PTA update.

A quick update from the PTA,

We held a very successful Secondary School evening in the school last night (Thursday 22nd). We hope that you, the parents, found it very informative and you got a chance to ask the various principals any questions you may have had.
Our thanks again to Mr Arthur Godsil and his vice principal Ms Joan Kirby from St. Andrews College, Mr Derek Lowry from Newpark Comprehensive School, Ms Barbara Ennis from Rathdown School and Mr Christopher Woods from Wesley College who gave up their time for us.
Thanks to Ms Senior who kept the evening running smoothly, Mrs Crammond who did wonders on the IT side of things and the PTA who gave up an evening to make teas, coffees and more.
Finally, thank you to all the parents who came and supported the evening…. it was for you and your children’s future education that we did this.
Have a great mid term from the PTA,
Regards, Nicola

Mrs. Senior's diary 21st October 2009

Harvest time is among us and at this time we bring all Gods gifts to the attention of the pupils. We like to promote the idea of giving in the school and each year we put together a collection of food for the old folks in Shankill. It was lovely to see the children coming to assembly with their gifts. A huge thank you must go to all the parents and children for helping with our harvest. A few, selected from different classes, accompany me down to the Day Centre to deliver our goods. This year we had a warm welcome. They are delighted to meet with the young children and the children had an opportunity to chat with them. The goodies are divided up among those who attend.

PTA update, October 2009 from Nicky Ralph.

Hi all,

A few lines from the PTA to keep you up to date on our activities.

As you know our AGM was held on Tuesday 16th October. Your committee for the next year is Nicola Ralph, Paul De Freine, John Bolton, Natalija Kocijan and our new members Shirley Britz, Neil Bass, David Bryce and Amanda Clooney, our teacher representative is Ms Armstrong and, as always, Ms Senior is present. May I just take a moment to thank our outgoing committee members, Susan Stuart, Clare Perry, Robert Norwood and Robert Allison. We had a great year and you have set a very hard act to follow..thank you so much.

Ok, out with your diaries as here are our forthcoming events, hopefully in order!

On Thursday 22nd October at 7.30 in the school hall, we are having 4 principals of secondary schools coming to give a presentation about their schools and then answer any questions. We are very grateful to the following principals for giving up their time – Arthur Godsil from St. Andrews,
- Derek Lowry from Newpark Comprehensive,
- Barbara Ennis from Rathdown,
- Christopher Woods from Wesley.
PLEASE avail of this meeting as it is NOT a yearly event and believe me, once your children start primary school, time flies by and now is the time to start getting names down for secondary school waiting lists.

On Thursday 5th November in aid of Myasthenia Gravis, “the Rag Doll illness”, we are supporting the school in bulb planting. Further details to follow, but we will be looking for a number of parents to come forward to help us on that day. Please let any member of the committee know if you are available …many hands make light work.

The launch of our Christmas fund raiser, Rathmichael Cookbook. The PTA is indebted to Susan Stuart, Natalija Kocijan, Shirley Britz and Emma Parker who are bringing this book to life. From what I have heard it is going to be fantastic, full of yummy recipes. May I also thank 6th Class who have managed to secure quite a number of paying adverts…Well done.

On Wednesday 9th December, our annual Art and Wine evening is to be held in the school hall. As always this is a great night, as it gives us a chance to meet socially, admire our children’s wonderful artwork (which you can buy for a nominal charge) and, of course enjoy a glass or two of wine and tasty savouries. Not to mention our raffle where the prizes are already coming in fast and furious…an M+S voucher for €50 and a meal at Harvey Nichols to name but a few. More details to follow but do note that this is an adult only event.


Well, that brings you up to date so far. Keep logging on and remember it is up to us, as parents, to support our school in order to make it a better place for our children.

Regards, Nicola Ralph

Third Class Visit Shankill Library by Ms. Armstrong

As part of The Children's Book Festival Events, 3rd Class visited Shankill Library to meet author and illustrator Mary Arrigan. Mary helped us to create our own story, 'The Robbery' which showed us how an old bicycle rescued from a skip, a young girl and two adults can be developed into an exciting adventure story.
We then listened to Mary tell us the story of 'An Bhó Fhionn' and she also explained to us how she illustrated this book. Meeting a real-life author and illustrator really brought books and story-telling to life for us.

Mrs. Senior's diary 14th October 2009

The Voices of Life Choir came to our school on Wednesday 7th October. This choir is made up of teenagers who attended school with our African correspondents Sandra and Yunusu. The Choir is from Uganda. They came dressed in their bright orange uniforms. It was a superb morning and a great opportunity for our school. They sang and danced to three songs. Eight of our own children then joined them to dance and sing. As it happens we were collecting our 50c for Yunusu and Sandra that day so it was all very relevant and brought alive into our school.
Fire Safety Week
Last week was Fire Safety Week in the country. As such we had our termly fire drill. This all went along very smoothly. Some of the pupils in the school got involved in a competition run by Dublin Fire Brigade. They had to draw pictures depicting Fire Safety on A3 size paper. The winners drawings will appear in the 2010 Dublin Fire Brigade Calendar. We have been lucky to have had winners appear in this before. Let's hope we have a budding artist here somewhere amongst us!

Mrs. Senior's diary 7th October 2009

On Thursday 1st October the Green School Committee met to discuss ways of promoting our Green Homes Flag. This committee includes a pupil from each class 1st to 6th . Gillian Bourne and myself also attend. They each have a notebook and come up with great ideas which we hope to implement over the next few months. It's great to see ideas coming from the pupils themselves and not having to keep coming up with the ideas yourself. They were all enthusiastic and indeed some have gone off to make posters which I will laminate and put around the school.

On Friday 2nd October Canon Appelbe and myself attended the Schools service at Christ Church Cathedral with six pupils. They all represented the school really well and I was very proud of them. Two pupils, Aron Gordon and Nikolai Bolton, read prayers at the service. This service was well attended. This years underlying theme was a joyful noise. A joyful noise is indeed what was made. Everyone appeared to enjoy themselves.