The children had a wonderful day today as we marked the end of a historic half term. It was lovely to see the happy faces of witches, vampires and book characters enjoy a the festivities of Halloween. We now look forward to a well earned rest for the week ahead and thank everyone for their hard work in making the first half term such a successful one.
On behalf of the pupils, staff, Parents Council and Board of Management, I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks for supporting our School Days Fundraising Event.
We are extremely grateful for every donation made and we are delighted to announce that we have exceeded our expectations by raising over €7500 for our school. All the money raised will be used to purchase new reading resources, science equipment, iPads and an Activ Panel. These resources will enhance the learning experience of our pupils and your support has made that possible.
It has been uplifting to read the messages of thanks and observe past pupils reconnect with old school friends as they shared some happy memories of days gone by. We hope we have helped some old friends to reconnect with each other and with our school also. Please stay in touch and know that you are always welcome to come and visit your primary school.
Friday night will be our final night posting School Days photos on social media and we will close the Go Fund Me page and the Aladdin ePayment collection on Sunday night. This allows time for anyone who still wishes to donate.
Finally I would like to wish you and your family a very happy and safe midterm break.
With every good wish and sincere thanks,
Kieran Healy
Principal
Our school is very proud of the quality of teaching and learning that takes place and we make every effort to ensure we have the best resources in place to support our teachers and pupils.
At present government funding does not sufficiently support schools to purchase enough of these resources. Therefore if we do wish to have the best resources for our pupils, we need to fundraise.
This year fundraising is complicated by Covid-19 as we can no longer run our traditional cakes sales or bag-packing.
💥 So this year we are going online for our main fundraising event! 💥
The fundraiser will work as follows:
😎 We are asking people to post a photo of themselves in primary school on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram Posts).
👩🏼🤝🧑🏼 Please tag your old school friends, your relatives and the school so we all get to see you!
💲 In your post we ask that you include a link or reference to our Go Fund Me page. Here people can make a donation to this fundraising effort. The link is tricky but can be copied and shared from our social media posts. The link is http://gf.me/u/y386ti Please note that Go Fund Me automatically adds a tip/fee of 10%, this is optional and can be changed.
✔ Parents can also donate through Aladdin Connect – we have set up an ePayments option called ‘Fundraiser 2020’ and here you can donate whatever amount you wish – every cent counts!
🎯 Our target is to collect €5000 and we hope you can help us achieve this. The money raised will be used to purchase Leveled Reading books which your children use every day (€1700) and one more ActivPanel (€3300) as seen in the photos below.
👍 We are hoping that every parent, grandparent, past pupils, local businesses and friends of the school will get involved by posting a picture and donating.
Win! – We have a couple of vouchers to give away and we will randomly select names from the list of those that donate. Note, you must donate to be in with a chance to win!
Our school makes every effort to keep costs low for parents. We have a book rental scheme and we do not ask for a voluntary contribution like other schools. So we are really hoping you can support us in as generous a way as you can and we thank you for doing so.
We look forward to having some fun along the way and hopefully you will enjoy sharing in the memories that an old school photo can ignite. We have some really fabulous photos from years gone by and we will share one old photo each day for the ten days we will be running this event.
🚦 So here we go – Post a Photo – Tag some friends – Share the link – Donate!
On Saturday we had the joyful occasion of the First Holy Communion which was celebrated by Fr. Joe Walsh is the beautiful Cathedral of the Assumption. The girls looked angelic as they gathered to receive the holy Eucharist for the very first time. Although it was a very different ceremony with only parents present, it was lovely and personal, and provided each girl with a very special moment as the received their communion. We thank Fr. Joe and all the priests for their work in making sure this day was possible. We also thank Ms. Walsh and Ms. Ryan for their work this year and last in preparing the girls so well.
First class were learning all about 2D shapes this week and went out into the sunshine on a 2D Treasure Hunt. They really enjoyed working as a team as the opened their Maths Eyes to search for 2 D shapes in our environment.
First class planted Cress seeds as part of Science this week. These seeds will need plenty of sunshine, water and a little love over the next few weeks to help them grow – well done boys and girls!
Junior Infants are really enjoying Aistear and this month’s theme is Autumn. Aistear is used to teach language and SESE (History, Geography and Science) through guided group play. Ms. Bohan’s class enjoyed doing leaf rubbings, learning about hedgehogs and much more.
