There will be a fund raising cake sale including home made jams, scones, cakes and bread during Sports Day. All proceeds of the home baking will be used to purchase sports equipment for the school. All donations of home baking would be gratefully received.

After the sport’s events are finished there will be a ‘family picnic’ in the school grounds so bring your picnic box and blanket for ‘the Big Picnic’.
This will be followed by the raising of our ‘Active School Award’ by a special guest… sport’s hero! Watch this space!
The ‘Window to our World’ felt craft project will be unveiled at the end of Sports Day. We hope as many parents as possible will be able to join us for this ‘Get Active’ event in our school calendar

It’s time for that all-important Spring clean!
We are organising another ‘Cash for Clobber’ collection. A bag has been sent home with your child. Extra bags can be collected from Lynn at Reception or ordinary bin bags can also be used.
We raised over €1,000 in the Autumn collection.

‘Cash for Clobber’ bags will be collected on WEDNESDAY 24TH MARCH.
Please tell your friends and relatives.

Message from Andy: -

Dear B.O.M., Parents and most importantly - pupils!

Thank you so much for the lovely assembly you had for me the other Thursday. It was much more than I expected or deserved. I was quite embarrassed by it all and I honestly meant it when I said it should be me thanking all of you for the time I spent at Ballyraine National School. I will keep in touch and hopefully hear from some of you from time to time.
Thanks so much!
Take care, keep safe and remember......
"You'll Never Walk Alone"

Andy.
andyhogg71@hotmail.com

Andy Hogg was appointed as E.A.L., English as an additional language, in September 2007. He organised ‘Africa Day’, a vibrant, colourful carnival of art, drum beats,
African food, dance and costumes in May ’08.
In September ’08, Andy was appointed to a permanent post teaching 5th Class. Andy resigned from his teaching post in December ’09 to return to his native Liverpool.

Adverse winter weather on the final two days of Term 1 resulted in the
cancellation of the farewell party for Andy.

We were delighted to welcome Andy back on Thursday 21st January from Liverpool for a ‘farewell party’. Parents, pupils and teachers gathered to acknowledge Andy’s work in school. Special guests included Ms Fiorentini, D.E.S. Inspector. Rev William McCully made a presentation on behalf of the Board of Management and Sharon Moss and Gideon Doe made a presentation on behalf of the Parents Association. A special presentation was also made on behalf of Donegal Education Centre.
The pupils gave Andy a signed Irish Rugby ball, a Liverpool backpack, eggs
from the school farm and a special booklet entitled ‘Andy … you’re a star’
containing memories and thank you messages from parents and pupils.
Special mention was made of Andy’s contribution to After School activities
and constructing the school hen house. Andy was thrilled with the warm welcome and tributes.
The school choir gave a moving rendition of ‘You’ll never walk alone’ (guess which football team Andy supports?) and everyone joined in a roof raising rendition of ‘Ireland’s Call’. To listen to the choir's performance, click here to visit BALLYRAINE RADIO. Thank you to parents who contributed to the gift fund or who managed to come into school for the presentation.

We wish Andy every success in his future teaching career and thank him for his contribution to Ballyraine NS.
Farewell Mr Hogg

Active School Flag

Last week the students of Ballyraine NS were presented with the Active Schools Flag by John O’Donnell, Active Schools co-ordinator.
“We all work together to promote the ‘Get Active’ message in school. Participation is the key message and children need to be encouraged to experience a wide range of physical activities. It’s not about competition or winning but about creating opportunities and building healthy lifestyles”. Mr Oliver would like to extend a special thanks to Linda Bennett, dance teacher, all parents involved in school sporting activities, Myles Sweeney of the Donegal Sports Partnership, Tag rugby coach John Quigley, Ms Linda Moore, school sports co-ordinator.
There will be a flag raising ceremony at the school later on this term.

As part of our E.A.L. programme, a ‘Cairde le Chéile’ club for parents was established in October ’09. ‘Cairde le Chéile’ promotes friendship and co-operation. It provides an opportunity to meet other parents and to welcome new families to our school.

A ‘Welcome’ coffee morning was held on 7th October ’09. Parents were given an opportunity to suggest ideas for ‘Cairde le Chéile’ club activities. Following this planning workshop, parents offered help with school gardening, craft and cookery classes.

A ‘Counting on You’ workshop was hosted by Mr Oliver and Ms Gildea.
Parents were provided with concrete materials to make a ‘help’ box which could be used to help with maths homework tasks. There was ‘Question Time’ when parents asked for advice on different aspects of the Maths curriculum. At the end of the session everyone went home with a ‘treasure trove’ of equipment, mostly collected recycled materials.

