A Great Night had at the Christmas Concert!

A fantastic night was had at the annual Christmas concert. It took on a slightly different format this year with a beautiful performance from the Brittas Bay choir. The pupils from all three classes did their parents and teachers proud on the night with their performances, and even got a chance to join in with the Brittas Bay choir for some carols at the end. A huge thank you to all that made it such a fun and festive night, including the choir, Parents Reps and parents, raffle prize sponsors and those who donated refreshments, members of the BOM and staff of the school. A huge thank you also to Susan and Roland for the use of the hall and audio equipment for practices, and on the night. The final tally is not in yet but approx 1100 euro was raised on the night for the school!

Videos of the show and the choir will be uploaded here in the week to come.

Christmas Concert Information

The annual Christmas concert is taking place tomorrow night Dec 13th at 7.30. We hope to see all parents/guardians and extended families there for what promises to be a great night of Christmas cheer, with a special performance from the Brittas Bay Choir! Here is some information for the night. 

Senior pupils from Ms Greene's and Ms Nuzum's class are to be at the hall for 6:45 for a practise with the Brittas Bay choir. Junior pupils are to be there for 7pm. All pupils are to arrive in full costume, with their props, ready to go on stage. 

Any last minute raffle prizes can be dropped into the school office tomorrow. Any donations for refreshments can be given to the Parent Reps. 

See you there!

Operation Clean-Up!

A huge thank you to the parents who volunteered their time to clean up around the school and the garden over the weekend. Their energy and enthusiasm meant that the place looks fantastic and it was very uplifting for pupils and staff to arrive on a crisp winter morning to see the place so tidy and maintained. Hopefully with their efforts and the addition of a caretaker in the New Year, the school will be back to its previous glory! Thanks again to : Helen and Thomas Browne, Cathy Nolan, Michelle Redmond , John Cleary and Patrick Brennan, Jill Power and John Breen. 

Chess Tournament

Wicklow Junior Rapid Chess Championships Dec. 2017

Venue: Friar Suite, Grand Hotel, Abbey Street, Wicklow Town.

Date and Time: Thursday, 14th December 2017 4-7pm

Entry Fee: €9 or €15 for 2 in same Family.

5 Round Swiss Event for Novices and those aspiring to play in ICU Events.

Enquiries to Seamus Duffy e-mail seaduffy63@gmail.com  (Limited Entry)

Road Safety Authority (RSA) Workshop

The children from Junior Infants to Second Class had their workshop first, followed by third class to sixth class. The workshops was enjoyed by all and the pupils enjoyed the power point presentations, learning all about safety and singing the Safe Cross Code. Complimnetary safety gifts were given to the children.

The Course Coordinator, Orlaith enjoyed her visit to Scoil San Eoin and her testimony speaks for itself, see below. Well done boys and girls!

"I just want to say a sincere thank you to you and all the staff at Scoil Eoin, for allowing me to visit your school and for the kindness and hospitality that was shown towards me.

The children in every single class were absolutely excellent  !  Having visited many schools I have to say the manners, respect and engagement of your students was top class!

I hope the students enjoyed my presentations and that you were happy with the service."

Cash for Clothes - A Great Success!

The Cash for Clothes Collection has been taken and the total has come to an amazing 400 euro! A huge thank you to the ladies, Cleo, Geraldine, Martina, Helen and Sandra, who organised it and braved the elements (while having a little fun!) to help sort and carry the bags of clothes. In total 118 bags were collected, with 5 rejected.  This was a fantastic fundraiser for the school and thank you to everyone who donated. 

Cash for Clothes - Final Call!!

The cash for clothes drive is finishing on Thurs 30th 10am. All bags will be collected between 10am and 11am and any bags dropped after this time will not be accepted. A huge thank you to all who have donated clothes so far. 

Annual Christmas Concert - Wednesday 13th Dec

Our Annual Christmas Concert takes place on Weds Dec 13th @ 7.30 pm in the ' Trinity Hall Redcross'.

Our pupils will be preforming

'Whoops a Daisy Angel' &

'Christmas around the world: The Real Saint Nick'.

There will also be an exciting special performance on the night from 'The Brittas Bay Choir'.

Refreshments will be available and a Christmas Raffle with amazing prizes to be won!!

Admission will be €5.00 per adult on the night, with a raffle ticket for an entry prize included.  All proceeds  in aid of Scoil San Eoin. 

All are welcome to attend for what promises to be a great night!!

