We had a great turn out of grandparents and parents for our Grandparents Assembly, held back in April. The collection raised €245 for Age Action Athy. A big thank you to all who supported it.
The induction afternoon for pupils starting school in September will be held in the school on Monday 18th June at 1.20 pm. New pupils and their parents will get to meet each other, the principal Mrs Griffin and their new teacher, Miss Pearson and spend some time in what will be their home from home for the next eight years!
Our school will be blessed and officially opened by Archbishop Michael Jackson at 11 am on Thursday 21st June. All are welcome at the service which will take place in our Sports Hall and will be followed by refreshments.
Our End of Year Service will take place at 11 am on Sunday 24th June. Every family is encouraged to attend this service in which we celebrate the past school year and say a fond farewell to our 6th class pupils.
The 6th class Annual Sale is being held in the school on Monday 25th June. There will be lots going on, including a bric-a-brac stall, a cake sale, raffles as well as teas and coffees. All proceeds this year will go to the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. Everyone welcome.
Congratulations to Jade Arundell who has won a scholarship to The Kings Hospital.
We are sad to say goodbye to Rev. Nicola Halford who has presented such entertaining and meaningful assemblies on a weekly basis for the last school year. She will be greatly missed by all of us in the Model School. We wish her and Ronan well as they move to Wexford.
3rd to 6th class spent the day in Baltinglass Adventure Centre for their school tour on 8th May. They took part in kayaking and orienteering activities and thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Infants to 2nd class went to Castlecomer Discovery Park on 17th May for their school tour, where they searched a stream and found all sorts of lovely creepy crawlies! They also went on a nature trail and had great fun in the playground . A big thank you to Rhonda, Belinda, Jane, Beverley and Maria who helped on the day. Also thank you to Liz and Karyn for organising the tours.
We are delighted with our new exterior lettering which went up in May. It’s so much easier to explain where we are now!
1st and 2nd class visited Athy Library for a morning on 27th April. The school has signed up to borrow 30 books per classroom which we exchange every month. We are currently converting an upstairs classroom into our school library which we hope to have up and running by the end of June. We recently bought a large selection of new books for the library, with funds raised by the PA and we hope to add to this every year. We would be very grateful for donations of new/nearly new, suitable children’s books to add to stock.
The new Board attended Board of Management training in The Kings Hospital in May.
The principal attended the Patron’s Day on Friday 18th May.
Pupils greatly enjoyed the play ‘Down to Earth’ which a team from Kildare County Council performed in our hall recently. This had an environmental theme.
Many thanks for all who collected lids and bottle tops for our school in the last while. We have plenty now! We have asked the children to collect sea shells, cones and buttons over the summer so next time you’re at the beach/in the woods, perhaps you’d collect a few!
Thank you to all pupils who supported the collection for Christian Aid at last Friday’s assembly.
Yvonne Griffin
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.