November 2012

NEWSLETTER

NOVEMBER 2012

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

Wednesday 14 November P1 Welcome Service 1.15pm
Wednesday 5 December P5-P7 Pantomime 10.00am
Thursday 6 December P3 Christmas Show 1.00pm
Wednesday 12 December P2 Christmas Show 1.00pm
Thursday 13 December P1-P4 Pantomime 10.00am
Tuesday 18 December KS2 Carol Service St Therese Church 1.15pm
Wednesday 19 December Open Day 10.00am
Friday 21 December End of term 12.00 noon finish

ASSEMBLIES
Assemblies continue this month with Mrs Mulholland’s P3 class on Friday 9 November, Miss Gargan’s P4 class on Friday 16 November and Mrs McIlwaine’s P4 class on Friday 23 November. All assemblies begin at 9.30am and parents and family members are very welcome.

PRIMARY 3 ENROLMENT CEREMONY
The children in Primary 3 are working really hard in preparation for an enrolment ceremony which is scheduled to take place on Thursday 15 November at 7pm in St Therese Church. The ceremony of enrolment will mark the beginning of the children’s journey to First Confession this year and next year, to First Holy Communion. We wish the children well with their preparations and look forward to seeing them along with their parents at the enrolment ceremony.

CHRISTMAS SHOWS
This year, our Primary 2 and Primary 3 children will be inviting their parents to their Christmas shows on Wednesday 12 December and Thursday 6 December respectively. Each show will begin at 1.00pm. Parents are advised to put this date in their diaries, as they are always extremely popular events which no-one wants to miss! Primary 2 children will be presenting ‘Whoops a Daisy Angel’ and Primary 3 children will be presenting ‘Hoity Toity Angel’.

BARNARDOS CARE AND SHARE CHALLENGE
Congratulations to all the boys and girls for their enthusiastic participation in the Barnardos Care and Share Challenge in the past few weeks. The children carried out many wonderful acts of kindness and friendship towards others and recorded them on their charts. They also produced some delightful badges which were worn on Care and Share Day. The final amount raised through donations is currently being calculated and we will bring that to you as soon as it is available. Well done everyone for your tremendous efforts!

ENTRANCE TESTS
We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our P7 children who will be sitting Entrance Tests for Post-Primary Schools, every success in the coming months. They have been working hard and our thoughts and prayers are with them as they sit the tests this month.

Our P7 children will also soon be attending Post Primary Open Days/Evenings. A full list of dates and time for these days/evenings has already been sent home. A further copy is available from the school office, if you have mislaid it.

WALK TO SCHOOL MONTH
We had a tremendous response to our Walk to School Month in October, and would like to thank our children and their parents for their continued efforts in promoting a healthier lifestyle for all! Congratulations are due to our 3 winners – Ms Dorman’s P2 class, Miss Gargan’s P4 class and Miss Doherty’s P7 class. Well done, everyone!

SHARE CENTRE VISIT FOR P7
Once again, our P7 children are being given the opportunity to take part in a residential at the Share Centre, Enniskillen, in March 2013. Letters have already been sent home regarding this venture. Parents are reminded that the deposit of £30 must be paid by the end of November 2012, to secure a place for their child. The rest of the money can be paid in full, or in instalments, between now and the end of February 2013.

POWER DOWN WEEK
This week has been designated as ‘Power Down’ week where everyone in the school is asked to try and conserve energy. We have invested in an Energy Monitor and are tracking our progress in reducing our carbon footprint! Our eco-warriors are helping to promote good practice across the school and we hope to lower our output over the next few months.

P5 MUSEUM TRIP
The Primary 5 classes have been busy uncovering all the secrets and facts of Ancient Egypt. As a treat for all their hard work, they visited the Ulster Museum, in the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday 6 November. There, they saw the mummy, Takabuti. They also participated in a workshop where they had the opportunity to handle and discuss real Ancient Egyptian artefacts! The boys and girls all had a great time at the museum and would recommend other pupils to go along for a visit!

BIKE IT
Well done to all our Spooky Cycle Day winners! The event was a great success and thank you to everyone who participated.

Our P6 pupils have been selected to take part in the ‘Tri-Cycle On Road Training Programme.’ The children will receive training in the National Standard Cycling Proficiency Levels 1 and 2. We wish them well.

We would like to encourage everyone to continue to cycle or scoot to and from school over the coming weeks and months but we would also like to remind children and parents to always ensure that a helmet is worn and to wear bright coloured clothing throughout the winter months. Every child in the school should have received at least one reflective item such as a badge. Please pin this on your coat/back pack, particularly with the current dark evenings. Many thanks for all your support. Happy cycling everyone!

MUSIC TUITION FEES
Tuition fees for term 1, for children who receive instrumental tuition provided by the City of Belfast School of Music, are now due. Where possible, parents are asked to call in to the school office and pay the fee. Once the fee has been paid, parents will then be issued with a receipt. Letters, with further details, will be sent home with the children this week.

PARENTMAIL
Last year we introduced ParentMail to the school and had a successful launch with just over 60% of parents registered to use the system. ParentMail is an excellent system in terms of improving our communication with parents and in substantially reducing costs associated with printing and distributing paper messages to parents. There is also a texting service available which we would like to use more often, for example at times when a child is ill or a club has to be cancelled. Our ultimate aim is for at least 80% of parents using the system.

ParentMail has now updated their system to ParentMail 2 and all existing members have been asked to re-register under the new system. Some of our parents have already re-registered and we thank you for your support.