Annual Parent Teacher Meetings

Parent Teacher meetings will be held on Tuesday 28th of November. Each parent/guardian has been assigned  a time slot with their class teacher and the Special Education teacher (if applicable). Please let the class teacher know if there is any issue with attendance at that time. The school will close for all pupils at 2pm on that day in order to facilitate the meetings. Parents/Guardians will be asked to enter the school via the back door and wait in the corridor until their time. When Ms Brennan is finished in her room, those waiting can move into there. 

Halloween Fundraiser

A huge thank you to eveyone who supported the Scoil San Eoin Halloween fundraiser on Sun 29th Oct. A great nite was had by all who attended and it was great to see everyone in costumes and having such fun. Thank you to all the BOM members especially Martina Wynne who headed up the organising and John Cleary for his amazing DJ performance (and impromptu dance!!). Thanks to Bernard Brennan who led the selling of raffle tickets, and all those who sponsored prizes on the night. Thanks also to the parents, Cathy Nolan, Karen Tiernan, Laura Jones, Nicole Keogh, Charisse Van Kan and of course all the well dressed Dads, who helped in setting up, cleaning up, organising games and distributing sweets (in their unique way!). A great team effort meant that the night was a great success and fun for all!. We are very grateful to the pupils who raised much needed funds for the school through the sponsorship cards, and these, combined with the raffle on the night, netted a total of 1450 euro. Thank you to all involved and we hope to do it again next year.

Peace Proms Tickets

Peace Proms tickets will be available for family members/ friends to purchase on Friday 17th November. Further information will follow. These tickets sell quickly so please keep a check on this website for purchase details. The concert is on the 3rd of February. 

Scoil San Eoin pupils will be attending their workshop on 11th January in the National Basketball Arena with conductor Geg Beardsell

PJs for Polly Day - In aid of First Responders

A fantastic day was had on Fri 27th when all the pupils dressed in 'scary' PJs to get in the Halloween mood, but also to raise funds for the local First Responders and the equipment that they need to maintain. Pauline Nolan came with Peggy the car, and set up the First Aid equipment so the pupils could practise their skills. In total 114 euro was raised. It was also a good way of getting recognition for all that Pauline and the other First Responders do on a volunteer basis and also to say thanks for sharing her knowledge with the senior pupils each year. We hope to have Pauline back again to run her usual classes later in the year. 

Parents Reps

A huge thank you to those who put themselves forward for the position of Parents Rep for a class grouping. This will be a great means of communication between school and home. See list below. A meeting will be held after the Halloween break to discuss how best to move forward with the new format. 

• Junior and Senior Infants - Laura Jones
• First and Second Class - Helen Browne and Cleo Griffin
• Third and Fourth Class - Jill Power and Cathy Nolan
• Fifth and Sixth Class - Lorraine Shanley

A huge thank you also to the other parents who put their names forward to volunteer throughout the year for various activities. We thank you for giving up your time and look forward to having you work with us in the school. 

Wicked Witches in the Senior Room

Spooky witches have landed in the Senior Room.......have a look....if you dare!!!

Credit Union Art Competition

This year all the pupils in the school entered the Wicklow Credit Union Art Competition. The theme this year was 'Set your Imagination Free!'. The pupils did a great job and fingers crossed there will be a winner in the bunch! See a few samples below!

Chess Tournament

As today was the final session with Seamus, he organised a tournament for all the pupils. Each pupil played 6 rounds, playing a new opponent each time. The pairings were worked out on a computerised system used for all competitions. The pupils had a great time and every pupil won at least one game. Seamus provided trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize and for best female competitor (in order to encourage more girls to take up chess as a sport). The top 10 received medals and everyone got a milseán for taking part. We were very proud of all the pupils taking part today, who have embraced chess, be it for the first time or as an improver. It has proven to be one of the most enjoyabe extra curricular activities we have done in the school, and as teachers, we could see the learning benefits as the pupils progressed, as well as a self esteem boost for some  pupils. Seamus has been an excellent teacher and has sparked a great interest in all the pupils in chess, and they have learned alot of skills in 7 weeks. We hope to have him back in the school again, and we will be keeping up the practice, so were ready for any competitions that might come our way. Look below to see photos of all the action!

BBKR Information

The future of BBKR community games.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

In this week’s edition of the Wicklow people there was a great write up on the medals night presentation that is held annually to celebrate the community games achievements in our area. This is a night that many children look forward to and is a fun way of rounding up the games.

We hold our AGM after this night to help start the planning for the year ahead. An important role in this is that of Area secretary. This role involves liaising between the local committee and the county committee. It means attending a monthly meeting and being able to keep in contact with activity leaders and admin duties.  We are very lucky that we live in an area that has community games already established and activity leaders assigned to organise events for our children.

