RMDS
School News in Brief….
28th January 2022
From the Principal’s Desk…. 2 From the PA…. 3 Junior Infants 4 Senior Infants 7 Rang 1 10 Rang 2 12 Rang 3 17 Rang 4 20 Rang 5 23 Rang 6 26
From the Principal’s Desk….
We had a gorgeous whole school assembly this morning led by Rang 4 around Anti-Bullying and Wellness. If you would like a little peek of our song about kindness check out our Twitter page - @RMDS_Ranelagh. Perhaps your child might like to sing the song for you again! It’s quite catchy! We spoke about what bullying is and what we can do if we are being bullied or, just as importantly, if we see someone being bullied. We also spoke about the importance of kindness and how acts of kindness make us feel. We have set ourselves a challenge of spreading the RMDS Chain Reaction of Kindness! Ask your child about the challenge… a few of you might be in for a nice surprise this weekend! 
As you know the Government has designated a once-off public holiday on Friday 18 March 2022 in recognition of the efforts of the general public,
volunteers and all workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in
remembrance of people who lost their lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From next year there will be a new permanent public holiday established in celebration of Imbolc/St Brigid’s Day which will be marked on, or close to the 1st February.
As RMDS already had the 18th March 2022 accounted for as one of our holidays this year to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day, school will also be closed on Monday, 21st March 2022. Therefore school will close on Wednesday, 16th March @ 2.10 pm and open again on Tuesday, 22nd March @ 8.30 am.
Once again this week, a reminder! Drop off and collection times are very busy for everyone around our school. We want to keep everyone safe so please do not park your car in front of the school or on the double yellow lines at the side gate at these times. 
We are also so lucky to have Jackie, our school traffic warden, to help all children get across the road safely. Please make sure to cross the road with Jackie at all times. Do not cross at the bottom of Mount Pleasant Place as traffic comes around the corner very quickly.
With regard to the changing restrictions around Covid-19 a statement has issued from the Department of Education saying that schools are being asked to continue to operate with their COVID-19 plans, with all current protective measures in place, until 28 February 2022. We have been advised that further guidance will be issued to schools in advance of this date.
As always, if a child has any new onset symptoms and feels unwell or seems off-form, do not send them to school and contact your GP for advice if necessary. This video from the DES highlights the needs for children to stay home if they are unwell.
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In addition, do not send your child to school if they have:
A reminder that if a pupil is identified as being a close contact of a case of Covid-19, adherence to the current advice on the HSE website in relation to restricted movements and testing is required.
Parent-focused public health advice about COVID-19 symptoms is available here. Please check the RMDS Calendar on our website for all dates of upcoming events.
Finally, we have a lot of lost property lurking in the school at the moment. If there are any missing jackets, hats, scarfs, gloves etc. please ask your child to check outside the office on Monday so we can hopefully reunite some items with their rightful owner! 
Have a lovely weekend,
Rosemarie
From the PA….
Greetings from the PA!
We hope everyone is settled back into school and enjoying the longer days and emerging signs of Spring! We have been asked to pass on heartfelt thanks from the Executive for the hard work put into the Christmas Fair and tree sales by scores of volunteers and children to raise very well utilised funds for the school. The total raised was just short of €12,500 - an amazing result - and a lot of school spirit and fun. Funds from the PA allocated before Christmas have now been spent on outdoor equipment for all the classes - resulting in happier children at break time!
The next PA meeting is the 28th February and we might dare to plan for it to be in person in the Hill!!!
Could we also gently ask (by way of relaying feedback to the PA) that cars not park or stop for drop offs or collections in front of the school or on the yellow lines at the side gate.
Thanks!
Joss and Grainne
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THIS WEEK’S
News from around the Classes…..
Junior Infants
We love GAA training with Simon on Wednesday. We practiced bouncing, throwing and soloing.
We practiced writing our numbers in the park.
It was still snowing in our classroom
Look who made a robot!
Our pinch pots are nearly ready.
Senior Infants
We’ve had great fun this week in the doctor's surgery with lots of bandages, injections and examinations! The doctors, nurses, receptionists and patients were all very busy. Lots of people were cured of serious illnesses and injuries. Meanwhile we had lots of teamwork and creating with junk art, Lego, Duplo, straws and playdough.
Rang 1
We've had a really busy week in Rang a hAon this week and have been doing lots of work! In maths we have been learning all about tens and units and even did some two-digit addition sums! We painted sunflowers in art, inspired by Vincent Van Gogh and they look amazing! On Wednesday, we practiced some new GAA skills with Simon and we learned a new song about kindness for this month's assembly. For Core Curriculum, we have been thinking about the different ways we can help the environment and trying to recycle all the waste paper in our classroom. We are designing some posters for a competition with Dublin City Council to remind people to clean up after their dogs as well.
