Dear Parent / Colleague / Board Member,

 

Confirmation Dates.

The Bishop has released the Confirmation dates to Fr Toomey who has in turn forwarded them to us. Our parish dates and times are as follows: Nire Church Tuesday 10^th March at 10 am and 12 noon in Fourmilewater on the same day.

 

Medal Presentation

This week we awarded medals to our teams who won competitions last week. Our girls won the Roinn A Football Final on Saturday morning when defeating Scoil Gharbháin in a very tight game and our boys won the Roinn A Plate Final defeating Cappoquin on the same morning at the same venue. Joint captains Saorlaith / Brenna and Darragh / Sean accepted the trophies on behalf of their team mates. They said a few words in acknowledgement. Thanks to Miss Denmead & Anthony who helped with coaching. Also, thanks to the PA for providing treats to the boys and girls afterwards. The twenty boys and twenty girls exhibited their trophies and received their medals in front of the assembled boys and girls on Thursday. We also presented the team medals to the girls who won team gold in both the Girls Large Schools 3/4^th Class Race and again the 5/6^th Class Race. 7 girls received individual medals for top 11 finishes in races of between 150-200 runners. Comhghairdeas agus maith sibh!

 

Photography Update.

The photographer has collected the family orders. We hope to have the photos available upon our return in November.

 

Bottle Collection.

Plastic bottles and cans are being collected tomorrow morning at the school between 9am – 12 noon. If you have any lying around, perhaps you would consider bringing them along for collection. Please ensure that they are empty, in good condition and have the new return logo on the wrapper. Thanks to your combined efforts so far we have already collected one full return bin and 5 super-size return plastic bags and counting.

 

Sub Committee Report.

I include the report as presented to Board of management recently. Thanks to all involved including Ellenora who produced the report, Don who chaired, board members, staff, parents and indeed anyone who helped out with the work to date. Projects have been identified and will be ongoing in the short, medium and long terms. This now starts a new body of work in the realisation of these aims.

 

P.T.M.

Our parent teacher meetings will take place on Wed 26^th & Thurs 27^th November at the school. There have been calls to move the process to an on-line booking system using Aladdin Connect in lieu of the older system of a day for families (A-M) and a second day for families (N-Z) The system is currently being set up and will be released in early November via Aladdin Connect. Slots will be available for you to book at that time. The system will be open to families with larger numbers initially, down to those with only one child attending school at present. The slots will be 10 mins in duration and we are asking parents and staff alike to be mindful of this in our first year trialing this system. Today we sent out individual family strips, detailing which teacher appointments have to booked including special education teacher appointments, if any. Please check the bags. There will be more updates on this in November.

 

Carambola.

Our Hot school meal supplier has updated their menu to commence after the Halloween break. Parents would have been contacted about this. Please find attached letter sent to the principal and please ensure that you update your choices before the normal Friday deadline next week.

 

Good Samaritan Award

This year we are going to nominate five people to receive our Good Samaritan Award. Each half term the staff will put forward names of who they think has gone above and beyond in performing a good deed, a random act of kindness etc. This ties in with the Catholic ethos of our school. I’m sure the nominees will be plentiful as we are blessed to have courteous, helpful and diligent pupils. The inaugural award goes to Kaden Shiels Rg 3, who in his accreditation received numerous plaudits for evidence of many random acts of kindness and good deeds throughout the first half of Term 1.

 

HSE Immunisation Programme.

A HSE pack has been sent home today to those in Junior Infants in relation to the MMR and 4 in 1 school programme scheduled to take place in early November. Please read these forms and return the relevant pages in the same envelope during the first week back.

 

BOM Golden Jubilee.

Boards of Managements were first established in Ireland in October 1975, 50 years ago this month. It is opportune that we take stock and thank those who have either volunteered or volunteer to take charge of our schools. We also remember those from the list who are no longer with us. From an analysis of BOM minutes, we have had over fifty BOM members in the half century including Chairpersons; Rev. Fr. Daniel O’Byrne, RIP, Rev. Fr. Michael Barron, RIP, Rev. Fr. John Lawless, Rev. Fr. Michael Walsh, Rev. Fr. Michael Russell, RIP, Rev. Fr. Connie Kelleher, RIP, Rev. Fr. Edmund Tobin, RIP, Rev. Fr. Frank Lloyd, Rev. Fr. Garrett Desmond, Thomas Crotty, Eileen Condon and Michael Lavery, Principals; Sean Nyhan, RIP, George Barry, Catherine O’Brien, RIP, Ita O’Brien and Michael J. O’Ryan, Staff Representatives; Eileen McCarthy, RIP Winifred Hickey, Catherine Ryan, Stephen Earley, Emma Dunlea and Clare Byrne. Parent and Community Members;  Kathleen Walsh, RIP, Mary O’Loughlin, RIP, Kieran O’Ryan, RIP, Eileen Walsh, Mary Crotty, Mai Fenton, PJ Ryan, Ned Morgan, Anne Wall, Catherine Lonergan, Danny O’Rourke, Dympna Mangan, RIP, Brendan O’Connor, Elizabeth Tierney, Michael Desmond, Thomas Guiry, Patricia Ryan, Brendan Reilly, Orla O’Ryan, Chrissie Horkan, Eleanor Muhlwald, Bernie Meehan, Breda Houlihan,  Andrew Ryan, Melissa Meehan, Nuala Power, Ned Moore, Jason Corbett, Ellenora Lynch and Brendan O’Brien. Our Patron will offer a special mass for all past and present board members at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity Waterford, on Wednesday 5^th November at 7 pm. All are welcome.

 

P.A. Appreciation.

Thanks to Niamh, Noreen and all in the PA who helped out in preparation for today. They decorated the hall and also gave excellent prizes for each teacher to give to pupils. They devised competitions and enhanced Halloween costume day no end. They had a costume exchange last weekend, hereby helping families. Thanks also to the staff for their help with the day and to all families and pupils who participated in ‘Costume Day’ making it memorable for all and sundry. See our social media page for all the latest activities and photographs.

 

An Uidhir Abú!

We wish all involved with the Nire Senior football team and management all the best in the County Final on the weekend after next, they await the winners of this weekend’s semifinal.

 

Hot off the Press.

Congratulation to Ballymacarbry Tidy Towns Committee on winning gold at the Supervalu National Tidy Towns Awards in Croke Park this afternoon. I’m sure there will be more on this as the evening progresses. Everyone will agree that the committee works extremely hard to keep the village looking its best, not just this year, but year in year out.

 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween originated in Ireland from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. Samhain was believed to be a time when the boundary between the living and the dead blurred, allowing spirits to roam the earth. The people lit bonfires to guide the good spirits and ward off malevolent ones. They also left food and drink out for these souls. They wore costumes to disguise themselves from and ward off evil spirits, and held rituals and feasts to welcome the coming of winter and the finishing of the year’s harvest. In addition to celebrating Hallowe’en, we also commemorate the saints on November 1^st and all souls on Nov 2^nd. Oíche Shamhna Shona Daoibh go Léir.

 

Daylight Saving Time.

The bad news is that summer time officially ends this weekend, but the good news is an extra hour in bed on Sunday morning. Clocks fall back at 2am Sunday morning.

 

Is mise,

Michael J. O’Ryan – Principal