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