St. Brendan's Boys Primary School

HSCL News
How time flies when you’re having fun! I can’t believe we are at the Halloween Midterm point. I feel like there is not enough time in the day to get around to all the activities that we have had going on over the past two months.
First off I want to mention our ‘Magic Garden’. It is now back to its magical status simply because we have had a fantastic bunch of Dad’s working tirelessly to get it that way. I want to give a big thank you on behalf of the students and staff at St. Brendan’s to: David Lynskey, Liam Hanlon, Ivan Lynskey, Joe Bennett and Mick Hansbury. This bunch of Dads have given us back our wonderful garden. We hope that different classes will take on different projects in the garden. There are a number of raised beds, flowers and piece de resistance…our Polytunnel!! Green fingers…here we come.
There is another group of volunteers here who’s work often goes unnoticed. They are all the Mammies who do our fruit every single morning. They come in, the wash, the chop, the de-seed and they deliver the fruit to our classrooms. I am personally so grateful to them all. I didn’t have to beg…the offered their help as they do every year. We as a school owe them a huge THANK YOU!! There is too many to mention individually but I will get round to thanking you all properly soon.
Baking is back…and I for one am so excited. I was overwhelmed with interest old and new for this class. Gráinne is so excited to be back in the kitchen also and has loads of yummy recipes up her sleeve. It’s never too late to get involved. Drop me a line if you have any interest in eating delicious goodies!!
We had a fantastic response to our numeracy survey and would like to thank you all for taking part. The results were very interesting and have given us a lot of food for thought. Maths for Fun arose as an area of interest to parents and staff alike…..great minds…as they say. So, with that in mind I am looking for volunteers. I will be sending out a note before Halloween and hope to get going after midterm . We might start with 1st class and see how we go from there. I am looking for a team of parents to get involved. We hope to run the games for 4 weeks and I know each and every boy in 1st class would love to see their Mammy, Daddy, Granny or Granddad’s coming in to their class and getting involved in their learning. I will show all the volunteers the different games and challenges we have and go through them thoroughly. C’mon…..get involved!!
I have been around to so many different houses introducing myself and drinking countless cups of tea!! I just want to thank you all so much for making me feel more than welcome in your homes. It is an absolute honour to be welcomed so openly. I hope to build on these relationships over the coming years and hope that you all know you can call on me anytime for advice, input or just a chat.
Richelle Treacy H.S.C.L
086 6045024

You can view the student’s animations HEREhttp://vimeo.com/108093493

Thanks to the hard work of Damien Dillon (PA) we have been invited to take a group of boys (3rd-6th) to Dublin on Tuesday 7th October to be the audience to UNA’S DREAM TICKET. This is free and will be a once in a lifetime chance. In order to choose the lucky boys we ask all boys (3rd-6th) who are interested to write a letter (or draw a picture) of why the school should choose them—Why they want to go? Judging for places will take place on TUESDAY 30TH SEPT as we must have the list of names for the producer.. Good luck to all interested !

Friendship week 2014
Dear Parent / Guardian,
The purpose of this week is:
• To promote a friendly atmosphere around the school.
• To develop an awareness among the pupils of Bullying ( through policy)
• To make parents/ community aware of our new policy ( parental responsibilities) –
• This is our chance to get the school policy and approach to friendship (Values through school ethos of kindness, goodness, inclusion etc) and bullying (anti) across to the pupils and parents.
Some of the things we do this week are:
• All classes do ANTI –BULLYING LESSON – Appropriate to class level.
• Senior classes ( 4th -6 th ) to address issue of cyber bullying according to school policy with input from Mr. Crofton and visit from local Gardai to reinforce the seriousness of this issue (Garda visit will be next week due to their availability)
• GOTCHA CARD SYSTEM for each class – Staff “catch” friendly behaviour in class and on yard – Prizes for each class and raffle.
• Whole school assembly on yard someday after break to spell word- CARA
• Friendship post on junior yard- Boys who stand there to be invited to play by other boys
• Happy music on intercom during week-
• Drumming workshop with our old friend Dave from JABBA JABBA JEMBE- This is on Wednesday for classes 1st-6th and there is no cost for this to ensure all boys are involved in this lovely workshop where teamwork and friendship is encouraged.
• Theme for each day –
o Monday- Greeting others
o Tuesday- Joining in
o Wednesday- Sharing
o Thursday – Waiting your turn
o Friday – Friendly words

• Poster / colouring competition – Friendship : anti – bullying
Junior / senior infants to colour poster- Other classes to design own
• Friendship bracelets on sale € 2 – Support of Amnesty international – These will be on sale Wed/Thurs/Fri
• 6th class yard friends… Rota to help younger pupils (JI/SI) for a week.

You can support this week at home by:
– Chatting to your son about Friendship / Bullying
– Becoming aware of internet safety and home responsibilities relating to cyber-bullying and use of social media ( Letter from school policy overleaf)

We thank you for your continued support of the work we do at St .Brendans PS in providing a holistic education for each pupil.
Kind regards, Niall Crofton (Principal)

We were fortunate to have Garda Padraig Connaughton call to the school to chat to the boys about the importance of cycle safety last week. He spoke to 40 boys who cycle occasionally / regularly to school. He also did a helmet and bike check with some passes and fails in both departments. His passion for cycling along with safety really inspired the boys and helmets have increased steadily since ! Please spead the Gospel..cycle safely.
We have high visibility jackets and armbands on the way so that our cyclists can travel safely to school over the coming dark mornings also so please keep an eye out for the lads.

Mr. Kelly and Ms.Dooley took 17 boys from 3rd to 6th class over to the Harriers in Tullamore last Thursday for the Primary Schools Cross-Country Athletics meet. The boys were in teams of 4 from each class and were the top four runners from school trials held by Mr.Crofton earlier that week. The boys had a great day (as you can see from the photo) with lots of laughs and tired legs. The team from 3rd class comprising Ricky/Aaron/Matthew and Darragh won Gold overall for the school and there were also individual honours for Matthew , Ailbe and Nathan. The boys arrived back to a great welcome and the added bonus of homework off ! Thanks to cameraman Lee for the great photo.

Despite being back at school the boys have been enjoying the lovely summer weather. Weather has been perfect for lunchtime Gaelic football with Mr. Crofton , lots of cycling and walking to school along with September visits to the park and castle. Our garden “An Ghairdin Draiochta” has also been getting a late summer revamp as Ms. Treacy and her team of volunteer dads and Grandads have been doing Trojan work in clearing it up. Mile buiochas lads !
The school also presented the boys with a LITERACY CHALLENGE over the summer holidays. Boys had to write a “Dear Brendan” letter or postcard about their holidays and post to the school. A huge number of families took part with postcards from received from Kerry to Spain, Legoland to Poland and Galway to Athlone. The boys met in September to chat about their cards over a little treat. Pictured are two of our young writers who took part looking over the cool cards :

Going to school each day is cool! Our attendance strategies are proving to be really working as overall absent days last year were down by 23%. We had a huge increase in boys who had 100% attendance for the school year 2013/2014 and these 23 boys received certificates at our attendance assembly (Pictured). We also gave attendance awards to boys who only missed 1-3 days all year. Congratulations to all the families involved and keep up the great work !
As part of our efforts to get boys to attend school as much as possible we award certificates for full and improved attendance at the end of year term. Attendance teams are a successful initiative that we have created to encourage boys to attend school more regularly. Teams are comprised of boys from 1st class to 6th class and the average attendance for each team is worked out on a termly basis with reward for best attendance team. The purpose of this is to encourage improved attendance from all boys.