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Dear Parents, Staff Meeting School closes Friday 30 April at 12 noon. Measúnú
Caighdeánach: Standardised Assessment Tests Standardised
Assessment Tests will be given to each class during May – Reading (week
beginning 17 May) and Maths (week beginning 24 May). A
standardised assessment is used to measure a child’s achievement
compared to other children throughout the country at the same class level.
Standardised assessments do not measure a child’s intelligence/ability.
A standardised test result only represents a “snapshot”
of a child’s achievement and can be influenced/effected by factors
including illness, emotional upset, tiredness, and nervousness. Other
uses of Standardised Assessments include
early identification of learning difficulties, assisting communication
with parents and viewing learning
trends on a whole class and whole school level. This information is
used to inform teacher planning. More
information on ‘Your Child and
Standardised Testing’ can be found on the school website. Éide
Scoile agus Siopa na Scoile: School Uniforms and the School Shop The school shop is open every Thursday
afternoon 1.30 p.m. –
2.30 p.m. In order to
facilitate parents who wish to purchase school uniforms, tracksuits etc.
for the coming year please note the extra opening hours. Extra
opening hours:
The uniform shop will open 1.30 p.m. – 2.30 p.m.
every Tuesday afternoon
from 18 May until Tuesday 22 June (inclusive) and will continue to
open as usual on Thursday afternoons (1.30 p.m. – 2.30 p.m.) until Thursday 24 June 2010. Please
note that the uniform shop will reopen on Thursday 2 September 2010 (1.30
p.m. – 2.30 p.m.). Cruinnithe
Eolais: Information Meetings for Parents of New Entrants Information meetings will be held on:
Tuesday 25 May and Thursday 27 May – for parents of
incoming 3rd Classes and other new entrants.
The meetings will be held at 8.00 p.m. in the Senior School Hall. Accord
do Dhaltaí Rang a 5/6: Accord Programme for 5th/6th
Class Pupils The Accord Programme is a
Relationships and Sexuality Programme which is delivered annually to
pupils in 5th and 6th classes in our school.
The programme is delivered under the auspices of the Catholic
Archdiocese of Dublin by trained facilitators.
A number of years ago we introduced the programme to 5th
class and it was felt to be very worthwhile and successful.
This year the 1-day programme will be delivered to the 5th
classes on 28 April 2010 and to the 6th
classes on 8 June 2010. There
was a very good attendance of 5th class parents at the Accord Information
meeting last Wednesday night. Imeachtaí
le Deánaí: Recent Events ·
Two of our 4th classes, Mr. Brennan’s
and Ms. O’Gara’s, enjoyed their recent Bio Diversity Walk along the
Dodder. Many thanks to Aisling
Stewart, one of our parents, who organised and facilitated the event in
conjunction with South Dublin County Council. ·
Ms. Fahy’s 5th class recently completed
a very impressive class project on the topic of the M50.
This was an engineering based project and many thanks to one of our
parents, Tom Lawlor, an Engineer, who came in and spoke to the class on
the construction history of the M50. ·
Well done to all those pupils who participated in the
“Write a Book” Project and a particular well done the following merit
winners: Áine Duffy, Kirsten Eskiogoglu, Sophie Goulding, Leah Hackett,
Rachel Hall, Fatima Irfan,Luke Minogue and Lana McKinney. ·
Two of our 3rd class pupils, Aoife Higgins
and Amy Shiels, were recent winners in the South Dublin County Council
Anti-Racism Art Competition. ·
An unannounced whole school Fire Drill was held last
week and we were very happy with the high standards that prevailed. ·
Congratulations to Evan Rossiter, 3rd
class, who took 2nd place in the recent National Junior
Inventor Competition. Evan’s
imaginative design was for a multi purpose sports shoe and he was
presented with his award at a ceremony in Kilkenny recently. Turais
Scoile: School Tours As we move on into the final term we
are coming into the 'School Tours Season' and a wide range of tours and
trips have been arranged. These
tours range from local tours to Dublin City tours to other tours which go
much further afield. Parents
are requested to remind their children of the need to be focused and
attentive to instructions when on tour.
All of the tours are selected for their educational content and
pupils can learn a huge amount from their participation in these
tours/trips. Athbhreithniú
Ildaite na Bliana: Colour Review of the Year In
the next while Mr. Connolly will be preparing our Colour Review of the
Year 2009/10. This publication
is then given to pupils/parents at the end of June.
It is quite expensive to produce this publication.
If any parent/business person would like to sponsor/part sponsor
the Colour Review, you are asked to contact Mr. Connolly. Imeachtaí le Teacht: Upcoming Events ·
Our
school trials to select those pupils to go ahead to represent St.
Colmcille’s in Santry in the Cumann na mBunscol Athletics Finals, will
be held on the week beginning 10 May 2010. ·
Clan
Cluana, a group who present dramas on an historical theme will be
performing for our 3rd and 5th classes on Monday 17
May. It is great to give
pupils the opportunity to see live drama at a nominal cost. · A really worthwhile and successful initiative, undertaken in conjunction with South Dublin County Council has been the Cycling Classes. Three of our 5th classes have completed the programme and really enjoyed the experience. The other three classes will be engaged in the programme over the next six weeks. This programme does not focus solely on cycle safety but also deals with all other facets of road safety and involves many lessons which pupils can bring forward into life. The feedback from 5th class pupils and teachers has been really positive on this initiative. The scheme is a joint venture with South Dublin County Council who fund 50% of the cost. ·
Parents
and pupils are requested to maintain our high standards of punctuality for
the rest of term. Assembly
in the morning is as always 8.50 a.m. Cúrsaí
Spóirt: News News Our six teams are
all acquitting themselves well in the Cumann na mBunscol competitions and
enjoying the experience of playing against other schools.
These are
challenging times in schools as there have been serious cutbacks in
resourcing and staffing. Currently
in St. Colmcille’s S.N.S. we are operating without two Assistant
Principal Posts and we are also struggling to keep a full range of
activities going given the fact that we are also short of two Special Duty
Posts. We are all hearing a
lot recently about the “systemic importance” of certain financial
institutions but it is regrettable that the same level of systemic
importance doesn’t seem to attach to the provision of proper educational
services for our young people. _________________________ Pádraig
Ó Néill (Príomhoide) The
next Nuachtlitir will issue on Thursday 27 May 2010. St. Colmcilles SNS, Knocklyon,
Dublin 16. Tel. 4942527 e-mail: colmcillesskl@eircom.net
Web: www.stcolmcilles.org
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