A note from Tim
Dear children and parents,
It has been a wonderful start to the new school year and we were all delighted to have you back in school. It was great to see so many excited and smiling faces on the first day of school in our new temporary building and we are thrilled to welcome all our new Junior Infants and new starters to our school community.
Everyone has made an amazing start to the year despite the upheaval and we have all been so impressed with how all our children, parents and staff have been able to adapt to the challenge.
I have been thrilled to see all of our children getting used to our new routines in school and it is so impressive to witness all the great school work being done in classrooms and around the school campus.
We have already seen the return of our weekly assemblies, GAA and parent curriculum meetings, not to mention the lovely morning we had when parents came in to visit the new school building for the first time.
Thank you all for your positivity, resilience and support and I am excited to see what you all learn and get up to this year.
Tim
Classroom Updates
Báetán’s Setanta Class
We have really enjoyed settling into our new school building. We have been learning about ourselves and our emotions, sorting them into the green, blue, yellow and red zones. We also had fun making some Picasso Portraits!
Mark’s Setanta Class
We have been busy carving pumpkins for Hallowe’en! Not only is it seasonal, it’s also part of the Learn Together curriculum, the History curriculum and a really gross sensory experience!
Ben’s Junior Infants
The Junior Infants have made a great start to their school life. They are learning to make friends, communicate and share with their peers. We are exploring our school and learning about the people who work in our school. We have also been on a teddy bear picnic and got to know each other and our classmates. We are having a great time and are settling in well.
Cormac’s Junior Infants
The children in Cormac’s Junior Infants have made a wonderful start to life in TETNS. They have made many new friends and have had great fun! The children particularly enjoyed their Teddy Bear Picnic, meeting Monika and Julie, and exploring the school!
Do you recognise any friendly faces in our class picture below?
Meredith’s Junior Infants
The Junior Infants met Monika. She cleans our school. She cleans the floor. She cleans the sink. When we go home, she comes. She cleans the crumbs. Thank you, Monika for brushing the floor.
-Written by Meredith’s Class
Ciara’s Senior Infants
Ciara’s Senior Infants have been very busy since getting back to school in September. We have been learning all about 3D shapes in Math, we have been perfecting our letter formations and we are now experts on all things Autumn! We even created our own colourful autumn tree! Senior Infants love Gaeilge and have learnt so many new words and phrases, we know our days of the week song in Irish so be sure to ask for a performance at home. The highlight of the term according to the children has been our marvellous creations of ‘The Dot’, which can be seen below. The Dot activity encouraged creativity through creating their own art from a simple mark and seeing where it led them. As you can see they all had a great time with the paint and paintbrush, it was worth the mess!
Emma’s Senior Infants
Emma M’s Senior Infants have settled beautifully into their new classroom routines and are growing in confidence every day. It’s been a busy and exciting start to the year! We’ve been exploring the theme of Autumn, noticing how the leaves are changing and the days are getting shorter. In Art, we took inspiration from Van Gogh’s “Into the Woods” to create our own autumn forest scenes. The children experimented with warm autumn colours like red, orange, and yellow, using pastels, paint, and crayons to capture trees, cabins, and the magic of the woods. The stunning results are proudly displayed on our window — a glowing autumn gallery! We’ve also enjoyed learning new rhymes and songs. It’s been a lovely start to our Senior Infant journey!
Kim’s Senior Infants
Kim’s class had a great start to Senior Infants! We’ve had an amazing start to the year, settling into our new school building and classrooms. It’s been wonderful catching up with friends, sharing stories, and making new memories together.
We’ve been exploring the magic of Autumn, learning all about the changing seasons and how they affect our world. We’ve also been discovering more about ourselves, our families, and our homes. The children really enjoyed creating their own unique house designs, showcasing their creativity and imagination. We’re so proud of their hard work and enthusiasm!
Ciara’s 1st Class
First Class has had a fantastic start to the year! We have been exploring Autumn through Science and Art, numbers in Math and All About Me through English & Gaeilge.
The photo below is from our first day of first class.
