Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well and enjoying the fine weather. Our news this week is as follows

• We are delighted to let you know that from today the Lunch Bag are providing a fruit bowl with apples and oranges in every classroom for pupils for a snack at breaktimes. There is no charge for this. Please see flyer attached from the Lunch Bag with details.
• The school photo proofs went home with the children this week. If you would like to order any photos please complete the order form and send in the required amount of money. We would appreciate if the orders can be in by tomorrow Friday 4^th April.
• We celebrated World Autism Day here in St Tolas yesterday with pupils and staff wearing blue to show their support. A total of €155 was raised which will be donated to Ennis Voices for Autism, a local charity that supports families in Clare who have a family member with Autism. We thank our pupils and staff for their generosity. Every pupil in the school is painting a handprint which will be put together in the hall as a collage to show that we are all different and we celebrate our differences.
• Juniors are going on a Spring walk today with pupils from 6^th class. They will be looking out for signs of Spring while out and about.
• Our Girls’ football team have qualified for the next round of the FAI school’s competition and will be going to Lee’s Road next Thursday. We wish them every success.
• Swimming started yesterday for 3^rd class and today for 2^nd class in Shannon Leisure Centre. It will start after Easter for 4^th class.
• Congratulations to Ivy in 6^th class who has been selected to play in the Primary game at half time in the Gaelic Grounds Limerick at the Clare V Limerick match in the championship on May 25^th. We wish Ivy well.
• Good luck to Conor H in 3^rd, Seanie and Franek in 4^th class who will be travelling next week with Thomond Football Academy to play a tournament with West Ham in London. While there they will also get a tour of Wembley Stadium. We wish them well.
• We had a very successful fire drill on Tuesday morning and the pupils exited the building safely and quickly.  We’ll have another drill in due course.
• The staff are currently working on updating our Anti Bullying policy and will be attending training tomorrow   Friday 4^th April. To facilitate the training the school will close to pupils at 12p.m. tomorrow.
• Next Friday 11^th April the school will close at 12p.m.to all pupils and staff as it is the start of the Easter holidays. St. Tolas will re-open on Monday 28^th April at 9a.m. for Term 3. We hope the dry weather continues for the Easter break.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well and enjoying the fine weather at the moment. Our news this week is as follows

• Pupils making Confirmation this year in 6^th class attended the Ceremony of Light last night in Mary Immaculate Church. I want to congratulate the pupils and their families as it was a really lovely ceremony and we were so proud of all our pupils. Thank you also to the boys and girls from 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th classes who gave up their evening to sing and play in the choir which enhanced the ceremony. Thank you to 6^th class teacher Múinteoir Alanna and Múinteoir Kate for preparing the pupils.   We are looking forward to Confirmation now which will take place at 11a.m. in Mary Immaculate Church on Friday 2^nd May next.
• Swimming lessons will start next Wednesday for 3^rd class and next Thursday for 2^nd class in Shannon Leisure Centre and run for six weeks (two before Easter and four after the Easter holidays). Swimming lessons start after Easter for 4^th class. Swimming instruction is part of the Physical Education curriculum and barring medical reasons all pupils are expected to attend.
• The samples for the recent school photos were sent home yesterday. If you wish to order photos please return your order form with the money required by Friday 4^th April.
• 5^th class have been learning all about the 1845 famine in Irish history and have made beautiful dioramas to show their understanding of this time. A diorama is a model representing a scene with three dimensional figures in miniature. They have put a lot of work into their diorama and will display them for the other classes at our weekly Cruinniu tomorrow. Well done 5^th class!
• Shannon Library have organised lots of events for primary aged children for over the Easter holidays which run from Monday 14^th April to Friday 25^th April inclusive. See email attached with details of these events.
• For health and Safety reasons pupils are not permitted to wear long or hooped earrings to school. They are welcome to wear stud earrings. As you can appreciate long or hooped earrings can get caught in clothing etc and could hurt the pupils themselves or another pupil. We appreciate your co-operation in this matter.
• The staff are currently working on updating our Anti Bullying policy and will be attending training on Friday 4^th April next. To facilitate the training the school will close to pupils at 12p.m. on that day. You might want to mark this in your diary.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are enjoying the fine Spring weather this week. Our news is as follows