Sixth class were busy reading the monthly news magazine Primary Planet this week. In addition to the magazine, the girls enjoyed some of the activities on https://www.theprimaryplanet.ie/ using our iPads. The magazine is a wonderful way for the girls to learn about our world, politics, sport, current affairs, agriculture, literature and more.
One of the highlights of the week was a virtual visit of the author Megan Wynne to the 4th and 5th class pupils. Via Zoom, Megan spoke to the class about her new book The House on Hawthorn Road and about her inspiration behind the characters and plot. There was a very interesting questions and answer section at the end and we hope that this visit may inspire some of our girls to become authors in the future.
The week ended to the sound of loud dance music and cheerful giggles as the children enjoyed a Dancing Lunchtime on Friday. DJ Healy played the tunes as the children(and staff!) danced happily to mark the end of another very successful week in school – something we value even more these days and no longer take for granted! Stay safe and stay apart…so we can stay together. Thank you.
The month of September came to an end this week and it may be easy to forget how far we have come since the 12th March when our schools were forced to close. 5 weeks into the new school year and all is going great. Children are back in their classrooms learning and laughing together each day. And while there is plenty of changes to be seen, much remains the same and acts as a safe constant in the lives of our pupils. We take this moment to thank all the staff, parents and pupils who have worked so well together as a team to make it possible to get back to what we do best.
As it is the end of the month, we took time to acknowledge some Star Pupils. This month the award was for Kindness and Manners, something we value very highly in the Presentation. Congratulations to the winners and well done to everyone for making such a special effort to show off our kindness and manners this month. Next month the award will be for Sports and Activity and we will be hoping to see all the pupils make a special effort to get active.
The Pentel Art Competition is a tradition in the Presentation and we were very proud to see so many winners of awards from Pentel. Pupils won Gold, Silver and Bronze awards and were sent a wonderful bag of art goodies from the Pentel company. Well done to these talented artists!
Finally we would like to wish the girls from 3rd class every blessing as they make their first holy communion on Saturday morning in the Cathedral at 12:30pm. We thank Ms. Walsh and Ms. Ryan who both contributed to the preparation for this special day. We hope you have a lovely day with your family and friends.
This week many of the classes took advantage of the beautiful weather to enjoy a nature walk, exploring the autumnal changes that are taking place.
Both the Junior Infants classes found berries, conkers and autumn leaves – there was even a mention that a fairy was spotted in the tress!
Some of the pupils from First Class helped our caretaker Kieran to put up some bird feeders. We hope the boys and girls can enjoy observing the birds coming to feast on some nuts and seeds.
First class also went on a walk through the convent garden, admiring and sensing the beautiful flowers and shrubs.
Senior Infants also have a very busy week. Here are some pictures of their nature trail, a visit from Mr. Healy and working with Ms. Nyhan on fine motor skills.
As a reward for all their hard work, Senior Infants enjoyed a Friday afternoon treat in the sun.
Our first full week back at school proved to be one of calm and contentment. All the pupils were thrilled to be back among their friends and even though new Covid-19 measures are in place, they made little difference to the daily running of the school.
It was wonderful to hear busy classrooms and laughter on the school yard after such a long time. Pupils settled into the new norms with ease and like many changes brought about by Covid-19, some have proved to be for the better.
One of the new initiatives in use this year in Presentation Primary is called Spellings For Me. This programme combines a spelling book and an online spellings programme which assesses where each child is at when it comes to spellings and then assigns them an individualised list of words to learn each week. The children then complete tasks online and in their book to build on their spelling ability.
Finally we say a huge thanks to our caretaker Kieran and our cleaners Joan and Fiona who are working hard every day to ensure our school is clean and Covid-Free!
The first day back school is always special but it was even more special this year having re-opened after 167 days! Staff and pupils alike smiled from ear to ear as they reunited for a new school year.
It was also a very special day for our 34 Junior Infants who joined our school for the first time. Each of the boys and girls enjoyed their very first day of school and took the whole experience in their stride.
Throughout the school pupils reunited with their friends and were delighted to be back in the classroom.
The school was well prepared for this unique opening with every member of staff going above and beyond to ensure our pupils could enjoy school in a safe but cheerful manner.
