Nuacht 20/01/2020
Dates for your diary
31.01.2020 5th class assembly @ 9:30am in the hall
04.02 & 06.02.2020 Junior Infant Parent-Teacher meetings
07.02.2020 4th class assembly @9:30am in the hall
14.02.2020 Red Day fundraising cake sale in the hall
17.02 – 21.02.2020 School closed for mid-term break
04.03.2020 Science Blast RDS 5th & 6th classes
Dear Parents/Guardians,
1st Class Assembly
1st classes hosted a wonderful Learn Together assembly last week all about gender equality. Well done to staff and children for teaching us how to be more aware of gender imbalances and in particular how we can ensure equality for all in our daily lives. We were treated to a mix of song, drama and especially some very good dancing on the day. We especially enjoyed all our assembly visitors dancing with us at the end. Maith sibh Rang 1, Sarah, Grace, Valery & Pamela!
5th classes will host the next Learn Together assembly on the 31st January.
Parent-Teacher Meetings
Individual parent-teacher meetings will take place for Junior Infant parents on the 4th & 6th February. Meetings to be scheduled for classes via Aladdin which was sent out last week. If you have any issues with managing this process, please contact Siobhán in the office to let her know.
If as a parent from Senior Infants- 6th class you have not yet attended a parent-teacher meeting this academic year please contact your child(ren)’s teacher to arrange a meeting by putting a brief note in the homework diary or by contacting the school office.
Resources Monies
The school asks each parent annually to pay the resources monies (€100 per pupil) which covers the costs of art supplies, school programmes and many expenses incurred to provide children with books, instruments, website subscriptions etc to support every child’s learning. Despite many requests, some parents have made no attempts to make these payments and therefore costs incurred by the school impact on all pupils.
We would ask all parents who have not yet paid these monies to please contact the school directly to discuss the payment in confidence. The school will be in touch with individual families shortly to discuss the matter.
Car parking, set-down area & safety
We repeatedly ask parents & minders to take care on school grounds during the school day. Parking on the set-down area is not permitted at any point during the school day. We have very limited space and we are seeking every parent’s co-operation with the system within the car park. We ask all parents to communicate the system for parking at CETNS to those designated to collect your child(ren).
We are particularly asking all adults driving on school grounds to please be mindful of children at all times, crossing from the car park, especially when things are busy and hurried. Due to the building at the corner of Beechpark Avenue next to the Tennis Club, we are asking all pedestrians to cross with Ann, the lollipop lady, as this is the safest route for crossing.
Competition Time!
The Green Team are launching a slogan competition to find our official green code for our new theme 'Global Citizenship Travel'. The aim of our current theme is to continue and boost our school’s work on encouraging walking, cycling, scooting, using public transport or carpooling to school. This theme will allow us to discover how our work on the Green-Schools programme is having a positive effect on global issues including climate change, air quality and sustainable development.
We are inviting every child to compose a slogan using the green travel theme. Please write your slogan on an A4 page and submit it to your teacher. Closing date is 31st of January. There will be a winner chosen from every class. The overall winning slogan will become our new green code. Good luck!
Walkability Audit
The Green Team will conduct a walkability audit of the footpaths around our school next week with Jessica Salas from Green Schools Ireland. We will be eager to read their findings.
Results of Travel Survey - 16th October 2019
The first graph might be of particular interest - how the entire school travels to school. We will conduct the same survey next school year to see if figures improve. Graphs are attached here for the entire survey (Castleknock Educate Together NS-Travel survey graphs)
Young Engineer's Award
3rd & 4th classes recently entered their projects into the Young Engineer’s Award. The classes were very busy brainstorming ideas, researching, investigating properties of materials, designing and finally constructing prototypes that will positively improve our community. Engineers Ireland organised for an Engineer visit to each class. Each group presented their project to the engineer and answered lots of follow up questions. The results will be announced during Engineers Week 29th of February to 6th of March.
Engineer Visit
An engineer named Michael Dowling from CS Consulting visited our class today. He spoke to us about his job. I was interested to learn that buildings change when they are made. We then presented our projects. For my project I designed an electric factory that collects electricity from spinning bikes from 2 gyms to help the environment. I really enjoyed the engineers visit.
Zainab, Paula's 3rd Class
Castleknock Tidy Towns
Castleknock Tidy Towns have kindly given us spring bulbs. Jen's junior infants carefully planted the bulbs with their 3rd class buddies. We look forward to seeing these flowers appear in the next few weeks at the front of the school! In order to help them grow please don’t walk on the grass outside the infant classes, thank you.
Pencil Licence
We are so happy to announce that our wonderful Junior Infants have been awarded their pencil licence! They have been working so hard since September and we are very proud of each and every one of them. Well done children!
Ruth & Jennifer
Texaco Art Competition
We would ask that you encourage your child/children to enter the Texaco Art Competition. We have so many wonderful artists in our school and it is a great opportunity for the children to showcase their talents! Please find all the information you will need at www.texacochildrensart.com .Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need further help. Thank you, Ruth
Science Blast
5th & 6th classes will attend Science Blast in the R.D.S. on Wednesday 4th March.
Tennis
6th class will be starting tennis on January 20th. White t-shirts must be worn. Tennis is weather permitting.
Tag Rugby
(5th & 6th classes) We started tag rugby on Wednesday it was great fun. We will be doing it for the next 3 weeks.
GAA
GAA has started for 2nd & junior infant classes on a Wednesday.
Fís Film Festival 2019 – Highly Commended in Film Making Award
Dinnertime Murder. The making of Dinnertime Murder wasn’t hard but it wasn’t east either. How I came up with the idea was totally on the spot. I didn’t even write the script. I didn’t like my… I didn’t like my script so I piggy-backed on Cathal & let him get some of the credit. But that's only how the idea came to be. What we did then, is we got a film producer in Neil Elworthy. Before he came in we hired the cast & it was pretty easy but everyone wanted to be the detectives so we narrowed it down to the final detectives and everyone one seemed happy with our decision. Our first filming location was in the 12th Lock, we got the tiki bar area to film in. We finished our first draft which was the table scene. After the table scene we split up into the poison scene & the bathroom scene & the cleaner scene. I took the bathroom scene & Cathal took the poison scene. There was a blooper in the bathroom scene, where Jason was still in the restaurant set so we thought Sean was missing & the cameras were on the whole time. Eventually we wrapped things up & called it a day. On the next day of filming was the lab scene which was easy because we got some lab coats and a table. It was hard to film with a boom-stick & a dumb amount of people inside a little room but it took 10 takes, so not too bad. And finally there were two days left of filming, the first one was when the detectives were in their car but we forgot to put up the green screen so the detectives were sitting in a car talking about pizza. On the final day of filming we did the interrogation scene which was the easiest thing to do yet, we got it in 1 take and finally filming was finished. So we edited it & made credits and we had a finished movie. Finally, would I do it again? Yes. Did I have fun making it? Yes. Would I change anything about the movie? Yes, but really only mix the cast around and make it longer. But the main thing is we all had fun making Dinnertime Murder.
By Oisín Liz’s 5th class
After School Activities
Children’s Soccer Academy for Boys & Girls age 4-7 years, resumes in New Year for Castleknock Celtic. Learn the football basics in fun/friendly environment and make friends. Saturday mornings at 10am beside Clubhouse in Porterstown Park.
Information at www.castleknockceltic.com and 083-4111721, Tony Jordan
Beir bua,
Aedín