February 23rd 2009

Dear Parents/ Guardians,

Welcome to another newsletter. I hope everyone had an enjoyable mid-term. We are very much looking forward to the rest of the term. As you will see there is lots going on here to keep us all on our toes.

Confirmation- had a wonderful day on February 4th when the sixth classes celebrated their Confirmation with Bishop Field. The children were a credit to themselves and their families. Thanks to the class teachers Ms Ni Chonarain and Mr O' Donnell for their hard work in preparing the children and to Ms Fay for preparing the choir. Thanks also to the ladies of the community for all their help in preparing tea and sandwiches. It is wonderful to have such support in the community.

Food Dudes - We are delighted to have been invited to participate in the Food Dudes project organized by An Bord Bia. The project will encourage children to taste a variety of different fruits and vegetables over the month of March. Children will be given fruit each day for several weeks and the hope is that they become accustomed to a selection of fruits so that they wish to add them to their lunches themselves. We will have more information for parents about this project in early March.

Enrolment - We will be sending out offers of places for next years Junior Infants in the next two weeks. Families will then have a further two weeks to reply to the offer.

Parent Teacher Meetings - Parents/ Teacher meetings will take place on Wednesday the 11th of March. As per Department instruction school will close at 2.45 that day. Teachers will be in touch in the coming week with notes regarding suitable times for meetings.

School Kitchen - The new school kitchen is now installed and will be very well used by a variety of classes. If any parents have some time to give so that further classes can take part in lessons we are always looking for volunteers. Please contact the Parents Association if you have some time to spare.

School Library Service -Some of the government cutbacks announced last year are now starting to impact on our school. The school library service has been closed down. We used to receive 500 books a year from the service and will find it hard to replace that most basic resource.

ICT -Several new TV/DVD units have been bought this month. We have placed them in pre-fab classrooms to avoid the need to transport such equipment inside the school. We are also in the process of buying some further computers and interactive whiteboards to improve our ICT programme.

Sport-A variety of teams are involved in training and league competitions at the moment. We have boys and girls football teams, basketball teams, rugby, cricket and gymnastics coaching. Thanks to all the teachers for giving their time for these activities.

We had a visit from a past pupil, Christopher Tonge this month. Chris and another past pupil Robert Byrne are two members of the Skerries Community College rugby team which won the All-Ireland Under 16 Championship. The sixth class children were delighted with the visit and congratulations to the two boys.

Lusk Youth Club - Foroige, the National Agency for Irish Youth clubs is setting up a youth club in the community. The club will be run by a group of local volunteers and will be hosted in our school each Wednesday night, beginning on Wednesday the 25th of February, from 8.00 to 9.30. The club is open to all children of twelve years and older and sounds like it will be a great addition to the community.

Quiz - Well done to our school Quiz team on their performance in the Credit Union Quiz. Our Under 11 team came a very creditable third place. The behaviour of all our children was a credit to them and to their teacher Ms. Rochford.

Science - The scientists from anyone4science visited last month. The children and teachers had very positive things to say about the experiments carried out in the lessons.

Clothes Recycling - We received a cheque from the clothes recycling charity for clothes collected in the last term. This money will be put towards the Green School fund to support the work of that team.

Dates for the Diary

Staff Meeting- March 4th - Children home at 1.50

Parent Teacher Meetings - March 11th- 3.00- 5.30

St. Patrick's Day - School Closed - March 16th/ March 17th

Regards,

Paul Comiskey.

Principal.

Principal: Paul Comiskey, B.Ed., Dip. Ed. Man., M.St.

Deputy Principal: Peggy O'Connor N.T., D.A.I.