Currently we have no secretary and an area that has no secretary is not able to participate in community games. Unless we have someone who can take this on we will not be running the BBKR games for 2018. If you live in the Barndarrig, Kilbride, Brittas Bay, RedCross area and you feel that you would like to help out in this role we would like to hear from you. There will be people to help you in the role and support you throughout the year.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this as we appreciate that there are so many demands on people’s lives. Please have a think about it and if you would welcome the opportunity to find out more about community games this is the role for you. Contact Fiona on 087-24092321 for any information by Thursday the 19th of October.

Peace Proms Information

As both Ms Nuzum and Ms Greene's classes now embark on learning the songs required for the Peace Proms, below is some practical information for parents:

Dates for the Diary: 

Workshop - January 9th , Wed 10th and Thurs 11th in the National Sports Arena, Dublin.

(We will be notified as to which of these workshops we must attend nearer to the time)

Concert - February 3rd and 4th Simmonscourt Arena RDS, Dublin. 

Costs:

There are no costs involved in the process except for transport to and from the venues.

Tickets for Parents and Family Members:

These usually go on sale on November 1st www.peaceproms.com

Dress Code:

Choir Members will wear their school uniform to the workshop. All pupils must wear a plain white t-shirt/blouse/shirt (no logos) and dark bottoms e.g. uniform trousers/skirt and tights on the day of the concert. 

Further practical information for the days of the workshopand the concert will be posted nearer to the dates. 

Look what we've been up to the in the Senior Room!

The Senior Room pupils were off to a flying start this year. Everyone has settled back in well and enjoying their time in school. Chess lessons have been a very positive experience. Seamus is a great teacher and already the pupils have learned lots of information and tricks....its getting quite competitive!!! So far they have covered the theme of 'Ar Scoil' in Gaeilge, revised the physical Geography of Ireland, Addition and Subtraction and 2D shapes in Maths and the often forgotten Capital Letters and Sentences in English. The pupils also wrote brilliant Recount pieces about an adventure during the summer, and all pupils are putting a great effort into using their cursive writing in all their work.  They also had great fun doing portraits of each other in Art class. 

This year, because of the extra staffing, we are able to set up team teaching and in class support for Literacy and Numeracy. This is something that we have wanted to do in Scoil San Eoin for a long time but were unable to implement it due to lack of staff and high pupil numbers. Ms Fitzgerald is in the senior class three days a week for station teaching in Maths and Oral Language and for in class support in Maths one day. Ms Brennan is also undertaking to gain a Discovery Primary Science and Maths Award for the school, so is in the senior room for Science each week. This is fantastic for all the pupils and allows them to learn in a varied and more activity based way. 

Peace Proms RDS Dublin 2018

As part of our music curriculum this year, Scoil San Eoin are excited to take part in the annual musical education programme called Peace Proms. This was established not only to enrich pupils lives through exceptional musical experiences and performances but also to promote  peace, unity and tolerance through music.  Peace Proms is a free initiative which engages children and young people in music and enriches their lives through exceptional musical experiences and performances.

• Peace Proms celebrates culture and diversity and promotes peace, unity and tolerance through music.
•  There is no restriction on the number of children who can participate from each schools. Places are filled on a first come first served basis.
• Peace Proms is for everyone. Whether your choir is established or starting out, Peace Proms gives your choir the once in a lifetime opportunity to:
• Sing with a choir of up to 3,000 children
• Perform with a full symphony youth orchestra
• Work with one of the UK’s leading professional conductors – Greg Beardsell
• Perform at top venues e.g. the Echo Arena Liverpool, the RDS Dublin, the SSE Arena Belfast, the Hub Kilkenny and the Kingfisher Hall Galway.
• Develop vocal technique, presentation and performance
• Experience a variety of musical styles and genres
• The musical programme is tailor made to ensure it is fun and engaging for children, fulfils important educational requirements, is very rewarding to teach, and the end performance is an inspirational and thrilling experience for choirs, teachers, parents and audiences alike!

Peace Proms Involves
IN SCHOOL LEARNING: With their teachers, children learn up to 8 songs or medleys in different genres. Schools are provided with choir packs, and a rehearsal CD
REGIONAL WORKSHOPS: Each school participates in ONE regional workshop which usually takes place in December/January during school hours and is given by renowned conductor Greg Beardsell.
PEACE PROMS CONCERT: All schools perform with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland and a host of top soloists in ONE concert which will take place in Spring 2018

Parental Consent Forms will be sent home with each child in the next day or so and these need to be returned to the office by Monday 25th. We urge parents to send them back, signed, asap as we must forward them onto the Peace Proms office to be checked. If they are late, we may loose our place in the initiative!