On Monday of last week Rang a Dó went on a trip with Fr Johnson, Mr Rushe and Mrs McCafferty to Barnacúige N.S.

Here they met with all the other children from the Parish who are making their First Holy Communion this year and with Antoinette Moynahan who spoke to them about the sacrament of First Holy Communion that we are going to receive this year. Antoinette is from County Meath and she speaks to children all over the country about First Holy Communion. She told them about how special they all are and also talked about some saints who received their First Holy Communion. They watched a video and talked about the information they learned.
After that they went by bus to St James’ Church in Charlestown. They sat at the Altar and learned about the many objects that they will see in the church during our upcoming sacrament. Our students learned about the Church Monstrance which is used to hold the body of Jesus. Each church has a different monstrance and they are designed in many different ways. They also learned also about the tabernacle.
Before the afternoon ended they all had time to speak quietly to Jesus. Fr Johnson helped them understand more clearly about the wonderful event that Rang a Dó are going to experience this year.

Thank you to Antoinette, Fr.Johnston, Mrs McCafferty and Mr.Rushe for all their help on this very special day.

Information for Parents:

Please find below links to a programme overview/video for parents

http://www.catholicireland.net/eucharistic-adoration-is-a-winner-among-children/

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T64PaftKTDQ

Last year as part of our Digital School’s Programme we developed class blogs. These open a window into individual classes in our school and can be found on the homepage of our website. To date we have five class blogs with more to follow. We hope you enjoy your journey through our school.

Senior Infants http://mrsreillyseniorinfants.blogspot.ie/

First Class http://firstclasscharlestown.blogspot.ie/

Second/Third Class http://thirdclassstattractasnscharlestown.blogspot.ie/

Sonas http://sonasclass.blogspot.ie/

Spraoi http://spraoistattractas.blogspot.ie/

We had a lovely end to a very busy week on Friday with the return of Mayo Star Tom Parsons to our school. Tom’s first port of call was Mr. Clarke’s Rang 5/6 and Ms. Henry’s Rang 4/5 as part of the Gaelic Players association Réalta Programme. Tom then joined the whole school at our weekly assembly and visited all our Junior Classes.

Tom is a wonderful role model and imparted great advice to all the children. He spoke fondly of his memories of St.Attracta’s and gave fantastic examples/life lessons of challenges he faced at an early age. Tom stressed the importance of believing in oneself and continuing to work hard to achieve your goals.

It was a pleasure to welcome Tom back to us again. Young and old enjoyed his visit.We thank Tom sincerely for his visit and in particular his time and interest in meeting all our students. Míle buíochas Tom.

Finally we felt after the very busy week we had with our Whole School Evaluation it would be unfair to chose any students as ‘Students of the Week’. A huge thank to all our students for their hard work, effort and focus throughout. We sincerely appreciated this great team effort. Maith sibh go léir!

Our Parents Association have decided to try and help the school cover some of the cost of the groundworks in the school that benefit every child and as such are focusing their fundraising activities for the school year 2016/17 towards this.

There are two fundraising activities currently scheduled:

A Table Quiz will take place on Friday the 25th of November at 8.30pm in Walsh’s Pub. It is hoped that everyone will come out and support our school on what promises to be a fun night with great prizes.

A Clothing Collection will take place on the 2nd of December and people can drop in bags and anytime from Monday the 28th of November.

Next Meeting

The next P.A. meeting is scheduled for Tuesday the 22nd at 8pm. This is to be a brief half hour meeting in advance of the Table Quiz to allow us to get organised.

The Parents Association always welcome all parents to join the Meetings and get involved in any of the fundraising activities.

As always we thank our Parent Association and indeed all our parents for their hard work and continuous support of our school.

We were delighted to welcome Luke Murphy of Connacht Rugby earlier to our school with the Pro12 trophy. There was great excitement amongst our pupils who marvelled at the size and composition of the trophy.

Luke explained the significance of the teams victory in the Pro12 final, giving a brief history of the competition, the teams involved before emphasising that this team was representative of the five counties of Connacht. The visit concluded by exploring Connacht Rugby’s close links with Mayo.

