Our Dress Up Day at the end of October raised €130, all of which went to the LauraLynn Children’s Hospice. A student teacher from CICE, Aimee Kerr, spent three weeks with us in November on Student Placement, teaching 5th and 6th class. Both she and the pupils enjoyed and benefitted from the experience. A big thank you to Karyn Cole who taught all classes in the school modern dance lessons during these three weeks.
Parent Teacher meetings took place after school during November.
Thank you to Ron Condell, who recently installed a sensor light at the front entrance of the school. This is proving very helpful to staff on the dark winter evenings. We’d also like to thank him for the work he does to keep the grounds maintained.
During Science Week in November, 1st and 2nd class attended a hands-on Science Show in Athy Library where the pupils took part in various activities involving flight, pressure and sound. This was a terrific show put on by a very entertaining scientist and was well worth the walk to and from the library. Thank you to the parents who accompanied us. 3rd and 4th class attended a Physics Show later the same day where they learned about forces, energy and electricity and they were equally enthralled. It is great to have shows such as these within walking distance of school and we are fortunate that the library can host them.
We have started practising for our School Carol Service which takes place in St. Michael’s (Church of Ireland) on Sunday 15th December at 11am. We’d like to thank Susan Murenzi and Neil Perry for all their help with this and also for Susan’s ongoing work with our Prayerful Place. School will take place in the Parish Centre on Wednesday 11th December to enable us to rehearse in the church. Many thanks to the parish for facilitating this.
Our Junior Christmas trip this year is by bus to the Visual Theatre in Carlow on Tuesday 10th December, to see the musical ‘Cinders Eile’. 3rd to 6th classes are travelling by train to Dublin on Thursday 14th December to visit Dáil Éireann and Trinity College, where they will see the Book of Kells. Many thanks to the Parents Association Committee for organising these trips.
We said a fond farewell on Friday 29th November to Joe O’ Sullivan, bus driver, who retired last June having driven Model School pupils to and from school for over 30 years. A presentation was made to him on behalf of the Board of Management and he was given thank you cards from the pupils he carried to school.
All members of staff on the Athy Educational Campus will be attending the annual Christmas campus social evening on Thursday 5th December from 3 to 4 pm. This is an opportunity for people on the campus to meet and get to know each other.
Green Schools: We have compiled our results for October and November. In October we put 7 ½ 10 litre buckets of biodegradable waste into the compost bin and in November we put 7 10 litre buckets of biodegradable waste into the compost bin. In October we recycled 7 bags of recyclable materials compared to 6 bags of non-recyclable materials. Each class entered the Repak colouring competition. We hope that we will have a winner. A big thank you to everyone for helping to make our school greener.
School closes on Friday 20th December and reopens on Monday 6th January. We wish everyone a happy and peaceful Christmas.
Athy Model School is a primary school under the patronage of the Department of Education, with a Church of Ireland ethos. We endeavour to enable each child to acquire a set of moral values based on the ethos of the school.