Eimear’s 1st Class
Welcome back to a new school year! First Class has had an exciting start, exploring numbers in Maths, learning Mé Féin in Gaeilge, and creating autumn-inspired art. In English, we are focusing on All About Me, encouraging children to share their interests, experiences, and families. The photo attached shows our class enjoying a nature walk, spotting the beautiful colours and changes of autumn in our environment.
We look forward to a fun and engaging year ahead!
Orla’s 1st Class
1st class has been working very hard over the last month. We went on a lovely autumn walk to collect some leaves to create leaf rubbings. We also decided to create our own Autumn Trees.
Eoin’s 2nd Class
Eoin’s class have been busy with their science and learning about how living things grow and change. All of the second class visited the park and collected autumn leaves and discovered slugs and frogs, a perfect nature walk! In Numeracy they have been learning about place value with cent coins.
Hannah’s 2nd Class
Hannah’s 2nd class have had a very busy first month of school. They have settled well into their new classroom and new school building. They have done some amazing work over the past few weeks! In Art, they have been exploring primary and secondary colours and have learned all about the colour wheel. They created some amazing artwork using primary and secondary colours. In English, they have been learning all about recount writing and acrostic poems. They have written wonderful recount pieces on their Summer holidays and got creative writing an acrostic poem about Autumn. They also had great fun on their nature walk and even found a frog along the way!
Méadbh’s 2nd Class
Méadbh’s class have been very busy since returning to school in September. We have been talking all about Autumn and created our own autumnal trees using different materials. The three second classes visited the park together. We collected various leaves and even saw a frog. In numeracy we have been talking all about 2D shapes and we went on a shape hunt around the school to find shapes in the environment.
Emma’s 3rd Class
Emma Mc’s class have settled in well to the new school building. We have been looking at a lot of things since the start of the year! We have made self-portraits where the background represents us and the things we like. We have also been looking at graphic notation in music. Making symbols to represent high, low, loud and quiet and different body percussion.
In other areas we have looked at recount writing in Literacy, writing about our favourite holidays. We have loved getting to know each other and are excited for a fun-filled year!!
Keith’s 3rd Class
Keith’s class have started working on a timeline of 3rd class and some of their favourite memories so far have been; developing their own yard games in PE, taking a trip to the playground, winning class of the week at assembly, creating characters for their narrative writing, making art inspired by Yayoi Kusama, Kehinde Wiley and Marc Chagall and doing an experiment on buoyancy!
Paul’s 4th Class
In Paul’s 4th class we had fun in PE this month as we were developing the skill of hopping. We played games that encouraged us to improve our hopping technique and we helped give guidance and feedback to our classmates as they made efforts to master the skill.
We were also learning about recount writing and schools in the past both in Ireland and around the world. During our parents’ visit to the new school building a couple of weeks ago, many parents called into our class and made great contributions in helping us discover and learn more about schools in the past. We used all of our sources to write diary entry recounts about a school day in Ireland in the 1960s.
We also learned some good card games for those inevitable wet days when we can’t go to the yard. Go Fish and Old Maid were very popular!
Shane’s 4th Class
Shane’s class has settled very well into our new classroom and building.
We have been busy with lots of projects, assignments and activities from across the curriculum.
In science we looked at conducting a fair test and how to follow the scientific method. We tested various types of soap to see which made the best bubbles, practicing the skills needed to be a scientist.
In art we studied the work of contemporary American artist Robin Mead. We looked at some of her paintings and figured out how to describe her signature style. We then applied this to our own art and painted pictures inspired by her.
Through all subjects, we have been working on developing a growth mindset. This means that we are trying to embrace challenges and things we find difficult, seeing them as an opportunity to learn!
Aisleen’s 5th Class
Aisleen’s 5th class have really settled in well into the new building this school year.
We discussed at length how it made us feel and drew pictures.
We have also started Team Teaching and we were learning all about the science of baking cookies.
We discovered the difference between a physical and chemical change in a substance.
In Maths we are currently learning all about the Euro and lines and angles.
We were reading all about the Myth of Pandora as part of our narrative writing and discussing climate change and natural disasters.
We’re really getting into a good routine and enjoying the change of scenery.
