An Focal Deireanach Vol 9, No 20 5th May 2023

Spring Fair

The Spring Fair is just 8 days away on Saturday, 13th May from 12.00 to 16.00. Many thanks to everyone who has been selling raffle tickets. Please return the stubs and the money to the office. More raffle tickets are available, and if you aren’t able to sell the raffle tickets please return them to the school. As always, the success of the event is directly tied to the kind and generous volunteering by parents and staff members. Like last year, we will be using a website link so parents can sign up to volunteer:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E49AAAF22A7F9C43-spring1. If each family can volunteer for one hour, the event will run very smoothly. (It might be
wise to pair up with another family so one parent can volunteer while the other enjoys the Spring Fair with the children and then swap.) Here are the ways you
can be involved on the day:

:
 Set-up – arriving early to prepare for the day
 Café – selling baked items, preparing tea/coffee, cleaning dishes and tables
 Facepainting
 Carnival Games – leading games up on the pitch
 Obstacle Course – helping to run the obstacle course being designed by Fourth class
 Carnival and Obstacle Course Tickets – selling tickets for these activities
 Welcome Desk – greeting people and selling workshop tickets
 Car Park – directing drivers to park safely in the yard
 Silent Disco – helping visitors participate in the silent disco
 Cupcake Decorating – assisting Marta with cupcake decorating workshops
 Books Stall – selling second-hand books
 Clean-up – tidying up after the even

We are asking all families to bake something for the café. This can be dropped off at the school from the afternoon of Friday, 12th May or the morning of the fair.
Second-hand books for adults or children can also be brought to the school starting on Friday afternoon.

We’d also kindly ask as much as possible that people use alternative transportation on the day as the space for cars will be limited. There is plenty of space for bicycles and scooters behind the school. It will be very important that we are respectful to the neighbours in how we park. We will be having advanced sign-up for the workshops, and more details will be sent out next week. The Parent-Teacher Association will be meeting twice this week to prepare, first on Monday at 9.00 and secondly on Wednesday evening at 20.00. Every parent is welcome to attend these important planning sessions. Many thanks in advance for all the efforts underway to make this a great day for our school community.

Active School Week
Our Active School Week continued with races (short and long-distance) on Tuesday. Congratulations to the children who qualified to participate in the City Sports competition. On Wednesday Matt taught a range of folk dances to the classes from various cultures including Ireland, the United States, Romania, Israel, Serbia and South Africa. Everyone worked up quite a sweat with these energetic dances. Well done to the Active School Committee for organising so many interesting activities.

Gardens
Many thanks to the parents who have been busy working on transforming the courtyard gardens. Already they are looking so nice, and we look forward to continuing this process as part of our new School Plan. If anyone else would like to get involved, give your name to Matt or Claudia.

Curriculum Evaluation
Members of the Department of Education Inspectorate will be visiting the school on Monday and Tuesday to complete an English Curriculum Evaluation in the school. This will involve observing lessons, meeting with staff members and talking with children. For more details, parents are welcome to visit this link:
https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/d3832-guide-toinspection/.

New Artists-in-Residence
We are delighted to welcome Dee Deegan who is working with 5th and 6th Class on a broad creative process with links to geography concepts. We also are pleased to welcome Críona Scannell who is working with 3rd and 4th Classes on a large-scale visual arts project related to our school’s ethos. Sincere thanks to the Parent-Teacher Association for sponsoring these activities and others with the money raised in last
year’s Spring Fair. We hope to organise creative experiences for the Junior Infants and 1st Class before the end of the school year.

Storytelling Workshop
We welcomed Clare Murphy back to the school yesterday for a storytelling workshop with 3rd and 4th Class. Clare has begun an Immram (an old medieval word for a wonder journey) or Story Walk. She is travelling on foot across the country, stopping along the way to share stories. We look forward to the end of May when the entire school will be involved in marking the end of this amazing journey as we gather
to share stories in Barna Woods.

Student Council Visit to the Irish Centre for Human Rights
Today the Student Council visited the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway. They met with professors, lecturers and researchers to share
about our work towards becoming a UNICEF Child Rights School. The Student Council also visited the FLIRT FM studios who came to the school last autumn to record a radio show about child rights. You can listen back to that amazing programme, using this link.