Latest Newsletter 2023

Dear Parents,

I hope you are keeping well.   It's hard to believe we are so close to the end of the school year.  It is lovely to see the pupils enjoying PE classes and going on nature walks under blue skies and sunshine.

June is going to be a very busy time with school assessments, reporting, school tours and Sports' Days. 

Thank you very much for your continued support.

Le gach dea-ghuí,

Diarmaid

Important Dates

• School closure on Friday, 2nd June - Staff Inservice

• End of Year Pupil Reports will be published on Aladdin on Monday, 12th June.

• 6th Class Graduation ceremony  will take place on Monday, 19th June.

• Summer Closing on Friday, 23rd June (Noon closing)

Church Carpark

Please advise the person dropping/collecting your child to use only the designated spaces in the church carparks. Only vehicles displaying a Milford National School Parking Permit should advance past the church. Parents dropping/collecting children should not park in front of the Salesian Hostel.

Also, please observe the carpark signage in relation to the carpark protocols.  To help ensure the health and safefy of our pupils we are highlighting the following carpark notices:

• Only park in designated parking spaces

• Follow the oneway system

• Drop pupils off at the designated drop-off zone

• Exit the carpark adjacent to the school field via the Credit Union road. 

Summer Uniform

Pupils may wear their summer uniform from Monday, 29th May,  onwards until the end of the school year.    Thank you very much for your cooperation and support in helping our pupils to adhere to our school policy in relation to uniforms.  The summer uniform consists of plain navy shorts or school games shorts (no denim), the school PE t-shirt and track suit top.  Children should only wear this uniform when the weather is forecast to be warm.  On less favourable days, children should wear their school tracksuit or brown uniform.  The summer uniform is a third option of clothing for them to wear to school. 

Families intending to Leave

If you think that your child may not be returning to Milford N.S. in September 2023, please let us know as soon as possible.   It helps us to have early notice to help plan for the following year.  Thank you very much.

Special Visitor!

Monday was a very special day for all the pupils and staff in our school. Olympian, Sarah Lavin, took time away from her busy training schedule to visit our school.  Sarah answered excellent questions from our pupils and spoke to the whole school about athletics, life and determination.  A truly wonderful and inspirational visitor! Thank you Sarah.

Booklists

As you may already know the government announced a scheme to provide free schoolbooks, workbooks and copy books to primary school children for September 2023.  This means that you will no longer have to purchase school books and copies for your children.   The books are on loan and have to be returned at the end of the school year.

While the €96 per child represents a significant investment, it will not be sufficient to purchase all of the quality books we currently use in our classrooms and families will still need to purchase school requisites (folders, pencils, maths sets etc).  There will also still be fees to be paid to the school in September for art & craft, photocopying, insurance, digital licences etc, unfortunately all of these costs have increased significantly over the last few years.  

At present, the school is preparing booklists for 2023/24. This entails stocktaking the books used for our Book Rental Scheme, pricing new books and copies needed and preparing orders for the books and copies that will be needed next year.

Parents have contacted us already about donating school books at the end of the school year, as they now no longer need to be passed on to siblings.  We would be delighted to take any school books that you have at home that you might wish to donate. These books should be in excellent condition and not filled in.  

Parents who do not wish to receive free schoolbooks under this scheme we would appreciate it if you could please let us know via email (office@milfordns.ie) by 31st May 2023. 

Labels

Lost & Found items are becoming increasingly hard to manage and reunite with owners.  Every item of school clothing, lunchboxes, bottles, coats should be labelled clearly.   Our school discount code MILFORD23 will give a 10% discount on labels from Irish label company www.namelabels.ie.  This code is valid until the end of 2023.

SCRATCH Coding & Programming

Congratulations to Cillian, Amelia and Oisín from Ms. Ryan's 1st class and Daniel from Ms. Hayes' 6th Class who  represented our school in The National Scratch Competition run by the Irish Computer Society.   

We are delighted to report that Cillian, Oisín & Amelia won 1st prize  in the Junior Infants to 1st Class category and Daniel won 1st prize in the 5th to 6th Class category.

