Dear Parents/Guardians,

It is hard to believe that we are at the end of another school year. Our news for our final week is as follows

• 4^th class went on their school tour to Nevsail in Kilkee on Monday last. They had a great day and got to take part in surfing and kayaking activities. Thank you to the Coady Coleman family who paid for the activities for the pupils in memory of Dylan.  This is such a lovely gesture and one that would have been Dylan approved. It is greatly appreciated.
• On Tuesday pupils from 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th classes took part in the Johnny Cregan Memorial hurling competition in Wolfe Tones GAA.  We fielded three teams and competed against primary schools from Shannon. Two of our teams made it through to the Shield and Plate finals which took place last night in Wolfe Tones. Even though neither of our teams won their matches last night they played so well and with such determination and positive attitude. We are so proud of them. Thank you to Ms Hehir for organising and to Mr. Tyrrell for bringing then to the competition. Thank you to Ms Hackett who was the coach at the finals and to Ms Hansbury and Stephanie who came along to assist.
• 6^th class graduation took place yesterday here in the halla. Thank you to the many parents and grandparents who came along to support our 6^th class pupils. Thank you to all 6^th class parents for your support to the school in the years your child has been with us. We know our 6^th class pupils have a bright future ahead of them and we wish them every blessing in their secondary education and beyond.
• Our Quizbrain final takes place today. Well done to Chloe, Romy, Ruby and Soham from 6^th class and Liam and Tommy from 5^th class who have qualified for the final. We wish them well.
• Our last Cruinniu of 2024 takes place tomorrow at 11a.m. We will be wishing Ms Edel Halliday every blessing as she embarks on her next chapter in retirement. We will celebrate Edel’s dedication and commitment to St Tolas in her time here. We will miss her but hopefully she will return to visit us.
• St Tola’s closes for the summer holidays at 12p.m. tomorrow Friday 21^st June. The Board of Management Report to the School Community for the school year 23/24 will be on our website in the coming days. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our pupils, parents and staff members for working together throughout the school year. I especially would like to thank every staff member for their commitment and dedication to our pupils and for working so hard all year long.  I wish everyone in our school community a safe, relaxing and enjoyable summer. St Tolas will re-open to pupils on Wednesday 28^th Aug at 9a.m. for the new school year.

Kind regards, Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well on our second last week of the current school year. Our news this week is as follows

• Our school reports will be sent to parents/guardians today via Aladdin. If any parent would like a hard copy of the report please contact the office and we will print it for you. If you wish to speak to your child’s teacher in relation to the report please contact the school office and we will organise a time that is convenient for the teacher to speak with you.
• Our Sport for All Day took place yesterday and thankfully the weather played ball too!! Our pupils had a great day with a variety of activities in the morning from musical hoops, fun races, parachute games, rounders, obstacle relay, tug of war, basketball drills and dance/yoga. It was lovely to have the whole school come along after lunch to cheer everybody on in the running races. Thank you to the parents and grandparents who came along and supported all the athletes.  It was fantastic to see everyone taking part and having fun. Thank you to all the staff who organised and ran the day with such efficiency and such good humour. I think everyone was tired going home yesterday – both pupils and staff alike.
• Our class allocation for the school year 24/25 means we will have 10 mainstream teachers. This means we will have two First Classes and two Second classes next year. We have a number of teaching vacancies and these will be filled during the summer. Teachers have been allocated as follows

• Congratulations to 5^th class who completed the Blue Star Programme for 23/24. This programme teaches pupils all about the European Union. We have been awarded our certificate for participation in the programme this year.
• 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd classes went to Bunratty Folk park and Fossetts Circus on Tuesday last. They had a fantastic day and saw some amazing acts in the circus. 4^th class are off to Nevsail in Kilkee on Monday next. We hope the weather improves for them.
• Our 6^th class graduation ceremony will take place next Wednesday at 10a.m. We extend a warm invitation to parents/guardians and family members of 6^th class pupils and hope you can join us for this celebration.
• Ms Edel Halliday has made the decision to retire from teaching. She has worked as a teacher in St Tolas since 2007. We will be marking this occasion with a speclal Cruinniu next Friday 21^st June as it will be Edel’s last day with us. If any parent/guardian would like to join us for this celebration you are more than welcome. We will be giving Edel a great send off and wishing her well in this next chapter. We are so grateful to Edel for her dedicated service, kindness, musical and dramatic talents and wisdom she has shared with us in her time teaching in St. Tolas. She will be greatly missed.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well this week as we head into our final month of the current school year. Our news this week is as follows

