May – June 2014 Newsletter | drimnaghcastleprimary.ie

Dear Parents / Guardians,

As another school year comes to an end, I would like to thank you for the support, help and positive attitude you show towards the school and your involvement in your child’s education. School will close for the summer holidays at 12 noon on Fri. 27th June and reopen at 9:05 am on Thurs 28th Aug. 2014.

N.B.

Book lists for next year are currently being distributed. We have made every effort to include as many books as possible on the Book Rental Scheme in order to keep costs down.
The €70 annual subscription is used to cover Book Rental, Art & Craft materials, Photocopying, Tests etc. This money is essential for the running of the school, so we ask that it can be paid ASAP. You can pay in instalments and receipts will be issues.
Enrolment. We currently have a number of places available for Sept. 2014 in certain classes due to families relocating. If you know of new families moving into the area or others who wish to enrol, please ask them to contact the school office at 4552066.

New School Website:

We are delighted to announce the launch of our new website which is now in full operation. The website is available at: http://drimnaghcastleprimary.scoilnet.ie/blog/ or simply Google the words: drimnagh castle primary school scoilnet and we should be the top result. Information relating to class booklists, class activities and upcoming events will all be available on the website and can be accessed through the tabs on the top of the homepage. We hope this new website will act as a main means of correspondence with parents over the summer months and foreseeable future.

Notice Board:

The notice board at the Kokonut gate contains many Summer Camp notices for the holidays. This board is designed to publicise school and community events coming up. If you are involved in a local organisation serving the Community we would be delighted to promote your event. You can drop your poster into the office.

Le gach dea ghuí,

E. Duffy.

Discover Science & Maths Award:

This year has been a very busy year for Science and Maths in the school and we are delighted to tell you that after all the boys hard work the school has achieved a Discover Science and Maths award for the ninth year in a row!!! Well done to all the boys and their teachers for their effort they have put in to achieve this.

Athletics:

The school athletics team had two great days out in Santry a few weeks ago. Boys competed against 32 other schools in Dublin in sprints, relays, long jump, shot putt, hurdles and 600m! All the boys who competed did their very best and the school is very proud of them. Special congratulation to Adam Grennan Roche who won a bronze medal in the U11

hurdles.

Gardening News:

Our school garden is growing very well. Our potatoes, cabbage and onions are doing really well. Unfortunately we had to cover the cabbage with netting to prevent the butterflies laying their eggs, since the caterpillars enjoyed feasting on our cabbage last year. We planted lots of seeds and we will have lettuce, beetroot, turnips, carrots, peas and spinach. Our fruit section is growing extremely well with strawberries, blackcurrants, blueberries and raspberries. Our plum and apple trees and showing great signs of producing fruit this year. The fine weather is posing problems since our garden needs so much watering. Please feel free to visit the school garden at any time. We are always open to new ideas!

Mr. Sheerin.

Our New Mural:

We are delighted to announce the creation of a new mural in our school yard. The first part of the mural is a design by the artist Kandinsky, which was suggested by Ms. Hennessey. This was painted by the boys over the Easter Camp. The second part is a seascape theme, which is an imaginative composition, using various suggestions made by the students. These included a crab, a starfish, a seahorse, a puffer fish, Nemo, Bart Simpson and a football!! The seascape was painted in part by various students during the Easter camp, 5th and 6th class and 2nd year students from Drimnagh Castle Secondary School.

Donna O’ Reilly.

READ, READ, READ!

Summer is a great time for parents to give their children a great start for next years class. Research has shown time and time again that the children who read everyday do better in school and especially in their standardized tests. Children who don’t read during the summer, fall behind even over the holidays! We strongly recommend you encourage your child to read. Dublin city libraries run a programme called ‘Summer Reading Buzz’. We would love as many boys as possible to get involved. We will have a little party in September for all those who participate and receive a certificate.

Don’t let the reading slide!

Mrs. O Connor.