On 4th December, Dawn McClean, a parent in school brought in a display of her home made cards. E.A.L. pupils joined the parents for this creative workshop and they made two special Christmas cards guided by Dawn.

During the ‘taste of Christmas’ parents were encouraged to talk about their Christmas memories from the different countries and Christmas traditions.

Cairde le Chéile Programme HAVE A LOOK
In Term 2, the ‘Cairde le Chéile’ programme will take part in an exciting 12 week craft course entitled ‘Window to our World’. The group will create a large wall hanging using felting and wool to reflect the tapestry of world cultures in our school. If you are interested in joining us for this craft project please contact Mr Oliver before Thursday 21st.

Window to our World HAVE A LOOK
Art Project

We have a very ambitious, ‘crafty’ idea for Term 2. We are planning to harness the creative talents of the group into producing a wall hanging. ‘Window to our World’ will reflect the rich
tapestry of world cultures which we have in Ballyraine NS.

Cary Meehan will facilitate this 12 week programme. The wall hanging will contain images from different cultures using felting. Felting is a technique using raw wool, water and soap.

During the initial brainstorming session ideas included cocoa harvest in Cameroon and Ghana, windmills, buffalo, traditional African costume, bridges, bogland, oak tree, sugar cane, the
Polestar and River Swilly.

Then it was down to work and the group were busy sorting the raw wool into colours and making a ‘practice piece’. Some 6th Class pupils joined the parents for this workshop.

The finished masterpiece will be displayed outside ‘The Port’. We hope to have a special event to celebrate the project, but more on that later. There will be weekly ‘on-line’ diary charting the progress of this project so watch this space for weekly updates.

We are very grateful to the Donegal VEC Community Education Support Programme and Donegal Education Centre for their sponsorship of this programme.

We were through to the Town Integration Cup Final against Scoil Colmcille. Kick-off was at 12.00 on Friday 9th October. We had 8 supporters with us including Mr Oliver. Mr Hogg is our manager. The weather was good. The first half was uneventful. No score. We had refreshments at half-time. Second half, still no score. Extra time!! First half and both sides were still scoreless. Then a breakthrough when A. B.Q. stopped the ball from hitting the wall and passed it out to me. Then I shot it at the net and scored. Everyone cheered!
Two minutes later the match was over. We had won the cup and all the players got trophies. I was very proud of mine.

It certainly was a birthday party with a difference – there were balloons, there were people.. there was even a birthday cake but we were attending a birthday party for our ‘Revised Primary Curriculum’ which was first introduced ten years ago.

The venue for this special celebration was St Louise de Marillac Primary School in Ballyfermot. The party was attended by special guests including Minister for Education, Batt O’Keefe TD, along with representatives from the INTO, Colleges of Education, the NCCA and the Teaching Council.

The main focus of this special birthday party was to celebrate the implementation of the Revised Primary Curriculum in our schools and guests were entertained in music and dance by pupils from St Louise’s Senior and Junior Schools.

The NCCA had compiled a special DVD which was launched at the party. The DVD comprises of ‘school stories’ and photos of ‘pupils at work’ in a variety of subject areas. Two schools had been selected to ‘share their story’ at the party. Miriam O’Sullivan from Lissivgeen NS, Killarney, Co Kerry shared the story entitled ‘Lighting Fires in Arts Education’ which outlined an ‘Arts Week’ at their school.
Our school was also featured and Mr Oliver read ‘Roots, Shoots and Wellington Boots’ which charts the progress of our S.E.S.E. curriculum in Ballyraine NS.

With formalities and speeches over, there was a loud chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ and Minister O’Keefe blew out the candles on the cake. It was a great occasion. Despite all the doom and gloom of recession and cutbacks in education, the optimism, smiling faces and energy of the pupils shone through and for the first time in weeks the sun shone through too!

Happy Birthday Revised Curriculum!

Visit the NCCA website of the celebrations
You can read our school story ‘Roots, Shoots and Wellington Boots’
See photos of the NCCA celebrations,
in a powerpoint presentation...

Uniform
Parents are reminded that black shoes only should be worn with the uniform.

Doors are opened during break and lunchtime but will be closed at 3.15pm. Please ring bell to gain access.

This system is required by Department of Education and Science and does not in any way change our 'Parent friendly' Open Door policy at Ballyraine NS!
Parents are reminded however of the importance of contacting the secretary on 9124758 to arrange an appointment with the teacher.

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