If you haven’t re-registered for ParentMail 2 and/or you are happy to register now with parentMail 2, a letter will go out on Monday 12th November with the details required to do so. It is a simple process and there is no cost involved to parents. We hope as many parents as possible will sign up to this excellent service. Should you have any queries, please contact the school office.

CHRISTMAS PANTOMIMES
This year the P1-P4 children will be going to see ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy’, a story written by our very own past pupil, Oliver Jeffers! The show is on in the new MAC and the children will be going on the morning of Thursday 13 December. The MAC has very kindly agreed to offer to offer our parents a special 20% discount on the price of a family ticket for any performances if you book before the end of November. To avail of this special offer, go online to themaclive.com or phone the MAC on 028 9023 5053 and enter our unique discount code: sttherese. Fun for all the family and many thanks to the MAC!

Our P5-P7 children will be going to the Waterfront Hall on Wednesday 5 December to see ‘Sleeping Beauty’. We have managed to keep the cost for each pantomime to £8 and we thank ‘The Association of the Friends of St Therese’ once again for their kind donation towards transport costs.

HEALTH AND SAFETY
In the interests of safety for all concerned, parents are asked to not send in birthday cakes for teachers to cut up and give out to children. Unfortunately, many cakes contain nuts of some kind. If parents wish, they may send in a small packet of sweets which the children can take home to enjoy after school!

All children should be in their class lines by 8.55am each morning to say their morning prayers before going into school. In the interest of security, the two side gates will now close at 9.05am each morning. If, for some reason, children are late to school, they should enter by the front pedestrian gate. As always, we would ask parents support in ensuring their child(ren) attend school punctually.

The Public Health Agency has written to schools advising them of good practice with regards to health and hygiene, following the recent outbreak of Ecoli 0157 in a restaurant in Belfast. Parents can access this advice at www.publichealth.hscni.net.

ANTI-BULLYING WEEK
Anti-Bullying Week 2012 will take place this year from 19-23 November, and will focus on how children and young people can experience bullying when others see them as being “different”. The theme is called ‘Everybody is Somebody!’ A number of activities have been organised for this very important week culminating in a special assembly on Friday 23 November at 9.30am. The Northern Ireland Anti Bullying Forum are coordinating Anti-Bullying Week and you can access more information on their website: http://www.niabf.org.uk

YOUNG POETS IN ST THERESE!
Mr McKiernan’s P5 class have recently completed the Poetry in Motion Programme. The children worked alongside Deirdre Cartmill, a local poet, to create their own poems which will be published later in the year. They chose “Belfast Our City” as a theme. The children thoroughly enjoyed the programme and with each session they grew in confidence. Working individually and in groups, children were able to develop their creativity and poetic expression. They will perform their work for other Belfast schools at a special celebration event in 2013. Our Foundation Stage children had a wonderful time celebrating National Poetry Day on 4 October this year. They enjoyed celebrating this year’s theme “Stars” with poetry and beautiful artwork. Well done everyone!

EXTENDED SCHOOLS NEWS
As part of our cluster arrangements, some of our P5 children will be receiving some extra singing tuition during their class music lessons from Roisin Whyte, a professional singer. She will be preparing 2 pieces with the children that they will perform at our KS2 Christmas Carol Service on Tuesday 18 December at 1.00pm. We wish them well with their rehearsals and look forward to their performance!

Congratulations to our parents who were brave enough to join one of our new parent evening classes! The Salsa class, however, proved not to be so popular, despite Strictly Come Dancing being on at the minute (or maybe because of it!). Some of the feedback about the Salsa concerned the timing in that 6.00pm is too early for many parents. Consequently, Salsa is on longer taking place. New arrangements for Salsa or indeed a different club, may be available in the new year, at a different time.

NORTH BELFAST LANTERN PARADE
Our P4 children spent the last four weeks working with local artists from the New Lodge Arts Project designing and creating lanterns for the North Belfast Lantern Parade. We had a wonderful lantern parade in school and the P4 children lit up our assembly hall with beautiful Chinese Lanterns. You can see some photographs on our website under “Events.” The parade took place on Tuesday 30 October 2012 at 7.00pm. It travelled from Crumlin Road Gaol to the Waterworks Park. Many of our P4 children joined in with their lanterns on display. Well done to all concerned!

SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHER
The school photographer visited the school at the end of October and took individual photographs and family groups. These photographs have now been sent home and parents are asked to return them as soon as possible, to ensure parents receive their order in plenty of time for Christmas. If your child was absent or if you are not happy with your child’s photograph and would like another one taken, the photographer will be visiting the school again in mid January. Details will go out early in the new year.

NEWS FROM THE ASSOCIATION OF THE FRIENDS OF ST THERESE
 The Christmas Craft Fair is being held in the Parish Centre, Cavehill Road on Sunday 2 December 2012, 1.00pm - 5pm. Admission £2 for adults, children are free. We hope as many as possible will attend the Craft Fair which is a great way to get your Christmas shopping started! Santa will also be appearing for our younger members!

 If you are interested in booking a table at the Craft Fair and would like more information, please contact Patricia (tel 90 778392 or 07912649464) or email Karen at graham-karen4@sky.com. (Please note amendment on Karen’s e mail address) Tables cost £20 to hire. A £10 deposit (payable by cash or cheque) is required by 15 November.

 The Association is also running their very popular Christmas discos! They are on Thursday 6 December at the following times:
P1 - P4 6pm - 7pm
P5 - P7 7.15pm - 8.15pm

 Parents are asked to please return the Questionnaires which were sent out last month. Huge thanks to all those who have already returned one!

Don’t forget this Newsletter can be accessed on our website
www.stthereseoflisieux.co.uk