Dear Parents/Guardians,

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

• Preparations are well under way for our Variety Concert to celebrate 40 years of the school. This will take place on 12^th and 13^th December and tickets will go on sale shortly. All monies raised will go towards our yard development fund.  The Board of Management hopes to extend and develop the front yard for the benefit of all pupils so that we have more space that can be used all year round.  This will be an expensive project but very worthwhile and we thank you for your continued support.

• All classes have been busy doing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) projects this week.
• Junior Infants have learnt all about dancing raisins and did an experiment to find out how to make raisins dance!
• Mr. Tyrells Senior Infants have made a wormery and learnt all about what the worms would need to have a safe and comfortable home.
• Ms. Kelleher’s Senior Infants designed and constructed pirate ships. Today they are testing if they will float!
• 1^st class designed and constructed koala bear shelters. It was great to see the pupils working together to see their designs come to life.
• 2^nd class designed and made fidget spinners. They also decorated them and there were some very inventive designs.
• 3^rd class gave themselves a real challenge as they decided to construct cars from cardboard, straws and bottle caps and they had to be powered by a balloon.
• 4^th class have constructed models of bridges from around the world. Each bridge must be strong enough to support a litre bottle of water. They are testing their designs today.
• 5^th class have constructed lava rocket lamps. Again there was great creativity in the designs and decoration. I am looking forward to seeing the finished lamps tomorrow.
• 6^th class made electrical quiz boxes. They constructed a simple circuit to make the buzzer work.
• Tomorrow every class will get a chance to display their projects in the hall and all classes are timetabled to come to the hall to see other classes work. Michael Brown, STEAM advisor from Clare Education centre, will visit in the afternoon to see all the great work done by the pupils. Thank you to all the staff for their hard work on this exciting project.
• Sharon McGrath of ISPCC will give a talk on Keeping your Kids Safe Online in Shannon Public Library on Tuesday 27^th Nov at 7pm.  Cyber bullying, gaming, sexting and more will be discussed as well as practical steps that can be taken to ensure that your kids can enjoy the internet and social media while avoiding the pitfalls.  This is a free event and all are welcome.  For further information contact the library on (061) 364266.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, Principal