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Scoil Mhuire
Convent Primary School
Roscommon
www.conventprimaryroscommon.ie / /

Each person through positive learning experiences will be stimulated to achieve his/her full potential, face life confidently, find fulfilment and be respectful in an ever-changing world.

Dear Parents, November 2014

Voluntary Contribution

As in previous years we are asking you to make a voluntary contribution of an amount you can afford. The attached envelope will be used for receipt purposes so therefore we would appreciate it if you would fill in all details. All funds from this voluntary contribution will be spent on resources/activities for the children in the 2013 – 2014 school year. Having installed a playground, two extra shelters this year, and furnished a new library, funds in the account are now very low. The Parents Association has recently given us €5000 to help cover some costs including: Manga High yearly subscription (€850), Books for the library (€1,700), Sensory Garden (€1200) and heating which averages €1000 every three weeks. We are very thankful to the Parents Association for all the support they give the school. We don’t receive any more money from the DES until the end of January. As a general guideline we are asking €30 per family.

Parent/Teacher meetings take place this week, on Tuesday 18th and Thursday 20th November. It is very important that you make every effort to attend. This is an opportunity for you to discuss your child’s progress with your teacher.

Safety in the Car Park Thanks to the efforts of the Gárdai and parents, I am told that safety in the car park has improved. We are reminding parents that young children must be brought by the hand to the school gates. We are also reminding parents to encourage their children to wear high visibility vests/jackets. A vest was given to every child at the start of the year. Orla Leydon (Councillor) and Eugene Dwyer (Roscommon County Council) have visited the school, and are aware of all suggestions made by the parents at the meeting held on the 22nd September. Orla Leydon assures me that she will continue to raise the issue at council meetings.

Science Week: Thank you to all parents who came into the school to talk about how they use Science every day. Thank you also to the many parents who come in weekly to help the teacher hear the children’s reading.

Manga High and how to run it on tablet devices: iPads cannot use Flash player to read graphics. The "puffin" browser acts as a portal to allow tablet devices to see graphics developed using flash. To use mangahigh on tablet devices use the following steps: Download "Puffin" browser app from the App Store (€3.59) Open "Puffin" app to access the internet and use as your search engine to login to mangahigh. Thank you to all parents for encouraging their children to use this very effective tool for learning mathematics and to Ms. Crean for leading the integration of ICT and learning in the school.

WHAT WE ARE LEARNING IN SCHOOL

Junior Infants: The theme this November is ‘FOOD’. We have a shop in Aistear where the children are role playing shopkeepers and customers. This theme is integrated with ‘BIA’ in Gaeilge. Our new sounds are m,d and g. Our SESE programme is integrated with the topic of food too. We are crowing cress seeds, talking about food grown by farmers and we are reading about ;’The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. In Maths we are concentrating on the number 3 and the tricky concept of ‘more than’.

Senior Infants: Senior Infants have had a wonderful time working with our local ‘Roscommon Arts Centre’ on an art exhibition based on learning through play. We have just planted hyacinth bulbs and are looking forward to bringing home our beautiful flowers in the Spring. Our theme in Aistear this month is ‘FOOD’ and we are busy discussing all about healthy food and the food pyramid in English and SESE. We are covering ‘BIA’ in Gaeilge and learning all about number in Maths. We are all progressing very well with our reading and we encourage the children to complete their reading every night.

1st classes are using questioning as a comprehension strategy and discussing food and health in oral language. They are continuing their wonderful work on numbers 0 – 20 and looking forward to looking at graphs and data. We are delighted that we were on the intercom for ‘Lá na Gaeilge’ and love talking about ‘Bia’.

2nd classes are learning about hundreds in place value in Maths. We have been focusing on addition tables but we will shortly be moving onto subtraction tables. The children thoroughly enjoy learning the ‘skip counting’ songs we are doing. We are focusing on ‘Ar Scoil’ in Irish. Great progress has been made with the introduction of writing and reading Irish words and phrases. In literacy, the theme of health/food is being explored through the use of stories and poems. We are learning a lot during station teaching. Children preparing for First Confession are learning the relevant prayers and songs. In Art we are investigating the strand ‘fabric and fibre’. The children will get an opportunity to use different types of fabric in various ways.

3rd/4th classes are very busy this month. We are learning all about ‘Ar Scoil’ in Gaeilge. We are working hard and learning lots in our English and Maths stations. In History we are learning about Early Christian Ireland and finding out lots of interesting facts about monasteries and The Book of Kells. We are using our iPads and laptops to research our SESE topics. We love Science and we are busy experimenting. We are learning now to improve our friendships and how to become better friends.

5th/6th classes have had a very busy November so far. In literacy we are continuing with our stations, focusing on comprehension strategies, recount writing and our oral language theme is ‘Health’. In numeracy we are studying fractions and its many facets. In Gaeilge stations are going great. Keep up the reading at home! In SESE, we hope to dissect a heart for Science. We are learning about famous women in History and we are focusing on developing countries in particular Malawi in Geography.

SCÓR: Congratulations to all the children involved in Scór last Saturday night. We are very proud of each and every one of our musicians and singers. A big thank you to their teachers – Ms. Morris, Ms. Killeen, Ms. McNeill, Mr. Flynn, Ms. Shaughnessy, Ms. Rogerson and Ms. Kenny. The school band is getting ready to play for Santa Claus at the turning on of the Christmas lights on Sunday, 20th November.

QUIZ: Well done to our quiz team who were busy answering questions in the library last week. While the questions didn’t suit them on this occasion, their behaviour was exemplary. They are now getting ready for the Credit Union quiz. Thank you to their teachers Ms. Maher and Mr. Morelli.

ATHLETICS: Congratulations to Hollie Kilroe who recently came 1st at the County Championships Cross Country running. Our 3rd/4th class team was awarded 2nd place in the county cross-country championships and our 5th/6th class team came 3rd. Thank you to their teacher Mary Burgoyne (retired), Ms. Morris and all parents who support sport in the school.

Best wishes to all our parents and thank you again for your support. We look forward to meeting all of you at the parent teacher meetings.

Chairperson:
Principal:
Deputy Principal: / Canon Eugene McLoughlin
Dr. Úna Feeley
Patricia Morris
/ / Scoil Mhuire Convent Primary School
Convent Road
Roscommon
T +353 (0) 906626872
F +353 (0) 906626872
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