Weekly Note & Reminders 6th October by Castle Park School

Castle Park School

Weekly Note & Reminders 6th October 2023

From Mr McKernan (Principal, Whole School) Wednesday 16th Dear Parents, High Performance Learning

The Week Ahead

The Value, Attribute and Attitude of the Month: Agile: Enquiring The ability to be curious, willing to work alone, keen to learn, show enterprise, think independently, and challenge. This week, the Form VI REPS House Leaders took on the first of their leadership roles in introducing the VAA (Value, Attribute and Attitude) of the Month to the Senior Assembly on Wednesday. Each month, one year group will take on a small project to highlight these values in action. For October, the REPS Leaders have decided to demonstrate this task by developing a line of enquiry that will gather data to show the nationality of all the pupils in the School. They will source and purchase a world map and use this visual image of the world to represent the diversity in pupil nationality in Castle Park School. They will be agile in their learning. We look forward to the REPS Leaders sharing this project later in the term.

Monday 9th October Booking System opens for Parent Teacher Meetings. Form Teachers will send a link at 9:00 am.

Tuesday 10th October Form VI travelling to the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland.

Wednesday 11th October Form I Personal Development Day Form VI Boys Basketball v Willow Park (H); Collection times as normal.

Thursday 12th October Form V Boys Basketball v St Gerard’s (A). Collection time from Castle Park approx. 4:30 pm. Form V Girls Hockey v St Gerard’s (A). Collection time from Castle Park approx. 4:30 pm.

Sunday 15th October Confirmation Enrolment Mass; Church of the Assumption, Dalkey @ 10:15 am

Linking in Learning The remainder of the Assembly was dedicated to exploring the concept of ‘Linking in Learning’. During this session, we highlighted the power of connecting words, thoughts, and images to enhance our memorisation skills in the learning process. An engaging demonstration took place involving Form IV-C, where we applied linking techniques to memorise interesting and important information about each pupil in the class.

You can ﬁnd details of all ﬁxtures/events/activities on the Parent Portal Calendar

Linking in Learning, Continued Here are some of the examples we used:

Wednesday 16th

Bruno loves bread, the bread his mum bakes. It has seeds, and you can smell freshly baked bread when you walk into Bruno's house. Ollie is a fan of Owen Farrell. Owen is the son of Andy, and Andy is the Head Coach for the Irish Rugby Team. Ollie is a huge Irish Rugby fan and can't wait for the big game this weekend. After using the linking process to remember these interesting facts, Jude from Form VI bravely stepped forward and successfully named the pupils in the Form IV-C class, along with their linked interests.

Kindness Award This week, the Award was presented to:

***

At the end of the Assembly, we underscored the significance of creating vivid mental images when linking information in the learning process. To continue the learning experience at home, we encourage everyone to try ‘Linking’. You can do this by playing a game where you imagine novel ways to connect seemingly unrelated ideas. It's a fun and effective way to strengthen your cognitive skills.

Intermediate Singing Competition Congratulations to our Form III and IV pupils who participated in yesterday’s Intermediate Singing Competition. Their performances were truly impressive, and they showed incredible courage in performing in front of their peers. Congratulations to the following pupils for securing 1st, 2nd and 3rd place: 1st – *** (IV-C) 2nd – *** (III-C) Joint 3rd – *** (III-C) & *** (IV-P) (See photo below) Thanks to Ms McKiernan for her hard work behind the scenes preparing the soloists for the competition. You can enjoy a video featuring a selection of their performances by clicking ‘Play’ on the video below.

Congratulations ***!

I am happy to share that our Form VI pupils will start off this year's school trips next week with a visit to the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland. This educational outing promises to be an enriching experience, providing our pupils with valuable insights into different cultures and traditions. We're looking forward to hearing all about the trip when they return.