A very special word of thanks to Luke for taking the time to visit and to Sinéad Halligan who organised today’s event. Let’s hope it’s not the last piece of silverware to visit our school this school year!

We were delighted yesterday to learn that we had been awarded the Digital Schools of Distinction Award. Digital Schools of Distinction is a flagship programme which aims to promote, recognise and encourage excellence in the use of technology in primary schools.

It is an award that we are extremely proud of. It reflects very positively on our efforts to embrace technology in our classrooms, while helping to enhance the overall learning experience of our students as well as equipping them with skills that they will use for the rest of their lives.

Sincere thanks to all our wonderful teachers for all their hard work and to all our very talented students who from Junior Infants to Sixth Class were all involved in us gaining this award. A special word of thanks and well done also to Mr.Rushe and Ms.Sloyan for all their hard work with this initiative.

As we gathered today for our final assembly of the year we said a fond farewell to our 6th class pupils who have proved themselves to be the best that they can be in all areas of their school life. We are always proud of our students and this week is no different.

Our teachers told us that they had great difficulty in choosing a student of the week. On hearing their reasons for selection we can understand why this is a difficult task. Students were praised for their attention to detail and for trying things which they find difficult. This is a great life skill to possess at such a young age.

Children were highly praised for their attention to others both in their classrooms and their younger school friends. We have a cohort of children who are highly sensitive to the needs of others and this is lovely to hear and be rewarded. Our students today were praised for their eagerness to help in the classroom. As we know, our classrooms are busy places and to have helpful children is always a gift to a busy teacher.

Again our teachers reminded us that some pupils could be given this award every week such is their level of diligence, care and attitude towards school. It’s great to end both the week and the year on suck a positive note. Maith sibh go léir!

We’re almost at the end of our school year. On Monday we’ll have class graduations, booklists will be given out also before breaking for our summer holidays on Tuesday afternoon.

Dates for your Diary

Graduation Timetable Monday 27th June: Junior/Senior Infants Ms. Delaney/Ms.Sloyan 1 p.m. First/Second Class Mrs.Reilly 1.30 p.m. Third/Fourth/Fifth Class Mr.Rushe/Mrs Henry/ Mr.McDermott 2.15 p.m.

Booklists will go home with all classes on Monday.
Reminder School will close for the Summer Break on Tuesday next June 28th at 12 noon.

What a special afternoon Rang a Cúig agus a Sé enjoyed earlier when they had the great privilege of welcoming Vice President Biden to Mayo at Ireland West Airport. This was a historic occasion and one that we feel both honoured and appreciative to have been part of.

While waiting for our special visitor, we were scanned by security/members of the Secret Service before meeting with An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his wife Fionnuala. This was a special treat for our students who enjoyed speaking An Taoiseach after some students even got to speak with members of the media!

Shortly after we were told of the Vice Presidents imminent arrival and we could not believe our eyes when Mr Biden’s US Air Force C17 plane touched the ground, its sheer size was breathtaking. We all waved our Irish and American Flags enthusiastically as his disembarked before An Taoiseach and Vice President Biden alongside members of his own family made their way in our direction to greet us all. His warmth and delight at meeting the children was really lovely to see as was his eagerness to speak to all the children present.He even brought a gift of a water bottle to us all.

With a very busy itinerary planned Mr.Biden and An Taoiseach left for their next engagement in Ballina in a most impressive cavalcade. This gave our children another insight at close hand at high security WITH the Secret Service working side by side with our own Gardaí.

This was a day the children are not likely to forget. We are so grateful to Donal Healy and all at Ireland West Airport for their very kind invitation to share in this special day. (Also for the treats for the children). We really felt we were taking part in something that will live long in the memory.

Finally it was really love to share this day with all our friends from the four local schools in the Parish. We hope Vice President Biden and his family enjoys the remainder of their visit to Mayo.

Please see some links of reports of President Biden’s visit.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0622/797273-biden-visit/
http://www.con-telegraph.ie/news/roundup/articles/2016/06/22/4121995-vicepresident-biden-has-landed/