Christmas Assembly 2020

On Tuesday 15th December, the classes gathered in the yard and using our socially distanced dots, held a beautiful and colourful Christmas Assembly for 2020. With no Carol Service possible this year, we gathered on a lovely December morning and each class performed a lovely Christmas piece for all the other classes. A great morning was had by all and even the weather approved as you can see when the most beautiful rainbow greeted us just as we were finishing up! Thanks to Ms Cowhig and the HPS for arranging the event, to Ms Phelan who worked on logistics and to all the children and teachers for a wonderful morning's entertainment!

Camogie All-Ireland 2020

Best wishes to the Kilkenny Senior Camogie Team in the All-Ireland Camogie Final on Saturday 12th December. We send special wishes to our past pupil and Emeralds' Club Player Davina Tobin. Heres hoping you bring home the O'Duffy Cup girls!!

Check out the best wishes of all her cousins on the Kilkenny Camogie Facebook page!!

Christmas Arrangements 2020

 View the Original Letter here

7^th December 2020

Dear Parents,

Firstly, today is Mindful Monday, the first Monday of each month is homework free!!

Parent-Teacher Meetings

We have looked at all the options regarding Parent-Teacher meetings and have decided that this year we are going to send a Mid-Year Report for all children before the end of January in place of Parent-Teacher Meetings. We are not planning to telephone every parent as this is not practical with our large numbers. However, if parents or teachers have concerns and feel there is a need for further communication with these reports, this can be organised by contacting the school office.

With Christmas fast approaching there are a number of updates for your diary.

Christmas Raffle:

Today your child received a Raffle Card for a Christmas Draw in aid of our Parents’ Association. The Association has a number of Fund Raising events annually. At Christmas time they normally run a Coffee Morning and the sixth class children hold a Jumble Sale and fun day. These two events would most likely have been held this coming Friday. However, with COVID restrictions, they will not occur this year.

The Association also holds an Annual Christmas Draw at this time of year. Each family is given a card and asked to sell it. The total value of the card is €10. The cards are returned to the school and the draw will be held in the school on Wednesday, December 16^th. We only give one card per family though some people get extra cards from the office. While we hope most cards will be sold, we ask that all cards be returned to the school by Tuesday, December 15^th.

You will see from the card that there is a range of attractive prizes. This year, the Parents’ Association decided to have three cash prizes as they felt it would be unfair to local businesses to ask for sponsorship this year. However, a number of local businesses insisted on giving prizes and we thank them for their continued support of the Association and the school

As principal of the school, may I thank the Parents’ Association for their work for the school. We appreciate the help we receive from our parents.

Christmas Mass:

With the difficulty of only 50 people being able to attend Mass at a time, Fr Maher has decided to hold a special Children’s Christmas Mass this year.

We still have to finalise the details, but the main idea is that we will hold a special Christmas Mass for the children during the day before school ends for Christmas Holidays. A certain number of children will attend in the church to help with the ceremony. The ceremony will be live streamed on the Parish Webcam and the other classes will be able to attend Mass together in their classrooms.

We will also let all parents know when this special Mass is on so that parents, grandparents, family and friends can all join the webcast if they are available and would like to. Full details when we have them finalised.

Christmas Assembly:

Again this year, we have to postpone our Annual Christmas Carol Service due to COVID restrictions. However, for the children we plan to hold a Christmas Assembly to make up somewhat for the fact that we cannot have the Carol Service. The assembly will be held in the yard in the last full week of school. We are not putting a time or date on it yet as it is so weather dependent. At the assembly each class will perform one item for the rest of the school. Hopefully, we will have a fun day.

Christmas Cards:

As you may have heard in the media, there is much talk about whether or not children can exchange Christmas Cards in schools this year. We have decided to put a simple solution in place. Each class will have its own Class Post Box from this Friday. Anyone who decides to give cards to other children can place the cards in the Post Box. Closing date for posting is Friday 18^th December! Then on Monday or Tuesday, with 72 hours of quarantine complete, the class teachers can deliver the post. Remember, nobody should feel any pressure to give cards. It is for those who want too!

Christmas Jumpers:

On Monday 21^st and Tuesday 22^nd of December, children can wear their Christmas jumpers with their tracksuit bottoms instead of their uniforms!

In this strange year we hope to keep the spirit of Christmas high in our school.

Jersey Day

This Friday, December 11^th, we will hold a jersey day to celebrate the Kilkenny Camogie team playing in the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Final on Saturday. We wish past pupil, Davina Tobin, and all the Kilkenny team the very best of luck!

Yours sincerely,

_____________________________

Principal