Dear parents,
I hope that you and your families are all keeping well.
Our children in 6th class are fast approaching the end of their time with us in Mary, Mother of Hope Senior National School. I want to let you know a little of what we will be doing in the weeks ahead.
Active Schools Week
Next week is Active Schools week, where we will have a special focus on developing a positive attitude to keeping active, staying fit and looking after our physical health. Pupils will not be assigned written homework for the week, but will be encouraged to take on an Active Activity instead and post it on their class padlet.
We will have a number of activities for our pupils throughout the week, the highlight of which will be the Fun Day for each class level which I wrote about earlier this week. If you have not already made the payment for your child to take part in the Fun Day, please make the payment on Aladdin.
I want to thank Ms. Michelle Greene for her work in co-ordinating all the activities for Active schools Week and we hope that it is a great success!
Special Talk for Parents on Transition to Secondary School
We have been preparing our pupils for their transition to postprimary school for a number of weeks now. An important part of that transition program is a special talk that we organise annually for the parents of 6th class pupils by Clare Ryan.
Clare Ryan is the former Principal of St. Leo’s College, Carlow and is currently the CEO of CEIST secondary school trust.
Clare has many years of experience as principal of a secondary school and in working with parents, helping to support them in the job of bringing up and educating their children. We would encourage all of our 6th class parents to attend. This is always a very informative and enlightening evening. We look forward to seeing all 6th class parents there!
The talk will take place over Zoom next Tuesday evening the 15th June at 7pm.
I will send a link to the Zoom meeting next week.
Graduation Day
As the end of the school year draws near, we are turning our attention to the graduation of our 6th class pupils.
Yesterday Jack Chambers T.D. and Minister for Sport came to the school to meet the graduating classes and to wish them well ahead of moving on to postprimary school. He paid tribute to their commitment to keeping themselves and each other safe. I also informed him how impressed all of the teachers at 6th class are at the resilience and good cheer of the children who have had to endure so much disruption for the last two school-years without a word of complaint. And we want to celebrate that resilience in the next two weeks and particularly on their graduation day.
The graduation itself will take place on Friday the 25th June, which will be their last day in Mary Mother of Hope Senior National School.
Unfortunately, due to public health advice, we are unable to accommodate parents on the day, which is a huge disappointment to all of us- teachers, pupils and parents alike.
Again, in accordance with public health advice, we aim to have the graduation outdoors, so that the children can be together in their class groupings, but socially distant. If the weather is poor, we will have to have an indoor celebration, but with just two class groupings at a time- so fingers crossed the weather holds up!
We are hoping to record the graduation ceremony and send a link to parents over the week-end of the graduation- we are still working on the logistics of this, and will keep you informed of what we intend to do.
Sacrament of Confirmation
We are still awaiting guidance from Archbishop’s House in relation to the celebration of Confirmation for the children in 6th class who have been preparing for Confirmation throughout the last term. No dates have been organised yet. As soon as we have more information in this regard, we will let you know.
We hope that the coming weeks are enjoyable for our 6th class children and we wish them all the very best for their final two weeks in Mary, Mother of Hope Senior National School!
Take care,
Enda McGorman