KNS April Newsletter

                                                                                                                        24^th April 2018

Dear Parents,

Here is this month’s newsletter for KNS to keep you in touch with what has been happening in April and to let you know of upcoming events etc.  

Best wishes,
Mr.Ciarán Caulfield, Priomhoide

·         Gaeilge Fun: From tomorrow, we’re going to try out a fun Gaeilge (Irish) activity. We are inviting all school families to make a 10 second video of themselves saying an Irish phrase. It can be filmed at home or in the park or anywhere appropriate. The phrases for each class are attached to this newsletter. If you’re happy to be involved, just pick the phrase you’d like to film with your child, gather round your camera, say the phrase out loud / sing it / dance it, etc. etc. and record it for 10 seconds. If you like, do it in a fun way (eg. with actions or featuring the family dog etc.!) If you choose to be involved, then please email the 10 seconds of video to the email address we’ve created for this: kilcoskangaeilge@gmail.com All the videos will be shown at an assembly at the end of next week. The closing date for entries will be 2^nd May 2018. We’ll have a raffle prize at each class level for pupils who can convince their families to participate. The purpose of this initiative is to encourage our pupils to see that Irish is a living language and to encourage them to have fun with the language too – of course, it is not obligatory.

·         Cancellation of parents talk on Cyber Bullying: following just 10 votes to attend the rescheduled cyber bullying talk (7 for the morning, 3 for the evening), we have had to cancel the event.

·         Well done to our KNS football team who have been participating in the small schools Football League recently. We’ve had 2 tough matches against Mary Queen of Ireland NS and St.Margaret’s NS – but we performed bravely in both and we’ll come back stronger and even more skilful in the Joe Crowe Cup later this year!

·         Trocaire boxes must be returned to KNS by this Thursday morning at the latest.

·         Well done to the four 6^th class pupils who represented KNS at last week’s NCCA Conference on Education for Inclusion and Mutual Understanding. Only a very small number of schools, considered innovators and leaders in this area, were invited to the conference. At it, our pupils displayed some of the work we have been doing in KNS over the last 2 years or so to encourage mutual understanding and inclusion and we understand that this innovative work will inform the NCCA’s work in curriculum revision.  Samples of the work are on display in our school reception. Check out www.ncca.ie and follow the links to primary developments - education about religions and beliefs and ethics – and finally sharing inclusive practice to see some of the great work done by our school in this area.

·         KNS Code updates: Thanks to those parents who submitted feedback to help the Board of Management in its review of the school Code of Behaviour. Having consulted with our KNS Students’ Council too and taken a vote from all our pupils at assembly, from today, pupils will no longer get the Excellent / Good / Needs Improvement stamps in their school journal. Instead, the stamps will be a smiley face, a neutral face or a sad face. These faces will serve as meaningful daily feedback and reminders to our pupils that it’s important to keep to the values of the KNS Code:

                        Be kind to yourself and others

                        Think and make smart choices

                        Always do your best

The Board of Management will continue with its review of the Code of Behaviour at its next meeting.

·         Update re. class teachers until the end of the school year: Teacher Valerie will be going on maternity leave after the First Holy Communion on May 20^th whereupon Teacher Aoife will return as the 1^st & 2^nd class teacher until the summer. Teacher Keelan will remain as class teacher of 5^th & 6^th class until the end of the school year. All other classes will remain the same until the summer holidays.

·         Reminder about recycling: we still ask that all pupils bring their lunch waste home with them to be recycled. After the May break however, we’ll be collecting daily any leftover lunch fruits / vegetables for our KNS Compost system. The sealed compost box is located in our recently fenced-off KNS Eco-Zone corner, within the school garden. Don’t forget to admire the daffodils and other new life in the garden when you’re passing – including the flower pot people made by our Gardening Club - spring is finally springing, hooray!

·         Thursday Swimming is now over for all pupils. We therefore revert to having our weekly tracksuit days for the whole school on Tuesdays and Fridays as before.

·         Healthy fundraiser on the horizon: On Friday 8^th June we will launch our KNS Fun Fitness Fortnight with a super-cool whole school marathon. The idea is that between all 110 or so of our pupils, the staff and even parents (if they wish), we’ll run a marathon during the school day (ie. a few hundred metres or so each, depending on age etc.) Pupils will be asked to get sponsorship for this and it will be organised in partnership with our KNS Parents Association in aid of outdoor, yard and educational equipment and experiences for our pupils.

·         Reminder re. May school closure: School will be closed from May 7^th to May 11^th inclusive and will reopen for all at 9am on Monday May 14^th.