junior Infant class and over 90 children religion. Sr. Madeleine taught from 1964 to 1982 and after 18 years as a class teacher, she became principal of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Sr. Catherine taught at the school until 2004, and was the last of the Sacred Heart of Mary Sisters to teach at the school.

The school was split into two big rooms and two smaller rooms. The ceilings were very high and stoves heated the rooms. The children practiced writing on black slates with chalk. When they were prepared and well practiced, they moved onto using ink and metal nibbed pens. Boys attended St. Brigid’s school from junior to senior infants and then they would attend St. Mary’s Boys school. Boys sat on one side of the room and the girls sat on the other side of the room. Some of the children were very poor at that time and wore no shoes to school. Sr. Margaret Mary said they would not need to go see a chiropodist! Some children had very little food to eat and Sr. Catherine recollected how one of the sisters would bring food down from the convent to feed the children. Back then, there were very few forms of transport and if you had a bicycle you were seen as well-off. Sr. Margaret Mary remembered how cars were very scare and people had to walk everywhere.

When asked what was their favourite subject, Sr. Margaret Mary said she loved teaching mathematics. After Sr. Margaret Mary retired, she came back and taught mathematics to some of the classes. Sr. Catherine enjoyed teaching religion, hearing the stories and the children’s interpretation of the stories. Sr. Madeleine loved Irish, especially the songs and poetry. She recalled her favourite memory was when the school sang mass through Irish. The prominent Irish composer Séan O’Riada had composed an Irish mass.

St. Brigid’s school was a beautiful Ferrybank landmark, that people would come from near and far to view from 1879 to 1959. Sadly the school fell into disrepair and was knocked down.

The uniforms have changed a lot over the years. This is a uniform from the 70’s, whereby the girls wore velvet ribbons and royal blue shift dresses. The St. Brigid’s school uniform was a pale-blue shirt and navy gymslip with a navy cardigan. Now we have our royal blue and sunny yellow uniform.

We looked at many, informative and historical primary source artefacts, such as the roll books, religious reports and music books dating back as far as 1899. Our class have been very privileged to hear recounts and first hand knowledge of the history of our school. We would like to say a special thank you to The Sacred Heart of Mary Sisters for visiting us and sharing their invaluable experiences with us.

Dear Parents, Guardians, Pupils and Friends of the school,

I hope you all have settled in well to the new school year. We were delighted to see so many of you last
night at the Parents Information Evening. It is important for us to strengthen the relationship between the
school and parents and the Information Evening is a great opportunity to do so. Please note that
homework will start from next week – your daughter’s teacher may have gone through this with you
during the Information Evening to make it easier for everyone during the year.

School Website – Translation Tool
This website has a translation tool on the right hand side of all pages called ‘Translate Here’ – it maybe at the bottom of the page if you are on a mobile device/tablet. There are
many languages you can translate to so please use this tool especially if English is not your first language.

Cinderella
The girls from 1st to 6th class had a little surprise yesterday (Thursday) morning when they were treated
to ‘Cinderella – The Pantomime.’ The show was performed by M and M Theatrical Productions all the
way from Scotland who were superb! The girls thoroughly enjoyed the experience and got to see a live
pantomime with all the sounds, lights and action in their own school hall. They even got to see some of
the teachers perform! Well done to everyone!

FAI
We welcomed Gary Power of the FAI to do a session with 3rd and 4th class last week. It’s the first time
Gary has visited our school and he was really impressed by the girls! He even left us some footballs to
practice our skills!

Assembly
Every Friday in the GP room we hold assembly. The girls get the opportunity to hear from me, to see
what other classes are doing and to celebrate birthdays and achievements. We also hold Class Reports
where two selected classes each week show/perform to the school something that they have prepared.
Last week we had great performances from Ms. Cunniffe’s 1st and Ms. Power’s 2nd class and we look forward to the Junior and Senior Infant class reports today!

Maths Week 2023

Maths Week 2023 is gearing up to spark some imaginations and captivate minds from 14^th – 22^nd  October.   Maths Week is an all-island event that takes place every October online, in-school and at venues across Ireland.  It promotes awareness, appreciation and understanding of Maths through a huge variety of events and activities.  At our school children will engage in a wide range of activities through online events, in-class activities and games.  We will be using our Maths Eyes around our School Community during Maths Week.  More details are available at www.mathsweek.ie

Important upcoming dates

Halloween Break – finish Friday October 27th and return to school on Monday November 6th.

Covid-19
Please be aware that Covid-19 is present in the community and we are continuing to take precautions to
minimise any spread of the disease. It is important that you keep your daughter at home if she is ill. In
any cases where Coivd-19 is suspected, you are asked to follow the relevant guidance and take the
precautions recommended by the HSE. Please click here for up to date guidance –
https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/covid19/

Swimming
The girls in 2nd and 3rd will be swimming after the Halowe’en break for 6 weeks. We will be in touch with details before the break.

Class Blogs
Teachers make a big effort to keep their class blogs updated with all of the different activities and lessons
that their classes are doing. You can view the class blogs by clicking on the ‘Class Blog’ tab at the top of
the page and then clicking on the relevant class.

Internet Safety Training for Parents
The Parents Association have asked me to share a link regarding Internet Safety Training for Parents. I
have attached the link below which includes times and dates. The Information Session is online via Zoom
and takes place between Monday October 9th and Friday October 13th. The sessions are aimed at
providing useful information and skills to parents to enable them to engage with their children’s online
lives. I would strongly encourage any parents interested to attend.
NPC Internet Safety Information session for Parents – Virtual October 2023 Survey (surveymonkey.com)

That’s all for now. I will be in touch again with you all before the Hallowe’en break.

Yours sincerely,

J. Nagle
Principal

Thanks to Mr Nagle for organising M&M Productions to come to our school yesterday. We all really enjoyed their amazing show Cinderella.

The girls in 4th class had a great surprise, when the cast of Cinderella popped into the school, on the way to the ball, for a vist. The show was hilarious, the music was amazing and the smiles were as big as ever. Great fun had by all.

The girls in Senior Infants really enjoyed celebrating European Day of Languages with a storytelling session of the dual-language book (Polish and English) ‘The Wibbly Wobbly Tooth’.

Thanks to Gary from Ferrybank AFC Soccer Club for teaching 3rd class some new soccer skills today. We had great fun.

Fourth class have been very busy since retunring to school. We have been learning all about colours, mixing and the colour wheel. They created colour wheels with these colours and made beautiful multi-coloured eyes.

The girls are also lucky enough to have a soccer workshop in school today. They had great fun practising new skills.