Year3news

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Aerobics

The Parents Support Group organised a "Get in shape for Christmas" Aerobics classes which started on Wednesday, 1st November in the School. Staff and parents joined in on this healthy activity. Admission was £2. Money raised went towards School Funds.

Cash Cafeteria
During the month of October, the Cash Cafeteria system was introduced to the school. Primary 4 - 6.

After School Clubs in Action
The after school clubs began on Wednesday, 4th October. Primary 4 - 6 children had a wide choice of clubs to choose from.

These included:

Football Club,
Swimming Club
Computer Club,
Reading / Games Club,
Study / Internet Club,
Library Club,
Recorder Club,
Violins,
Netball Club  
School Band

Famous Poet at St Eithne's

John Foster, children's poet, spent a whole day at St Eithne's entertaining children, teachers and parents. He presented books, badges and bookmarks to the Primary Two children as part of the "Reading Is Fundamental" scheme.

John 's most famous poem is the Ten Dancing Dinosaurs. As you can see he is acting out the poem in front of the children. They really loved his antics.

Christmas Shows

Once again we had a successful Christmas. Our little shows went down a treat. Teachers are again grateful to parents for providing costumes for our Christmas Show and P1 nativity's. All shows were a great success and were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Videos of the all the Shows were available .
The Primary 3 show children got a bit wet as they had to run out to the Youth Wing to enter from the side.

Famous Authoress.

On Friday St. Eithne's were once again honoured by the presence of another famous author (authoress). Liz Weir, the author in question, came to St. Eithne's to tell stories to all the children and to present free books. This is part of the Reading is Fundamental Scheme. RIF is an organisation which encourages young people to take an interest in reading for fun by, amongst other things, giving away free books.

RIF. The above project was run by Mrs McGonagle, Mrs Grant and Mrs Harley. The Reading Is Fundamental organisation help children to grow up with a love for books.

A special thanks to Mr Gormley, Miss Dunne, the choir children and their parents for their constant support and commitment.

Primary 3 Visitors & Educational trip.

Cross Community Project.
Mrs Gillespie's P.5 class linked with other schools on an EMU project visiting Ulster Ceramics and the Central library with Greenhaw P.S. and St. Mura's. They mixed with children from different cultures. They produced the "Tile mosaic" in the front Foyer. They also went to the Derry Museum & Ulster Folk Park for a day as part of this great project. Thanks to Cumann Na Ros Cnoc Gaelach.

The children aslo met Pat Hume(Wife of John Hume) and Dafne Trimble (Wife of David Trimble) as they finished the project.

See photo above.

Halloween Fun

Here is Melina The Witch and Daniel the Vampire. (P.1)

THIS WAS A VERY SUCCESSFUL YEAR FOR OUR LITTLE SWIMMING TEAM.

North West Schools' Swimming Championship Gala

Well done St. Eithne's first Gaelic Football team. The Primary 6 boys played their first gaelic matches this year.

The match report of St. Eithne's very first match can be read by clicking here!!

This link has not yet been established.

Coming soon. I think we had all 18 players on at one point (agreed by the opposition of course).

OTHER ITEMS OF NEWS.

Foyle Hospice Collection
We have been collecting for the Foyle Hospice. The pupils and Cafeteria ladies had a fun day last month and were able to collect £305.
The pupils are bringing in cans for recycling. The money collected for these will also be given to the Foyle Hospice.

Health Promoting School.

We have always promoted good eating habits at St. Eithne's. Pupils only take fruit and milk at Break times. We were sorry to see that the milk subsidy was cut this year.

School Milk

With effect from 1 January 2001 the price of milk increased from 4p to 8p per 1/3 pint. As this is quite a substantial increase we had to ask parents after Christmas if they wished their children to continue receiving milk.Thankfully most parents continued with the milk.

Dental Health Show.

The pupils of St. Eithne's were entertained by a little show which focused on dental health on the 1st March. A special thanks goes to Julie Costello of the Ballymagroarty / Hazelbank group for organising the event. The children were treated to a very entertaining Punch and Judy show and educated by Mrs Una Hegarty on how to look after your teeth.

Parky's Punch & Judy Show

Horace The Magician .

Horace will be visiting the school on the 10th April to mesmerise all our children with his magic tricks.

Here Mr Meehan and Mrs Gillespie are asked to perform one of Horace's tricks.

Fund Raising

Many thanks to parents who supported our various fund raising activities which included, Night at the Races, Rickity Wheel and our Christmas Draw.
Thanks to Adrian Kehoe for organising the prizes and tickets for our Christmas Raffle.

Night at the Races: £1,031.91
Rickety Wheel: £1,503.71
Christmas Draw: £1,700.20

A special thank you to the Parents Support Organisation for all the work they put in to organise and run the Night at the Races and the Rickity Wheel.

Mrs Gillespie holds prize for winner. Thomas and Mr Gormley spin the wheel.

Book Fair

Pupils and parents were able to purchase books over the week of (26th - 30th March) at The Travelling Book Fair.
A Special THANKS to Donna, Ann, Catherine and Orla, our permanent volunteers. If there is anything needing done They'll do it for us. Thanks, Girls

Well Done Aodan C.
P5 Derry Limerick Writer.
Aodan won the Limerick Town Challenge and appeared on BBC.

Easter Raffle For Trocaire.
We do most of our fund raising for charity in the second term. This is probably because it is the season of Lent. It is one way of alerting children to the misfortune of others and developing in them a caring attitude towards others.
As part of our charity drive for Trocaire we hold an Easter Raffle. Our parents Support Organisation collect the prizes needed and the tickets are sold at 20 pence a time in class.
The Draw took place on last day of term.

