St.Patrick’s Day Parade

Our entry this year was based on the theme of ‘reading’ and it’s continued importance in this digital age, a mind without books is like a house without windows. We were delighted with this theme as it set a great example for all of our students.

Firstly a big thank you to all who helped in any way to organise this year’s parade, it was great fun to be part of. A sincere word of thanks to all our students/parents/guardians and families for all their wonderful support. Well done and thank you for the fantastic effort you made with your wonderful costumes. As always this is/was very much appreciated.

A huge thank you to our Parent’s Association for their fantastic work behind the scenes particularly on our ‘book’. We are so grateful for your continued hard work, effort and time invested on our behalf. Thank you also to all who helped with our float/props on the day.

A sincere thank you to Helen and Joseph McCafferty for wonderful work with the boards and a very special thank you to Cyril McHale who created our book which was central to our entry. Cyril’s wonderful talent was very much in evidence and we sincerely appreciate his time and effort on our behalf.

Thank you to Ms.Sloyan who organised and prepared our students for marching and a final thank you to Ms.Henry who coordinated our entry, we very much appreciate her vision, hard work, attention to detail and the time she invested on this years entry. Míle buíochas!

Family Fun Quiz

Our busy Bank Holiday weekend finished with a ‘Family Fun Quiz in the CBD Complex on Bank Holiday Monday. This fundraiser was a most enjoyable afternoon. A sincere thank you to all who attended and supported the quiz and to our Parent’s Association for all their hard work in preparation. It was a great success.

Our Halloween Fancy Dress Show is always a very important event on our school calendar with the children working so hard to prepare their costumes for our runway!

This year we had a slightly different format with our Parent’s Association organising a Fancy Dress Disco in the CBD Complex where we invited friends and family to enjoy this special evening with us. As always we were just amazed with the creative and imaginative designs the children prepared for our show, particularly the many wonderful homemade creations. Well done to all the children for their hard work and effort. You all have wonderful trick or treating costumes!

A very special word of thanks to all our Mums/Dads/Guardians who played such a pivotal role in the background , as always we sincerely appreciate your support. Thank you also to all who attended tonight in such fantastic numbers.

Finally thank you to Joe Lowther for all his hard work with the sound system, Zoe and Leah B for their help with the music, John Gately for the great job as MC and to our fantastic Parents Association for all their support in organising this wonderful event! It really was a great night.

We hope you all have a lovely, fun filled and safe Halloween break. Bainigí an taitneamh as an sos lár théarma!

Halloween Fancy Dress:

Our Parent’s Association are hosting our annual fancy dress Halloween Party with a Halloween Disco Fundraiser on Friday, October 27th in the CBD Complex at 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

This promises to be a very exciting and fun evening. Any fancy dress costume is acceptable on the night! Parents are welcome to come, dress up and join in the fun and see the children in their costumes. We will have our annual Fancy Dress Runway at this event. Admission is €5 or €10 per family. Refreshments will be available from our Parents Association at a very small cost!

We look forward to seeing you all there! As always we thank our Parents Association for all their hard work and support.

It was with great sadness that we concluded our Halloween events with a presentation to Mrs.Eileen Vesey who yesterday retired from her duties as traffic warden. The many parents/past pupils and pupils who were present is testament to the high regard in which Eileen is/was always held.
Eileen has been central to school life here in St. Attracta’s since 1981 and a wonderful asset to this school community. Eileen has made a great contribution to ensuring our children’s safety, looking after each of our pupils with great care and attention.

Presentations and glowing tributes were extended to Eileen from Noel Gibbons (Road Safety Officer Mayo County Council), John Casey/Mary Meehan (Representatives of our parent body), Fr.Thomas Johnston (Chairperson of the Board of Management) and the School Principal. Each speaker complimented Eileen on her dedication, kindness and her interest in and care for every child. Many examples were given of occasions where Eileen went above and beyond the call of duty.

We would like to wish Eileen health and happiness to enjoy her well deserved retirement and pay tribute again to the remarkable commitment she has shown to this school.

Some great news filtered to us on two fronts this evening, brightening up this dreary Monday!

Blue Star Project

Firstly following a review of our Final Report and supporting documents, it was confirmed to us that we have successfully completed the Blue Star Programme 2013-2014.

