Principal’s note
Even though the end to 2018 was a very unsettling one at Tyrrelstown Educate Together NS as a result of the issues with our school building we are delighted to welcome back our 1st to 6th Classes to the school for the remainder of the 2018 / 2019 academic year.
Although the upheaval was a very challenging time for the school community, it was fantastic to see children, parents and teachers working together to ensure as much normality as possible was achieved for the children.
As a result of our experiences, there has been a noticeable development of maturity and responsibility in the children at TETNS and they have been exceptional in terms of taking on responsibility and how they present themselves in school.
The last few weeks have been about getting the children back into our building and getting back to normal. Although challenges remain with fencing around the building and the school facilitating split breaks the children have embraced the changes and are getting on with things which shows how much their resilience has improved.
For the remainder of the year, we would like to adapt to the changes that have been forced upon us but will be looking to provide opportunities for parents to attend school led events that we are currently planning for. Details will follow after mid-term in February but we are already organising something special for parents and children to mark St. Patrick’s Day.
Until then, I would like to thank all of the children, parents and staff for all the patience, effort and hard work they have put in and continue to put in which has allowed us to cope with all the changes we have been presented with.
Tim
Attendance
Prior to the end 2018 attendance in TETNS was excellent particularly from children getting buses to Hansfield ETSS. Since our return to school at the beginning of January 2019, there has been a concerning increase in the amount of children turning up to school late every morning. Last week we had a worrying high of over 50 children turning up after the bell and these children were all marked in late, which is registered on their attendance file. We would appeal to parents and guardians to arrive at school before the school bell rings at 8:40am each morning as children turning up after this are missing out on valuable learning time which builds up over the weeks and can lead to children struggling to progress in school.
For more information, please see: https://www.tusla.ie/services/educational-welfare-services/information-for-parents-and-guardians/school-attendance-what-every-parent-needs-to-know/.
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Swimming
As part of the Primary School PE Curriculum, swimming lessons will be starting on Monday the 25th of February in the National Aquatic Centre. The classes will commence for 3rd,4th, 5th and 6th on Monday the 25th of February and Friday the 1st of March for 1st and 2nd.
The classes will run for 6 weeks and are run by qualified swimming instructors. There will be no swimming on March 18th due to the bank holiday or on Friday 29th March as the pool is being used for a gala.
The children will need the following swimming gear:
- Swimming hats
- Girls – Swimming costume.
- Boys – Swimming shorts.
- Own towel.
- A small bag to carry these items
Please remind children to bring in their gear the day before swimming lessons each week.
As the buses will be following a very tight schedule, there won’t be much time for drying hair after swimming. Please ensure children can tie up long hair appropriately and use a swimming hat that keeps water out, if necessary.
Each child is expected to participate as part of the PE curriculum.The only exemption from the full 6 week programme are pupils who have a medical note, stating they are unable to participate for medical reasons. Where a child is unable to do lessons any week due to short term illness or otherwise a note should be provided to the class teacher in the homework diary.
In the best interests of the child, It is the duty of parents to inform the class teacher or principal of any issues that may affect children while swimming. Any information will be handled in confidence and passed onto swimming instructors on a need to know basis.
We hope the children will get enjoyment from these lessons as well as learning about the importance of water safety.
Rainbows
Rainbows Ireland is a free, listening, peer, group support service that provides support for children from the age of 7, after they have experienced a Parental Separation and or Bereavement.
When significant change and loss happens in a family, the entire family can be affected including children. Children generally find it difficult to understand their feelings and often do not have the words to say how they feel.
Rainbows provides group support for children of a similar age and loss experience. Meeting others in a similar situation can be very supportive for children.
Rainbows is not a counselling group or professional therapy. Tyrrelstown ETNS provides this service to children attending our school.Staff at our school have undertaken the training to become a Rainbows Volunteer Facilitator.
If you would like more information on the Rainbows service and its programmes, please visit www.rainbowsireland.ie. Normally the programme run for 9 weeks, for an hour each week after school.