• We have lots of new pupils in the school today as the mobile farm is here with puppies, goats, donkeys, chickens and even a wandering pig! There was great excitement this morning as the pupils arrived to school and saw all the animals. The grown ups were excited too!!! The mobile farm is here for the day and every class will get a time to go out and interact with the animals.  The pig even tried to come into the office this morning!!
• Our 6^th class graduation will take place on Wednesday 19^th June at 10a.m. Please note the change of time. We are looking forward to this important day for our 6^th class pupils.
• 6^th class went to Bay Sports in Athlone yesterday on their school tour. They had a great day and got to do lots of water activities. 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd classes are off to Bunratty Folk Park and the circus on their school tour next Tuesday 11^th June. They are looking forward to a great day out.
• If you know your child is going to be absent on a planned absence (e.g. holidays) we ask that you go into the LunchBag app and pause their food otherwise it will be wasted. We appreciate your co-operation in this matter.
• Next Wednesday 12^th June we are planning our Sports Day (fingers crossed the weather will be dry!!!). Parents/Guardians are welcome to come in at 1p.m. to watch our class races at the Greenstore side of the school. Each pupil has been assigned a colour for the day and they need to wear a tshirt in the assigned colours. The colours are red, blue, yellow, white or green. Pupils can earn points for their colour team throughout the day and at the end of the day we tot up all points to find our colour team winners. We are looking forward to a great day. it is a good idea to send extra drinks in with your child that day (preferably water) as they will be running around a lot and will need extra hydration. It is also a good idea to make sure they have sunscreen and/or a hat.
• We held our junior infant Induction for parents last night and it was lovely to meet our new parents and some of our current parents too. We still have a few places available in Junior Infants for this coming school year. If you know any family looking for a place for their child in Junior Infants in the coming year please ask them to contact the school office.
• There will be an Aran Knits Pop Up shop held in the school hall on Saturday from 11a.m. to 3p.m. There will be a fabulous selection of pure aran wool throws, cushions, jumpers, dresses, hats and scarves for sale. It will be cash only as there are no card facilities available. All are welcome.  Why not call in and purchase a treat for yourself or a gift for a loved one. All proceeds for the sale of items will be donated to the school. We are extremely grateful to the aran knitters for choosing us as their beneficiary.
• St. Tolas will be closed to pupils and staff tomorrow Friday 7^th June as the school will be used as a polling station for the European and local elections. The school will re-open at 9a.m. on Monday 10^th June.

Kind regards, Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well and looking forward to the long weekend. Our news is as follows

• 5^th class went on their school tour to Nevsail in Kilkee yesterday. They were very lucky with the weather and had a great day. They took part in beach activities and games as well as kayaking and surfing. They had a great day and enjoyed their tour. Thank you to Ms Hackett, Ms Connolly, Ms Fleming and Aoife for accompanying the class. Our next tour will take place on Wednesday next when 6^th class go to Baysports in Athlone.
• Thank you to the Coady Coleman family who have paid for the activities for the pupils in 4^th class for their school tour this year in memory of Dylan. The pupils in 4^th class and their families are very grateful for this generosity and will remember Dylan in a special way on their school tour. Well done to the pupils who made lovely thank you cards for Dylan’s family to express their gratitude.
• We are looking forward to next Thursday 6^th June when we will have some new pupils enrolling in the school for the day. You might hear mooing, bleating, quacking and neighing on your way into school as the mobile farm will visit us on that day. Each class will get a timed slot to go out and interact with the animals. If it is raining please make sure your child has a suitable rain jacket with a hood as we will still go out to see the animals.
• Quizbrain has been running again this week for pupils from 3^rd to 6^th classes. Round three took place on Monday last with round four happening today. The top 20 highest scores go through to two semi-final rounds which will start next week. After that the top five highest scores will go through to the final which will take place on Thursday 20^th June. Best of luck to everyone involved.
• Yesterday we had our solar panels installed on the roof of the building here in St Tolas. The panels are facing into the infant yard. Our Junior pupils were fascinated at break yesterday to see the panels being put in place. We hope that the panels generate lots of electricity and reduce our carbon footprint in the process.
• St Tolas will be closed next Monday 3^rd June as it is a public holiday. We will re-open again on Tuesday at 9a.m. The school will also be closed on Friday next 7^th June as the building is being used as a polling station for the local and European Elections. We hope you enjoy the upcoming long weekend and that the weather is nice for us all!

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well. Our news this week is as follows

• Thank you to the parents/guardians and staff who attended last night’s meeting here in the school on our Internet and Technology Use Agreement. We really appreciate your time and suggestions made to improve our agreement. We intend to launch this agreement for next September. Please find attached the draft agreement and we would welcome any feedback or suggestions.
• Four of our pupils from 6^th class represented St Tolas yesterday at a meeting in SES in Westpark Business park on what they had learnt this year in their Junior Achievement programme. St Tolas has had volunteers from Junior Achievement come in for a number of weeks in various classes to teach children about STEM, sustainability, our community and how we are all interlinked and entrepreneurial skills. The meeting yesterday was to promote the value of Junior Achievement to local companies and hopefully get some more volunteers for the programme. Tara, Mia, Sophie and Leanne from 6^th class gave a short presentation on what they had learnt on the Energize programme this year to a room full of business people and they were fantastic! Well done girls!
• Well done to our Camogie team who represented the school last Tuesday in the Cumann na mBunscoil competition in Wolfe Tones camogie pitch. The girls played four games and won two and narrowly lost two. Thank you to Ms Riordan and Ms Kelleher for training the girls and bringing them to the competition.
• Our annual Quizbrain competition kicked off this week. All pupils in 3^rd to 6^th class take part in four rounds of 30 questions on general knowledge. After four rounds the top 20 go into two semi-final rounds of 30 questions each. The top 5 then go forward to the final which is played in front of the school for the coveted Quizbrain of St. Tolas trophy. Two rounds were played this week with questions set by Mr Tyrrell and Ms Hackett. Best of luck to everyone for Quizbrain 2024!
• As we had some lovely weather earlier this week Senior Infants and 5^th class took the opportunity to go for a Summer nature walk to spot the signs of Summer. Thank you to 5^th class who accompanied a Senior Infant partner. It is lovely to get the opportunity to get outside and do some outdoor learning when possible.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal