From the Principal’s Desk….
As Sara and Therese were preparing for Forest School which will start for Senior Infants next week. I was in the classroom talking to the children and Mary Clare. Mary Clare was a teacher in RMDS before it was actually RMDS. We had an amazing history lesson talking about the school and how the building has changed.
Ranelagh Multidenominational School circa 1993
The children were asking about the hot lunches which will be starting next Tuesday and Mary Clare was telling stories about how there used to be hot lunches. When she started in the school she would put the supplied hot cross buns on the radiator so that they were hot by lunchtime and how on Friday the local chipper would arrive at the gate selling chips through the railings. While chips and hot cross buns may not be on the menu everyone seems equally excited about the start of this new initiative.
Philip from ‘The Lunch Bag’ team was in today talking to the children about the launch of the initiative next week. If you haven’t used the Lunch Bag app before you will need to download it and order your selection for next week. If you already use it you will have a different menu to choose from but it will be the same format except you won’t have to pay for it. Snacks can still be ordered from the app. There will be no lunch bag delivery on Monday so you have one more day of making sandwiches. We are going to shorten the first break to allow more time for children to eat their food and we’ll be trying out different things if what we are doing isn’t working. Children will have place their container into a plastic tub and bring it home so that you can see the quality and quantity of the food that has been eaten. That tub will need to be returned the following day. I learned today that the food is sourced almost entirely from Ireland including the boxes which are coated in beeswax so they can go into brown/compost bins.
Nacira who will be in charge of heating the food was in today getting familiarised with the new and incredibly large ovens. Her skills may not be fully utilised if her recent appearance with Donal Skehan is anything to go by. We’ll have to come up with a plan to allow us to make use of her talents.
The Ultimate Frisbee tournament which is being run by Rang a 6 has moved to the knockout stages. This has been the cause of great excitement and disappointment as is the case with all sports. I am enjoying watching the games. The children are getting better and better as the team members from Rang 3- 6 get more familiar with playing with each other.
Another sports initiative is about to begin next week. The children will be getting involved in training for Cumann na mBunscol Santry Sports 100m relay event and an individual sprint. There will be teams selected from under 10s, 11s, 12s and 13s. If your child is already interested in athletics you may want to look into a Dublin 6 athletics competition. There are more details later in the newsletter..
Apologies for the overly dramatic message last night. The damage to the wall on the lane is not as significant as I feared. However if you have any contacts on Selskar Terrace, wouldn’t those gardens make a lovely extra yard space/playground?
Have a lovely weekend, if you are very bored you can play find the parent in the newsletter. Prizes for correct identification are available in the office. Senior Infants have a head start.
Paul
Welcome back to school! The Summer term is always a lovely one and we hope the break has given everyone the rest they need!
This term, the big ticket item for the PA is Sports Day. This year it will be held on June 9th in Sandford College, this should be a great event that brings the school together with friendly competition!
Next PA meeting is online next Tuesday (April 16th) evening at 8:30pm. The zoom link will go out via class reps.
Everyone welcome to attend. Anyone with ideas for an event that they would like to run please do come and we will support in any way we can.
Jackie will not be on duty Monday and Tuesday next week and we have not been able to find a replacement so exercise extra caution on those days.
About Ranelagh Community Games…
Thuistí, a cháirde,
We are delighted to let you know that the Ranelagh-Milltown-Rathmines-Community Games Committee has been reconvened for 2024. Táimid ag lorg lúthchleasaí as Ráth Maonais, Raghnallach agus Baile an Mhuilinn le haghaidh páirt a ghlacadh i gCluichí Phobail 2024.
We are looking for local children to represent Dublin 6 in the Dublin Track + Field Community Games in Santry Stadium in June. Last year, a number of children from the area succeeded in winning Dublin medals and went on to compete at the National Championships in Carlow, with some winning medals in the All-Ireland's. This was a very proud day for all involved!
Once again, we plan to run athletics trials for any interested child between the age of 7 and 15 (born between August 2008 and July 2018). No athletics experience is necessary. We invite you to complete the online registration form by 23rd April:
https://forms.gle/YWc6UdhWyMKxG49j9
The age categories for the Community Games 2024 are Boys and Girls U8, U10, U12, U14 and U16 years. Please note the Community Games have their own unique age category classification (different to GAA and Club Athletics). If you are not sure what age category your child fits into, please enter their month and year of birth here:
https://communitygames.info/index.php?page=age_calculator
There will be one short distance and one longer distance trial for each age category, with the possibility of relay teams too. Please note that you must reside in the local area in order to be eligible to compete (boundary map is attached to the online registration form and also as an attachment to this email).
The closing date for registration is Weds 23rd of April. After this date, we will email those registered with more information regarding the athletics trials. Trials will be held on the evening of Fri 26th April in Gonzaga. We will not be running trials for field events but if your child is interested in competing, please let us know.
Last year roughly 200 local children participated in the local trials. This is a pre-registration event ONLY to ensure that we have all the relevant contact information. IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE TO REGISTER TO RUN ON THE EVENING OF THE TRIALS. Please pre-register to avoid disappointment!
We are looking forward to hearing from you. Any questions, please contact us at ranelaghcommgames2024@gmail.com.
Gach de ghuí,
Ranelagh Community Games Committee
(Tara, Moira, Conn)