If you would like to find out when the programme will be running in our school, please ring the school office on (01) 8272172 and ask to speak with the Rainbows Coordinator.
Junior Infants
We have been very busy in Maeve & Michelle’s junior infant room since returning to school after the Winter holidays. We have been learning all about food in Aistear, we had some budding chefs in our restaurant and shopkeepers in our supermarket. We also had some great bakers, who, with Nuala’s help, made some delicious gingerbread men. The xylophones were a big hit also, and we have been learning to sing Che Che Koolay. We are moving on now to our next topic in Aistear, The Dentist, we need to take care of our teeth after all the delicious treats!
In Junior Infants in Room 3 we have transformed our classroom into the Arctic. We have learned about Arctic animals and people, and made some super artwork based on the theme. We have also started our first reading book ‘Look Out Teddy’. We are so proud of ourselves because we have learned lots of new letters and words this year. We are looking forward to performing in assembly soon too!
Shauna’s junior infants are learning about The Arctic. We built and igloo in our classroom where we like to dress up as native Inuits. We have also been learning about animals that live in The Arctic.
Senior Infants
In recent weeks in Paul’s Senior Infants we have been learning about the Polar regions. We particularly enjoyed learning about the emperor penguin who lives in Antarctica. Much to our surprise, we discovered that the male emperor penguin is taller than everyone in our class!
This week we have turned our attention to China. With Chinese New Year fast approaching we are learning about Chinese customs and all things China related. We looked at pictures of the Great Wall of China and even had a go at building the Great Wall of Tyrrelstown in our class from paper bags and wooden building blocks. It was hard work and lots of fun!
Labhaoise’s class are investigating natural and man-made fabric (e.g. wool, cotton, silk and polyester) to see which would make the best scarf. We have been busy looking at the tags on our own clothes to see what they are made of! We will be looking at fabric from different cultures and will be learning how to weave. The children will be encouraged to bring in (or pictures of) clothes they wear for special occasions.
Ciara’s Senior Infants are learning all about the Chinese New Year. They have really enjoyed watching video clips all about artic animals. They are having great fun learning all about length and are measuring different objects around the classroom.
1st Class
Elaine’s first class have started learning about the Arctic this week. They wrote a group story about a trip to the North Pole to rescue one of their classmates. In science and geography, they are learning about Arctic animals like polar bears and seals. They also enjoyed learning about freezing and thawing by making coloured ice in a science experiment.
Mallorie’s 1st class has been learning all about Space this month. The children have decorated the classroom with space art, they learned space poems and each child made their own poem about space. Due to their hard work the last month, they walked to the playground in the park and had lots of well deserved fun.
Niamh’s 1st class have been doing experiments with liquids in Science, including layering different types of liquids and making water walk! We have been busy working on improving our reading skills and we are looking at Time and Capacity in Maths. We made lemonade, in groups, with Jean’s 4th class helping us. We are studying some of the work of Vincent van Gogh and beginning to learn where European countries are located on the map and the names of their capital cities.
2nd Class
Aisleen’s 2nd class were learning a song all about the solar system. We’ve also started to learn the tin-whistles. (only just!😂)
We were drawing our own Candy Land, based on an oral English topic: What if the whole world was made out of sweets?
We were also learning all about fractions and played some fun games on the interative white board.(Which we now have again!)
This month we have been learning all about Space in our class, we studied the planets, the moon and the Sun. We even created our own planets! We learnt about Picasso and we painted our own portraits inspired by Picasso! We have been doing lots of fun experiments with magnets and electricity in second class.
This term so far we have finished reading Matilda by Roald Dahl which all the children really enjoyed. We did sound experiments testing the best way to make sound travel – and how to stop it! In the last fortnight, we have been learning about the continent of Africa – its animals, legends and a famous leader, Nelson Mandela.