In Amelia's, Oisín's & Cillian's game, ‘Farm Escape’, the player must help a Chicken to escape the farm to ‘Cha-waii’ (Chicken Hawaii).  The game has 3 levels, each designed and programmed by the children.    The game can be viewed and played on the Scratch website here.Daniel created the game ‘Splat man’ where Splat man must avoid spikes and splat slime enemies to survive and face Lord Splodge in a final boss battle.The game can be viewed and played here.

A huge thank you to Brian Flynn  (parent in our school) for facilitating the SCRATCH workshops in Ms. Ryan's class this year. 

Confirmation & First Holy Communion

Congratulations to the 6th Class pupils who made their Confirmation in April and to our 2nd Class pupils who celebrated their First Holy Communion in last Saturday. The ceremonies were beautiful and all who took part are to be commended on their excellence.  Many thanks to Ms. Claire Quinlan, Ms. Olive O'Sullivan, Ms. Maggie Kinnerk and Ms, Louise Hill for helping the pupils to prepare for their Communion and also to our 6th Class teachers, Ms. O'Meara, Mr. Daly, Mr. Gallagher, Ms. Fitzpatrick and Ms. Hayes for preparing the pupils for their Confirmation.  A sincere thank you also to our school band leaders, Ms. Angela Reidy, Ms. Áine Fitzpatrick, Ms. Laura Hynes, Ms. Deirdre Taylor, Ms. Caoimhe O'Neill, Ms. Hannah O'Sullivan, Ms. Fenton and Ms. Linda O'Meara, for sharing their musical expertise with the congregation throughout the ceremonies.  

Parents' Council

Sincerest thanks to James O'Shaughnessy (Chairperson), John Nelligan and Parents' Council members for your incredible dedication to our school.  A huge “thank you” to the parents who volunteered to make 'goodie' bags for the Communion Classes & Band members and who also organised the beautiful tea/coffee reception in our school gym.   Your efforts are really appreciated.  

SPHE Topics

The SPHE topics for Term 3 SPHE include sun safety, water safety & farm safety.   The topics will be covered during the summer term in all classes.

Great Limerick Run 

A big thank you to the parents from our school who volunteered to act as marshals for the Great Limerick Run.  As a result of your efforts, the school received a cheque payment of €650.  A special word of thanks to John Reid (parent in our school) for facilitating our participation in the event.

Club na Gaeilge

The Milford 'Club na Gaeilge' is up and running again!    Ms. Niamh O'Connell started this club to promote Irish culture and language. The club meets on  Tuesday afternoons after school and is open to children from 3rd and 4th class. Activities include games, art, treasure hunts, agus gníomhaíochtaí as Gaeilge. The children are enjoying the club and having a lot of fun while also utilising their language skills.  A big thank you to Ms. O'Connell for coordinating the classes after school.

Standardised Assessments

Standardised tests in Literacy and Numeracy are taking place at the moment in classes 1st to 6th.  These tests do not define your child but simply give additional information that we can use to help them to learn.  Along with this information, teachers in our school also use student portfolios, teacher-designed tests and checklists, documented observations and curriculum profiles to help us to get a picture of your child’s progress and to help inform our teaching going forward.  

The results of these assessments will be communicated to you in our end of year reports.   The school is obliged to report a summary of these results annually to the Department of Education for classes 2nd, 4th and 6th.  Please click here to view an information sheet in relation to standardised testing from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).

School Roof

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding in relation to our school roof replacement project this year.   All that remains to be completed are a few items on a 'snag list'.  A huge thank you to the members of our Board of Management for securing the Department of Education funding for the project and for overseeing the roof upgrade.

Class Allocation 2023/24

For the next school year, we will continue our practice of mixing classes dependent on needs of the school and children and to ensure that:

• There are opportunities for children to learn and play with a wider variety of peers

• To enable greater social interaction between children as they move through the school

• To ensure that the classes remain balanced in response to pupil transfer

• To promote a greater sense of community

• To prepare children for the transition to secondary school.

Class Structures for 2023/24 will be as follows:

• The 19th Classroom teacher will be deployed in 6th class next year.  The present 5th class  will have the benefit of a reduced pupil/teacher ratio for their final year in primary school - three classes of 20 pupils.  

