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*****IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS COMING UP in June 2017*****
School Tour - 1st and 2nd Classes: Causey Farm on June 12th.
Ice Cream Funday and Science Expo: Friday, June 16th from 1pm in the school.
Senior School Tour - 3rd to 6th Classes: The Zone Activity Centre on June 20th.
New Junior Infants Transition Day: Wednesday, June 21st.
Infants School Tour: Thursday, June 22nd to the Fire Station in Belturbet and Castle Park Leisure Centre Lisnaskea.
End of Year Reports: Friday, June 23rd.
Summer Holidays: Thursday, June 29th at 12pm
Renovation of Existing School Buildings: July 3rd, 2017
Start of New Term 2017-18: Wednesday, August 30th, 2017
Welcome, Fáilte, Witamy, Sveiki Atvyke, Ludzu, Bine Atvenit
Welcome to our school website. We hope you find our website both interesting and informative as you look to find out about what is happening in Scoil Naomh Bríd.
Our school is a co-educational Roman Catholic school under the patronage of the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kilmore. There are seven mainstream classes, including teaching Principal, one learning/language support teacher, one resource teacher and one special class teacher catering for children living with autism. We currently have 157 children on our roll.
We hope that parents, pupils and people from the wider community find our website informative and useful. There are plenty of articles and pictures to interest everyone when you click on the tabs on the left hand side of the homepage. Keep an eye on the scrolling news belt above which is updated on a daily basis and will hopefully keep you all abreast of the latest happenings in Scoil Naomh Bríd. Enjoy!
Latest News November/December 2016
Winter Vomiting Bug in Ballyconnell: As you are all aware the winter vomiting bug has been rampant in the area of late. If your child is showing any symptoms, please keep your child at home until he/she is completely healthy. Please click on this link here for more information.
School Staff for 2016/17: We welcome two new staff members to our school. Karolina Kwiecen joined the staff as an SNA while Imelda McBrien has joined as a learning support teacher. We hope they enjoy their careers with us in Ballyconnell. For full list of staff in the school, please click here.
Maths Week: Well done all the pupils who took part in Maths Week activities. Fourteen pupils in the senior end of the school won Gold Medals in the Mangahigh Maths Awards. The school came 25th out of 575 schools taking part.
Danger Money Fundraiser: The school is running a fundraising night on Saturday, December 3rd at 8pm in the Community Centre. Seamus O' Rourke, well known local actor and playwright is performing the hit comedy 'Danger Money' written by local man John Mc Manus. Tickets are €12 each and can be purchased by contacting the school at 049 95 26673 or by email at bcns@eircom.net or also at the door on the night of the performance. This is a great night of entertainment, not to be missed with all funds raised going towards the purchase of equipment for the new school building. Such equipment will be vital resources for the new building and will be greatly enjoyed by all pupils. There will be refreshments and araffle at half time. Neighbours, friends, uncles, aunts, grandparents are all invited to support the school on the night.
Christmas Holidays: The school will be closing on Thursday, December 22nd at 12pm and will be reopening on Monday, January 9th, 2017 at 8.50am.
Latest News: April/May 2016
Autism Awareness Week - Monday, April 25th to Thursday, April 28th: During this week there will be a number of activities happening throughout the school, organised by Mr. Murray. These activities are designed to give us all a greater appreciation of the life experiences of children living with autism and the challenges they, and their families face. These daily activities are listed below:
Monday 25th- Videos and Presentation: Mr. Murray will show a powerpoint presentation and a number of videos to the children in each classroom to give the pupils a general introduction to autism.
Tuesday 26th- Child empathy: the children will take part in activites which will make them better aware of the challenges facing children of their own age living with ASD.
Wednesday 27th- Reverse integration: Children from mainstream classes will be given a guided tour of the special class and they will participate in some lessons/activities there.
Thursday 28th- Blue Day: Pupils in the school will participate in a Blue Day where they can wear blue t-shirts, blue face paint, blue wigs, etc, etc to show their solidarity with children and families living with autism. Children can donate €2 towards Cavan Autism Parents.
Mr. Murray gives a presentation to first class while the senior infant class get to play with Josh and Tara
Latest News: March/April 2016
Planning Permission Granted for New Building: Planning permission was recently granted for our new building. Tendering process for the main contractor begins in early April with construction to begin in June 2016. Please read media report here.
Primary Science: The third area of our school self evaluation is going to be science. A school improvement plan for science will be unveiled after easter in the downloads section of the website. Meanwhile you are welcome to go to the primary science page here to learn more about science in the school.
1916 Commemorations: On March 15th the school will come together to remember the events of 1916. Parents, pupils and teachers are invited to gather in the school at 1pm to raise our national flag and hear the new proclamation, composed by the children of the school. All are invited inside for some tea/coffee afterwards and to view some of the children's work on the Rising. Please go to our special page dedicated to the Rising here in order to learn more about it!
Latest News - December 2015
Cheerios for Childline: Well done to the boys and girls from 3rd to 6th classes who raised €940 for Childline recently. On 27th of November, all pupils had breakfast in the school to raise money for this worthwhile charity that provides much needed support to young people in need. Thanks to all parents and the people of the wider communtiy for their support. Special thanks must go to Kennedy's Spar Supermarket, who very kindly sponsored milk and juice for the children. Please support our local sponsors this holiday season. Well done again to pupils, teachers and parents.