Winner of the Egg Hamper was Lauren (P.6). Well done Lauren.
We raised altogether £280. Well done.

First Communions .
The children of Primary 4 made their first communion this Saturday (19th May) at 11.00 a.m. in the Holy Family Church. It was a lovely occasion where children and families all turned out dressed in their best. Our young school choir sang beautifully and our Primary 4 children played their individual parts for the ceremony extremely well.

Business Link with Primary 4.
Year 4 children were involved in a project with the Business community . They have been learning about the community and the different types of jobs in our community. They had a tour of an ambulance on one occasion. Another wonderful learning experience.

Monkeynastix During the past year Primary 1, 2 and 3 children took part in Monkeynastix, which was held once a week in the school. These classes will continue and have already included Year 4 children.

TOKEN AND COMPUTER COLLECTIONS

Thanks to all pupils and parents who have been diligently collecting the Tesco tokens. Our challenge was to collect 9,500 tokens so that we could get a free digital camera. We made it. The new digital camera still gets great use at school.(We have around 8 now).

Santa's Rabbit visits the classes.

Santa himself takes a Primary one class.

Farewell.
Mrs M. Harley left us this year. She had been given a teaching job in her own hometown of Strabane. We say farewell to Maria who has been with us since St. Eithne's opened.
Miss P. Dunne was granted temporary secondment by the governors. She worked (2001/2002) for the WELB as an advisor on early years teaching..

New Staff
The next year five new teachers start at St. Eithne's. These are experienced staff and we welcome them to the school as our oldest children (Year 6) move into primary 7. The new teachers are: Mrs Mc Clean
Mr Kerr
Miss J. Mc Laughlin
Miss Coyle
Miss M. Green

Aerobics The Parents Support Group organised a "Get in shape for Christmas" Aerobics classes which started on Wednesday, 1st November in the School. Staff and parents joined in on this healthy activity. Admission was £2. Money raised went towards School Funds. Cash Cafeteria During the month of October, the Cash Cafeteria system was introduced to the school. Primary 4 - 6.	After School Clubs in Action The after school clubs began on Wednesday, 4th October. Primary 4 - 6 children had a wide choice of clubs to choose from. These included: Football Club, Swimming Club Computer Club, Reading / Games Club, Study / Internet Club, Library Club, Recorder Club, Violins, Netball Club School Band
Famous Poet at St Eithne's John Foster, children's poet, spent a whole day at St Eithne's entertaining children, teachers and parents. He presented books, badges and bookmarks to the Primary Two children as part of the "Reading Is Fundamental" scheme. John 's most famous poem is the Ten Dancing Dinosaurs. As you can see he is acting out the poem in front of the children. They really loved his antics.	Christmas Shows Once again we had a successful Christmas. Our little shows went down a treat. Teachers are again grateful to parents for providing costumes for our Christmas Show and P1 nativity's. All shows were a great success and were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Videos of the all the Shows were available . The Primary 3 show children got a bit wet as they had to run out to the Youth Wing to enter from the side.
Orchestra at Reading is Fundamental Project. Mrs Mc Gonagle introduces Liz. Behind is our first orchestra and choir. Gregory and Thomas build the RIF props and Ann the Cleaner supervises.	Famous Authoress. On Friday St. Eithne's were once again honoured by the presence of another famous author (authoress). Liz Weir, the author in question, came to St. Eithne's to tell stories to all the children and to present free books. This is part of the Reading is Fundamental Scheme. RIF is an organisation which encourages young people to take an interest in reading for fun by, amongst other things, giving away free books.
RIF. The above project was run by Mrs McGonagle, Mrs Grant and Mrs Harley. The Reading Is Fundamental organisation help children to grow up with a love for books. Thanks to our Parents Support Group for helping us set up and serving the refreshments, to Gregory and Thomas for building the little houses, to Sarah Driscoll from RIF for grant aid and free books. And finally to Liz and John who were great fun.
School Choir Over the Christmas period the school choir have given a number of performances in the school and also in the local community. These included the Carol Service in Holy Family Church, a performance in Edenballymore Lodge (old people's residence), the School Christmas Show and Quayside Shopping Centre. A selection of the choir also performed live on Radio Foyle. The picture shows the choir performing at the Reading is Fundamental project with John Foster. This year our oldest children were Primary 6. The children pictured had been in the choir since Primary 3 and 4.	A special thanks to Mr Gormley, Miss Dunne, the choir children and their parents for their constant support and commitment.
	Primary 3 Visitors & Educational trip. The postman (Mr. Kerr) came to St. Eithne's this term and the Primary 3 children produced some lovely work after his visit. They were also treated to a visit to the Derry Airport. This was a real life educational experience not to be missed for children that age. Primary 1 Art Workshop During the past term Primary 1 children visited the Verbal Arts centre to take part in an Art Workshop. The children had a great time making and creating. Soccer Coaching. Mr. N. Moore and G. Colhoun have been coaching all the boys and girls of Year 4 to 6 during the year. All the children received a certificate for completing the course successfully
Cross Community Project. Mrs Gillespie's P.5 class linked with other schools on an EMU project visiting Ulster Ceramics and the Central library with Greenhaw P.S. and St. Mura's. They mixed with children from different cultures. They produced the "Tile mosaic" in the front Foyer. They also went to the Derry Museum & Ulster Folk Park for a day as part of this great project. Thanks to Cumann Na Ros Cnoc Gaelach. The children aslo met Pat Hume(Wife of John Hume) and Dafne Trimble (Wife of David Trimble) as they finished the project. See photo above.	Halloween Fun Here is Melina The Witch and Daniel the Vampire. (P.1)