Information Sheet: April 09

Dates to Remember:
May:  Mon 4th School Closed. Public Holiday

First Communion in St. Canice’s Church 11.30am:
Sunday May3rd :Ms Tallis
Sunday May 10th: Ms Kelly
Sunday May 17th: Ms O’Mahoney
Sunday June 14th:Corpus Christi. Final First Communion Mass

Morning Play: JUNIOR INFANTS

Now that the Junior Infants are well settled and summer term has come, they will stay out for morning play like the rest of the school. As pupils arrive in the morning, they should bring their bag/gear to their normal line and then play in their normal yard where Sr Brigid and the SNAs will be supervising. When the 8.50 bell rings for class, children line up as they would normally do after  play times and class teachers will collect them.
All classes have been told this by their teacher and have been shown what to do.
This arrangement will apply to fine days only. On wet days doors will open at 8.40.
Please remember that morning supervision of pupils always begins at 8.40, wet or dry.
125 Year GAA Celebration

Tomorrow, Friday has been chosen as the day to celebrate 125 years of GAA. Children may wear in their club or county GAA jersey. Any GAA club or county  jersey may be worn.
There will be a GAA team quiz in the morning and  2nd to 6th classes will take part in GAA matches during the day. Junior Classes will also visit the field for games.

Book Grant
Normally at this time of the year I would be looking for applications for Book Grants but this grant was cut in the October budget and we will not receive any funding from the Dept. of Education & Science. We will be discussing our Book Rental Scheme at our May Staff Meeting and I will keep you informed as to what system we will be using. The books allocated to pupils last year under the Book Grant Scheme will be collected in school as normal at the end of June.
Credit Union Quiz
Our Junior team, Seán Foley, Cathal McAuley, Kevin Power and Orla O’Sullivan, represented us in fine style in the All-Ireland Finals in the RDS on Sunday April 5th. They were in contention all the way through and finished on the 3rd highest score. Thanks to Ms Sheehan for her promotion of quizzes in the school .

Comenius Project:
The school is presently participating in a Comenius European project funded by Léargas. The title of the project is “The Local Environment”. Every class produced a local history project last term. We are twinned with schools in Germany, the Netherlands and England. Teachers from these schools recently visited the school and viewed the local history projects. Four children from St. Canice’s will visit Cumbria in June to play music for children in one of our partner schools. Children from the Netherlands will visit the school in June to sing with our children in the National Choir concert in Dublin.
National Children’s Choir:
Preparations are well advanced for the schools participation in the National Children’s Choir local concert in St. Canice’s Cathedral on May 7th and 8th.The children in 5th and 6th classes have learned 20 songs in parts this year. They will join with children from 9 other schools in the country to sing in the wonderful setting of the Cathedral

 

Skipathon
The Skipathon will take place on Friday May 1st. Each child is asked to contribute €1 for The Irish Heart Foundation. There will be various skipping activities organised during the day. Please encourage your child to continue to bring a skipping rope to school next week to prepare for the day and to continue to bring it in afterwards.

Mission Money
€800 has been collected since Christmas. Bóthar received €600 to send two goats to Africa and €200 was sent to the Surgeon Noonan Society (Medical Aid Africa) through our past Pupil Edel Fitzpatrick who plans to travel to Africa with this society in the summer.

Green Committee News.
Over the Easter holidays, Mick installed the rainwater collection system which was provided by Kilkenny Corporation through Bernadette Moloney. It is over near Gairdin na Scoile and the water will be used for watering the garden during the summer.

 

Music News
Irish Association of Youth Orchestra Chamber Music Weekend in Kilkenny College.
Good luck to all our 41 musicians taking part. We wish you an enjoyable weekend of music making.
Bag-Packing in Dunnes Stores McDonagh Junction this Thurs,Fri and Saturday. Funds in aid of Music Programme. Thanks to all volunteers.

Sport
Our girls football team will shortly contest the football county final v Gowran.
Camogie and hurling leagues are in full swing with class leagues also starting shortly.

All the above demands a huge time commitment and dedication from staff and I thank all the members of staff who give so generously to provide our pupils with such a wide range of sporting opportunities.

Supervalu Tokens
The overall number of tokens collected was 12,361. Thanks to all parents for your support.

Maintenance
Over the Easter holidays, the area near the Freshford Rd. gate was bulldozed and landscaped. Grass seed has now been set so please keep off this area until the grass is established. We will then have it as a safe play area.
The fence between ourselves and Loreto is being replaced and should be finished by the end of the week.
Roofing, windows and flooring work was carried out on Ms Lowe’s prefab.
Thanks to the Board of Management for funding this work as it greatly improves our school grounds.
The BOM is also looking at replacing some of the tarmac and possibly extending it. If you would be interested in quoting for this job and would like details, please contact either Mick or myself by next Wed. 29th.