Autumnfest

As we come to the end of our first term, we’re looking forward to our annual Autumnfest, where we celebrate the various festivals that happen around this time of the year. Children and families are encouraged to come to school dressed in Hallowe’en outfits and the children will spend the day in the hall at our celebration. We need as many adults as possible to join us so please come along on Friday, 28th October, and enjoy the fun. We’ve had a great first term here in the school with loads of work being done. You’ll see some of this work further on in the newsletter. The photo above is from Mark’s class, where the children have been learning woodwork skills to build a mud kitchen. Next term, we’ll be running our first ever STEAM week where children will be learning all about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. Families will be taking part too, with a paper plane competition so get your thinking hats on for that. We’ll also be having our annual winter show and this year we’re going to do an evening show. The winter show is where we will be doing our fundraising for the year and we have decided to fundraise for an Occupational Therapy room. Fundraising has already started for this in memory of Jack Doran’s sister and we hope to be in a position to build this room before the year is out. Until next month, have a lovely mid-term break and keep happy, safe and learning.

Latest News

Changes of address / Phone

If you have changed your phone number or address or any other details, please contact Siobhán in the office so we can update records.

Breakfast Club

Our Breakfast Club is now open for all children from 8:30am Monday to Friday. Come and join Simon for a slice of toast, juice and a chat before starting the day.

Science Apprentice

The Science Apprentice is free to collect from Tesco on Saturdays with a copy of the Irish Independent. It might be of interest to parents. Thanks to Gillian for spotting this.

Cake Fridays

Join the Parents’ Group for their weekly Cake Fridays in the Parent Room after drop off.

Homework Club

The homework club is running well with nearly 20 pupils taking part. To sign up, contact the office and Marita will give you a call.

STEAM Week

Our 1st STEAM week will take place from 14th to 18th November, where children will get the chance to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. If you’d like to give a workshop with any class, get in touch and we’d love to see you. We have one home project, which is to design and build a paper aeroplane. On the Friday of the week, the paper aeroplane that travels the furthest will win a prize for the child’s class. It might be a nice activity to do during mid-term break.

Ecumenical Service

Families of Christian backgrounds may be interested in a special service in the Cathedral on Monday 7 November at 12 noon. It’s an ecumenical service, hosted by Rev. David White of the Church of Ireland and Father John Cummins of the Catholic Church. The service is being held to mark the feast of St. Willibrord, a 7th-8th century Yorkshireman, who spent 12 years just outside Carlow in Clonmelsh. Parents who are interested can collect their children to bring them to this service.

Absences

October’s Attendance rate is 94%, which is below national standards (95%). If your child is not coming to school, it is very important to send in a note either online from our web site or on paper to the teacher. There are already 14 children in the school who have missed a quarter of school time through absence. On a more positive note 62 pupils have missed zero days this year.

Lateness

Please ensure that your child is in school on time. The school opens at 8:30am for breakfast club and 8:35am for morning supervision. Classes start at 8:50am and all children must be in school by then. There are a number of children coming to school after 9am and classes are well underway by then. Our attendance team will be in touch to talk to families of children where this is proving to be a persistent issue.

Science Fair

Susanne’s class has entered the Young Scientist’s Exhibition. Their project is as follows: What factors influence the levels of CO2 in the air in our classroom?

We think that the weather and the number of people in the classroom have an impact on the levels of CO2. We also think that the older classes will produce more CO2 because they have bigger lungs. We think that opening windows will reduce levels of CO2. We think that if we move around the classroom more, the higher the levels of CO2 because we breathe more often and deeper when we are active. We want to find out if there is a link between the higher levels of CO2 in the classroom and people being out sick.

Update to School Calendar

Please note one small change to the school calendar this year. The 3rd February 2017 will be a half day due to staff training. It is likely there will be one or two other staff training days throughout the year due to changes in the curriculum and we will let you know of these with as much notice as possible.

Second Level Campaign

Please register your interest if you’d like Carlow to have a second level Educate Together school. https://secure.jotformpro.com/form/52224353965962. The group also has a Facebook Page, which we’d recommend you to join.

Volunteer

We’re always thrilled to have parents and families volunteering in the school. We had over 100 parents in school last year and we’d love to see more of you.

Nut Allergy

We have two pupils in our school with nut allergies. It is vital that no nuts ever come into our school. We cannot police every lunchbox so we are relying on you to cooperate with our nut ban.

Dates for your Diary

· October 28th: Autumnfest in School. Please come in to help out through the day.

· October 29th to November 6th: Mid Term Break, school closed

· November 14th to 18th: STEAM Week

· November 22nd – 24th: Parent Teacher Meetings

Social Media

You can find us on various social media platforms:

YouTube – Search for Carlow Educate Together

Facebook – http://facebook/com/carlowetns

Twitter – http://twitter.com/carlowetns

News from around the classes

Our school football team played in the county semi final in Ballinkillen. The team showed huge spirit and commitment right throughout the match. They fought hard for every ball and showed wonderful skill scoring and defending. Unfortunately the result just didn’t go our way today losing out by the narrowest of margins, just one point. Vicky, Erin and Mark have seen such a huge improvement in the team and the whole school is proud of their efforts this season! Well done CETNS!

Angela’s class has been very busy learning all about autumn and Halloween. The children got to plant conkers and got to feel the compost. They watered their pots afterwards. The children enjoyed painting pumpkins, decorating hedgehogs, and learning all about spiders.

60 children from Erin’s, Cliona’s and Mark’s classes had a great trip today which started with orienteering in the grounds of Kilkenny castle. The children (and adults) worked in pairs to complete a course which required map-reading skills and got some great exercise. Afterwards, they visited Dunmore Caves.

Mark’s class, (and some other helpers), were busy over the last week or two making a mud kitchen for our outdoor play area which is used by the school and our after-schools club. We recycled some old kitchen countertops and will be adding some painted pallets and more timber next week. We learned how to use some more woodworking tools and had good fun.

We had great fun in 3rd class, orienteering with Susanne’s class today. We learned lots and had great fun running around the yard. Thanks for the invite Susanne and we look forward to mapping the trail on Monday afternoon!

Tricia’s class had great fun at Rancho Reilly’s pet farm, we met rabbits, chicks and pigs and played in the sand.

For more news, please check out our blog on http://www.carloweducatetogether.ie