December Newsletter 2016
As our first term comes to an end we take a look back at the news and events of the last few months before welcoming the new school term in 2017!
Our School Concert in The Mill Theatre
On Tuesday, 29th November the children of Ballinteer Educate Together took to the stage in The Mill Theatre Dundrum. After all their hard work and dedication, learning songs, practising lines and attending rehearsals, each class put on a wonderful performance. We are very proud of all the children!
Particular thanks to Peter (Michael’s dad), Vincent (Faye’s dad) and Philip (Noah’s dad) who provided us with the sound and video recording on the day. We really appreciate the mammoth effort it took to pull this off. We will let all parents know as soon as the recordings of the concert are available.
Finally, thank you to all our parents for your wonderful support in preparing the children for their concerts and for the fantastic attendance on the day. We know that these will be the memories that live on in the children’s hearts and minds for years to come.
UCD Sports Trip
In December, the children from Senior Infants to Third Class enjoyed a wonderful day atUCDSports Centre.
Activities including parachute games, dodgeball and trampolining were enjoyed by all the children. We hope to visit UCD again in the coming term to enjoy some of the other wonderful facilities on offer. Thank you to Muireann for organising this trip and to Ann and Aongus who helped to coordinate all the events of the day.
Class News
The theme for Aistear in Junior Infants in December was “The Home.” We have learned that there are many different sorts of families and houses but that the common thing each share is love. We have had lots of fun playing home with the doll houses and in role play area. We made lots of things you would find at home using our playdough. During art, we made lovely wallpaper and curtain patterns.
For Science Week in Junior Infants we examined four different types of materials to find out which would make the strongest house for the three little pigs to live in. It linked in perfectly with our Aistear theme for this month. We had lots of fun exploring, building, discussing and predicting. The four materials we tested were paper towels, tin foil, card and building blocks. We tested out the strength of our houses using Neola’s hairdryer (The Big Bad Wolf!) In the end we concluded that the building blocks were the best material to use as the hairdryer didn’t blow these houses down. We enjoyed being scientists and solving real life problems.
We made beautiful winter scenes in art. We used our finger prints to decorate the page in snow and added a splash of colour to the trees by cutting and sticking on crepe paper.
Anna’s mum Laragh was very kind to help us harvest the leeks and brussel sprouts in the vegetable patch. Did anyone eat them for dinner?
InSenior Infantswe looked at the story of the firstThanksgiving. We talked about the different things that we are thankful for, especially our friends and families. We displayed our gratitude in writing on our Thankful Turkey!
With winter now upon us we have been talking about the changes in the weather. We also looked at animals that live in colder climates. Then we made some cute penguins to support our theme.
Críona's class attended an exhibition in Dún Laoghaire Lexicon as part of theArtist in Residency Programme.As part of this project the class will be working with a visual artist exploring colour, shape, form and texture in the arts in the new year.This fabulous programme is funded by DLR and we are delighted to have been chosen for it.
We have had a wonderful term in First Class, full of learning and interesting experiences. It already seems like much time has passed since we were excitedly waiting backstage for our turns to shine on the Mill Theatre stage on the 29th of November. We all worked so hard learning lines, songs and dance moves to put on a fantastic show for all our families. We also had a fun filled trip to UCD where all children had the opportunity to enjoy trampolining, parachute and playground games.
Inside the classroom we have been very busy too with our Arctic theme in full swing. We have conducted a science investigation about heating and cooling, learned about animals and habitats and made arctic animals in clay. We are also learning about celebrations around the world at this time of year, including Christmas and Hannukkah.
In Second Class we have been busy. We took a trip to UCD. We really enjoyed the trampolines. We also enjoyed playing dodgeball with Aongus. We went by bus and it was pretty fun.
We performed The Three Little Pigs at The Mill Theatre. On the day of the play at 6pm we projected our voices very nicely. All of us enjoyed the very small green room where we stayed before going on stage. We were very nervous at first, but after the play we were very proud of ourselves. We practised for weeks, and all in all we did great!
We have also made Winter cards and the decorations on them are very good. We did snowmen on some of the cards. The cards were really fun to make and we all had different designs.
In our Maths lessons, we found it was easy doing <, = and >. Rounding was a bit hard. In adding and subtracting we learned the column method. In estimating we did some experiments.
We have been learning about symbols that you use in sentences and this is all you need to know about them: You use the exclamation mark when someone is yelling! You put this speech mark “ at the start of a sentence someone is saying and this one “ at the end of it. You use question marks if somebody is asking a question. You use full stops at the end of every sentence. Commas are used to take a breath between sentences and also to help sentences make sense.
During our French lessons Sophie taught us about counting in 10s, 2s and 5s and pronouncing words that mean something like house, cars and garden. She also taught us about weather, traffic and adding.
In December water can turn in to thick sheets of ice and some people ice-skate on it. We have been learning about rivers around Ireland. We also learned about the biggest river in Dublin, the River Liffey which meets the sea at the mouth. In a lot of big rivers there are dams that use the force of water to make electricity. Wow! The River Slang beside school is flooding a bit.
