Wishing all our students, their families and the school community a happy and healthy 2017.
The school will reopen on 9th January at 8.50am.
School Closed on Thursday 15th
On Thursday the 15th December the school will be closed for the children.
All teaching staff must attend an in-service training day for the new language curriculum.
The school will be open again on Friday 16th December at the normal school time of 8.50am.
Christmas Plays
Over the next two weeks we have wonderful plays going on to celebrate Christmas.
We would love for you to come and see the plays and cheer on your child.
This Wednesday 14th at 12pm, Junior Infants will have their play altogether in the Junior Building hall.
On Tuesday 20th at 9.30 the Early Start groups are putting on their concerts in their classrooms. All children must be in by 9.15am.
Also on Tuesday 20th at 1pm the 1st class children will put on their Christmas play in the Junior Building hall.
On the 21st December the whole school community is invited to St. Fergal's church to watch the Junior production of Busy Bethlehem performed by 1st, 2nd and 3rd class. This will take place at 11am.
Later that same day the Senior children from 4th, 5th and 6th class will perform Hosanna Rock at 1pm. Ms.Connolly's class will be the actors.
Please come and join us for the festivities.
Debate Club
Our 6th Class Debate club takes place every Tuesday after school from 2:30 -3:30pm. We discuss a range of issues that affect the students' lives as well as current affairs. Topics can vary from new school uniforms to the presidential election in the US.
We have great fun arguing with each other.
The team will be taking on Holy Rosary NS in Wicklow Town next Tuesday 13th December. The current topic is quite lighthearted in keeping with the time of year.
The motion is: "Scrooge is a better role model than Santa". Our team are opposing this motion so our three speakers have worked hard on their speeches to make sure that once they're finished speaking, everyone will agree that Santa Claus is a much better role model than Scrooge.
Hopefully the judges will be persuaded enough to give our team the win!
Watch this space for pictures and results on the day!
And don't forget to wish Avamay, Aoife and Laura the best of luck!
Local History
The 4th classes have been learning all about the Bray town hall this term. We asked lots of questions including:
When was it built? Why it was built? Who built it?
We looked at lots of pictures of the building both modern and old. Here are a few of them...
After reading some information about the Brabazon family – we were lucky enough to be able to walk down and have a look at the building close up.
We see it all the time but this time we were able to go upstairs and see where the first town council meeting was held. We even saw where our very own Mr O’ Brien and Mr Behan sit when they attend town council meetings.
We re-enacted a town council meeting while we were there and discovered the answers to all our questions about the building and the statue in front of it.
Afterwards, we did some artwork and wrote out some of our newly learnt facts about the building.
Have a look at our pics and facts. Maybe you'll learn something new as well!
Maths for Fun
The children of Ms Brady's 2nd class are having a great time playing maths games with 7 fantastic adults (Mammies, grannies, aunts and uncles) who are coming in for four Friday mornings to help us!
Decoupage Course
Decoupage involves cutting out pictures, gluing them to an object and then coating the pictures and the object with layers of varnish. The finished item can look so beautiful that it appears to be professionally painted.
Starting : Monday 16th of January
Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm
Venue: Art Room St. Kilian's C.S.
Cost: €2 per session (for 6 weeks)
Please Contact Emma O'Sullivan if you are interested 085 755 7542
The Incredible Years Parenting Course
Starting on Thursday, January 12, 2017 from 9:30am to 11:30am
We are a friendly and relaxed group for parents and carers. We look at a new topic each session that can help address your child's problem behaviours. The first half of the programme focuses on the positive behaviours you would like to see from your child. The second half looks at reducing the problem behaviours you would like to see less of. Research has found that families were able to make real improvements in their children's behaviours after completing the programme.
Two hours a week for twelve weeks
Free!
Niamh Mullins- Project Worker, Background in Psychology, Accredited Play Therapist- 087 204 4549
Emma O'Sullivan- Home School Community Liaison Teacher - 085 755 7542
Roots of Empathy
Baby Mark came into visit Mrs Loftus' class with his Mammy.
Suzanne leads the Roots of Empathy programme in that room.
The children in the room were so excited for his arrival and there was a great buzz when he left.
The children work on different topics with Suzanne and Mrs Loftus before Baby Mark comes in. He will visit a few times throughout the year.
Parent-Teacher Meetings
On Thursday 17th November many teachers will be organising the annual Parent-Teacher meetings.
To accommodate these meetings all children from 1st - 6th class will finish school at 2.15pm.
Some teachers will meet parents on different days to suit time schedules.
Coffee Morning
Coffee Morning in Support of Irish Premature Babies
All Welcome!
All money raised will go towards the Irish Premature Babies Foundation and will be used to help purchase Breast Pumps which will be loaned to mothers of Premature Babies.
Date: Thursday 17th of November
Time: 9:30-11:30
Venue: Parent's Room, St. Fergal's N.S.
How to be Smart about Social Media
Time: 9:15-10:15 am
Date: Wednesday 16th of November
Location: P.E. Hall (Senior Building) St. Fergal's N.S.