3rd Class
Louise’s 3rd class have been learning about the Ancient Egyptians this term in history and art. We have been running laps outside for 5 minutes every day which is really improving our fitness. We finished reading the BFG novel and we are reading ‘James and the Giant Peach’ now – we love Roald Dahl books. In Irish and drama, we are working on a drama called ‘An Buachaillín Sinséir’ (The Gingerbread Man) which is lots of fun. In maths, we are working on time and reading the analogue and digital clock. We also started doing team teaching with Lorna, Francis and Molly twice a week.
Aidan’s class are learning about the Vikings as their history topic. They have just begun the topic of electricity in science and are currently reading Charlotte’s Web, -their third class novel this year! Big thanks to Fingal mobile library for their fabulous class novel loan scheme.
Niamh C’s class have begun to use the chromebooks in class. We have started to do projects on different topics such as electricity, the history of mobile phones, the solar system and planet Earth. We are excited to do research and practise our computer typing skills to present our projects in class.
4th Class
In Lisa / Meredith’s class we have been looking at the topic of migration. Two visitors have come to our class to talk about their home countries of Malaysia and Zimbabwe and share their story of growing up in another country and moving to Ireland. Each of them also shared a childhood game with the children. We hope to have more visitors soon!
Jodie’s class have been learning about Ancient Rome. They used the chrome books to research and make projects. They took inspiration from the Pantheon and constructed some Roman buildings in art.
Jean’s 4th Class have been very busy during January. We wrote letters to President Higgins to congratulate him on his recent re-election. We received a reply letter from the President’s secretary and a beautiful book all about Áras an Uachtaráin for our school library. We worked as Impressionist Artists during Art time and used many of Claude Monet’s beautiful paintings as inspiration. We’re really enjoying our paired reading sessions with the children from Elaine’s class and our baking activities with Niamh B’s class. We’re learning all about cricket during P.E. and having lots of fun playing it each Friday afternoon!
5th Class
Denis’s class have been using the Chromebooks for individual project work. Pupils have been following a research cycle for their projects and are learning about copyright and referencing their sources. In music they have been learning to fingerpick on the ukulele. As part of team teaching pupils working independently have been designing and constructing ukulele stands from knex.
Karen’s 5th class are learning about China and the Chinese New Year. The year of the pig will begin on the 5th of February 2019. We also wrote letters to the manager of Lidl in Tyrrelstown asking them to promote more fair trade products in their store.
Fifth class has had a busy start to Term 2. We have been learning some new songs such as “Is Maith liom an scoil”, “Teir abhaile Riu” and “The Rattlin Bog”. Two Football Association of Ireland (F.A.I.) coaches are working with the children to improve their ball skills on a Wednesday morning. While learning about Chinese New Year the children designed artworks with their names written in Chinese and made Chinese lanterns with their wishes and hopes for the New Year written on them. We had great fun learning about and writing Limericks (short and fun five-line fun poem with a distinctive rhythm). During art the class have experimented with oil pastels and paint to make scratch art, 2D art, paper weaving, sugar paper flowers, card making and designing their own family crests / coat of arms.
While in Hansfield the children produced amazing projects on the Aztecs using the Chromebooks and topical books for inspiration.
6th Class
The three 6th classes are at present undertaking a project on the Irish Famine. The Irish Famine took place from 1845 to 1850 and the children are actively undertaking research of the topic at present using the school chromebooks.
Last week, 8 children from the three 6th classes represented our school at the Credit Union Table Quiz in the Carlton Hotel.
There were 180 children on 45 teams from the Dublin 15 area. A great evening was had as the children enjoyed the challenge. Teachers Séamus, Gerry, Báetán and Denis, along with many parents, looked on as they participated really well and worked as a team.
Last Friday, TETNS had visitors, as the Basketball Team from Le Chéile Secondary School, and their teacher Michelle, dropped in after winning the U16 C Boys All-Ireland Schools Cup Final. They proudly showed off their medals, cup and MVP award. They spoke to an audience of 3rd and 6th class children at a special assembly about teamwork, dedication and trying your best. There were many past pupils from our school on the team and we’re really proud to see them succeed in such a positive way.