RMDS
1st October 2021
From the Principal’s Desk….
Hi everyone,
It’s hard to believe we’re already thinking ahead to September 2022, but that is the nature of school life! Our admissions process for 2022/23 opens today on our website. If there are any siblings at home that have not yet enrolled for September 2022 please make sure to complete the admissions application online. If you have already completed a pre-enrolment form there is no need to do anything.
The HSE has provided information for parents about the changes to contact tracing and testing for children aged between 3 months and 13 years in early learning and care, school aged childcare, education, primary school sports and social settings. You can find it here:
Information from the HSE regarding Contact Tracing & Testing for Children
You can find other resources for parents to download here:
Information for Students, Parents and Families
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.
In addition, do not send your child to school if they have:
If your child is restricting movements because they are a close contact, but they are still well, please get in touch with the class teacher who will ensure work which can be completed at home is sent home. Parents can arrange to collect their child’s books through the office if necessary if their child is required to restrict their movements.
Children who are absent from school due to being unwell are not expected to complete work, and should use the time to rest and recuperate.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
Rosemarie
From the PA….
Smartphone-Free Voluntary Code Update
Last year, in response to concerns from parents about the impact of smartphones, the PA surveyed all parents about opting into a ‘smartphone-free’ voluntary code. The code is a collective agreement by parents to delay giving their children a smartphone until they leave primary school.
Responses
Thanks for your responses and feedback - there were 113 responses, across all classes, with 94.7% opting into the code. If you’ve any questions about the code, contact pa@rmds.ie.
Online Safety
The voluntary code does not apply to button phones or to other tech that children use at home or at school, and we will continue to support parents to keep children safe online.
In April, we invited Fiona Jennings from the ISPCC to an Information Evening to talk about the ISPCC’s Digital Ready Hub. This has lots of resources and advice for helping children have positive experiences online, and a really useful Digital Ready Check - check it out! Please get in touch if you have any other ideas/resources around helping children to have positive, safe experiences online.
PA AGM
We had a great turnout at our virtual AGM on Tuesday evening. Many thanks to everyone who came along. If you’d like to be added to our mailing list (or taken off it!!) let us know at pa@rmds.ie.
New PA Committee
We are delighted to hand over the co-chair reins this year to Gráinne Fahey (Mum of Edie - R4, Iris - R3 and Tara - JI) and Joss Moorkens (Dad of Evan - R4, and Aron - R3). Amanda Holzworth (Mum of Anna - JI) takes up the role of secretary, as Lorraine Hackett steps down. Huge thanks to Lorraine for her sterling work for the last three years! Cormac Ó Foghlú remains as Treasurer, but we’re actively seeking someone to replace him, as this is Cormac’s last year in RMDS. Please get in touch if you know your way around a spreadsheet/numbers/accounts. Cormac will show you the ropes!!
We have loved our term as co-chairs - big thanks to the brilliant PA team and to everyone for all the support and all the fun. Wishing Gráinne and Joss the best of luck.
Oscar Carolan and Rachel Sirr
From the Green Schools Committee ….
Our school has signed up to the Climate & Nature summit from November 1st to 5th 2021.
Part of this is getting as many children as possible to answer 10 questions on the survey below.
All answers are anonymous and the aim is to find out how children feel about the Climate Emergency and where they hear about it the most so statistics can be presented for the summit. If interested, can you please complete this survey with your child. The deadline for answers is Monday 4th of October at 9am.
Link to survey:
https://bit.ly/ClimateAndNatureSummitSurvey
An Coiste Glas - Rang 2
Rang 2 were asked to join the committee this year by Ms Farley and Ms Curran.
Our representatives are Ben D, Fay, June, Izyan and Danielle.
They remind us of the green issues in our school and how we can improve what we are doing to help our planet.
They made videos for our class about using hand towels, recycling plastic water bottles, planting bulbs and reusing copybooks to save paper.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle...in that order
Worldwide, about 50kg of plastic is produced annually per person. But of the plastic we use in our daily lives and put in the recycling bin, only a small proportion actually ends up being made into new products.
Even before recycling was popularised as a solution to plastic waste, it was known by industry that it wasn't going to be a viable means of dealing with the problem sustainably. The economics of transporting, sorting, remelting and reforming plastic means that only the most valuable plastic types are actually worth recycling.
So the real solution is to reduce the amount of single-use plastics that we buy. And reuse or repurpose those we do. So when putting plastic into the recycling bin, try to visualise that 25% will be incinerated, 55% will end up in landfill and only 20% will become new products.
All the best,
Roland Ramsden
Andrea Scott
Green Schools Committee Parent Representatives
THIS WEEK’S
News from around the Classes…..
Junior Infants
We love working in Junk Art. We are busy making lots of interesting things such as a hotel, rocket and a money box.
We joined tubes together and put conkers, bears, glass beads and pine cones down them.