One Hour FREE Presentation by John Fitzpatrick on how to help keep your child safe as they use the internet, He will explain some simple tips about how to teach your children to use computers, tablets and mobile phones safely and give advice on what apps or sites to avoid.
Homes
Over the last few weeks Third Class have been learning about Homes. We discussed the various types of houses such as detached, semi-detached, terrace, apartments, bungalows and duplexes. We talked about the various rooms in the home and things we might find in these rooms. We identified our favourite rooms in our house and this inspired our "Through the Keyhole" images.
Talking about Homes lead to discussions about Homelessness, an issue in which the children had some knowledge on. The children were very aware of the fact that some people sleep on the streets, in shop doors, near the beach etc. We also talked about the fact the homelessness comes in lots of forms. It can be couch surfing, sleeping in your car, maybe living in a hotel. It is not having a space to call your own. It made us realise that we are lucky enough to have a home!
We also created homes as a group project. The children worked in group to design the rooms in their home. The only criteria, they had was that there needed to be a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room in each home. So amongst each group they decided who was making what. Some children worked individually and others worked in pairs. They had a great time making their homes and are very proud of them.
Myself and my Family
Third Class have spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks learning about themselves and their families. They have been looking at their strengths, weaknesses, uniqueness. They've identified their likes and dislikes. From this sprang their art, where the children drew all their favourite things inside their silhouettes. Then we guessed who?
We also spent a lot of time talking about our families. We talked about the people who live with us and also people who are family that might not live with us. We discussed that the children can have different family structures but the important thing that ties a family together is love. We also talked about lots of ways to show love to our families and how they show love to us. Here are some pictures of the family trees.
We also spent a lot of time researching family names. Irish surnames have all have a coat of arms to describe the family traditions. We looked at all the surnames that we could find. As not all the children had a coat of arms, we decided to create our own. We used the information we learned; different meanings for each colour, different animals have different meanings and certain shapes in the crest mean different things. It was a very interesting project listening to the chlldren talk about the things that represented their families.
Uniform Collection
Uniform collection is on Thursday 25th August in the Senior building hall at 9.30am.
This is the first year for the new St. Fergal's NS uniform.
New School Year
School will begin again for the children on Tuesday 30th August.
Senior Infants have a normal school day 8.50am-1.30pm.
1st - 6th class begin at 8.50am and finish at 2.30pm
New Junior Infants begin at 9am - 11am for the first week
(30th Aug - 2nd Sept)
Week 2 and 3 (5th-16th September) 9am-12pm
From Week 4 19th September onwards 8.50am-1.30pm
All children line up as normal in the yard and are collected by their teachers.
Don't forget a healthy school lunch.
Aldi Uniform Special
Aldi are selling uniforms tomorrow (14th July)
They are selling grey trousers and pinafores, black shoes, socks and shirts.
They also have navy tracksuit bottoms and blue polo t-shirts.
These may come in handy for our new uniform in September.
Discover Primary Science and Maths Award!
Absolutely amazing news today; we received word today that we have achieved the Science Foundation Ireland Discover Science and maths Plaque of STEM Excellence for 2015-2016!
It is our first plaque for our newly amalgamated school!
Everyone worked so hard this year! We did wonderful experiments and had a fantastic Science Day for everyone!
Huge well done to everyone in 2nd class who hosted our Science Day.
A very special thank you and congratulations to Ms. Devlin, Ms. Brady, Ms. Grogan and Mrs. Loftus who put together our Science book!
Well again to all our budding scientists from Junior Infants to 6th class!
New School Uniform
In September 2016 St. Fergal's National School will launch a new school uniform for all the children from Junior Infants to 6th class.
It is very exciting to have one uniform for the newly amalgamated school.
The uniform will be the following:
Navy 'v' neck jumper with contrasting blue stripes in two shades of blue on the 'v' with crest sewn on.
Navy tie with contrasting blue stripes. Elasticated ties and self-tying ties will be available. (The tie in the picture is slightly different)
Light blue/ powder blue shirt.
Children can wear grey trousers, grey pinafore or grey skirt.
Black shoes for both girls and boys.
Navy tights or socks with the option of grey also.
The new tracksuit will be navy with the same crest as uniform.
There will be contrasting stripes in two shades of blue down the sleeves.
A light blue/ powder blue polo shirt will be under the tracksuit. There will be an option to buy crested polo shirts.
The tracksuit bottoms will be plain navy.
There will be an option to wear the old grey and navy/ red tracksuits in September. However the new uniform starts immediately on the first day back to school.
We're busy in Senior Infants
There was great excitement last week when the three senior infant classes got a visit from two newborn lambs. They were very small so we tried to be very quiet and gentle when we were petting them. Thank you to Ms. Egan and Ms. De Paor for organising the visit!
We have been doing lots of active maths in the last few weeks and it is great to see the children playing maths games and practising their adding at the same time. Thank you to all the helpers who come in on Mondays!
We are also learning lots about the dentist in our Aistear groups this month. We have been checking our teeth, practising our brushing, making appointments and getting checkups.
