In Juniors, we love everything about P.E. time – the athletics, gymnastics, the games and, at the moment, the dance.
We are enjoying moving to many different types of music and we love making different shapes and working together to create our very own dances.
Our Annual Table Quiz was a great success and we had a very big attendance from Stradbally, Ballyroan, The Heath, Timahoe and our own 5th and 6th class pupils. Congratulations to the boys and girls from Timahoe who picked up 1st and 2nd prize.
A sincere thanks to all the parents who made the night such a successful one.
Our annual Table Quiz for 5th and 6th Classes will be held in Ratheniska Hall tomorrow night, Wednesday, February 21st from 7.30-9 pm. We will have teams from our neighbouring schools and, of course, our own! All are welcome.
See our Facebook page – Ratheniska Parents Association– for more details.
As we head into Spring Term in our school, we are very busy organising many upcoming events. We would also like to let you know that there have been a few changes in personnel on our committee. These are as follows:-
Chairman – Chris Knowles (Parent of Amelia in Senior Infants)
Secretary – Teresina Dermody (Parent of Conor, Jack and Liam in 4th Class)
Treasurer – Maeve Conroy (Parent of Kate in Senior Infants and Billy in Junior Infants)
We can be contacted at 087 7609572 or via our Facebook page (Ratheniska Parents’Association).
Valentine’s Day, Double Denim Day and Ash Wednesday all came together on the last day before midterm. We created some lovely cards and other tokens to show our love for our nearest and dearest.
Fr Paddy paid a visit and blessed each one of us with ashes as we spoke about what we could do for Lent.
We delighted in leaving our uniforms at home and dressed up in our best denim as we contributed 2 Euro each to the poor and needy in Mozambique. This will be put to good use by former pupil, Isabel and her fellow SERVE volunteers as they head off to Mozambique this coming Summer where they will be involved in Youth leadership programmes and refurbishment and building projects – a fitting start to a well-deserved Mid-Term break!
Pancake Tuesday was widely anticipated by all classes this week as we mixed, cooked tossed and ate our way through almost 300 pancakes! Bhí siad an-bhlasta ar fad!
26 of our Sixth Class pupils were confirmed by Bishop Denis Nulty in SS Peter and Paul’s Church in Portlaoise last week. They were very busy in the weeks beforehand preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation under the guidance of Mr O’Mahony, while Ms. Sugrue helped them create some very impressive artwork on the theme of ” The Fruits of the Spirit”.
Junior and Senior Infants are basing their work around the theme of pets this week. While Seniors took their work as resident vets very seriously, Juniors were content to take their dogs for a walk or organise a pet picnic!
Rang 4 have been exploring the work of Russian painter Kandinsky. They set to work with paint, paper and lots of creativity to produce some lovely work.
Safer Internet Day was on Tuesday, February 6th and we all took time to think about steps we can take to ensure our safety when online. We were delighted to invite Ger Brick from InetSafetyTalk to engage with 5th and 6th Classes on Cyberbullying and general online safety, while Alan Ryan from Ríomhairetech guided 3rd and 4th Classes through necessary safety guidelines and gave them lots of practical tips.
Ger Brick is an experienced facilitator who delivers Cyberbullying / Internet Safety talks to Primary Schools across Ireland. Formally an IT Program Manager with Microsoft Ireland for 17 years, Ger has 20+ years experience working on the Internet.
Alan Ryan has been holding computer classes in our school for the last 3 years and all children from 3rd upwards are working towards proficiency in word processing, coding and presentations.
We continue to acknowledge and impress the importance of internet safety to all our pupils from Junior Infants upwards.
