Newsletter: 29th November 2023

Frasaí na Seachtaine #12

"Cá bhfuil mo chóta/ mo hata/ mo mhála scoile?"

See below to listen to the girls from Ms Cunneen's Rang a 3

showing us how to pronounce our Frásaí na Seachtaine!

Labhair Gaeilge linn – sa bhaile agus ar scoil!

School Calendar 2023/2024

The 2023/2024 calendar is available here.

The final day of this school term is Friday 22nd December. We will operate a staggered finish on that day.

Junior & Senior Infants & older siblings	11:30am
1st & 2nd Class & older siblings	11:45am
3rd - 6th Class	12:00pm

School will re-open on Monday 8th January 2024.

An Important Message from the HSE

Board of Management 2023- 2027

As you may be aware the current term of the Board of Management will expire on 30/11/2023 and a new Board of Management will take up office from 01/12/2023 for four years until 30/11/2027.

We are delighted to welcome our two new Parent Nominees to the Board of Management for the 2023-2027 term of office. At a meeting held in the school hall on Thursday 23rd November, Mary Merriman and Paul Close were nominated, seconded and elected to fill the positions of Mother and Father Nominee. I am very much looking forward to working with Mary and Paul and thank them both for their volunteerism and support of our school.

Hollypark PA AGM

Hollypark GNS PA AGM will take place in the school hall on Thursday 30th November @ 7:30pm. Parents will be invited to tour the school and will see how their hard-earned and very generous contributions have helped to improve the learning environment for their girls. We look forward to seeing you then.

Lost Property

Many coats, tracksuit tops and school jumpers are being mislaid each day!

Please check your daughters' uniforms this weekend, to ensure that they have their name and class on each item. Many of the items being found have no names, or names from children who are no longer in the school. Don’t forget to label their jackets and raincoats!

'Cá bhfuil mo chóta, cá bhfuil mo hata?'

Registration for Sacraments 2nd Class: First Holy Communion & 6th Class: Confirmation Please note: Registration for Sacraments closes today Wednesday 29th November.

Foxrock Parish Family Mass Group

Foxrock Parish Family Mass Group (FMG) 2023/24 is back. Choir practice is on Thursday evenings in Tír na nÓg room, Parish Centre, 7-7:45pm for 10am Mass on Sunday.

We will also encourage children to take part in Prayers of the Faithful and/or acting out the Gospel reading (but only if they would like to participate), which is great for their confidence in public speaking.

Come along to the Parish Centre any Thursday evening to try it out without any commitment or contact davypaula@icloud.com/0868449509 for further information.

Dental Hygiene

Alice, a dental hygienist from South Beach Clinic visited our school today to teach the children the importance of dental hygiene and how to brush their teeth properly.

Alice gave each child a pack which includes an information leaflet about brushing technique, a couple of disclosing tablets to check their effectiveness at home, and a sponsorship form to tick twice daily for 2 weeks when they brush their teeth.

The children are asked to complete these forms and return them to their class teacher at the end of this two week period. For every form returned, South Beach Clinic will donate €5 to the school. This means that if every form is returned to our school South Beach Clinic would donate €2545 to our school. This would enable us to buy new floor mats for gymnastics and Magna Boards for Special Education.

This is South Beach Clinic’s way of giving back to the community while providing an important service for our girls.

Graffiti Classics at HP!

We thoroughly enjoyed the visit to our school by Graffiti Classics last Friday. Who knew how much fun Beethoven, Mozart and Bach could be!

Infant Christmas Plays

Rehearsals for our annual Infant Christmas Plays are well underway! We can't wait to see some Oscar-winning performances in December.

Junior Infants	Wednesday 13th December @ 9:30am
Senior Infants	Tuesday 19th December @ 9:30am

All shows will take place in the school hall. Please note that spaces are limited and reserved for two adults only per child.

Primary Maths Masters Quiz

We are very proud of our Maths Quiz Team who competed in yesterday's annual Maths Masters Quiz 2023 in St. Attracta's Senior School in Ballinteer. The girls had to face 6 rounds of gruelling problem solving. They worked at a steady pace and managed to come joint 4th place with a score of 32 points out of a total of 36. We were blown away by their ability to work under pressure while still ensuring accuracy and pace together as a team. Well done Charlotte, Kate Marie, Ciara, & Robyn!

Thank you to Ms Lamont & Ms Shannon for organising and preparing the girls so well. and thank you to our parents for providing lifts to the quiz.

Have a look at an example of one of the rounds the girls scored 6/6!

We challenge you to try and correctly answer all 6 questions in 10 minutes!!

Green Schools

On Friday November 25th, Jennifer Muscheidt from Green Schools came to our school to visit our Green School Committee and check in on how we are getting on completing our 9th flag for Travel: Global Citizenship.

Our 6th Class team presented their PowerPoints, summarising the whole-school project we have completed on how children around the world get to school. The 5th Class girls then sang “Sing for the Climate (Do It Now)” which ties in with our theme.

We are so proud of all the girls and the work they have done so far. Jennifer was very impressed with our progress. Well done everyone!

Lego Workshops in 4th Class

Our Lego Robotic Workshops for 4th Class finished up this week. Huge thanks to our PA who sponsored this wonderful endeavour and the girls' Robotics teacher Arati. Here is a video of the girls making electric hand mixers out of lego!

School Choir

Parish Christmas Concert

Hollypark GNS Choir are looking forward to singing at the Parish Christmas Concert in Foxrock Church on Sunday 3rd December @ 6pm.

All funds raised at the concert will be donated to Kyrie Farm.

We are delighted to join in this community event to support this very worthwhile cause. Tickets are priced at €15.00 each and are available to purchase directly from our office. Please contact Suzanne at hollyparkgns@gmail.com.

Light Up Laura Lynn

6th class girls from our 6th Classes were delighted to be invited to sing at the Light Up Laura Lynn event on Sunday 26th November. This is our 6th year of singing at this very special event and the girls put on a fantastic show. Well done to our girls – they are, as always, a credit to themselves, their families and their school.

St Vincent de Paul

As Christmas approaches, we are conscious that this can be a particularly difficult time for families. We are delighted to once again support our local St Vincent de Paul and thereby support our local families.

An Aladdin payment link has issued if you would like to donate to this very worthy cause.

Respect for Our Neighbours

As a Green School we actively encourage our girls to walk, cycle and scoot to school. As 80% of our pupils live within 2km of the school, this is very doable for many.

Walking, cycling and scooting not only provide a wonderful opportunity for chats with friends, improving our physical and mental health and caring for our environment, but these methods also help to reduce traffic, making the area around our school a safer place not just for our pupils but for all our neighbours. Unfortunately, but quite justifiably, our neighbours frequently complain of inconsiderate parking on the roads close to our school.

Please use the Church car park if it’s on your route to school: parking at the Church is free to all families at drop off and collection times.