Dear Parents/Guardians,

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

• The new Lunchbag service launches today in St. Tola’s. This is an opt in or out service at any time and there is no obligation to take part. If you do wish to order a lunch for your child the order must be placed before 12p.m. the day before to guarantee delivery on the day of choice. Pupils must bring the empty lunch bag home for recycling (like they would with their own lunch) as we do not have facilities to do this in the school.
• Our new Aoibhneas class is up and running for the past few weeks. We are delighted with our pupils in the class and how they are getting on. This week they have been having great fun learning all about Humpty Dumpty, listening to rhymes and songs and following their programmes. Well done Aoibhneas Class!
• Last Monday 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th classes all took part in a webinar with the well known author David Walliams. He discussed where he gets his inspiration for his characters and stories, a little bit about the writing process and his new book. While we may all have Zoom fatigue it is a great tool when pupils get access in their classrooms to such a well known author first hand. 
• As part of our Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum we have taken on the Weaving Wellbeing programme across the school this year in all classes. Weaving Well-Being is the first Irish designed positive mental health programme of its kind which aims to enhance well-being in primary school children. This Positive Education programme consists of 10 lessons for each class level and is grounded in evidence-based interventions from the rapidly expanding field of Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology is the science of well-being. It is underpinned by the concept that a state of well-being is not simply the absence of the negative, but the presence of the positive. Weaving Well-Being gives children the opportunity to weave positivity into their daily lives through a range of activities in a variety of areas. These areas include identifying and using their authentic character strengths, boosting positive emotions, developing and nurturing positive relationships and connections, building practical resilience skills (including mindfulness) and developing self-efficacy through empowering beliefs. All classes are using the Weaving Wellbeing programme at the start of this school year.
• 6^th class got to go on a nature walk on Monday last when they went down to the viewing area at the Point. It was lovely to get out an about in nature in our own area close to the school.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, Principal