Dear families and friends of the school,
As we approach the end of another school year at Our Lady of Good Counsel, we take this opportunity to reflect on what has been a busy, rewarding, and enjoyable time for our students and staff. This final newsletter of the year offers a snapshot of some of the events, achievements, and activities that have taken place since our last update.
As we look ahead to the summer holidays, we hope everyone enjoys a well-deserved break, with time to rest, recharge, and reflect on the year that has passed. Thank you to you all for your continued support throughout the year.
Please read on for a look back at some of the highlights from the past term.
Cake Sale
A big thank you to the Parents’ Association who organised a Cake Sale on June 11th. Thank you to all of the girls and families for their generosity and effort in baking buns, cakes and other treats for the day. It was especially pleasing to welcome many parents, brothers and sisters into the school who came to support. As ever, the Cake Sale was a great success with €818 raised. Well done to everyone!!!
Board of Management
As previously communicated, we were in the process of replacing our current Parents’ Representative to the Board of Management, Michelle Daly as her daughter will be leaving us next year as she is in 6th class. We sent out nomination forms to all parents in May and I am pleased to inform you that our new Parents’ Representative to the Board of Management is Gráinne Anderson. Gráinne is a parent of a child in Junior infants and we look forward to welcoming her to the Board of Management in September.
Chess
Ms. Power and Ms. Hall have introduced chess to 4th class this year and have been working hard with the girls to teach them the rules, etiquette and strategies needed. As the girls were enjoying it so much, the teachers invited Mrs. Kelly and the 4th class boys from St. Mary’s BNS just up the road from us down to play on Friday last.
Both the boys and the girls really enjoyed it, got to make some new friends and got the opportunity to test one another’s chess abilities too! Thanks to the teachers for their work throughout the year and thanks to the boys for coming down to play on the day.
School reports and information for the coming school year
School reports were sent out last week on Aladdin. Accompanying the reports were a stationary list, information on your child’s class teacher, a school calendar and information on how to interpret the report cards and standardised tests. If you have not received the information, please contact the office on 051-832984.
Booklists have been uploaded under the ‘Policy’ tab on the website. Please remember, you do not need to buy any books, workbooks or copies for the coming school year.
Staffing Arrangement for the 2025/2026 school year
The staffing arrangements for the coming school year are:
Junior Infants – Ms. Ciara Hall
Senior Infants – Ms. Carmel Fogarty and Ms. Clare Quigley (job sharing)
1st Class – Ms. Mairead Power
2nd Class – Ms. Alice Hutchinson
3rd Class – Mrs. Maeve Power
4th Class – Ms. Ann Cunniffe
5th Class – Mrs. Mary Ryan
6th Class – Mrs. Clare Burke
EAL – Ms. Monica Kelly (Deputy Principal)
SET – Mrs. Aisling Shanahan
SET – Ms. Susan Rellis
SET – Mrs. Feana Foley and Ms. Eilis Walsh (job sharing)
SET – Mrs. Clodagh Hayes
We are delighted to welcome back Ms. Ann Cunniffe and Ms. Eilis Walsh for the coming school year. We are also joined by Ms. Clare Quigley who will be job sharing in Senior Infants.
We would like to thank Ms. Aoife White and Ms. Sabrina Behan, current 5th and 1st class teachers for all of their work this year and previously and wish them well for the future.
Final Assembly of the Year
For our final assembly of the year, we welcomed James from the local library here in Ferrybank. James came in to talk to the girls about the Summer Stars Reading Programme which is a great initiative to keep all children reading throughout the summer months. We also welcomed a couple of special guests – Iona Heffernan and Niamh Ahearne both of whom are past students and part of the Waterford Senior Camogie Team to present medals to the U-13 team. We were delighted to welcome the girls back and thank them for taking the time out to visit our school!
We also presented our annual awards – the Class Attendance award which was won by Mrs. Ryan’s 3rd class, Good Counsel Good Citizen of the year which was won by Sofia in 6th and Camogie Player of the Year which was won by Gracie also in 6th.
Our weekly assembly is a great opportunity for all of the school to see what each class is doing and the girls always look forward to it each Friday throughout the year.
Sports Day
The weather Gods shone down on us on Friday, June 13th as we were treated to a perfect day for our annual Sports Day. As ever, the girls had a great day and got involved in all of the activities set out by the teachers. Thanks to Mrs. Shanahan and Mrs. Power for looking after activities and organising the day.
6th Class Graduation
On Wednesday and Thursday of last week, 6th class treated the school to their version of Snow White as part of their Graduation for the pupils/ teachers and parents. Mrs. Burke and the 6th class girls have been working tirelessly over the last few weeks preparing the play and the end product was simply excellent! From the music and singing to the acting and dancing, the play was entertaining from start to finish and it was wonderful to see all of the girls really get involved and enjoy their last big event here in Good Counsel. We are very proud of all of the girls in our school and the 6th class girls this year have been a pleasure to work with. May we extend our best wishes to you all and your families as you enter the next phase of both your lives and your education!
Our School Garden
School Tours
Our school tours drew to a close on Monday with 5th class completing their tour to Castlecomer Discovery Park. It was lovely to see all of the classes so excited and looking forward to their tours on the respective days. It was even nicer to hear how much everyone enjoyed the days out and how well represented our school was by all of the classes in how they behaved and acted in the different locations. A big thanks to all of the teachers, SNA’s and to Tracey our secretary for enabling the tours to happen and in accompanying all of the classes on the different days. We hope all of the girls enjoyed their days out!!
As we close this final newsletter of the school year, we would like to take a moment to thank all of our pupils, parents, staff, and the wider school community for your continued support, enthusiasm, and partnership throughout the year.
We hope you all have a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable summer break. May it be filled with sunshine, fun, and a well-deserved rest. We look forward to welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for another exciting year ahead.
Wishing you all a wonderful summer!
Your sincerely,
J. Nagle
Principal