Lara and Aran are our news reporters this week. They drew pictures to show us what they like in school.
We made sets of leaves, stone, pine cones and sticks in the park this week.
We drew self portraits and we made mosaic names. We hope you like them.
Senior Infants
We started maths stations this week in Senior Infants and we really enjoyed it. We are working on number and patterns. We are learning a new song about a Combine Harvester and it is great fun. For drama, we improvised 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?' on the green area in the yard.
Rang 1
We had a really busy week in Rang a hAon this week. On Tuesday we had a special visit from Garda Andy from Rathmines Garda Station who told us all about Road Safety and how to stay safe when we are cycling on the roads. He made all of Rang a hAonpromise to wear a hi-vis jacket and a helmet when we're on our bikes. We have been learning all about the different types of transport and how they have changed. We also spent some time this week learning about the importance of bees and how we can protect them.
This week's Classroom Correspondent was Tara:
"We made bees out of toilet roll holders in art. I was the Secret Student this week and we did GAA with Simon. We are playing lots of games in yard and I played with Alex, Robert and Poppy."
Rang 2
Dia dhaoibh go léir!
We cannot believe it's the last week in September already. What a month of activity we have had. Rang 2 have done so much hard work since returning to school, and we've had a lot of fun too.
We have been playing with Hula Hoops in yard and there are some amazing hoopers already .
Swimming went brilliantly again with everyone very organised and ready on a Thursday morning.
We have been practicing a few letters of cursive writing and are now working in our books. Some of us are trying cursive when doing any work and it's going great.
The Green Schools Committee had their first meeting with Ms Farley and Ms Curran. They had some great ideas to contribute to the school. They made videos for our class about using hand towels, recycling plastic water bottles, planting bulbs and reusing copybooks to save paper. Maith sibh!
We have been researching artists for a project and for art we created our version of Van Gogh's " Starry Night". We focused on his brush stroke style and his unusual colour palette.
That's all for this week folks. Have a lovely weekend!
Rang 3
So far we have had four secret students in the class who have been excellent learners.
They are: Lorna, Lucy, Toby and Shay. Well done!
We have some new books in the classroom which we are enjoying reading.
October is Black History Month. So far in class we have read a book called ‘When We Say Black Lives Matter’ by Maxine Beneba Clarke and had some interesting discussions in class. Our assembly at the end of the month will be on this topic.
In Gaeilge we had fun learning a rap/song called - Shiúil mé. Ask me to say it for you!
In maths we have been learning about column addition and can regroup in units, tens and also add hundreds.
In geography we drew a map of our way home and included some buildings that are important.
In English we have written a recount of the journey Shane took home and used time connectives, adjectives and senses.
In our Friday class meeting we discussed having football free days and decided on areas that would be good for playing games and other areas that are game free in order to keep everyone safe.
Rang 4
This week has been a busy one in R4. We began a new topic Time, in maths and have been getting stuck in as time travellers - moving backwards and forwards in time and converting analogue to digital. We talked about formal letter writing in English and about ourselves in Gaeilge.
We have been continuing work on the projects for STEPS Young Engineers and created our own inventions in art, based on Leonardo da Vinci's work. He designed a helicopter, armoured car and parachute in the 1400's! Take a look at some of our fantastic designs.
Rang 5
This week we learned a lot of new things. We started ‘Spellings for Me’ for homework, which means we had to write silly sentences using our word lists. We did art which involved firstly drawing a design on a piece of paper with a white crayon. Secondly, we cut out colourful paper into squares and thirdly, our teacher sprayed water on the paper to let it bleed. We had to wait til the next day to take them off. This left us with a page of beautiful designs like in this photo.
We talked about Cerebral Palsy in Core Curriculum and that there are three different types of CP. In PE we first practised our kicking skills and then we played soccer even though it was raining! We learned about Martin Luther King’s famous speech “I have a dream” and watched the video of him giving it. We are really enjoying R5 and this week has been a lot of fun!
By Alec and Charley
Rang 6
Hello everyone and welcome to our newsletter for this week. This week was very exciting. We ended last week on a high note with our assembly and meeting our buddies! Our assembly was based around friendship and what we like to do with our friends. We also sang two songs in the assembly, Lean On Me and The Cup Song which we have been working on since day one. We have mastered the actions at this stage.
This week we had a substitute teacher called Ms Whelan on Monday. We started into our week by doing long multiplication and learning loads about World War I. We continued our week by writing a letter as if we were in the trenches in WWI in English. We started experiments for a science competition we are doing. We made our own Biachlár in Gaeilge this week too!
On Thursday we did P.E. We played a big game of soccer with the class. On Friday we will finish the week with some Art!
Thank you for reading!
By Mylie and Ben
Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School, Ranelagh Road, Dublin 6, D06 Y658
Telephone/Fax: (01) 4961722 ● E-mail: secretary@rmds.ie
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Roll No. 19928Q ● Principal: Rosemarie Stynes
