The News

Details: Created on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 16:27; Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 May 2013 13:29; Hits: 798

WALK ON WEDNESDAY

12th JUNE

WOW

As part of the Limerick Smarter Travel Initiative we hope to organise a Walk On Wednesday (WOW) Day for Wednesday,12th June. We ask as many parents as possible to get your children to walk to school on that day. If you are driving from further out we ask that you ’ Park and Stride’ using car parks on your way in.

WOW Days are used as a way of trying out sustainable travel and we would love to have as large a participation as possible.

TABLE QUIZ

PARENTS’ COUNCIL TABLE QUIZ

Our Annual Parents’ Council Fun Table Quiz will take place in O’Driscoll’s Bar on Friday May 24th at 9 p.m. Always a great night. Your support would be greatly appreciated.

WELL DONE

ACE awards are given to pupils who excel in school life through attainment, community spirit or effort. Well done to our April ACEs.

VI:Frost: Eimear Kirkland & Sean Begley

VI:Nolan: Brooke Flynn & Eabhann Madden Groves

VI:Heaney: Cathal Hynes & Grace Whelan

VI:Boland: Jessica Clancy & Jennifer Byrne

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to past pupil Conor Murray on his selection for the Lions Touring Party to Australia. Conor left 6th Class in 2002. #FirstScoiIdeLion

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

First Communion What if?

Rite of Baptism:

“You have asked to have your child baptised. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training them in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring them up to keep God’s Commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbour. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

....... every parent in Second Class who wanted their child to receive First Communion went during the month of September to meet with the parish workers and opt to be part of that year’s Communion group. They would be given the details of the commitment required and the ‘Do This in Memory’ Programme. They would give details, if necessary, of where their children were baptised. They would give their contact details so they could be contacted directly by the parish through a text service. They would have the option of choosing a weekend celebration of the Eucharist between Easter and the end of June during which the parents, accompanied by their families, would continue with their child on the faith journey they began at Baptism and receive First Holy Communion. The parish could consider a maximum number of first communicants at each celebration.

Following on from attendance at the ‘Do This in Memory’ programme and the teaching of the ‘Alive O’ programme in school, allied to the family’s own preparation the child attends their chosen Communion Mass with their family. The first couple of rows of the church are reserved for First Communicants and their families and at the start of Mass the celebrant welcomes the child and their family. At Communion time the child and the family are invited up first to receive the Eucharist.

This places First Communion at the heart of the weekly parish celebration of the Eucharist.

On a practical level it eliminates the weeks of ’event management’ that takes the place of real preparation in school; it allows parents choose whatever appropriate clothes they wish for their child and eliminates some of the ostentation that can accompany the day. It lets trained teachers back to teaching the religious education programme and above all it allows the prime educators –the parents- to take their rightful place as the ones who chose baptism for their child to continue that faith journey with their child. It brings the role of the parish into central focus as the centre of the faith community.

What would be lost in spiritual terms that is now present?

We would welcome your considered thoughts .

LIFE IN FOURTH CLASS

Fourth class has been such a busy year so far and there is still so much more left to fit in before we finish up in June. We have worked hard all year and learned so many new things in so many new and exciting ways.

This year, for example, our “Geo-literacy” programme has allowed us to explore a lot more. At the moment we are planning a “make believe” weekend away in a European city. We are using all the real websites to plan our travel, accommodation, food and entertainment and to find the cost of everything. Some things are more expensive than you would think! The iPads have been very useful for these lessons. We also used them in history to create i-books about the oldest things in our houses.

We became junior engineers for a few weeks when we took on the “Viking Longship Challenge”. The challenge involved creating a sail powered boat from recycled material. We got great excitement from watching our creations sail. We documented our design and build process in our learning logs, learned from our successes and mistakes and thoroughly enjoyed the whole project. Projects have, of course, been a big part of our lives in fourth class too. We have researched many topics and presented our findings in various formats.

We all look forward to the last Monday of every month which has become known as Super Monday. Our day is split into three sessions. We do challenging activities from the maths CAME programme, develop our comprehension strategies through “Building Bridges” stories and carry out some scientific investigations from the CASE programme. It is also a chance for us to learn from different teachers as each fourth class teacher teaches one lesson and we visit them.

All these different ways of learning means we are always kept busy. We work in small groups in station teaching which gives us more of a chance to get involved and we go and visit our young friends in room 10 every month for a chat “as Gaeilge”.

So many other things are going on here in fourth class. We explored the stories of the “Jesse tree” and prepared our own tree and book. We are growing our own potatoes in the outdoor classroom. We are also looking forward to the visit of the Gardai to teach us about safe cycling and set us some cycling challenges.

Our recorder playing is coming on really well this year under the guidance of Miss Teefy. We have also had so much fun and learned so much from our basketball, hurling and swimming coaches throughout the year. We know how important it is to try out all these sports and get involved in exercise. That is why we take the “Fit for Life” challenge for the month of May. We challenge ourselves to take part in some sort of physical exercise every day and receive a certificate for our efforts on completion.

So much to do and learn in just one year!

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING IN SCOIL ÍDE

· Most of our 6th Class pupils received the Sacrament of Confirmation.

· Standardised Testing has begun.

· Limerick Fire and Rescue Service gave Home Safety lessons to Third Classes.

· Hurling, Basketball, Athletics and Girls’ Gaelic are underway.

· Preparations for the 6th Class Junior Triathlon are underway.

· We’re preparing for the Annual Scoil Íde Chess Tournament.

· Fr. Damian Ryan conducted classes in stillness, prayer and meditation with our Sixth Classes.

· First Classes are preparing for their Violin Concert.

CALENDAR 2012-2013

School closed Monday, 3^rd June. Public Holiday.