February Newsletter - Read All About It!
Scoil Diarmada Newsletter February 2019
Enrolment for Sept 2019: Applications for enrolment for incoming Junior Infants
are open. Enrolment forms may be collected from the school office or downloaded
from our school website. Our Enrolment Policy 2019 is available for downloading on
our website. Closing date for applications is Wednesday, 13 th March and places are
filling up quickly.
School Playground: We are working with our Parents Association on our very
exciting new project which is to have a junior playground on the school grounds for
children to use at break times, for movement breaks and for fundamental movement
skills. This will be a huge asset to our school. However, there is no funding
available from the Dept. of Education for this project. Initial costings of this project
will involve fundraising €30,000 over the next two years. We kick-started this
fundraising last week with a “Valentine’s themed” no uniform day which raised a total
of €885.83. Thank you all for your fantastic support. We have a long way to go to
reach our desired target but hope you will all get involved in future fundraising
events. Please feel free to contact the school if you have any ideas for future events
of if you are willing to help out in any way.
Don’t Forget: the ‘Couch to 5Km’ starting on Wednesday 27 th March with our 5k run
taking place on Sunday, May 19 th . This training is open to all and is on Monday,
Wednesday and Fridays at 7p.m. We are in need of volunteers to train/help out
especially on Friday nights. Please contact Siobhan on 087/9677469, so spread the
word and bring a friend.
School Lunches: They should contain a small roll/sandwich/bagel, a portion of fruit
or veg and a drink (water). Please see safefood.ie for other lunch suggestions. No
nut products, sweets, biscuits, crisps, fizzy drinks or chocolate should be in our
school lunches. A healthy lunch fuels the body and the mind. Starting after the
midterm children will bring home school lunch packaging so you as parents can keep
an eye on lunches eaten.
World Book Day: It will take place on March 7 th . The children will be invited to
dress up as their favourite book character and the Book Fair will be here in school on
March 7 th . More details to follow after midterm in relation to book vouchers and book
fair opening times.
Aldi Sports Stickers: Thanks to everyone who has sent in Aldi stickers, we have
already collected over 300 and have sent back our first poster. Please keep sending
the stickers in.
Rugby: Rugby blitz for 5 th /6 th class (tag rugby) takes place on Friday, 8 th March.
This event is a rescheduling of the blitz that was cancelled earlier in the year. More
details to follow.
Spelling Bee: On Thursday 14 th February the pupils of 5 th and; 6 th class competed in the 2019 Easons Spelling Bee. After 10 gruelling rounds of spellings such as ultra-
fastidious and penicillin Donnchadh Kinch emerged the overall winner and now goes
on to represent Scoil Diarmada in the Kildare County Final in Kildare Town on the 4 th
of April. The other winners on the day were as follows, 5 th Class: 1 st Luke Phelan, 2 nd
Jason Murtagh, 3 rd Cody D’arcy Foster. 6 th Class: 2 nd Lukas Suslavicilis, 3 rd
Philomena Emoefe who all received books and medals.
Credit Union Quiz: Congratulations to the 2 fabulous quiz teams from Scoil
Diarmada who took part in the recent Credit Union Quiz. The U11 team of Captain
Ellie Pittman, Ailbhe Kirk, Toirin Flood and Jerry Byrne competed against 16 local
schools. They scored a wonderful 47/60 to beat Dunlavin by one and Scoil Iosaf
Baltinglass by three to win overall. The U-13 team of Captain Aoife Moody, Cillian
Kirk, Ali Foxe and Clodagh Hendy were up against 19 schools from the area. They
scored a magnificent 59 out of 72 and they too won their section overall beating Scoil
Iosaf, Baltinglass and Tinahely by 4 points. Both U11 and U-13 teams were thrilled
and delighted to receive their prizes of bags, medals, certificates and perpetual
shields. They also qualify to represent Baltinglass Credit Union in the Chapter Final
where they will meet the other winning schools from all over Kildare, Laois, Carlow
and Wicklow hoping to secure one of the two places in each section for the All-
Ireland Final. Well done all and good luck in the next round.