• The present Junior Infant Classes will remain in the same class structures in Senior Infants. 

• The  present three Senior Infant classes will merge into two 1st classes.

• The present 1st classes will remain in the same class structures in 2nd Class. 

• The present 2nd Classes will remain in the same class structures in 3rd Class. 

• The present 3rd Classes will be mixed into two new 4th class formations

• The present fourth classes will remain in the same class structures in 5th Class.  Hopefully, they will get the opportunity to have three smaller classes in 6th class for the school year 2024/25.

Your child’s class, teacher, room number and booklist will be communicated to you in the next few weeks,  as part of the end of year arrangements. 

Camogie

It is great to see the U11 and U13 girls training in afternoons after school.  A big thank you to Ms. Laura Griffin and Ms. Hannah O'Sullivan for training the U13 Camogie Team and to Ms. Sarah Hayes and Ms. Caoimhe O'Neill for dedicating their time after school to train the U11 Camogie Team.  We wish them the very best of luck in their upcoming matches.

Hurling

Well done to all U13 Boys and U11 Boys who represented the school in the hurling competitions this year.   A big thank you to Mr. Brian Kelly, Ms Celine Munnelly, Mr. Denis O'Connor and Mr. Kieran Daly for managing the teams.  

Triple Crown & Six Nations Trophies

A huge thank you to Paul O'Connell for bringing the Triple Crown and Six Nations Trophies to our school.  The pupils really enjoyed the opportunity of having their class photographed with hard won silverware.  Many thanks also to Mr. Gallagher for capturing the images on camera.  We will share the photographs with families next week.    

Milford Kids Summer Camp

Milford Kids Summer Camp will run this year  from Monday 26th - Friday 30th June.  For further information please  email:  milfordkidscamp@gmail.com

Junior Infant September 2023/24 - Play Dates 

The Junior Infant Class 2023/24 are scheduled to have playdates in Milford NS on 13th & 14th June.  Further information will be circulated closer to the dates.

Fire Drill

Our next Fire Drill will take place on Tuesday, May, 30th.   All classes have practiced the evacuation route with their teachers.  

Rise & Shine 

The Rise and Shine morning club are taking names for the 2023/24 school year. The club is facilitated by Ms. Emma Dolphin and Ms. Geraldine Mitchell and runs from 7:50am - 8:45am. If you have any queries or would like to put your child's name down please contact emma.dolphin@milfordns.ie

Environment Workshops 

Geoff Hunt, our environmental expert, will return to Milford NS next week and will return again in June.  Junior Infants and Fourth Class pupils will have the opportunity to study our local flowers and butterflies in the environs of UL and under the microscope in the classrooms.  5th Class will also get the opportunity to study biodiversity in our local streams and ponds.

Sports Days

The teachers are planning to stage fun and activity days for their classes during the month of June.  Further information to follow in June.

Milford Homework Club

Milford Homework Club are accepting applications for the 2023/24 school year.   Applications are open to children from 1st - 6th class.  For enquiries please email:  mnshomeworkclub@gmail.com  

Educational Planetarium Show

Exploration Dome are scheduled to visit our school June.  All classes will have the opportunity to experience STEAM shows in their mobile Planetarium. The Planetarium is a blacked-out dome with 360° projection inside.  The sessions include Science subjects such as Astronomy, Biology and Maths and are in-line with the Irish Science Curriculum for Schools and are tailor-made for each class.

School Tours

Tours have been organised to take place  in June.  The teachers have circulated information in relation to this on Aladdin already.   Hopefully, the weather will be kind for this memorable &  fun day for our pupils.  It makes such a difference!  

Good Luck!

It is a very busy weekend on the sporting front for past and present members of our school community.  Best wishes to past pupil Neil Cronin, Keith Earls (parent) and the entire Munster Team in their crucial match on Saturday.  We hope that they can bring the trophy home from South Africa. 

On Sunday afternoon, past pupils Paul Kinnerk, Donnacha O'Dálaigh and Gearóid  Hegarty are involved with the Limerick hurling team.   We wish them every success in their game versus Cork.