stbrigidsinfant.scoilnet.ie

Last week was ‘Better Sleep’ week in our school. The children learned about why sleep is important and the Sleep Stealers that can disturb our sleep. The children kept sleep diaries at home and in school and they took part in a colouring competiton. We also had a pyjama day in school on Friday. It was a fun week and we all enjoyed learning about the importance of good sleep.

The winners of the Colouring Competition were announced today.

The winners are:

• Harry Byrne (Rm 17)
• Christopher Martin (Rm 16)
• Aleisha Dowdall Flood (Rm 7)
• Tori Murray Dixon (Rm 3)
• Zara Collins (Rm A)
• Anastazja Waskowska (Rm 4)
• Dinasijs Golubs (Rm 2)
• Julia Slizewska (Rm 26)
• Daniella Baldina (Rm 17)

The overall school winners were:

• Curtis Kelly (Rm 14)
• Faith Kelly (Rm A)

Well done to all our winners. Their artwork is on display in the school lobby.

Seosamh O’Maolalai, a local storyteller, visited our school on 1st December. He read stories to all the children in our school. The Junior Infants children listened to the stories with their mammys, daddys and grandparents and each Junior Infant child got to bring home a story book at the end of the day. Seosamh told very funny, exciting stories and the children all really enjoyed it. He reminded everybody that listening to stories and rhymes can be great fun.

Storyteller Visit – 1st December 2015

1.  Help My Kid Learn 

This is an Irish website with information for parents on talking to and playing with children and practicing reading, writing and counting with children. There are also lots of activities, games, videos and apps for children from 0-12 years.

http://www.helpmykidlearn.ie/

2. Practical Parenting 

This website was set up by an Irish mammy who organises parenting courses and talks with this approach, “no judgement, no preaching, just great advice from someone who’s been through it all”.

Sheila has some very useful ideas and suggestions on positive parenting, helping children through relationship breakdowns and dealing with bullying. Check out the link below.

http://practicalparenting.ie/2015/10/05/basics-of-positive-parenting/

3. One Family

This website provides assistance to one-parent families. The website has an abundance of articles on topics such as:

• Exploring family routines
• Thoughts for parents of children in care
• Parent self care
• The importance of outdoor play
• 10 ways to relate to your child

The website also has a monthly online magazine parents can sign up to, they run affordable parenting courses, they provide a list of agencies that can assist families and they offer a confidential helpline for one-parent families and those who share parenting.  Click on the link below for more information.

https://onefamily.ie/

4. EU Mom

This website has information articles on parenting, well-being, pregnancy, home life, work and childcare. There are also an abundance of helpful posts on dealing with bed wetting, eating healthily, managing behaviour, setting up a sleep routine and helping with homework.

http://www.eumom.ie/

5. Triple P Positive Parenting Programme

We will be running a Triple P Parenting Programme in 2016. Have a look at the link below for tips on positive parenting

http://www.triplep-parenting.net/glo-en/positive-parenting/five-steps-to-positive-parenting/

A Triple P Parenting workshop will be held in St. Brigid’s Senior Girls School on Wednesday 20th January from 9.30-11.30am. The course is open to all parents in the community and is free of charge.

The theme of the workshop is ‘Dealing with Disobedience’. The two hour workshop will give parents several practical, useful strategies that can be used at home to teach children to accept limits, to understand the meaning of the word ‘no’ and to teach them to do the right thing. Parents will leave the session equipped with a personal plan for dealing with disobedience in their families and with strategies that can be used to prevent problems happening.

If you are interested in taking part in this workshop please phone/text Nicola on 086-3705773 or return the note your child will bring home this week to their class teacher.

We assure you that this workshop will be beneficial to parents of children of all ages.

Home School Community Liaison

Coordinator – Nicola Cosgrave

Welcome back to all our returning children and parents and I would like to welcome all our new families joining us this year. I hope that you and your children will enjoy being a part of St. Brigid’s.

Classes and Courses

Your child will bring home a classes and courses brochure this week. If there are any classes in the local schools that you would like to attend please fill in the information section on the brochure and return to me or to your child’s teacher. The courses are available to parents, grandparents and families.

Parents’ Committee

We are also looking for parents to join our Parents’ Committee. If you can spare 1 hour a week we would really appreciate your help. More information available from the HSCL office.

Parent and Toddler Group

The Parent and Toddler group have started meeting again on Fridays from 9am to 11.45am in the Breakfast Club Room. All parents are welcome to join the group for toddler play, story time, a cuppa and a friendly chat with other parents.

Parents’ Room 

Don’t forget the Parents’ Room is available to all parents and families during school time so please feel free to use it.

Contact Details

I am available in the HSCL Office beside the Parents’ Room or on 086 3705773.

Room 3 had their school tour to Newbridge House and Farm. We had fun on the bus and loved seeing all of the farm animals. We really enjoyed the big playground there too. A great day was had by all.

The Junior Infants in Room 4 are learning all about books this week. We read lots of different rhyming books in Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) time. We also brought in our favourite story books from home. We talked about the books, Ms Cosgrave read some of them and we showed them to our classmates. We read a story called Rosie’s Walk and we sequenced the story using pictures. We also read a story called The Rainbow Fish. We are going to paint our own rainbow fish tomorrow.

We love Book Week!

The Junior Infants in Room 4 had a great time at football this morning. We really enjoyed learning how to dribble the ball and playing matches. We can’t wait to go again next week!!

Room 4 Football Coaching

🙂

We got dressed up in our Halloween costumes today. We went to a disco in the hall and we got yummy treat bags too. We are very excited about going Trick or Treating next week! Happy Halloween everyone.

We painted Autumn leaves today. We used our fingers to paint the leaves orange, yellow, brown and red. It was very messy  but we had great fun!