Theme of the Week

Mr Hillman & Mr Nolan (Sports Department) Our pupils had an excellent day at the Brother Cross-Country Competition in Santry on Wednesday, with our Form IV team emerging as the overall winner among several schools. This event was a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to compete against their peers and showcase their resilience, determination and teamwork as they worked together to finish the race. Well done to all pupils who took part in this event; we look forward to the next cross-country competition. To stay updated with the latest news from our Sports Department, please follow our dedicated sports Instagram page managed by Mr Nolan – CLICK HERE to connect with us. Le gach dea-ghuí

Linking

Composer of the Week

Stephen McKernan Principal

Artist of the Week Esther - II Motivated by the artistic creations of the contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, our Form II pupils have been working on collages featuring cartoon flowers. After learning about the colour wheel, the group used a combination of pens, markers, colouring pencils and paint to create playful images mirroring the artist's style.

Wishing Mr McKernan a Happy 50th Birthday!

George Frideric Handel

Irish Phrase of the Week

Cónascach - Linking

Quote “Everything is hard before it is easy.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Writers of the Month - Winners

From Ms Hope - Head of English Congratulations to our Writers of the Month for October. Please click the book cover below to view October’s ‘Writer of the Month’ publication.

The Value, Attribute and Attitude (VAA) of the Month

News from the Classroom - Form VI’s Personal Development Day Form VI’s Personal Development Day was a successful and motivating experience for our pupils. The day began with a delicious breakfast, creating a positive atmosphere for the activities ahead. The theme of the day was leadership, and the first activity saw the pupils explore the lives of influential leaders from around the globe, examining the qualities and values that defined them. This provided the group with valuable insights into practical leadership qualities. A memorable team-building exercise followed in the adventure playground, where Form VI engaged in the dinosaur egg collaborative challenge with Mr Tindale. This activity required skills such as positive leadership, encouragement and strategic thinking to collaborate effectively and complete the task. During REPS, Form VI faced the challenge of creating a gadget with limited resources to protect an egg from breaking when dropped from a height. The pupils self-assigned different leadership roles and worked together to support and motivate their teams. Skills such as problem-solving, decision making and motivation were essential to complete this exciting mission. Before Personal Development Day, the members of Form VI had already been assigned their leadership roles as part of The Colling's Award program. Now, they eagerly anticipate putting into practice the valuable skills they acquired during the day as they assume their leadership roles and associated responsibilities. In summary, Personal Development Day has left our pupils feeling motivated and inspired, ready to embark on their journey of personal and leadership growth.

Form VI - Personal Development Day

Hedgehogs & Patterns - Junior Infants

‘Our Families’ - Kindergarten 2

Brother Cross County Competition

Form V - Hockey

FCP All-School Halloween Party FCP are really looking forward to welcoming all the children who will be joining us for our exciting All-School Halloween Event. Children can look forward to a day filled with disco dancing, delectably spooky snacks, navigating through a Monster Maze, and receiving tasty treat bags! Thanks to all who have bought tickets. Your contributions make the magic happen - CLICK HERE to purchase yours.

Halloween Art Competition - Junior

Halloween Art Competition - Senior

Maths Week Competitions In preparation for Maths Week, scheduled for the 16th - 20th of October, we are excited to announce the launch of both Junior and Senior Maths competitions. Junior Competition - 2-D Shape Art: The Junior Competition is open to all pupils in Forms I and II. To enter, pupils should create an A4-sized piece of Artwork using their understanding of 2-D shapes. Entries must include the pupil's name, form and house and should be submitted to Ms O'Sullivan before Monday, 16th of October. For inspiration, please see the competition poster below, which features some examples. Senior Competition - Maths Photography The Senior Competition is a Maths photography competition open to pupils in Forms III, IV, V and VI. With the help of a family member, we are asking pupils to use their 'Maths Eyes' and observe Mathematical concepts in their local area. To enter, pupils must submit a single photograph that captures the mathematical occurrence and submit it to Ms O'Sullivan. Alternatively, they can email their photo to josullivan@castleparkschool.ie. For further details, please see the Maths Eyes competition poster below. CLICK HERE to watch the video played in our Assembly last week.

Maths 2-D Shape Art Competition Form I – Form II

Maths Photography

Competition - Forms III - VI

Using your knowledge of 2-D shapes, create a piece of A4 sized artwork. Be as creative as you like! Please write your full name, class and house on the back of your entry. Submit your entry to Ms O’Sullivan by Monday 16ᵗʰ October. One entry per pupil. Winners will be announced during Maths Week.

Good luck!!