Dear Parents/Guardians,
GAA
Boys play next round of Mini 7s in Horeswood at 12.45pm. They can leave school at 12.15pm.
The girls play their next Rackard League game next Friday Oct. 17th at 12 midday. They can leave school at 11.45am
Well done to all who are turning out every Friday for 8.30am Football. Can I ask please that all players have gum shields/mouth guards. No guard, no play! This is to safeguard everyone.
School closures
Half In/Half out meeting - These are done in each school each term. We will close at 2pm for all pupils on Monday Oct. 20th to allow for an extended staff meeting.
No school Fri 24th Oct due to the Presidential Elections.
School will be closed for Midterm Break from Friday Oct. 24th to Mon. Nov. 3rd.
Scór auditions
Scór competition is for children in the senior classes who want to enter into singing, music, dancing, drama competitions next January. The audtions will be held the week of Mon. Oct. 20th as we are trying to get some rehearsals going before Christmas. Next week, we will give any child who has put their name down their pieces for the auditions and we would ask them to go over them so that they can give their very best on the day of the audition.
School Masses
We have a rota for different classes to attend Weds. morning mass at 10am. If you do not wish for your child to attend mass please email Helena on ballymittyns@gmail.com and we can make an arrangement for them to stay behind in another class.
School Lotto
We encourage our new families to join our Lotto which is a simple fundraiser for our school. You can find all details here and how to join it - https://www.ourfundraiser.ie/org/ballymittyns/
Erasmus
Well done to the Erasmus team of Ms. Franey and Mary Hayward who represented the school on a recent trip to Turin, Italy. This was a great experience for all involved. It is always both enriching and affirming to visit classes/schools in other countries. You can see all about our Erasmus projects on our web page - http://ballymittyns.ie/page/European-Projects/82919/Index.html
We will continue with two more trips to schools in Murica, Spain and in Bari, Italy in April and May of next year. Following the review of those trips we will be planning the Group trips for next year. This will involve next September's 5th and 6th classes. All pupils will have an opportunity to go and we would encourage them to consider taking part as much as possible because it is a wonderful opportunity. We will have a Parents' information meeting in January to discuss the plans for next year but no harm to consider reviewing passports and/or EHIC cards etc.
Monthly surveys
Each month we ask the pupils in 1st - 6th to fill out end of month surveys. This is to get an idea of how they feel about school, if they feel safe, what they could do if they were bullied and if there were any ideas to make our school better. These were carried out at the end of Sept. We have a majority of children who feel safe and happy in school thankfully and we got lovely ideas from them. I will follow up with a focus group from the various classes and our Mayor Ruby and Deputy Mayor Paudie will announce the summaries each month over the intercom letting our school community know what ideas we will work on. We have set up our Kindness/Bi Cinealta board where we put up our focus for the month as well as the monthly manners.
Thanks everyone for reading this update.
Regards,
Audrey