We are thrilled with this news as it recognises the wonderful work of all our children in learning about the European Union, its role and function, its member states and the role of Ireland in the Union.
Our European Day was a great success and we were delighted to welcome the MEP’s Marian Harkin and Jim Higgins to our school. Also a special word of thanks to all our families who baked / cooked for this morning and for the beautiful food that we all enjoyed tasting. The happiness, joy and pride in the children’s faces explaining what each dish was and when they would have it at home will stay with me and proved how worthwhile this project was.

As a successful school we will receive two A3 laminated certificates and a European flag to display proudly at our school.
Well done again to all of our students and all who helped in any way with our European Day .

Dulux Let’s Colour Project

The overall winners of the 2014 Dulux Let’s Colour Project were announced last week and while our project was not one of the three projects that received the most votes in our category, we were delighted to receive news this evening that it was one of a number of submissions selected to receive free paint courtesy of Dulux.


Thank you so much to those who supported this project throughout. From the organisation of how to vote (not an easy feat I might add!) to those that voted daily.
A special word of thanks also to Mr.Rushe and his 3rd/4th class who composed the wonderful piece which really got our project going and to the boys and girls of 5th/6th class for their role in the application video.

As always, it was a real team effort!

Many thanks to all who attended last nights presentation here in school.It was a really informative, thought provoking and interesting evening!

A special word of thanks to our speakers Maureen McEntire and Caroline Sweeney for their excellent presentations.

Please find below links, materials and suggestions from last evenings talks.

Nutrition

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x84x2z0qw28d8j5/AADhTLLSRFvWT9Vm-_p__ia-a

Please copy and paste this link into your browser and you will find interesting resources in a dropbox folder.

Another super website that Maureen recommended is www.fooodforthebrain.org

Internet Safety

www.ictarscoil.com

In particular on this site please examine the

Internet Safety Videos
Internet Safety Tips for Parents
Cyberbullying Tips
Parental Controls

All are worth a visit!

Cake Sale:The Parents Association will hold a fundraiser on Easter Sunday morning (April 20th) after 9:30 am and 12 Noon masses. This was a very successful event in last year’s Mayoral Campaign and promises again to be a lovely morning. We would really appreciate the support of all our families through baking (or even if you can’t you may know someone that can!) or by helping out on the morning. ‘The more we bake the more we make’! Please contact Gemma Higgins of our Parents Association (0858057783) if you can help in any way!

We sincerely appreciate the extremely generous donation of the beautiful Easter Hampers we received in the past number of weeks. We will raffle the hampers among those who purchase a cake at the Bake Sale. Again we are most thankful for this very kind gesture.

School will reopen on Monday April 28th at 9.25 am.

On Monday morning May 28th the Mayor of Bermingham, the Mayor of Armagh and the Chairman of Mayo County Council will visit our school to conclude their visit to the area. A tree will be planted in the school garden to commemorate this visit. More details of this event will follow as it was only confirmed to us in the last number of days.

Speech and Drama will be offered in all classes after Easter for a ten lesson programme. All families should have by now received a letter of introduction from Maureen Leonard Dodd and consent forms will go out on our return.

Food Dudes will begin also in all classes on Monday April 28th.

School Photographs: Olga Klofac (Parent of Sofia in Junior Infants/ www.mayophotographer.ie ) will visit our school on Tuesday April 29th offering individual, family and class photos. As was decided last year we will continue to limit the photos to Sixth Class and Junior Infants so as to cut back on further expense for families. Siblings may also have their photos taken with these students.
Should any parent (Snr.Infants – 5th Class) wish to have their child’s/children’s photo(s) taken please do not hesitate to contact us at office@client.hovercraft.ie or on the school phone and we will make every effort to accommodate you.

First Holy Communion for our Second Class students will take place on Saturday May 3rd in St. James’ Church at 12 Noon.

Europe Day Friday May 9th: On Friday morning May 9th we will host a European open morning at 10 a.m. in the School Hall. All our Parents are invited to attend and speak to the children about the project. Marian Harkin MEP will be in attendance on the morning. Again we will have further details in the coming weeks.

Internet Safety / Nutrition Parents Evening: On Wednesday May 15th we will host a very important evening for our parents with two speakers presenting on these very important areas. Please save the date for this event, we will have lots more information on the evening after the Easter break.

European/Local Elections: School will be closed on Friday May 23rd as the school has been requisitioned as a polling centre for the European and local Elections.

Monday May 26th we will officially open our upgraded school pitch. We have a very special treat in store for all our children on this morning with all our parents again welcome to attend. Details will follow of this event.

We look forward to a new term of working together – teachers, pupils and parents. To quote President Michael D. Higgins “Ar scáth a chéile a mhairimid”.