26th March 2021
It is hard to believe that we have arrived at the Easter break already, the fact that half of the school has only been inside the building for two weeks makes it feel even stranger. Things feeling very weird, is the norm for this past year, however the most important thing is how settled the majority of the children in school have been. We were worried that it was going to feel like September where it can sometimes take most of the month to settle into the classroom. The children have been amazing and within a day, the regular patterns of work, breaks, chats, disagreements and laughter were there. Our final term is going to be very similar in some ways but different in ways that we don’t know just yet.
The children have begun work on their ‘Write a Book’ projects and we will finish this work in the new term. We will also be working on the ‘Stay Safe’ programme with all classes as due to the school closure it wasn’t finished in the majority of classes last year. ‘Stay Safe’ is an important part of the Relationship and Sexuality programme in all the schools in Ireland. We have also been instructed to carry out our standardised tests in English and Maths. The results of these tests have never been for the children and this year this will be doubly true. They will help inform us in what areas we need to direct our focus to mitigate against the loss in direct teaching time. Even if your child does comparatively well, sharing the result with them could put pressure or cause anxiety in a child who doesn’t know their result or whose scores have dropped.
We will also be looking at ways in which we can get out and about and explore our local environment and depending on restrictions possibly a little further. The classes have already been exploring our city and we look forward to continuing to develop how we can learn outdoors.
At the Halloween Break I asked the teachers to put a few key books into school bags just in case. I know this caused alarm in some homes and I don’t wish to do the same however with the numbers remaining high and some of our neighbouring schools closing down classrooms because of positive cases I have asked the teachers to do the same this time. It is my sincere hope that they will return in the bags untouched on the 12th April and to strengthen that optimism I received a letter from the Department of Education saying that the numbers confirm that schools remain safe places and that they are confident that there will not be a return to distance learning.
For the next two weeks we need to continue to be careful, if anyone is a close contact or suspects that they might be over the next two weeks you need to take the necessary precautions and don’t send your child to school on the 12th. We need to continue to look out for each other and not organise any events that would cause people to congregate.
We also had a visit this week from our school inspector Peadar O’Múirí who was checking our covid procedures and left the school very happy. It was nice to have our Covid Response Plan affirmed in this way and I need to say a big thanks to all the staff who implement it on a daily basis which is why the inspector could leave so happily.
Have a lovely break everyone,
Paul
We came back for our second week of school. On Monday, we completed our art for the texaco children’s art competition and Ms. Nic A’Bhaird sent off our entries. We finished percentages in Maths and we are hoping to finish our first draft of write-a-book today. This morning we are going to Belgrave park for a maths trail and when we get back the Easter raffle will be on.
In Science, we are doing forces and we are experimenting with gravity. For P.E we completed gymnastic stations, it was really fun! One group created gymnastic routines, one practiced tumbles, one used the box to complete jumps and the final group was on the climbing frame. We all got to go on each station.
All together we had a great second week back!
Issy and Tara-Rose
Some pictures from the week of sketching in the park, gymnastics at PE and our Gaeilge quiz
Thank you to everyone for their support of the raffle, and a big thank you to Avril for putting the hampers together.
Congratulations to all our winners some of whom are Evan, Maeve, Rhea, Charlie, Rowan and Sara. A big thank you to Rang a Sé for their entrepreneurial efforts before Christmas which we were finally able to acknowledge with a special treat today.
Third class have had a great week. Take a look at our brilliant Maths display showing our symmetry patterns and lines of symmetry. This week we have been learning about Area.
In science we have been learning about the body and our skeleton. We drew around our partners and are adding our bones.
In English we wrote persuasive advertisements to encourage families to come and visit Dublin’s best landmarks. You can see some examples below.
This afternoon we are having an egg hunt to celebrate Easter.
Happy Spring Holidays everyone from all in 3rd Class!
We had a great week in Rang a hAon as we started to get ready for the Easter holidays! On Monday we sent off our brilliant entries to the Texaco Art Competition which the class are so excited about! We learned all about why Easter is celebrated and made some Easter decorations. We also learned about Passover which is happening on Sunday and the class designed their own Seder Plates. On Thursday it was Fay's birthday so we wished her a very happy birthday and to celebrate we brought some chalk out on to the Roof Garden to draw some pictures. On Friday we made Easter Rice Krispie cakes in the classroom. We hope you all have a lovely and safe Easter holiday!
All of the boys and girls in Senior Infants have been working very hard this week. We made bunny masks in art for Easter and learned a song about Peter Rabbit. We also went to the park to celebrate Iesha and Lauren’s birthdays. Today, we had an Easter egg hunt and loved eating the yummy chocolate!! Happy Easter Everyone :)
We are so happy to be back in school. It is great to see all our friends and teachers. Today we had an Easter egg hunt. Our buddies from Rang a 6 gave Coinín na Cásca a hand and hid the eggs for us in Ranelagh Gardens.
In Aistear this month we made clay pinch pots and painted eggs, we played with the dog groomers and we made lots of things in junk art including wings, swords, shields and dens. Some of us hid in the big box and tricked Ms Farley and Ms Curran a few times.
Ms Farley told us the story of the Easter Bunny and then we drew pictures of the story. We learnt that Jewish people are celebrating Passover and Hindus are celebrating Holi. Have a lovely break everybody.
