Newsletter 22nd March 2022
Important Dates
Easter Holidays
Friday 8th April 12.30 finish
Monday 11th April – Friday 22nd April 2022 school closed
Reopen Monday 25th April 2022
Message from Sinéad
Dear school community, we are experiencing significant staff shortages at present and this is further impacted by the lack of substitute staff available in the Wicklow area. We are doing our very best to provide cover in all classes and support teaching for each year group. However, this is something we are managing daily and may require us to make changes at short notice. We ask for your continued support as we do all we can to avoid having to close classrooms. All my best Sinéad.
School Tours
We very much look forward to the return of school tours this year. We are currently finalising the school tour bookings for all year groups and will share this information through Aladdin later this week. Please ensure you can access your Aladdin app to view the permission and payment requests.
Reuben The Entertainer – Our junior classes will also enjoy a fun day on 7th April with Reuben the entertainer. Please log in to Aladdin for further information.
5th Class Library visits – 5th class green will visit the library on 5th April and 5th class blue will visit on 6th April.
6th Class will attend the Dominican College Wicklow TY Show Teen Beach on 28th April. Aladdin consent and payment request will be sent this week.
PTA Update
We would like to say a special thank you to Niamh O’Toole and all of the outgoing committee for the wonderful work they have done over the last few years.
We are delighted to welcome our new PTA committee and look forward to some exciting fundraising events in the months ahead.
Linda Mahony Nowak – Chairperson
Adele Meenan/Avril Kilfeather – role sharing secretary
Maeve Majewski – treasurer
Ciaran Buckley – Board of management nominee
Eamonn & Joe – role sharing staff nominees
Andrew Synnott, Clare Salley, Jenny Dunne, Nicole Fallon, Anja Karamalis, Xiaoxia Tang
Sports Update
Rugby – Our rugby training sessions for school have now finished. Many thanks to Aidan from Wicklow rugby club for giving so many of our children a chance to play. We hope to organise further rugby activities with the rugby club after Easter.
GAA – GAA training remains ongoing.
Student Council – We are delighted to announce that we hope to have the student council up and running before the Easter holidays. This will give the children in our school the chance to work with other year groups and have a say in how our school moves forward. We will look at holding elections in the next couple of weeks.
World Book Day On the 3rd of March, we celebrated World Book Day in WETNS. Many famous literary characters came to life in the form of fancy dress and it was fantastic to see the great effort that went into all of the costumes from students and our staff. Mercedes’ 3rd class, who are currently reading a book called The Book of Destiny, had the opportunity to ask the author Pete Sanderson about his writing process, inspiration for the book and lots of other fantastic questions. They really enjoyed hearing Pete’s response to their questions. A big thank you to Pete for his time. Our dress up fundraiser was a great success, raising €620. We look forward to adding new books to our classroom libraries with these funds. Thank you also to those who donated lovely books over the last couple of weeks.
We would be delighted to accept further donations of books for our school. We ask that books are in very good condition, suitable for children age 5 to 12 years and published in the last 10 years. No baby books, encyclopedia’s, annuals or push-button noise making books thank you.
ROAD Forward Initiative
We were successful in the ROAD forward initiative, through this ROAD Forward initiative, more than 1,900 sixth class pupils from across Ireland will received their own copy of Why the Moon Travels, a collection of folk tales rooted in the oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community collected by Oein DeBhairduin and beautifully illustrated by Leanne McDonagh. These books have been distributed to our 6th classes.
Volunteers to help with reading If you are interested in helping with reading for some of our classes please let us know by contacting [email protected]
Outdoor Learning Update
We continue to develop our outdoor learning space and were delighted to be accepted onto an environmental programme (An Choill Bheag) with a wonderful donation of 200 trees from Coillte. We also received a donation of 400 trees from Crann and fresh bark donated by Jameson Tree Surgery. All year groups have been involved in the planting of 300 native saplings including Rowan, Oak, Alder and Scots Pine. We look forward to further development of this outdoor learning space with the proceeds of the school calendar fundraiser.
Whilst the trees are so young they are quite difficult to see and therefore easy to trample on so we would be most grateful in your help in requesting that this area is not used for children playing on during morning drop off or whilst parents are waiting to collect in the afternoon.
Culture Week
The school corridors are full of colourful posters, flags, projects and artwork and so this must mean it is one of the students’ favourite times of the year: it’s our annual WETNS Culture Week. Classes throughout the school have been busy learning about a country within their SESE and Learn Together lessons, and studying an artist in their Art lessons. The children in the older classes have been enjoying collaborative projects on individual countries and their hard work has paid off looking at their amazing, fact-filled posters. Some of 4th Class have been helping with a challenging daily Intercom Quiz. There has been a WETNS World Walk where pieces of a world map jigsaw needed collecting from around the building. Some of 6th Class wrote up instructions for our card and board games from different cultures. Some classes have enjoyed a World Music Disco in their rooms, whilst others have taken part in sports from around the world in their PE sessions. The children have been involved in a whole school collaboration, each decorating a handprint with a world flag which 6th Class arranged as pictures throughout the building. In the run up to St Patrick’s Day we also celebrated Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish speaking week) with the children taking part in some fun activities and art sessions through Irish.
CCM Entrance Exam
CCM Entrance Exam is this Saturday, from 9.00am sharp & will finish between 11.00 & 11.15. Link below for further information
http://www.colaistechillmhantain.ie/Content/2022/3/ks36-Assessment_Morning_Notice_2022.docx
Pair of glasses found If you are missing a pair of glasses please contact [email protected] as a pair were found in the set down area and handed in to the office
Please keep up to date with information from Wicklow Educate Together NS which is available through weekly newsletter, texts to parents, school wide notices & school website wicklowetns.com. Wicklow Educate Together N.S. are not on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media. For any queries, questions or feedback please email [email protected] or call the school office (0404 62786). Please contact Sinead school principal for any further clarification or information [email protected].