Upcoming School Closure
A reminder that the school will be closed for the new February Bank Holiday on Monday, 6th February. The school will also be closed for the Mid-Term Break on
Thursday and Friday, 16th and 17th February

Parent-Teacher Association Meeting
Our next Parent-Teacher Association meeting will take place on Tuesday, 7th February at 19.30 in the school. All parents are welcome, and please join us if you can. The major focus will be on beginning preparations for the Spring Fair.

Ethos Survey
A review process using the Educate Together Ethos Quality Framework has begun in our school. We’re seeking the opinions of parents in our learning community using a short survey. Please complete the survey at this link. We’ll use the data, along with consultation with children and staff, to create an improvement plan to support the lived ethos in our school. A committee of staff and parents will to lead this
process. If any parents are interested in participating, email Eileen directly at eileen@ketns.ie.

Art Competition
The Creative Schools Committee is inviting child in our school to participate in this year’s Texaco Art Competition. This is optional, and there is no pressure for any child to make a piece of art. The children in Rang a 1 to Rang a 6 who expressed an interest in entering signed up and attended a talk about the competition with Eileen. She hopes to speak to the Infant Classes to invite them to participate as well.
Here is some information in case your children have any questions at home. Eileen will check in with those that wish to enter again next week to chat about their ideas and progress. Children are encouraged to explore their art at home to submit to the competition. The school is happy to provide supplies as required. Here are the details:

Subject – Can be anything that interests the children. It must be original and unaided artwork.
Paper – Size A4 or A3 paper white, coloured, rough or smooth. No card or canvas. Entries need to be flat.
Use of Materials – Can be drawn or painted in pencil, charcoal, pen and ink, crayon, markers, pastel, watercolour, gouache, acrylics, oils, poster paint and collage. It may be a print created from a lino block, wood block or any other method.

The closing date is the end of February, but we are asking the children to have their artwork ready to bring to school on the 20th of February. Please visit www.texacochildrensart.com for more information. Children may like to look at the gallery page of artwork from previous years for inspiration.

Peace Proms
The choir made their first public performance as part of the Peace Proms concert at University of Limerick with the Crossborder Orchestra of Ireland. It was an exciting and amazing day. Check out the school’s Facebook page to see a video of one of the songs performed by the massive choir with a live orchestra. The choir looks forward to resuming rehearsals on the 13th February as we prepare for a concert in the school as well as a trip or two away from school to share our music with others. New members are always welcome!

Members of the choir at the UL Arena.
The choir backstage before the performance.

Credit Union Quiz
We were delighted to be represented by two capable teams at the quiz sponsored by Claddagh Credit Union on Monday evening. It was our first time participating, and we are over the moon that one of the teams came in first in their age category. The four team members earned themselves a prize and a chance to compete at the regional level.

The teams before the quiz started!

The winning team pictured with the chairperson of Claddagh
Credit Union and the perpetual shield that is now on display
in our school.

Community Meeting
Sincere thanks to the parents, children, staff and Board members who attended out community meeting on Sunday afternoon. Apologies for the need to reschedule. It was a great conversation. If you weren’t able to attend, we’d welcome your participation. There is a simple open-ended survey at this link where you can give your ideas towards the creation of a new five-year school plan. Please follow this
link to share your ideas.

Children came up with amazing ideas for what they’d like to
see in our school community.
Many thanks to the parents, staff and Board of Management
members for the lively conversation as we consider our
future goals as a learning community.
It was fantastic to witness
the outpouring of creative
ideas from all ages

Teddy Bear Hospital
The Junior Infants visited the Teddy Bear Hospital at the University of Galway last week. It was a great day out, and many thanks to the members of the Sláinte Society who coordinate this event. Several children were interviewed for radio and television, and our school briefly featured on the RTE News.