Christmas Newsletter Dec 2014 - Greystones Educate Together

Greystones Educate Together
Christmas Newsletter,
December 2014
On behalf of the Board of Management I would like to wish the entire school community
a happy and peaceful Christmas season, and best wishes for the new year.
Special thanks to all those - staff and parents (and grandparents!) - who donate their
time and talents in so many ways to help make our school better : the children benefit
from your efforts in too many ways to list and we really appreciate everything you do.
And finally, as we really get into winter weather, we'd like to remind everyone pedestrians, cyclists and drivers - to be especially careful around the school at pickup
and collection times. The children can be hard to see and sometimes pay less attention
to traffic if the weather is really bad ... please be extra careful to keep everyone safe.
Liam Friel - Chairperson BoM
P
rincipal’s Thoughts: It has been a very busy start to our new year
with lots of new staff ( again), some wonderful interns, the opening of
the Special Class and lots of art with the Wishing Tree Group and the
Percent For Art team . It was also lovely to see the dance /yoga classes and
athletics in the hall every week this term.
5th & 6th Class sang some songs in commemoration of 100 years since
the outbreak of the First World War in a performance in the school hall
for Christmas. They were accompanied by Rory Quinn on guitar.
Roisin Furlong was the
lucky winner this year
of the Christmas cake
The DES have also asked us to extend the building and add at least one more
classroom, so the Board have been busy following the ‘procedures’ for tendering. These works should begin in Spring-time.
It’s been lovely to hear the choir singing us through the Autumn months and
the new Infants have made a huge impact on the school already! We now have
a staggered lunch-break for the teachers, as a result of having 5 Infant classes.
Rose and Nadia have been doing a great job on the Infant Club after school,
also. The parents have been contributing in many ways, helping with the yard
supervision, organising events etc. In particular I would like to acknowledge
the work of Craft Fair Committee again this year. Thanks to everyone for
making it a very enjoyable term. See you in 2015!
Catherine
that is traditionally
baked by teacher Edel’s
Mum. Congrats!!
D
anny’s Bench: We would like to thank Stephen Casali for the wonderful bench he made for
the school yard in memory of Danny Callaghan.
Danny's sister, Molly, is seen here on the bench
with Jemima Casali.
Maybe
This
Christmas, a song
recently released by
Sile Seoige, on behalf
of Make a Wish, can
be downloaded from
ITunes
https://
itun.es/ie/CdHw4 all
proceeds from this
will go straight to
Make A Wish Ireland. Little Danny
actually features on
the video.
Deputy Principal
Isabelle Bramhill, Michael’s
Senior Infants, won
the lovely Minion
Christmas Cake.
I am delighted to introduce myself to you all as
Deputy Principal Of Greystones Educate
Together National School. I have worked in
numerous leadership roles in the Australian
schooling system and I am looking forward to
furthering my knowledge and experience of
leadership in education here in Greystones, I
would like to take this opportunity to thank you
all for welcoming me so warmly into your school
community and I look forward to working in
partnership with you to provide the highest
standard of education for our children in
S
Jack Kenny, Michael’s
Senior Infants, won a
wonderful family
membership in the school
raffle to
Killruddery House
& Gardens.
tudent Council : We are very apprecia-
tive of the fundraising organised by the
P.A to help raise money for these gorgeous G.E.T.N.S soccer jerseys! Our Student
Council reps are modelling them perfectly! The
Student Council showed each class, from 2nd to 6th, a variety of possible
designs and they held a vote so that every child could be part of the selection process. We think the children made a fantastic choice! A special
thanks to Emmett organising this project.
GETNS Craft Fair Many
thanks to everyone involved in
making the Craft Fair a success
again this year. We raised
€3,714.00. A total of 1,357 people attended the fair this year.
There was an amazing buzz
throughout the whole school.
Nathanial Hanna in Helen’s
2nd class won the Carlton
Hotel Prize in the Xmas raffle
(indly donated by
the Meagher
family ).
Triathlon Ireland Award Huge congratulations to our wonderful teacher Rachel
who came second in the Middle Distance
National Championships
this year. The National
Championships
race
is held over a 1.9k swim,
a 90k cycle and a 21k
run. Great dedication
and commitment is required to win such a tri-
W
icklow Interschools Running
Competitions: We are extremely
proud of the students who represented
the school in the Wicklow inter-schools
running competitions. Students from
3rd—6th class did extraordinarily well in
the events and managed to come home
with four medals from the open races.
Every child from GETNS ran their hearts
out. Daniel Rigley, Ross McCrea, Matthew Albiati and Natalia Stanicka managed to bag medals from their individual
races. Well done to all who took part and
to teacher Luke for managing these
events.
Hallelujah Choir: Teacher Yvonne co-ordinated our
participation in the 2014 Hallelujah Choir which took
place in the City West Convention Centre on 2nd December. Well done to the school choir. Also thanks to
Yvonne for ‘training up’ to qualify as a mentor for
newly qualified staff who are recruited on placements
in our school. This is a great benefit to the new teachers and to the school.