Rang a Sé 2017 – 2018
The team dealing with Rang a Sé are;
Therese Curran who works both in and out of the class in the role of Resource Teacher.
Anne McCullagh whose official title is Special Needs Assistant but who does so much more.
Paul Fairbrother will be working with the class in various capacities but most regularly with Maths classes each day.
We hope to create an environment in the class where the children are content and know they are expected to work hard ….will have lots of nice experiences …and leave with a sense of fulfilment and pride in their achievements.
Punctuality
The school begins at 8.30 and the children are meant to be in the classroom definitely by 8:40am. This is a very important time for the kids to socialise and get ready for the day. Please send in a note if your child is absent from school – it forms an important part of your child’s attendance record.
Parent/ Teacher Meetings
Individual parent/teacher meetings will be held in November. If you would like to discuss any matter with us before then, ring the office or write a note to make an appointment for a meeting. The time between 8:30 and 8:50 is really for a very quick chat.
Homework
Homework is given every night, Monday – Thursday, and should take not more than 50 to 60 minutes to complete, this includes learning homework!
I will give the weeks homework on Monday and collect the copies on Friday. I have said I will try this method until the midterm break and we will review it then.
Homework will generally consist of:
Handwriting and Presentation
The children should all be doing joined writing both with homework and schoolwork. They have been taught correct letter formation which we revised last week and we encourage them to be as neat and careful as possible with their written work and to have pride in their work.
Code of Behaviour and Anti Bullying Policies
Full copies can be acquired from the secretary’s office or the school website.
The policies are based on mutual respect between children and staff and every member of the school community.
A rule which we’d like to highlight is our rule around mobile phones. If you feel a phone is necessary. It has to be switched off and in their school bag during school time. If this rule is not followed the phone will be taken and can be collected by you from the office.
We encourage the children to be kind to each other in class, it was our number one rule in our class discussion. An area where this idea of kindness is very important is online, as many of the children now have smart phones, they have more and more avenues for communication, but this also has pitfalls that we need to be aware of, such as;
These incidents are some of the pitfalls and as parents you need to be aware how your child is using their phone. It is important that you question the need for apps like whats app, viber and snapchat. If you feel the benefits outweigh the negatives then you need to monitor the types of discussion groups your child is involved in and the kind of chats they are engaging in on a regular basis.
What we expect of all children is that they try their best in all aspects of school life.
Special Education Needs and R.M.D.S
In the school as a whole, there are different areas of special needs, including emotional and behavioural, speech and language, hearing difficulties etc and they may not always be immediately obvious.
Generally, the children in the school are incredibly supportive and accepting of others’ individual needs and we are committed to supporting every child in this class.
Playtime / Healthy Lunch Policy
As you know we have a healthy lunch policy in school and it is important that everyone sticks to it. Children are expected to put leftover lunch in their boxes and bring it home. On Tuesday and Thursday they play in Linear Park the other days they are in the yard. In wet weather we will use Mount Pleasant as we did last year. Also a reminder that we have a no nut policy in the class as we have a child in the school with a severe nut allergy.
Subject Areas
In English, we aim to cover three novels in class. We read some text in the class and some for homework…we discuss the content …the themes in the books…do summaries…discuss the author’s strategies in building the story …how the author gives hints using language and descriptions etc
We will work on vocabulary extension, debates, grammar, creative writing, comprehension spelling.
I will be encouraging reading for pleasure at home and in school and ask all children to have a book on their desks for silent reading in class
The Gaeilge curriculum focuses on a communicative approach. We will encourage their spoken Irish as much as possible. Your help with using whatever Irish you have and a positive attitude will help. ‘Duolingo’ is an app which you could use yourself to improve your own Gaeilge and perhaps compete with your child. Teanglann.ie is a very useful resource for a dictionary and grammatical tool. Google translate is best avoided currently.
In Maths we will continue the policy of reducing the pupil teacher ratio and Paul Fairbrother and Therese Curran will take small groups out to work in conjunction with the rest of the class. We encourage the children to discuss the strategies they use and to clearly show their rough work and methodology for all work. We promote the idea of sharing the process of arriving at an answer to realise that there are many ways of tackling a problem. We also work on promoting problem solving and also look at the practical application of the maths they have learned.
We will be focusing on several world faiths in Core Curriculum, including Christianity, Humanism and Buddhism and welcome visitors in to talk to the children. We will also be looking at atheist, humanist and agnostic beliefs. The other areas are development education with an emphasis on a third world country. We also have a Festive charity at Christmas time. Moral Education is part of the C curriculum and this overlaps with SPHE. Care of the environment is another strand… links up with our green school policy and SESE. The Mindfulness programme will continue again this year and we aim to do it at least once a day after each break. This helps students to calm the mind down and help them focus.
We hope to have a musical again this year and that coupled with the Christmas concert will be a considerable part of drama programme. We will also integrate it into the class novels in English and also in various parts of the Irish curriculum.
In music we will be learning a variety of songs in both Irish and English and utilising the children’s own skills where possible. The musical performance will be in the second term. In Art we will continue to explore the children’s creative side using construction, colour, drawing and fabric and fibre.
Our PE classes take place in Mountpleasant L.T.C. on Friday mornings, but also in the GP room or yard during the week so it’s important for the children to wear appropriate footwear and loose comfortable clothes.
In SPHE, we use the Walk Tall programme and RSE.
The Walk Tall programme is a well established one, with the broad aim of promoting positive self esteem including how to prevent substance abuse.
We will be working on RSE (Relationships and Sexuality Education) in the third term. This will build on the work the children covered last year in 5th class.
We also have our Buddy System with Junior Infants which is up and running,
6th class children love it.… part of SPHE.
Anti Bullying is an ongoing topic. We strive to prevent bullying and how to prevent bullying is a topic we deal with regularly. There is an acceptable use policy which the children signed in Rang a trí, we will be going back over this with the children.
SESE includes History Geography and Science. We will use a project base for much of the learning coupled with regular text books and visits to places of interest.
School Tour (Trips)
We will be going on several school trips during the year. Our main tour will be held towards the end of May early June and it will be a 2 night trip to Delphi Adventure Centre. We will travel by train to Westport. We will be in touch with you with details and prices as soon as we know them.
We are really looking forward to working with the class and yourselves. Teamwork and partnership is the key to giving your children the best education. We hope it is a positive and rewarding year for all.
Many thanks, Marguerite Ryan