Rang 2
Hi everyone!
We would like to start the news this week with a quote from one of the world's greatest thinkers.
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
- Albert Einstein.
We have embarked on our first week in Forest School in Rang 2. It has been worth waiting for as we had so much fun with our wonderful new Forest School leader Claudia.
We did so much in our couple of hours there from making bows and arrows, beautiful decorations and even a pizza necklace to designing and making a zipline. A great start to our Forest School adventure!
We made collage art using newspapers and have finished writing our actual newspaper. The articles we wrote ranged from personal stories about our favourite teddies, to inspiring stories about people we know raising money for charity.
The newspaper is currently being edited by Ms Coogan and will be hot off the presses soon. Enjoy the photos and remember to spend some time in nature. It's good for you!
Rang 3
Our Secret Students this week are Ethan and Elise. Well done!
In English we looked at using personification in our settling descriptions. We also wrote a range of setting descriptions.
In Gaeilge we are learning to tell the weather and discuss our favourite past times. Our Egypt projects are coming along nicely and will be our focus next week. We completed an Egyptian landscape painting for art. Here are some photos of them.
We started a soccer tournament to get more people playing football. After a wobbly start we changed the set up and now it is going well!
Fairness Monitors are working hard to listen to people’s concerns and make sure we come to solutions as a class.
Rang 4
We have all finished our Irish person projects. We will present our projects on Friday. Last Friday we went to Dartmouth Square for Golden Time.
We are also doing long multiplication. We've found it challenging, but we are starting to get comfortable with the process.
This week, we led an assembly about Anti-bullying & Wellness. We wrote the script, poems and drama ourselves. We finished off the assembly with a song about treating people with kindness by Harry Styles. We also did our "Helping Hands" where we each had printed our handprint and practiced giving a compliment to each person in our pods. We did a drama on "How to stop
someone becoming a bully". We picked one group to perform their drama for the school assembly.
In Irish we are learning about musical instruments. Cad a sheinneann tú?
We are starting to play rugby on Fridays. We enjoyed our first rugby session today with Ken. We have also been practicing a lot for Peace Proms.
By: Evan and Ollie
Rang 5
We have had another great week in Rang a Cúig. We have continued working on the Stay Safe programme this week. We looked mainly at bullying and learned all about it. We have talked about what bullying is, ways to prevent it and what to do if you are bullied. In drama we acted out some scenarios from last week’s Stay Safe looking at how to resolve a problem within a friendship.
We have been trying a new type of mindfulness in Rang a Cúig, where we shake for several minutes,then we sit quietly for 1 minute and dance for 1 minute. At the moment we are really enjoying this new type of mindfulness. In English we read a comprehension called the ‘Eggcellent Experiment’ and we are going to give it a try next week. We are hoping to make bouncy balls using eggs and vinegar.
On Monday we got to do gymnastics for yard with Mr. Fairbrother. It was very fun and we really enjoyed it. This Friday we are starting rugby with coach Ken for P.E. We are very excited. Over the week we have been working on time in maths. As we have said it has been another great week in Rang a Cúig and we have gotten lots done. Thanks for reading!
Rang 6
We had a great week this week in R6. On Monday morning, we welcomed Ms. Treacy into our classroom. We started our new weekly topic for Maths; Percentages. In English we studied how thermometers work, then we started doing Explanation Writing, in which we created and planned out weird and wacky ideas for inventions, such as a hair brush that also conditions your hair! We’ve also looked over the topic of stories from the Titanic in history.
On Wednesday Ms. Treacy took over for the day, with successful results! We also learned all about Child Labour, and the sick yet inescapable cycle of poverty.
In Irish, we starting learning and memorising all about grammar, specifically An Aimsir Chaite, siolla amhálin (one syllable) and dhá shiolla (two syllables)
Tomorrow we are having a meaningful assembly concerning an Anti-Bully PSA featuring a song; ‘Treat People With Kindness’ by Harry Styles. Ken will also be coming over to play tag rugby with us! We are also excited for our new art project.
Overall, it was a good week and we are looking forward to what comes next. By: Annie and Rowan
Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School, Ranelagh Road, Dublin 6, D06 Y658
Telephone/Fax: (01) 4961722 ● E-mail: secretary@rmds.ie
______________________________ Roll No. 19928Q ● Principal: Rosemarie Stynes
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