Newsletter - December 2019

16/12/19

Dear Parents/Guardians

It’s the season to be jolly and so just a few items of good news before I write the final chapter!

Colin Murray – Artist

Congratulations once again to Colin Murray our 6^th Class student who won the RTE News2day Christmas Art Competition with the theme “Christmas is for Everyone”.

We were all very excited and proud of him here in Our Lady’s N.S. and of course we submitted our own tribute as he appeared live on T.V.

Taylor Rose Rice – Credit Union Competition Winner

Congratulations to our First Class student Taylor Rose Rice who won a prize  in the recent Credit Union Art Competition.  She won second prize in the Aged 7 and under Category with her beautiful drawing.

J.E.P (Junior Entrepreneur Programme)

I would like to commend and congratulate 5^th/6^th Class who took part in the J.E.P this year, for the first time in Our Lady’s N.S.

This is a very exciting and beneficial initiative which will hopefully develop entrepreneurial and business skills for our students.  There were eight products vying to be the “Big Idea”.  In the end the Dragons agreed that “Planet Pens” was the product which ticked the most boxes.

The brainchild of Colin Murray, Planet Pens are reusable pens made out of recycled materials.

Well done to Colin and his team of Oisín, Emman and Michael.

I would also like to thank Mr Gleeson for all his hard work in encouraging and taking the students through the process.

Thanks also to local business woman Jenny Brewer who was part of the Dragon’s Den panel.

Reminders:

·        Christmas Mass/Raffle , Wed 18^th at 11am in School Hall

·        Non Uniform/Christmas Jumper Day on Thursday and Friday

·        Holidays at 12noon on Friday 20^th.

·        School reopens on Monday, January 6^th 2020

New Staff Arrangements for January 2020

·        Mrs Deirdre Egan – Principal(Jnr/Snr Inf)

·        Mrs O’ Dea - 1^st/2^nd Class

·        Ms Cody – 3^rd/4^th Class

·        Mr Gleeson – 5^th/6^th Class

·        Ms O’ Connor – Support Teacher

·        Ms Fitzgerald – Support (Part-Time)

Final Farewell!

As I bid farewell to Our Lady’s N.S. I would like to thank the many members of my team who worked so hard over the past nine years.

The Board of Management, the amazingly devoted and hard working staff, our very supportive and co-operative parent body, our P.P Fr Quirke who visits regularly, Evelyn our multi-talented cleaner, Pat our caretaker and Michael Kavanagh who so caringly looked after the grass cutting and painting.  They have all contributed to the success and the many achievements of our school.

I was blessed to be surrounded and supported by such a team of people and I want to express my deep gratitude to each and everyone for making the past nine years such a happy, memorable and successful time in my teaching career.

But of course a very important part of Our Lady’s are the students.  I have really enjoyed working with all classes over the years and I have been very proud of their many achievements in Primary and secondary School.

The Slieveardagh Hills and Ballingarry and it’s people will always hold a very special place in my heart and I will always cherish the great memories created and shared over the years.

I would like to once again congratulate my successor Mrs Deirdre Egan and wish her every success as the new Principal.

Finally I want to wish all my school community a very happy and peaceful Christmas and a New Year full of joy and happiness.

Le gach dea-ghuí

__________________

Ms O’ Sullivan - Principal                                           

Members of Board:

Fr Derry Quirke                Sheila O’ Sullivan               Deirdre Egan          Áine McGrath      

Anne Croke                         Willie McGrath                Tom Butler              Tadhg Vaughan

Junior Entrepreneur Programme

This year, for the very first time, our Fifth and Sixth Class are taking part in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme. This is a very exciting and beneficial initiative which will hopefully develop the entrepreneurial and business skills of our students. The programme integrates well across the Curriculum but will have especial relevance to the STEM aspect of our Science programme.

As a first step the students learned a little about entrepreneurship and the characteristic skills necessary to be an entrepreneur. They looked at some famous Irish and international entrepreneurs and realised that they have many entrepreneurs in their locality.

Next came the creative bit, where our students each had to come up with their own product which they could create, market and sell in the school. Twenty nine great ideas were whittled down to the eight most suitable and our students were divided into eight groups in order to develop each idea.

Having been given some time to work on each idea/product the students were then ready to present their product in a Dragon's Den type scenario. Local business woman Jenny Brewer joined Ms O'Sullivan and Mr Gleeson on the Dragon's Den panel to lend some entrepreneurial nous to proceedings.

The presentations were astounding. The pitches were well researched and presented with confidence and aplomb. The eight products vying to be our 'Big Idea' were:
1) Wood Rings and Magnets
2) Happy Holders
3) Just Hang It!
4) Gragaugh Candles
5) Planet Pens
6) Name It! Tag It!
7) Conquer the World
8) Tipp Trees Bird Feeders

The Dragons had a lot to consider. Our 'Big Idea' had to be fun to make, suitable for the classroom and eco friendly as well as being attractive to the consumer! We want to make a bit of money - this is a business after all!

In the end the Dragons agreed that 'Planet Pens' was the product which ticked the most boxes. The brainchild of Colin Murray, Planet Pens are reusable pens made out of recycled materials. Well done to Colin and his team of Oisín, Emma and Michael.

Writers of the Month - September, October, November 2019

 September 'Writers of the Month'

October 'Writers of the Month'

November 'Writers of the Month'

Well done to all. Keep up the good work!

Colin Murray, Artist

We received some amazing news last week when we found out that Sixth Class student, Colin Murray had only gone and won the RTÉ news2day Christmas art competition. The theme for this national competition was 'Christmas is for Everyone' and Colin captured it perfectly with his picture.

His prize involved travelling to the RTÉ studios in Donnybrook and officially turning on their Christmas lights. This huge honour was captured for posterity on live tv. Colin proved to be a natural in front of the cameras and was quite unfazed by all the attention. As part of the feature on Colin we submitted our own tribute to the man of the moment.

Taylor Rose Rice - Credit Union Art Competition Prize Winner!

Congratulations to First Class student Taylor Rose Rice who won a prize in the recent Credit Union Art Competition.

Taylor Rose won second prize in the 'Aged 7 and under' category with this beautiful drawing.

Well done Taylor Rose!!!

Third and Fourth Class Art - 3D Winter Scenes

Third and Fourth class have been busy combining clay, construction, drawing and painting in art class to create these 3D winter scenes. Here is a selection of their finished work.

Class of the Month - September, October, November

We have a bit of a backlog to make up as regards the Class of the Month I'm afraid.

So...here goes (takes a deep breath)....

September - Fifth and Sixth Class

October - Junior and Senior Infants

November - First and Second Class.

Well done to all!