Dear Mams and Dads,

This is the message received from the Department of Education advising schools not to open tomorrow. Our apologies for any inconvenience and we hope that you and your families remain safe.

Yours sincerely,

C. O’Reilly – Principal

A Red Alert has now been issued by Met Éireann relating to severe wind for counties Clare, Kerry and Cork.

A status orange warning has issued for counties Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Mayo, Wexford, Dublin, Louth,  Wicklow, Meath.

Met Éireann has advised that there is a strong possibility that the status of parts of these counties currently in status orange are likely to change and escalate to status red.

Due to the significant nature of Storm Barra, as forecast by Met Éireann and to give sufficient notice to schools and parents/guardians, the Department is advising that all schools covered by the Red Alert and Orange warning from Met Éireann should not open tomorrow, 7 December.

Fifth Class were all in training last week, as apprentice electricians!

We learned about and created simple electrical circuits…. Here is a sneak peak at some of our work.

We even brought our expertise into our Christmas Art Work! Rudolf’s nose has come to light!

Junior Infants are preparing for Christmas and having lots of fun with the Christmas theme in Aistear.

The girls in Senior Infants were very busy this week, working in the post office. They were writing letters and posting them in our post class post boxes. The girls loved writing and sending letters to their friends.

We also had a wonderful opportunity to practice our directions this week by playing with Beebots. This is part of the STEM work the girls are doing in school, learning to use different types of technology. They had great fun programming them to move in different ways.

Face Masks

Dear Dads, Mams, Pupils and Staff,

It has been a strange and difficult week for schools, pupils and families. As you know, on Tuesday last, it was decided that children from Third Class to Sixth Class should wear face masks at school. There has been a lot of debate and discussion on radio and television, in the newspapers and on social media. Everyone appears to have a different opinion and there has also been a lot of anger and emotion. In the middle of all of that, schools and families are trying to figure out how best to keep children safe.

There has been no further guidance to schools since Tuesday evening, and until we get further advice, you might like to know how we are dealing with this at our school.

Yesterday and today, I visited Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Classes. This is what we talked about.

1. Who decided that children in Primary school should wear masks?

The Government made the decision based on a recommendation from NPHET. Schools did not make this decision, but they are expected to pass on this decision to pupils and parents.

2. Why are children (or adults) asked to wear masks?

Because science tells us that Covid-19 is an airborne virus and wearing a mask helps to protect us and all those around us.

3. As Good Counsel Good Citizens, what are some of your rights and responsibilities as pupils in our school?

Pupils have a right to be safe at school

Pupils have a responsibility to keep others safe.

Pupils have a right to be respected.

Pupils have a responsibility to respect others and to be kind.

These rights and responsibilities mean that we should think carefully about the decisions we make and how thy will affect other people. They also mean, that different people have different opinions, and we should respect that too.

So where does that leave us? Until we receive further guidance, from Monday onwards, the girls from Third Class to Sixth Class are being asked to follow Public Health advice and to wear face masks while they are at school. The masks can be taken off for breaktime, lunch time and when the girls are playing outside. If anyone forgets her mask, teachers will have spare disposable masks available.

If some children in your child’s class are not wearing masks, that is a confidential matter between those families, me and the class teacher. The girls will respect each other, whether they are wearing masks or not and we know that they will be kind and caring towards each other as they always are.

I do hope that as parents, you are aware of the effort that has gone into keeping everyone in our school safe since March 2020. If your child has a genuine difficulty with wearing a mask, for whatever reason, rather than writing an angry email or letter, please feel free to contact me in confidence on 051 832984 and I will be happy to talk with you.

It’s less than three weeks to the Christmas break. Let’s all take a breath, stay calm and do our best to enjoy this very special time of year.

Please stay safe.

Yours sincerely,

C. O’Reilly – Principal

P.S. The Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan has asked schools to share a letter from him with parents. It is available for you to read, if you wish to do so, on the Latest News tab of our website.

Christmas Holidays

School will close for the Christmas holidays on Wednesday 22nd December. The girls will finish at the following times:

Junior and Senior Infants @ 12.15p.m

First and Second Classes at 12.25p.m

All other classes at 12.30p.m.

Congratulations

A big ‘Well Done’ to Rosie (5^th Class) who came Third in the Regional Credit Union Art Competition. We hope you enjoy your prize, Rosie.

Christmas Cards

As a Green School, we make a special request every year that the girls do not bring in Christmas cards for their classmates. If every pupil brought a card for every girl in her class, we would have 5,090 cards coming into the school!

Instead, each girl will make a card for one other child in her class. That way, everyone receives a card, and we cut down on the amount of card and paper that we use.

Christmas Zoom Calls

Our Zoom calls with Mams and Dads before Hallowe’en were a great success so we have decided to invite you to another call with your child’s class before the Christmas break. The girls will share some of their beautiful artwork with you, and they may even entertain you with some stories, poems or songs on the Christmas theme. The calls will take place on the following dates, and you will receive an email the day before with a link.

Class Zoom Class with Families – December 2021

Time	Wednesday 15th	Thursday 16th	Friday 17th	Monday 20th
12 Noon	Fifth Class	Second Class	Fourth Class	Senior Infants
12.30p.m.	First Class	Third Class	Sixth Class	Junior Infants

Christmas Crib Competition

It’s no surprise that we have had fantastic entries for our competition to design the background for our school crib. The winner will be revealed at Assembly tomorrow!

Parents Association News

The National Parents Council is running some information sessions for parents during the week of December 6^th. Register now to find out how developing communication skills will help build your relationship and support conversations with your child.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RSE-Part2-Dec-2021       Sessions are running 10am Monday to Friday, and 7.30pm Monday to Thursday next week. These sessions are open to all parents of primary school children.

Advent Assembly

Thank you very much to Mrs. Burke and Fifth Class who prepared a beautiful Assembly on the theme of Advent. The girls put in a huge amount of preparation between research, and creating beautiful pieces of art, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.