Christmas Variety Concert: This year sees the return of our Christmas Variety Show. The show will take place over two nights in the local community centre on December 15th and December 16th.
The first night, Tuesday, December 15th will see Junior Infants, First Class and Third Class perform. The following night, December 16th, will see performances from Senior Infants, Second Class and Fourth/Fifth/Sixth Classes. Both nights the performances will start at 7.30pm sharp and we expect them to finsh at 9.30pm. There will be a raffle on both nights, we would be grateful for all the support we can get.
All funds raised will go towards the development of our new school building, details of which will be available to view on the night. Admission is €5 per adult with children free. There will be a concession rate if people wish to attend both shows. Please support and bring as many neighbours, friends and relations along as you can!! We look forward to a couple of great nights of entertainment.
New Board of Management: The new Board of Management has recently been formed after election procedures in November. the following are the members of the new board which will oversee the running of the school until November, 2019:
Tony Connolly, Father Oliver O'Reilly (Patron's Nominees), Terence Reynolds (Principal), Yvonne Fitzpatrick (Staff Nominee), Gosia Kurek, Larry Lee (Parent Nominees), Aideen Tobin, Dallan O'Reilly (Community Nominees).
Many thanks to the new board members for allowing themselves to be nominated and being so generous as to give their time to assist in the running of the school. We look forward to a successful four years!
Carol Singing: The children will be singing carols in two local supermarkets on Monday, December 21st to raise money for our special class, Rang Réalta. We will publish more details as we finalise them. Keep an eye on the website and watch out for a text bewteen now and then.
Christmas Mass: There will be a Christmas Mass for all parents, children, staff and friends of the school on Tuesday, December 22nd, the day we get the holidays. Mass will be at 9.30am in Our Lady of Lourdes. Everyone is welcome and indeed encouraged to attend.
Enrolment for School Year 2016/17: Enrolment for the new school year, commencing in August 2016 will take place in the new year. Enrolment day is Wednesday, January 13th, 2016 from 2 to 3.30pm.
Summer Works Scheme 2015: The Principal recently acquired funding from the DES to replace all the current exterior doors in the original building. Tendering for this project will begin in January 2016 and it is anticipated that the work will be carried out during the Easter Holidays, 2016.
Summer Works 2016/17: An application was recently made under the new SWS 16/17 to acquire funding to replace the roof on the original school building, lowering the ceilings and installing proper insulation in the process. We hope to be successful in this application. More details when we get it.
Latest News - November - December 2015
Christmas Variety Concert: This year sees the return of our Christmas Variety Show. The show will take place over two nights in the local community centre on December 15th and December 16th.
The first night, Tuesday, December 15th will see Junior Infants, First Class and Third Class perform. The following night, December 16th, will see performances from Senior Infants, Second Class and Fourth/Fifth/Sixth Classes. Please keep an eye on the website for further information, start times, admission prices as we get them. All funds raised will go towards our school building fund.
Christmas Cards Designed by Pupils: Our pupils have been very busy, along with their teachers, designing Christmas Cards over the last few weeks. These cards will be professionally produced by Harvest Moon printers and will be available for parents to buy in packs 10. Each card will have the pupil's name and class details on the back. It is a wonderful way of showcasing the artistic talent we have in the school. Grandparents, relatives and friends will be delighted to receive these cards in the lead up to Christmas. Cost of packs of 10 are €10, €15 for two packs and €20 for three. There will be a small profit from the cards which will go towards school funds. We would be very grateful if people would support this project. Order forms and samples will be sent to parents on Tuesday, November 17th.
New Board of Management: Nomination forms are out and should be returned by Friday, November 20th. The new board will start its term in December.
Latest News - October 2015
New Building Plans
As you all know, we've just recently opened out new special classroom for children living with autism. Mr. Brian Murray is the teacher while he is assisted by two SNAs; Carmel Reilly and Karen Mc Cabe. There are currently four pupils enrolled in the class. So far the class has been an outstanding success and the pupils and staff are well settled in to school life in Ballyconnell.
During the summer, the school received an allocation of funding to construct a new wing to our building.This new development will see tyhe construction of two new classrooms, offices, learning support rooms, a kitchen, a multi sensory room and a general purposes/sports hall.
The cost of this construction will likely be in excess of €650,000. Michael Maguire Architectural Services has been appointed as the design team and the design process is currently underway. We hope to apply for planning by November and begin construction in early spring, 2016. This is a very exciting time in the life of the school. Great, positive change is coming.
Staff in School for 2015/16
The staff for the current school year is as follows:
Mainstream Class Teachers:
Mr. Terence Reynolds, 6th Class
Ms. Elaine McTiernan, 4th & 5th Classes
Ms. Clare Cumiskey, 3rd Class
Mrs. Yvonne Fitzpatrick & Mrs. Margaret Edwards, 2nd Class
Mrs. Mairead McAnenna, 1st Class
Mrs. Bronwyn Burke, Senior Infants
Mrs. Rosaleen McGurren
Support Teachers:
Ms. Anne O’Reilly, Learning & Language Support
Mrs. Patricia Waterson, Resource
Mr. Brían Murray, Special Class
Special Needs Assistants:
Mrs. Mary Farrell, Mrs. Carmel Reilly, Ms. Karen McCabe and Ms. Nicole Hyland
Ancillary Staff:
Mrs. Kathleen Mc Manus, Secretary
Mr. John Donnelly, Caretaker
