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