Message from PAC: What an exciting year the kids have had. Our wonderful

new school building , our amazing teaching staff, Joseph, Multicultural day,

Healthy Eating weeks, Active Flag week, Music Generation,our ever

expanding Extra Curricular Activities, our beautiful Library and free

information events for parents. We also had the Ceili, Halloween disco,

Craft Fair, and we were overall Greystones St Patricks Day parade winners

(again!!). These things don’t happen without the involvement of the

WHOLE school community and we need to continue to work together in a

positive way to make school a fun, happy learning environment for our

children. I want to thank everyone for making all this possible: the kids, the

teachers, Principal Catherine, the Board, Aideen, Hana, Liz and Ben and, of

course every single parent who gave up their time whether it was an hour

for a bag pack, or 2 hours to come in and talk to the classes about

something you are passionate about, e.g. the library, or providing feedback

on policies, organising events, supervising events, baking. Whatever you

did THANK YOU. Without your involvement none of it would be possible. I

have to also thank all the members of the Parents Association Committee –

it is often a thankless job but without your dedication and willingness to give

up your precious time a lot of these wonderful initiatives that create lasting

happy memories for our children would not be possible. Have a great

summer everyone Fiona NicChoiligh (PAC Chair).info@grestonesetnspa.com

Message from Board of Management—GETNS As we come to the end of a big year for GET NS, and my own first year as Chairperson of the Board of Management, I'd like to thank my fellow board members and everyone who helped us with the work of the school during the year. The board had a busy year: we had our second "whole school review" of an important school policy on Anti-Bullying, and we'll be trying hard to include as many suggestions as possible into the final version. The board also updated and ratified 6 other school policies throughout the year. The Ethos forum has been established and will be busy next year and in the years to come on several projects to strengthen the Educate Together ethos in the life of the school. Next year we are really looking forward to seeing the "Percent for Art" project take shape, with the help of the all the children in the school. The staff will also be involved in this project, as they have been in the many great events that went on this year. I would like to acknowledge the energy and willing participation of the school staff in all of the school events and meetings inside and outside of school this year. Finally, I would like to particularly thank Paul Dillon and Rory Benville who will be leaving us before the start of the new school year, due to the demands of work, travel and other commitments. They both made great contributions to the work of the Board and will be missed. Have a great summer break, and see you next year. Liam Friel - Chairperson.

Greystones Educate Together

The school library had its official opening on May 27th, bringing together our pupils,

parents and staff. The library was opened by children’s writer Jackie Burke, author of

‘The Secrets of Grindlewood’ series.

Thank you to mum’s Sarah, Antonia and Eilish who played a pivotal part in the li-

brary’s set up of an online librarian system, which enables children to check out

books and review books for others to read.

Thank you also to parents who donated good quality books or who sponsored books.

The library received 26 new titles from sponsoring alone.

Congratulations to Mirra Kirthivasan

4th Class, who has earned a place in

the prestigious RTÉ Cór na nÓg. This

is a national children's choir that will

perform in the coming year on shows

such as The Late Late Toy Show.

Well done!!!!

Yesterday’s cake sale was a wonderful success & raised €700 for resources for the

our school. Thank you to all who baked & helped!

Principal’s Thoughts:Having ended our first year in our new building,

with the whole school community having visited it and been suitably impressed, we have prepared a letter of Thank You ( including an aerial photograph of all the children in the yard making the formation of the words THANK YOU) for the Department of Education. We truly appreciate how lucky we are to have had this building designed and built to meet our needs. It will be wonderful to have a Summer free of concern about 'accommodation' issues. Although we still have ongoing plans that will involve input from volunteers regarding e.g. the garden and the yard. We would love to have a group of parents to get together to plan the school garden. We have at least one teacher who is also interested in that project. We already have some volunteers who have been meeting staff to decide on the appropriate 'play markings' for the Junior Yard. We will further our plans for the Senior yard, with input from the children, in September. We will also need to purchase some high netting for the basketball court so that the children can play without the concern of the ball going over the fence. We expect that the 'yard development plan' could cost around €8,000 approximately, some of which parents have already fundraised towards. It has been a very happy year for all the children and staff. We look forward to more musical input and of course our wonderful 'Percent for Art' project in September. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish our first full 6th class( who graduated yesterday) our very best wishes. Some of them will be moving just a few metres away from us to Templecarrig! Can I offer our thanks, on behalf of the staff, to all the volunteers who provided support to the children in so many ways this year. I would also like to thank the volunteers who have committed themselves to the very time consuming job of governance of the school ( the Board of Management). Unfortunately, we will be losing Paul Dillon and Rory Benville, our community nominees, at the end of the Summer. They have been absolutely wonderful in the manner in which they committed to the responsibility of their roles. Liam, our new chairperson, has been diligent and industrious, the evidence of which is to be seen in e.g. the development of school policies. But much more 'invisible' work and dedication has been evidenced by the Board, as well. Finally, thanks to Ben & the office staff. Aideen will not be in the office reception as much in the future, as she is now the school Bursar and Admissions Officer ( the AB officer).But she will be on hand to offer advice, when required.

Have a wonderful Summer, everyone!

Going For Gold!

Huge congrats to Amy Mc Crea, 4th

Class, who won a gold medal for

Bowling at the Ireland Games in

Limerick. A small number who

qualify are selected for the Special

Olympics. Best of luck Amy!

Mini Marathon

Some of the mothers (Astrid Weidenhammer, Catherine Matthews, Gill Nolan, Nicky Bishton and Hazel Byrne) ran in the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon on June 2nd to raise funds for the school. If you sponsored them then thank you as you played a part in them raising, .€600 For our school! Thank you ladies for your time and dedication.

The Senior Gross Motor Group have

been working really hard on basketball

this year and have developed some

lovely skills. In June they had the most

wonderful sessions with coach Ed

Randolph. We hope he can fit us in

again next year!

Helen’s class had a wonderful final term with assistance from American student Kelly, who came from Eureka College, Illi-nois, to gain experience in our methods of teaching. Thank you Kelly!

May 29th was ‘Multi-Cultural Day’ in our school. It was a huge success with many families coming to visit the class-rooms, set up as countries from around the world, including China, France, and India. Children demonstrated to and ed-ucated parents on the countries foods, customs and cultures, many wearing the dress associated with the country. Chil-dren also visited each others countries during the school day, learning from their peers and enjoying an authentic Educate Together experience.