Newsletter November 2019
Bake Sale
The recent PA bake sale was a great success raising €920 for the school. Huge thanks to all who organised and contributed in any way.
Shoe Box Appeal: 99 boxes were collected in Ballybryan with 330 in total from the local primary and secondary schools. Our thanks to Una Lawton for co-ordinating this initiative every year and to all those who contributed.
Medal Presentation: The boy’s Cumann na mBunscol panel will receive their medals on Friday November 22nd in the school hall at 7pm sharp.
Parent Teacher Meetings will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday November 19th and 20th. If times allotted do not suit, please contact class teacher.
School Self Evaluation Questionnaires have been sent home today with all children. We hope to gain feedback on each child’s experiences with regard to the writing process. Please tick the appropriate answers for all siblings and send back into school ASAP for the attention of the class teacher.
Christmas Concert for all classes from Junior infants-6th class, will take place in St. Peter’s Church Rhode, on Tuesday December 17th
Food Dudes All families have received a letter introducing the Food Dudes programme. Deliveries will be made to the school on November 19th and this will run for a number of weeks. Foods provided for tasting are bananas and peppers, grapes and carrots, oranges and cucumber and apples and babycorn. If your child is unable to participate due to allergies, please inform the Principal.
Footpath
In June the process began to initiate the building of a footpath from Ballybryan school down to John Birmingham’s gate to make it safer for children walking to school.
We are glad to announce that the footpath will be built before the end of the year (weather permitting).
Thank you to Deirdre Masterson and all of the Ballybryan Parent’s Association for their work on this project and their donation of €500 to the project.
A special acknowledgement to Cllr Lam Quinn who has driven this project forward at every stage – application for grant, meeting with engineers, progressing the drawings, securing a €4K grant from Offaly County Council. Liam’s support has been instrumental in making this happen. Thank you.
Parent’s Association Notes:
MUSIC CLASSES:
The Parents Association are delighted to help fund a music program called Music Generation in the school for all the children. The program commenced in September for the senior cycle students and next week for the junior cycle students. Each week a music teacher visits each class to deliver a music lesson.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Program, which gives children access to vocal and instrumental tuition delivered by skilled professional musicians. The program is supported and funded by Education and Training Boards, Local Authorities, and a range of local and community organisations.
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS DRAW:
Our annual Christmas draw will be held on the Wednesday 18th of December. There are over 30 prizes to be won. Tickets for the draw will be sent home to each family shortly.
Please return tickets and monies to the school by Thursday 12th of December.
The money raised from the draw will be used to fund the ‘Music Generation Program’ for this school year.
SOCIAL GATHERING:
In the New Year we plan to have a ‘Meet & Greet’ other parents from the school social event.
The date and venue will be confirmed in the next newsletter.
PA COMMITTEE & MEETINGS:
The newly elected committee members are as follows:
Chairperson: Kathleen McNamee Vice Chairperson: Mary Martin
Secretary: Anita Burke Assistant Secretary: Rose Kerrigan
Treasurer: Joan Glennon PR: Deirdre Guing
Children’s Officer: Rose Kerrigan
Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday the 4th of December at 8pm in the school. All parents are welcome.
If you wish to add anything to the next agenda you can do so by adding it to the list, which is available in the school from the 27th of November.
Is mise
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Brian Darby
Principal