• Best of luck to our boys’ and girls’ soccer teams who are travelling to Lee’s Road today to take part in the schools FAI soccer tournament. They have been busy training over the past few weeks at lunchtimes and we hope they do well today and enjoy the competition. Thank you to Muinteoir Gary and Muinteoir Amanda for organising and training and Muinteoir Lorraine and Muinteoir Alanna for accompanying the teams today.
• Well done to our boys basketball team who took part in the Marion Keane competition on Tuesday. They played well but luck was not with them this time and did not qualify for the next round. Thank you to Dean Flynn and Cliodhna Mulcahy from Shannon Jets who gave up their time to coach the boys with the assistance of Múinteoir Clare over the past few months.
• Can you please make sure that your child has a drink in school every day in a reusable bottle.  Water or dilute fruit juice is best. Pupils can get very thirsty during the day particularly as the weather improves. We appreciate your co-operation in this matter.
• 6^th class pupils making Confirmation this year will have their Ceremony of Light next Wednesday in Mary Immaculate Church at 7p.m. We wish them well on this step of the journey towards Confirmation on 2^nd May.
• We had a wonderful Cruinniú (assembly) last Friday to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge. All classes performed a song or poem for the rest of the school and we finished with the whole school doing a dance to An Dreoilín. It was a great celebration of our language and song. Well done everyone.
• Thank you to all who supported our bookfair last week. The orders were sent in on Tuesday and we expect to take delivery of outstanding books shortly. We are thrilled that the school has earned €1281 in free books from Scholastic and this total will be used to add to our AR library and class libraries.
•  Just to let you know that we will be carrying out standardised testing in 1^st to 6^th classes in reading and Maths in early May this year. We hope that all pupils will be present for these tests.
• The staff are currently working on updating our Anti Bullying policy and will be attending training on Friday 4^th April. To facilitate the training the school will close to pupils at 12p.m. on that day. You might want to mark this in your diary.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well this week as we see the signs of Spring beginning to appear. Our news this week is as follows

• Well done to all the pupils who attended Peace Proms in UL last Saturday night. A big thank you to Muinteoir Alanna, Muinteoir Noreen and Muinteoir Orla for preparing the pupils over the past few months as they knew their songs and moves so well. Thank you to Clare, Alanna, Orla, Kate, Mary and Sinead who accompanied the pupils on the night to the concert. It was a fantastic experience and we were all so proud of how well the pupils performed. We hope that the families who were in the audience enjoyed the show.
• Yesterday pupils from 2^nd to 6^th classes went to Mass in Mary Immaculate Church to celebrate Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Thank you to Fr. Tom for his lovely words of welcome.
• We have been celebrating World Book day today with all classes taking part in D.E.A.R time – Drop Everything And Read! Why not try doing this at home too? It just takes 10 minutes out of your day and can really foster a love of reading.
• We are also celebrating Friendship Week this week with some fantastic events happening in every class. Juniors are going on a buddy walk tomorrow with their friends in 6^th class. Seniors have been drawing pictures of their friends being kind, 1^st class are making friendship chains and bracelets where they are writing positive comments about their friends on the links, 2^nd class had a buddy walk to Mass yesterday where they paired up with someone they might not play with very often and they have also drawn pictures of things that go together, 3^rd class made fortune tellers with positive comments to play with each other and they have made a compliment box too, 4^th class are making a Friendship Collaborative Colouring Collage ( I can’t wait to see it in the hall) and 5^th class drew handprints with positive comments about their classmates. Well done everyone on this terrific work. We always remember that the most important rule in St Tolas is BE KIND!
• As part of Friendship Week tomorrow is Crazy Hair Day. Pupils can wear their most out there hairstyle if they wish. We are asking for a donation of €2 which will go to Rare Ireland. This organisation supports families who have a family member with a rare illness or condition.
• 6^th class have been invited to attend a Confirmation Retreat by Shannon Parish next Tuesday 11^th March. This will take place in Mount St Joseph Abbey in Roscrea. The pupils will go on a Camino walk through the woods in the morning, attend Midday prayer with the monks and get a guided tour of the Abbey and then will be treated to a hot lunch before travelling back to Shannon. The parish is covering the cost of the retreat for the pupils and we are asking for €10 which will go towards the cost of the bus. We hope they have a lovely day.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Happy New year and welcome back to school for our second term this academic year. Our news this week is as follows

• Our week has been dominated by the weather as you are aware. Thank you for your understanding and co-operation this week as we have tried to ensure the safety of all who use our school when making decisions about opening and closing. At times like this it so important that we can contact everyone quickly as weather events can be unpredictable so if you have changed your mobile phone number or did not get text alerts this week please contact the office at 061 362894 and we will ensure that we have the most up-to-date information for you. I would also like to thank our caretaker Kevin who did sterling work all week but particularly on Monday when he cleared pathways of snow to allow safe access to the building. I would also like to thank Clare County Council who gritted the car park and the back entrance to the school for us on Tuesday.
• Our boys and girls’ basketball teams started training this week in preparation for the Marion Keane memorial tournament. This will take place in February and we wish our teams well.
• Our pupils in 4^th, 5^th and 6^th classes have restarted practising for the Peace Proms concert which will take place in the University of Limerick Sports Arena in March. There was a beautiful sound from the gorgeous singing here on Tuesday last and we are really looking forward to the concert.
• The Department of Education have informed us that all staff must attend in-service training in the new Primary Maths Curriculum. This will take place on Friday 31^st January so the school will be closed to pupils on that day. You might want to mark that date down in your diary.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal