Dear Parents, Staff and Pupils,
Can you believe it is the last full week of November?! As all the pupils know every year, the big ‘C’ word (Christmas, not Covid!) is banned from school use until December 1st!!! So, no doubt, next Tuesday all our teachers and classes will start the countdown to Christmas. Mind you, I think the pupils in An Choill broke the rules today and watched a movie about Angela's Chr*****s! I also heard some elves are on the way to the general Ballymitty area! I hope they behave themselves over the next few weeks!!
We also hope that Level 5 Lockdown will be eased so that life can get back to some form of normality. It won’t change things in school as we will still keep our distance in our class bubbles, hand wash, sanitise, and take our ventilation breaks. We do ask that the pupils refrain from bringing in any Christmas cards from home this year as we must limit all things brought from home.
Thank you to all the parents who did theonline permission for the teaching and learning platform called Seesaw. If you have not done so please go to the App, click on the top three lines in the left hand corner and you will see Forms. On Monday we will send out the Home Codes for you to use Seesaw.
Ring for chocolate! - Sometimes I get a little knock to my office door from pupils who have shown kind hands, kind feet, kind words, kind hearts! Last week Archie and Patrick in Junior Infants rang for chocolate because of their wonderful behaviour! Well done boys!
This week Ms. Franey sent Rory and Ruth to the office for showing such kindness. Well done Rory and Ruth.
Ms. Áine Foley also sent in Josh to my office to ring for chocolate - well done Josh for great work on your behaviour!
And Ms. Tricia Foley sent Nathan up to ring for chocolate too! Well done on improved behaviour Nathan!
On Tuesday December 8th, Will Cusack (Photographer) will be here to take photos. Due to Covid, he will only take a Junior Infant group photo and individual photos of the Junior Infants and their siblings. I attach the information about the cost of the photos. Perhaps they might make a nice Christmas present for a grandparent or a loved one abroad! We will put up more information next week.
As the current Senior Infant class missed their Hearing and Vision Tests in the school which are done each year by the Public Health Nurse, she will be in on Tuesday 15th December to carry out the tests. Forms went out to the Senior Infants yesterday – please return to class teacher by Weds. Dec. 2nd.
Finally, our school is involved in a LÁMH Pilot Project. LÁMH is a manual sign system used by children and adults with communication needs in Ireland. Over the next 4 weeks, each class will learn 20 words to do with school i.e. lunchbox, teacher etc and some different phrases such as Good Morning etc. The pupils love learning the new signs and we need to remember to use them in school everyday. We are asking parents to take a look at the two video links below and perhaps some of the phrases could be used at home. We aim to become a LÁMH friendly school where we will develop a LÁMH Policy over the next year and each term we will award a LÁMH champion for our termly prize-giving. Click below for the videos
Video 1: 20 words
Video 2: Everyday phrases
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend - Enjoy the Toy Show everyone!
Regards,
Audrey