Scoil an Teaghlaigh Naofa Christmas Newsletter 2017

“Nollaig Shona Daoibh go léir”

www.askeabns.wordpress.com (blog) www.askeaboys.com (website)

Dear Parents,

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy

Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I am very proud of all the boys and the

progress that they have all made so far this year. What an amazing first term we

have had. We had a fabulous flag raising ceremony for our second Active School

Flag and the official opening of our state of the art astro turf pitch. We are very

fortunate to have such amazing facilities in our school and in the local community.

The school’s annual Christmas concert was very successful. It was

the first year that the same story ran throughout the whole show. There were

many highlights on the night with the school choir and individual classes giving

outstanding performances. Great musical talent and acting skills were displayed by

all. Many thanks to all of those who worked on the production. We had a wonderful

Christmas fair with a special visit from Santa, it’s an annual event that the whole

school community looks forward to.

We have a wonderful staff and I want to take this opportunity to

thank them for all they have done. Many thanks to the Board of Management and

the Parents Association. Best wishes of the season for a safe and happy holiday. I

hope that Santa is good to all parents and children!

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Kelly

Book Corner

Below are the top picks from the CBI Book of the Year Awards which are the

leading children’s book awards in Ireland.

“Anna Liza and the Happy Practice” by Eoin Colfer Ages 5-8

“Billy Button, Telegram Boy” by Sally Nicholls Ages 5-8

“Bliain na nAmhrán” scriofa ag Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin Ages 3-7

“Goodnight Everyone” by Chris Haughton Ages 1+

“Historopedia” by Fatti Burke and John Burke Ages 8+

“Óró na Circíní agus Scéalta Eile Ón Afraic” athinste ag Gabriel Rosenstock Ages 9-

11 “Plain Jane” by Kim Hood Ages 12+

“The Ministry of Strange, Unusual and Impossible Things” by Paul Gamble Ages 9+

“A Place called Perfect” by Helena Duggan Ages 8-12

Santa is always encouraging children to read and here are

some of the top books by Irish authors he will be slipping

into Christmas stockings this year. We are very lucky in

our school that our boys get to read so many books. From

senior infants to second class boys take part in Literacy

Lift Off whereby the boys are reading two books every

day. Over the school year this adds up to approximately

320 books which is a wonderful achievement. From third

class to sixth class pupils take part in Power Hour where

different novels are studied with a great focus on

developing reading fluency, comprehension skills and

broadening their vocabulary.

Every class has a large selection of digital books stored on their computers. These are

excellent for reading to the children and are very popular. One new area we have been

looking at is “talking books” on You Tube. Some are excellent such as “My NO NO NO Day”

book. However, quality varies, so please check beforehand! We also noticed that there are

very few talking books in Irish. So we have decided to upload some Irish books we have

started to create ourselves. These can be viewed by clicking the “Gaeilge Audio Books” link

at the top of the screen on our school blog www.askeabns.wordpress.com . In the New Year,

The Wizard of Oz musical was a

massive success in Presentation College

Carlow! Sixth class also had the pleasure of

attending the production of”Highschool

Musical“ by the very talented pupils in

Gaelcholáiste Cheatharlach.

Congratulations to our school quiz team

who came third out of twenty seven teams in

the Irish Quiz held in Éire Óg. They were

just two points behind the winner.

Fifth class made fabulous castles

before their trip to Kilkenny Castle. Check

out our school History wall which has over

100 local pictures. Check out the “Carlow

Local History” section on our school blog to

take a trip down memory lane.

We donated 68 boxes to the Team

Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal. These

gifts go to needy children in Eastern Europe

and Africa. Huge thanks and well done to all

the boys, parents and teachers who donated.

It is very much appreciated.

We had a very successful science

week. Fifth class visited Carlow IT for a talk

on science experiments. We also received the

great news that we had our submission for

the Young Scientist’s Exhibition accepted.

We will be travelling to Limerick on the 19th

of January to exhibit our project on kinetic

and mechanical energy. We will be using

lollipop sticks to highlight various

characteristics in the transference of

energy. Keep an eye on the school blog for

updates.

What do monkeys sing

at Christmas?

Jungle bells!

What does the Turkey eat at

Christmas?

Nothing because he’s stuffed!

Green School’s Committee

HSCL(Home School Community Liaison) Linking Parents and School:

Teddy Bear Picnics: This term the HSCL Teacher, Mrs. Catherine Osborne ran two very

successful and fun "Teddy Bear Picnics" with the Junior Infant classes and their parents.