Cumann na mBunscol Quiz: On Friday, 15 th January the senior quiz team
participated in the Cumann na mBunscol Chill Dara Tráth na gCeist in Ballymany in
Newbridge. 38 teams from all over the county took part as they hoped to be
crowned quiz champions of Kildare. The team of Capt. Aoife Moody, Cillian Kirk, Ali
Foxe and Ailbhe Kirk (substituting for Clodagh Hendy who was visiting Harry Potter)
started well and were joint leaders with six other schools after three rounds. By the
sixth round Scoil Diarmada had taken a one point lead and were still ahead by one
after nine rounds. With a tough round ten leaving Castledermot on a total of 95 out
of 100 they had reached a sudden death tie-breaker with Scoil Bhríde, Kilcullen.
Three more questions were needed before Scoil Diarmada, Castledermot were
announced as winners and quiz champions of Kildare. Aoife accepted the perpetual
cup and each member received a beautiful plaque. A celebratory trip to McDonalds
rounded off a wonderful day.
The Daily Mile Kildare: Scoil Diarmada is participating in The Daily Mile Kildare.
This initiative supported by Athletics Ireland, Sport Ireland, Kildare Sports.ie,
Partnership and Kildare Co. Council involves children running for 10-15 minutes,
three to four times a week from January 14 th, 2019 to April 12 th, 2019. During this
time if children wish to wear runners to school it may be easier for them to walk, jog
and run. We look forward to encouraging a culture of exercise in our school and
community.
Attendance: We currently have an attendance rate of 95.4% up from 93.4% last
year. Well done to all the parents, guardians, child minders for getting children to
school on time. Full attendance certificates from September to the end of January
will be handed out to children at their next school assembly.
Morning Supervision: The Board of Management does not accept responsibility for
any child who is on school grounds before 8.45a.m. On wet mornings school doors
will not open before this time as there is no supervision.
Grandparents Projects: First and Second Class worked on a Grandparents project
during January. They had to interview a grandparent and ask questions about life
when they were growing up. They had to compare ‘Now’ and ‘Then’. The projects
were then put together and displayed on poster format with photos and in some
cases booklets were added on with some lovely artefacts of old coins. Projects are
on display outside classrooms and are worth looking at. In addition Mary Hennessy
very kindly came in to speak to our first and second classes. The children had lots of
questions and Mary was very good with the children and a great storyteller. Mary
was also invited back to talk to our infant classes as well and was very well received.
We would like to thank Mary for her time and to congratulate our first and second
class students on their wonderful projects.
Hurling: Our hurlers are busy training for the Cumann na mBunscol Blitz which
takes place in March. Hurling training takes place every Thursday and all are
welcome (3 rd to 6 th ) regardless of experience.
Garden Club: We are busy preparing our garden to get it ready for garden club.
Our work so far includes new gravel pathways and fresh topsoil. Our garden club
will start after the mid-term when all works are complete. A note will be sent home
with all those interested in taking part. Should anybody have garden equipment in
excellent condition that needs a new garden we would gratefully receive
donations…..anything from small garden trowels/spades to a garden shed.
J.E.P: Our sixth class students are busy working on their Junior Entrepreneur
programme where they get to set up their own business and bring a product to
market. As part of the programme we had a business person visit our class last
week. Louise spoke to the children about the importance of marketing their product
properly. The children gained a valuable insight into the reality of creating a
business and really enjoyed the visit. Thanks to all involved.
Green Schools: Just a reminder from Green Schools that we are revisiting our First
theme of Litter for our 6 th flag. With that in mind we are asking children to keep litter
off the yard by using the correct bins and also the less packaging in lunch boxes the
more environmentally friendly we are being. This is particularly so in light of our
global push to reduce single use plastics.
Camogie: We are doing lunch time training on a Tuesday where possible. We will
have matches coming up soon but there are no dates as of yet. We will nearer to
these dates revert back to after school training on a Tuesday. Again, we will let
camogie players know in advance. We are conscious that some girls are training
with football and basketball too and are trying to accommodate both.