Christmas Newsletter
Dear Parents/ Guardians,
As we are nearing the final day of the first school term, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody in our school community for the work, effort and support that enabled us to keep St. Anne’s NS open.
The children have been wonderful, adapting to the new routines that have been put in place to deal with COVID 19 here in our school. The teachers and SNAs have all worked tirelessly, on a daily basis, to make sure that school life for all pupils is as normal as possible while continuing to work within the COVID 19 guidelines. Aisleen our secretary, Martina, Kathleen and Charlie - who keep our school spic and span - have also made an enormous contribution to making life run smoothly in our school each day.
You, the parents, have also played your part and supported the school in a variety of different ways since we started this journey on 1st September 2020.
Preparing for Christmas.
December has been a very busy month in our school. Lots of Christmas activities have been taking place, from a virtual Christmas visit to the theatre, painting, poetry , drama , dance, posting Santa letters to name but a few. The children have enjoyed working within their own class bubbles on these ‘fun activities’ which help to promote the joy and spirit of Christmas.
Christmas Jumper Day
On Friday 11th December we had our annual Christmas Jumper Day when all the children brought in 2 euro and wore their Christmas jumpers. We collected almost €500 for our local Vincent de Paul which we presented to Stephen McGuire, Vincent’s shop manager, on Wednesday 15th December. Well done and thank you to everybody for supporting this worthy cause.
Migration Day, 2020.
We wish to thank the Alkhder and Alshimale families for their generous gift of a Jasmine plant for our garden. Jasmin was a thoughtful choice, thriving in their native Syria and we look forward to its colourful flowers in Bailieborough in late spring. Their arrival was commemorated by a ceremonial planting outside the school.
Welcome Home
We welcome back recently returned parents serving on peace keeping duty with the Irish Army in the MIddle East.
Christmas Drama- COVID 19 style
Christmas is a special time and it’s a privilege to witness its magic in school. Despite COVID 19, classes have prepared for Christmas as enthusiastically as in other years, adapting to respect the national guidelines.
This year there were wonderful performances of Christmas carols and rhymes, especially from our infant classes. Recorded versions of “Jingle Bells”, “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer” and “Silent Night” rang out in our school, while the Christmas story was retold in drama and art. In every room there were creative class performances of favourites such as “The Night Before Christmas” and the many other Christmas classics. Thanks especially to our senior classes who prepared performances for the younger pupils of our school and indeed to 5th class who prepared a beautiful (COVID compliant) Christmas repertoire for the residents of Fairlawns Nursing Home.
The children from Mr O’ Connor’s 5th and 6th class performed a nativity play for the whole school on Thursday 17th December. It was a performance with a difference because, to comply with COVID 19 guidelines, the play took place outside in the school garden. Every class came to see the play in their bubbles. This involved 14 performances, which was an amazing achievement. Each performance lasted 15 - 20 minutes with the boys and girls in fifth and sixth class giving top class performances every time. There was a surprise in store for all the pupils at the end of the play when Santa made an unexpected appearance!
Great credit is due to Mr O’ Connor, Susan O’ Connell, Bronagh Mc Cabe and Melissa Soden for all the work and effort that putting on this play entailed. It was a unique experience here in our school and one that will be remembered for some time to come.
On Monday 21st December, Mrs O’Neill’s 6th Class did a virtual performance for the whole school of their adaptation of the book, ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’. Preparations for the play started in early December and each pod in the room was assigned one of the houses the postman visits on his journey. The pods devised their own scene and dialogue and musical performances based on what happens in the book. They were very responsible, independent and mature and really took their jobs seriously. The class spent many afternoons practising and creating sets and props to use in the play. The class performed the play from their classroom via Google Meets so all the classes could watch safely from their own class bubbles. Again, a very big thank you to Mrs O’Neill, Melissa Soden and the sixth class children for putting on a wonderful show.
Check out the school website for more details!
Monday 21st December was a busy day indeed as Santa was seen again, kayaking on the Town Lake, by some of the children from our school, after which he got a Garda escort to St. Anne’s school playground where he greeted all the boys and girls before heading off to make some last-minute preparations for Christmas Eve.
Christmas Raffle
Our Christmas Raffle took place on Tuesday 22nd December with many eager and excited faces to be seen as the tickets were being drawn.
A big thank you to Mags and Tony Gregory , Agate Vaicikonis and Catriona Ward Day who donated prizes for our annual Christmas Raffle. The proceeds of the raffle will be used to purchase a chrome book to add to our student IT resources. This year’s lucky winners are
- First Prize, Ethan O Reilly
- Second Prize, Naglis Padaiga
- Third Prize, Anabella Isla
- Fourth Prize, Andrew Leinster
Wedding Bells
Congratulations to Ms O Donnell on her recent marriage. We wish her and her husband, Ronan a long and happy married life.
Recent Retirement
Congratulations to Mrs. O Sullivan who is retiring after 31 years teaching in St. Anne’s NS. Mrs. O’Sullivan is synonymous with music and singing in St. Anne’s NS and has been the energy behind our much-celebrated children’s choirs and their performances at school and church celebrations throughout this period. Mrs. O’Sullivan taught every class in St. Anne’s and knows every inch of our school. As Assistant Principal she has helped guide developments in St. Anne’s in recent years. Her ideas and wisdom will be greatly missed as will her friendliness and enthusiasm. We wish Mrs. O’ Sullivan many happy years of retirement.
School re-opening
School will reopen on January 6th 2021.
See our website www.stannesns.ie
It remains for us to wish you and your families a very happy and safe Christmas as we look forward with renewed hope to 2021.
Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise Daoibh go Léir!