Thank you to all the parents who gave up their time to attend. It was great fun.

Congratulations to our Green School’s

Committee and everyone in the school

who worked so hard to achieve 1st

place in Carlow’s Tidy Town

Competition. In addition to a

wonderful plaque and a hundred euro

cheque, the school was also awarded a

Tidy Town’s Cup. We are so proud of

our pupils and teachers who work

together effortlessly all year round

to ensure that we have a sustainable

future.

We are delighted to have been chosen

by Carlow Education Centre to pilot a new

initiative. We have been given five sets of

Lego Computer Programming Kits. This is a

wonderful addition to our twenty Knex

Engineering Kits which have proven to be

very popular with the children.

Our Christmas concert “The Christmas

Jigsaw” was an amazing showcase of the

array of talent we have here in our school.

From acting, to dancing to singing, our boys

can do it all. Well done to all.

Courses for parents/guardians: The "Relaxing Art" and "Stress Free Baking/Cooking"

courses were run by HSCL and both were very well attended by parents/guardians.

Lots of fun was had while learning new skills and friendships were formed.

Parent&Toddler Group: started last month and runs on Wednesday mornings@9.30-

10.30am. Please join us if you have a small child and wish to be part of a group.

Monthly Social Coffee Mornings: The next will be on WEDNESDAY 10th January

@9.30-10.30am. Come along for a cuppa, chat and meet some of your school's Parents

Council members.

Next Term: HSCL Teacher will run more courses & events, please keep an eye on the

outdoor notice boards for information.

Health Promoting Schools Health Promoting Schools is a new initiative set up by the HSE. A Health Promoting

Schools flag is awarded to schools which promote health and choose key areas to

improve in their school. After surveying students, parents and staff last year on the

areas they would like to see improve, we chose to focus on two key areas for this

year; Mental Health-Mindfulness and Healthy Eating. The committee have been

working hard to improve these areas with small changes already in place such as

Supertroopers Homework, Mindful Art and time for meditation in classes. Mindful

Monday was launched recently where for the first Monday in each month the boys

will have no written homework and will instead be able to complete a Mindful activity

with their family. This received a great response from the boys, as you can imagine.

There will be more changes to come in the New Year. We hope to apply for our first

flag at the end of this school year. (Ms.Sinéad Moore)

Ongoing evaluations of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools have

identified the following benefits :

• Better learning results for pupils

• More done to promote staff health

• A co-ordinated approach to social, physical and environmental needs

• Increased pupil self-esteem

• Lowered incidence of bullying

• School environment is safer and more secure

• Better understanding of schools’ health aims

• Improved relationships within the school

• More involvement of parents/guardians

• Better use of outside agencies

• Pupils receive better quality education

Sport

Our Gaelic football team made it to the Cumann na mBunscol semi-finals this year.

They narrowly missed out on a place in the final. All pupils thoroughly enjoyed all

the training and matches.

O’Hanrahans GAA club came in to train 2nd and 3rd classes. All pupils enjoy their

sessions.

National Fitness Day was on the 29th of September. Ireland Active ran an

initiative which was a take on the teachers challenge…needless to say the boys

were delighted to hear this! We had a tug of war competition, a basketball shoot

out and a penalty shoot out.

Our lunchtime hurling league was a resounding success. This was the first year

we did it and boys from 4th, 5th and 6th classes felt it contributed hugely to the

development of their ground hurling skills. It’s a great head start for us as we

It was a very wet and windy day in Carlow

Hurling Club in October for the annual

cross country event but this didn’t dampen

the spirits of all our boys who attended

the competition. Sixth class came 3rd

overall in the team event which was a huge

achievement as every school in Carlow

participated on the day. We start athletics

training in September and pupils love going

to St. Laurence O’Tooles for their P.E

lessons when doing the athletics strand of

the curriculum.

head into the Cumann na mBunscol hurling league next year.

Junior Infants hurling training is in full swing with their superb trainer Leo

McGough. Pupils are so lucky to be developing these skills at such at such a young

age.

We recently competed in the Cumann na mBunscol Indoor Hurling competition.

Where we came 2nd in the division 2 finals narrowly losing out to Drumphea

4th class teachers Mr.Egan and Mr.O’Donnell both entered teams in the FAI Indoor

Futsal competition in Graiguecullen. Both teams played very well against teams from the

Gaelscoil and Tinryland. While they were unlucky with some of the scorelines on the day

all players had lots of fun, with most representing their school for the first time.

