The Easter holidays begin this Friday with school finishing at midday, in-keeping with the school’s traditions. We will return on Monday 16^th April and we wish you all a happy and holy holiday-with a little bit of chocolate thrown in as well!

Máistir Seán is running the Boston marathon in aid of the Irish Cancer Society in a few weeks time. As part of his fundraising efforts he will run with each class up to Rang a 4 this Thursday and with 5^th and 6^th on Friday morning. Running times will vary from 5 minutes with Junior Infants up to 15 minutes with Rang a Sé. Children are welcome to wear running shorts and runners with their school t-shirts on the day. Any contribution you would like to make would be very welcome for this worthy cause.

We send our sincere sympathies to our great and generous colleague Eveline Hennessy who has worked with us in recent years, totally voluntarily for the past year. Eveline’s baby grandson Kaiden lost his fight for life at the weekend. We extend our sympathy to Eveline, her husband John, Kaiden’s parents Gary and Colette and his brother Dylan. Eveline and her family want to thank all of our pupils for their prayers in recent months.

We had a record number of applications for our Junior Infant classes for the coming school year and we sent out letters of offers of places last week. We would appreciate that all offers would be accepted this week and in particular that any decisions to defer a place would be notified to us as soon as possible. We have a long waiting list and we would appreciate this information. As well as this, please note that all brothers and sisters seeking places in future years need to have a registration form completed in the office to help make the process easier.

We were delighted to be included on a list from the Minister for Education recently of schools receiving money to get rid of pre-fab classrooms. We have submitted our list of needs and we hope the Department will now allow us to build a proper extension to the school which will meet all our needs for the future. We will keep you informed of future developments.

As we mentioned previously, we are very aware that families in our school are suffering financial problems in the current climate. It is very important that we are informed of this in absolute confidence so that we can take this into account. Please let the office and the Principal know as soon as difficulties arise. We would continue to urge you to make whatever contribution you can to the Bille Scoile. This contribution not only pays for basics like your child’s insurance and the costs of photocopying, art materials etc. but also pays for the additional music, hip-hop, gymnastics and martial arts courses which the children got so much benefit from this year, along with the fantastic swimming classes which we are provided with in the Watershed. Please make every effort to contribute what you can and we will appreciate every effort you make.

A large number of items of school clothing are on the missing list at present and we would urge you to check all school clothes to ensure your child has not taken items belonging to others home by mistake. Please return any items to the office. We also ask you to check that all school clothes are clearly marked with your child’s name so that they are easily identified if lost.

We had an absolutely fantastic school variety concert in the Watergate Theatre on March the 1^st. We are hugely thankful to the teachers and Cúntóirí for all their help in preparing the children for the stage, as well as to Clár Kilkenny, Lisa and Evelyn White and Sinéad Fitzpatrick for their extra help. We are also extremely grateful to our parent’s association for their help beforehand and on the night as well as the staff of the Watergate Theatre who did everything they could to make the night go smoothly. Most importantly, we thank you as parents for your support and co-operation which helped us to raise over €3,000 to fund the school’s expanding music programme. We apologise to all who were unable to get tickets for the theatre and we are already planning for at least two nights on the next occasion.

We would love to have your help in building up a bank of musical instruments in our school. In particular, we are looking for traditional music instruments including fiddles, piano or button accordions, concertinas, flutes, banjos or mandolins or bodhráns. We would be delighted to take these instruments on loan or as gifts to the school

Congratulations to some of our girls who took part in the county final of the Féile na nGael tournament in girls football. Four of the girls, Neasa, Ciara, Aoibhe and Saoirse were members of the winning Kilkenny City team which won the final while Bláthnaid of the same class was on the defeated Thomastown team. Well done to all the girls and best of luck to the city girls who will now take part in the National finals in Co. Laois in June.

We are very proud of our senior quiz team who will take part in the national finals of the Credit Union schools quiz in the RDS on Sunday. This is our second year in a row to be taking part in the National finals and we wish our team of Eimhin Breathnach, Liam Ó Lionáird , Saoirse Ní Chomartún-Liostúin and Méabh Shaw who will be standing ion for Roibeárd de Búit who can’t attend all the very best of luck.

 

This is an exciting new school committee which aims to have Gaelscoil Osraí named as Kilkenny’s first recognised ‘Active School’. The committee has representatives from every class and a number of parents assisting Múinteoir Michelle. The members deserve great praise for their great energy and ideas so far. Their first initiative is to start a ‘Walk to school on Tuesday’ campaign. This will begin on Tuesday April 17^th when they hope everybody will walk or cycle to school. Even those living far from school can join in by walking from places like the Watershed or Supervalu. Our parent’s committee are fully supporting this move and are happy to organise ‘walking buses’ if there is a good reaction to the first day.

 

 

We are also currently chasing our third Green Flag with this award coming for the work we have done on the study and conservation of water in the school. The Green Schools committee have been working very hard with Múinteoir Deirdre on our application which will be submitted this week. One of the practical things we have done is the installation of water butts in recent weeks, which collect rainwater from our roof. This water will be used for watering our school garden and is being used by classes in art work and other areas. We had a great visit from Hans from An Taisce in which Hans gave talks and questioned classes on the work they have been doing. If any parent is interested in joining in the work for the next few months, they would be very welcome.