Mallorie’s 5th Class
Congratulations to Mallorie’s 5th class for getting the first senior ‘Class of the Week’ of the year. Mallorie is super impressed with how well her new 5th class have settled into this school year. Their behaviour and work ethic have been excellent. They have been working particularly hard as a team to create a class room that is “friendly, creative, inclusive, safe and fun”.
September has been jammed packed for this class. They have been busy inside and outside the classroom. In English they are improving their descriptive writing and writing descriptive poetry. In History, they have been studying the story of Brendan’s voyage and creating a role play on the story for drama. In Geography they are studying Ireland’s landscape and will be studying their local landscape over the coming weeks. As a team, they have taken responsibility for an empty classroom in the school and used their creative skills to turn it into a multifunctional room that all classes can use for reading, music and meditation.
Claire C’s 6th Class
Claire’s class were very excited about returning to school and entering 6th class. We are now the oldest pupils in the school! We welcomed three new pupils who have been a great addition to our class. Every morning, we participate in “ Our Morning Meetings” where we build our classroom community and make connections with each other by greeting, sharing, activities and planning our day together. In our picture below you can see we were making a spider’s web where we were sharing different things about ourselves, representing how we are all connected as a class. We have also been working hard on improving our Gaeilge.We also did a stem activity in our groups that was called ‘Saving Harry’ and some lovely autumn art. Go raibh maith agat!
Claire N’s 6th Class
So far this year, we have been testing out the chromebooks and using them to research and present our Local History projects. We designed self-portraits, learnt about measuring angles in Maths, the E.U. in Geography and Mé Féin i nGaeilge. In Literacy lessons, we took notes about the Children of Lir and rewrote the story our own way.
Thank you! Slán agus go raibh maith agat.
- Written by Sarah, Rang a Sé
Francis’ 6th Class
Francis’ class have been taking SepSTEMber to a whole new level with hoop gliders, land yachts and investigations into which shapes are the best for load bearing (even when made from paper!)
Our class has grown by 3 with new students joining us for their final year in primary school!
We’ve also settled well into the new school building and really like our new spacious classroom.
Extra-Curricular Activities
Attendance Promotion
Following on from the success of last year’s attendance promotion campaign, we are hoping to build on the improvements that we have made and continue to improve the culture of attendance in our school. We will be running a similar initiative this year, where all students who have attended school for 95% of the days in a term will be recognised at a special assembly. The first term runs from September to December and we hope that all students will make an effort to attend school as much as possible. See the recent attendance email for more information.
Skip Around the World Challenge
From the 6th-24th of October many of our classes are undertaking the Skip Around the World Challenge. This initiative focuses on participation, inclusion and fun with lots of learning opportunities along the way. Classes are building in short skipping breaks into their daily routines, across the 3 weeks of the challenge.
TETNS GAA Teams
The boys and girls in third and fourth class took part in a GAA Blitz in Tyrrelstown Park. They played against St. Luke’s, Powerstown ETNS, St Patrick’s Corduff, An Gaelscoil, and Ladyswell. It was a wonderful experience for the children. They had great fun and look forward to representing the school again! Well done boys and girls!
If you have a child/children who might like to get involved you can DM their social media pages or email info.tyrrelstown@gaa.ie
Gaeilge
As part of our whole school Focal na Seachtaine (Word of the Week) initiative, each week we have continued replacing one commonly used English word with its Irish counterpart in our day to day conversations.
Our students have been trying to say the following words as Gaeilge. Maybe you could try it sa bhaile (at home)!
Replace water with uisce (ish – ka).
Replace chair with cathaoir (ka – heer).
Replace door with doras (dur – iss).
Replace whiteboard with clárbán ( clawr – bawn).
Our Frásaí na Seachtaine (Phrases of the Week) have included:
Maidin mhaith! Good morning!
Dia duit/Dia is Muire Duit! Hello & response.
Slán agus go raibh maith agat! Goodbye & thank you!
Cad is ainm duit? ____ is ainm dom. What is your name? My name is ______ .
Culture Assembly
We had our annual Culture Assembly towards the end of the half-term. It was a wonderful day where we learned from each other! The children and staff made presentations at assembly, we had a fashion parade, a dance break and more. There are lots of photos over on our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TyrrelstownETNS/).