Pupils are really enjoying playing soccer on our “Eamon Ellis” astro turf pitch at

lunchtimes.

Spikeball training is in full swing with pupils gearing up for their competition in January.

Ms.Moore and Ms.Brennan will be starting mini spikers which is aimed at coaching

younger pupils in our school.

Our Christmas fitness programme for pupils was enjoyed by all. We had a Jingle Jog

Santa Dash on Thursday where every boy and staff member ran the perimeter of the

school. We had a Santa boot camp where every class did 12 minutes of exercise every

day.

Junior infants did a carrot and Santa hat relay.

www.getirelandactive.ie is a great website for parents and children

4th class took park in a

“Show Racism the Red

Card” workshop with

Garry Coady from the

FAI.

Pupils went for a hike in Cullohill,

Co.Laois where they learned lots

about history, geography and

science. They hiked through

fields and forest and discovered

breathtaking scenery along the

way. They also took a water break

from a natural spring.

Fifth class a wonderful school trip to Kilkenny Castle.They also went for a big walk

around the grounds of the castle.

We were delighted to have been awarded the much coveted second Active

Schools Flag. We had our flag raising ceremony on the 24th of November. We

are the only primary school in Carlow with a second Active Flag. The Active

Schools Flag is awarded to schools that strive to achieve a physically

educated and physically active school community.

We are very lucky to have a Carlow hurler on our staff this year-Alan

Corcoran We were delighted to have with us at our ceremony some of

Carlow’s hurlers-Martin Kavanagh, James Doyle, Dion Wall and Andrew

Casey.

The pupils had a great training session with the hurlers on our new astro

turf pitch. We are very fortunate to have such an amazing facility in our

school. We had a competition amongst the pupils to name the pitch and the

winning name was the “Eamon Ellis astro turf pitch”. Eamon is a retired

staff member with a huge interest in sport.

We also had Eire Óg players –Derek Hayden and Robbie Moore at our

ceremony along with Turlough O’Brien the Carlow Gaelic football manager.

No doubt our pupils were inspired by the amazing talent on display from all

Active School www.activeschoolflag.ie

Please go to the “Active School Blog 2016/2017”

section of our school blog to read all about sport in

our school.

www.askeabns.wordpress.com

our visitors.

Parents Council

Since the summer newsletter we have had the Astro Turf Pitch installed, it was a

great achievement to obtain in just three years.

I would like to thank all parents who helped out in the last three years along with

the teachers.

Most importantly I would like to officially thank all the businesses who helped us

during this time and I would like to ask you to consider these businesses for any

goods/services that you may need:

AB Jordan

ABC School supplies

Allens

Antonios

Askea Pharmacy

Autoimage

Billy Bunters

Cambarola Bike

Carlow Dry Cleaning

Carlow Florist

Carlow Golf Club

Castle Orthodontics

Chemco

Cj Fallon

Clara Lara

Copymore

Copymore

Dolman Barbers

Douglas

Dunbrody Famine Ship

Dunnes Stores

Electrocity

Fitzgerald Power McHugh

Florinos

Folens

Fota Wildlife Park

Gamestop

Ho Ting

Ivy Rooms

Jasmine

Leinster Hearing services

Lets Go

LHS

Marios Luigis

Martin Callinan Buses

McDonalds

Morrisseys

Mount Wolseley

National Leprechaun

Museum

National Stud

Nolan Heat Services

Omniplex

Pennys

Powercourt Gardens

R healy & Sons

Rachels Furniture

Raths

Ray Whelan

Red Pepper Catering

Reptile Village

Roots 66

Seven Oaks

Shaws

Sp Solutions

Stitch n Sew

Subway

Supervalu

Swans Electrical

Tel Lab

The Big Blue Barn

The Chocolate Garden

Thomas Sunderland

Value Centre

Walshes Butcher

Whites of Wexford

Woodford Dolmen

The Parents Council is part of the school community but without the help of

parents, teachers and local businesses we would not succeed so thanks to everyone.

We have had a busy start to the year, we had a successful Halloween fundraiser

along with a Christmas concert Draw and our Christmas fair. All the boys enjoyed

the fair last Friday which is great to see. A lot of work goes into organising a fair

so we are glad when it comes off okay and we make a decent amount of money which

we did.

We are going to use all money fundraised this year toward further developing the

grounds of the school to make all our boys playtimes more enjoyable.

Have a safe and enjoyable Christmas.

The Parents Council