On a trip to Airfield, we saw two huge pigs in the mud drinking milk and a tall man milking the cows with a strange machine. We saw some old cars from about a hundred years ago. Nearly the whole class went really fast on the zipline. We saw a lot of cute ducklings under a red, warm light and a Giant Redwood Tree, it can grow up to 99 metres high! We played on a wooden train and we all enjoyed it.
Written by the Second Class students
It has certainly been a busy and exciting few months in Third Class! November started with a visit from Kelvin ‘The Recycler’ who talked to us about reducing, reusing and recycling waste. He even enlisted the help of a few willing volunteers, as you can see from the photos.
We have been continuing to enjoy our French lessons with Sophie too. We are able to use our extensive acting skills and can even deliver our lines in French.
Our performance of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ was unforgettable for us and we thoroughly enjoyed entertaining our friends and families. Thank you so much to all of the Third Class parents for all of the help and support you gave us with learning lines and creating the amazing costumes. We really could not have done it without you.
After our show-stopping performance we went for a morning of fun in UCD. We enjoyed taking part in many different sporting activities including trampolining and dodgeball. We were happily exhausted by the time we got on the bus to come back to school!
This week we will be taking a trip to Airfield so we shall let you know all about that in the next newsletter. Not long to go until the holidays begin and Third Class would like to take this opportunity to wish you a peaceful holiday and a happy 2017!
IT in Ballinteer Educate Together
The children are really enjoying learning phonics while using the ipads. They are using a variety of apps to practice their blending, letter formation and writing skills. The children's favourite app this term has been 'Hairy Phonics'. There are four different versions to suit all levels, so every child is experiencing success - while having fun! The children have also been using the ipads for numeracy and research, which they are really enjoying.
We are very grateful to the PTA and all our parents whose fundraising has bought us some lovely headphones, which we can use during small group work. They are also going to purchase more ipads, which means every child will get to use the ipads regularly to further their education. Thank you!
School Singing and Assembly
Every fortnight the children in each class group gather together for singing and assembly. This is an opportunity for the school community to explore themes and topics that are central to our Educate Together ethos.
This term, Marie has introduced the themes of Responsibility, Respect, Gratitude and Giving. The children listened to stories exploring these themes and shared ways that these ideas impact their school and home lives.
An integral part of our assembly is whole-school singing with Órla who has a huge reservoir of songs, as well as enjoyable interactive musical activities which help the children learn the tonic solfa, develop their pitch, range and tempo, and how to sing intervals, all of which results in impressive singing.
Violin
Many thanks to Justyna for a fantastic term of violin this year. The children really have come such a long way since last year and are learning so much. We look forward to recommencing violin lessons after our move to our new school in Notre Dame. In the meantime, Justyna will be offering violin as part of our after-school programme. Details about after-school violin will follow in January.
Move to Notre Dame
This term, we received the welcome news not only that we will be moving to Notre Dame school in Churchtown but also that positive developments are taking place in relation to securing access to the site here at St. Tiernan’s so that planning application may be submitted for our new school building here. Órla and Marie paid a courtesy call to Notre Dame and were impressed with the school. It will be great for staff and children alike to have such conducive space. Officials at the Forward Planning section of the DES have informed us that they will arrange an official visit to Notre Dame when we will be able to make more formal arrangements for the move there at the end of the school year. We will update you on all news in this regard.
Parent Teacher Meetings
Parent teacher meetings will take place on Wednesday, 15th and Thursday, 16th of February. Class teachers will be in touch with you closer to that time to arrange the time of your appointment.
The Parent Teacher meeting is an opportunity for you to meet with your child’s teacher formally to discuss your child’s progress in school this year.
If you have any concerns that you would like to discuss with your child’s teacher prior to these meetings, please do not hesitate arrange an appointment by emailing .
After-School Activities
The first term of after-school activities came to an end earlier this month. The new after- school schedule will be released in January. We hope to continue to offer many of our very popular activities including Chinese, Science Club, Spanish and Football in the coming term.
The Rainbows Loss and Separation Peer Support group will also commence in January for children in First to Third Class. Application forms will be emailed to you early in the new year.
Parent Teacher Association Update
The PTA would like to thank all the parents who participated in and supported our fund raising since September. We have had some great success.
Book Fair - we sold €3243 of books meaning the school gets to buy €1945 worth of books for our children.
Bag Pack - we raised €2810.20!
Cards & Calendars - we have raised €940 to date, some calendars still to be sold!
The teachers have some wish lists so we will update you in the New Year as to how this money will be spent. Most of the bag pack money will go to but new ipads for the classrooms with educational apps.
Punctuality and Late Collection
Punctuality is becoming an area of increasing concern for us in school. While we appreciate that the vast majority of families arrive in plenty of time for the children to be in school, on time, smiling and relaxed, last week there were 78 incidences of children arriving late to school (after 8.35am). This did not include the many children who arrived late due to necessary medical and dental appointments.
The school day starts at 8.15. There is a 20 minute reception period, during which time the children are given the opportunity to greet their teacher and classmates and settle calmly into the morning routines. This is a crucial time set aside by teachers to listen to the children reading and to engage the children in morning activities.
Children who are brought to school late often find it difficult to settle calmly. They may have missed important instructions and can be left feeling like they are running to catch up. The arrival of a child late to class is often very distracting for the other children who have already begun their lessons.