Healthy Eating:

Well done to our boys who recently completed the Food Dudes initiative. Fruit and vegetables of all varieties were tried over the 16 days and hopefully they will continue to sample more exciting healthy options over the summer break. Our Healthy Eating Policy has been updated and if you, as parents, are unsure of what is allowed in the lunchbox all you have to do is ask your son as the boys have been very well informed at this stage!

Senior Football:

The extended Senior Football panel recently played two important warm up matches for their Div. 1 Championship

which begins in earnest next Sept. Our former teacher Mr. Mollaghan brought his new school in Longford, Coalhill, to visit and our boys did very well to record a victory. The next game saw us travelling to the footballing hotbed of Co. Carlow where the lads took on a local school and again emerged victorious. We hope the players, and our pupils in general, continue to play Gaelic games over the summer months with our three affiliated GAA clubs; Crumlin, Good Counsel and St. James’ Gaels.

Cross Country:

The Cross Country Series from 2nd to 6th Class has just finished and what a success it was ! Almost every boy in the School took part and all who did so improved their fitness levels dramatically. We urge all the boys to keep up their running over the summer and come back even fitter next September, ready to tackle Cross Country 2015!!

Green Schools:

Well done to all students, staff and

parents on all your hard work in Green Schools this year.

We were awarded the Green Flag in Biodiversity in May. It was raised in our school garden by a number of parents who have helped out in our school and garden. We had a lovely ceremony with singing, scones and ice-cream. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Thanks also to everyone who supported our plant sale. We hope your purchases are going well for you!

In September 2014, we will start our two year project on “Global Citizenship:

Litter and Waste”. For information on this theme and ways to help at home, check out: www.greenschoolsireland.org.

Thank you,

Mrs. Sheridan.

Sports Day:

This week we held our school sports day and we were blessed with wonderful weather. The boys had a fantastic day with over 100 medals given out over the course of the day!! Many thanks to Mr. Dempsey and the rest of the staff for organising one of the best and most looked forward to days of the year!

School leagues 3rd Class:

Our hurling leagues have now finished. Over 80 boys took part. The boys were divided into 8 teams. The teams were split between Munster and Leinster. From Munster, Clare, Tipperary, Cork and Limerick were represented. From Leinster, Dublin, Offaly, Kilkenny and Wexford were involved. All the teams were managed by boys from sixth class and the games were refereed by sixth class boys as well. The standard of hurling was fantastic throughout the tournament and levels of participation at an all time high. This is due to more and more boys joining local GAA clubs and an overall positive attitude to keep healthy and fit. The two teams who contested the final were Clare and Tipperary. Tipperary were captained by Alan McGill, Room 7, and Clare by Jason Gaynor, Room 7. By the narrowest of margins Clare scraped over the line and will receive their medals at the end of the year behaviour draw. Well done.

Australia:

We had great fun learning about Australia. We completed projects on different topics. We researched using books and the internet. We used pictures and we presented out projects to the whole class. We also did lots of art based on Australia. We constructed and designed our very own didgeridoos in groups! We did Aboriginal art, dot paintings, x-ray art and boomerangs! We learned a new song based on the Kookaburra. We really enjoyed learning about Australia.

Mr. Toher is the best!!

Room 12

Acrostic Poetry:

Here is our acrostic poem about how to keep yourself from being bored!

Have you….

Been creative?

Outside play?

Read a book?

Exercise 20 minutes?

Done something helpful?

Room 6

School Hurling Teams:

Well done to all senior and junior hurlers who played in over 10 matches throughout the year. The seniors were unfortunate to lose out in the quarter final while the junior hurlers finished in second place of the Junior Hurling League. The management would like to say a special thanks to parents who were extremely generous during the year providing the boys with lifts to the matches. Without these lifts, the boys would have not been able to take part! Here’s to a successful 2015 season!

Mr. O’ Neill

Scouts:

Beavers from the 94th Walkinstown Scout Group who received their Chief Scout Beaver Awards on Thursday 19th June. All 9 Beavers are students in 2nd and 3rd class in Drimnagh Castle Primary School. Well done lads!

Scouts June 2014

Online maths activities:

The following are teacher-approved maths websites to keep the boys up to speed over the summer months: