Dear Parents/Guardians,

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

• We wish all our pupils in 2^nd Class making First Communion on Saturday all the best. The pupils have worked so hard to prepare for this day and we hope that they and their families enjoy this special occasion. We are very grateful to the boys and girls from 3^rd-6^th classes who will sing in the choir. Thank you to Ms Coughlan who is our choir director this year.  The choir have worked hard over the past few months to prepare for this day.  Thank you to our Parents’ Association who have organised a little get together for the pupils here in the school after the ceremony.
• All classes are taking part in the Blue Star project over the next few weeks. As part of this project each class takes a country in the European Union and learns a little about it. 1^st Class are enjoying learning about Belgium. We will celebrate all we have learnt by visiting each class to hear some facts about their country.
• Junior Infants are learning all about the Garden Centre in Aistear at the moment. They will be planting seeds this week and watch them grow and develop over the next few weeks. Juniors are enjoying working as gardeners!
• On Friday last, the 21^st of April, 6^th class returned to the Biodiversity Garden in Rineanna where Arek from Shannon Airport Group assisted the class in planting onions, lettuce and radishes in the raised planters they had made in November. The class then conducted a Flower Insect Timed (FIT) count and their data was reported back to the National Biodiversity Database. They also helped out with some nesting boxes which have been left in the garden for the insects. They will return before the end of May to check on the progress of their planting. 
• Please see a flyer attached to this note in relation to some summer camps that are being organised by Designer Minds here in Shannon.
• Our school band continues to practise at lunchtimes on Thursdays. The school band is led by Ms Hansbury and Ms Flynn. We are looking forward to their first performance.
• 5^th class have been busy learning the cip song As gaeilge. They will perform this for the rest of the school at Cruinniu on Friday and there is some amazing cup choreography to be seen!

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you had an enjoyable break over the Easter holidays. It was lovely to see everyone back on Monday last. Our news this week is as follows

• Our second class pupils making First Communion are busy getting ready for their ceremony which will take place on Saturday 29^th April at 10.30a.m. in Mary Immaculate Church. Our Parents’ Association have organised a small party for the communion pupils here in the school with a cup of tea/coffee for parents after the ceremony.  As our hall is much smaller we will only be able to accommodate the communion child and those living in the household with them. If any parents/guardians from 1^st class or 3^rd class are available to help out the Parents’ Association would be most grateful. You can contact the school office if you are available. The Parents Association would also appreciate any donations of biscuits/buns/cakes and these can be dropped into the school on Friday 28^th April.
• Swimming lessons started last Tuesday for pupils in 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th classes. Well done to all the pupils who took part. We were very proud of how they managed in the pool and they looked like they had a lot of fun in the water.
• As we head into Term 3 we hope the weather will improve. It’s the time of the year that pupils will take off their school jumper if they are too warm. Can you please check that your child’s jumper has their name on the label to avoid any confusion or misplacing of school jumpers. We thank you for your co-operation in this matter.
• The school photo orders were sent home this week. We hope you are happy with your child’s photos.
• Congratulations to pupils in 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th classes who took part in an Accelerated Reading Challenge for the month of March. There was a great drive to increase the number of books and words read and the pupils did so well. For the month of March a total of 9,580,868 words was read between the four classes. This is a phenomenal achievement. Since the start of the current school year the four classes have read a total of 2841 books to date and the word count is 37, 444,246. Keep up this great reading. Reading is like any skill and the more you practise the more you improve!
• We will be carrying out our standardised testing in reading and maths over the next few weeks from 1^st to 6^th classes. Failing illness it is advisable that all pupils attend in this period so that the standardised testing can be completed in a timely manner.

Kind regards, Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal