Junior School
How the year has flown! And what an action-packed year of learning, events and fun it has been. But now the busy whirlwind of activity is over and the long sunny days of summer beckon us forward – and so it is time to take a moment to reflect on the year gone by and to look to the future. As always, from September to June our school was a hive of industry. To list all of the activities would take a book – but just some of the highlights of the year included: our nativity play and Carol Service, the Talent Show, “The Wizard of Oz”, the Student Council, the Green Schools Committee, Write-A-Book, the Std. 6 Science Fair, Std. 4 in the RDS Young Scientist Exhibition, Std. 5 at Robotics in Galway, sacramental moments of First Communion and Confirmation, matches won and matches lost, Skiing in Italy, school tours, Sports & Prize day.........and the year ended on a real high with the Junior School being crowned Winner of the DunLaoghaire/Rathdown Tidy Schools Competition! All this and teaching and learning too! One unusual but memorable aspect of the year gone by was – the weather! For the first time in 20 years, we did not climb Sugarloaf on St. Gerard’s day! Storm Ophelia saw to that - with the school closed for two days due to the exceptional weather warning! Thankfully the hurricane passed with just one tree down on campus! And then in early March, we could hardly believe it when the deep snows of Winter came and school had to close for three days! But what joy the snow brought. The children had fun-filled days of wrapping up warm and building snowmen, tobogganing, having snowball fights and then in to thaw out by the fire. The snow brought out the inner child in all of us – but we were all happy to return to normality after the unexpected holiday! As a result of the snow, we began school at 8.30am in the lead up to Easter to make up for lost time. And it was a result of this that we have decided that the early start is a great way to begin the day - when the children are bright and alert and ready for learning. So our new academic year will see the school day beginning at 8.30am! Let’s see how it goes! Another major change next year will be that three of our year groups will be in “prefabs”. However, prefabs are not what they used to be! They are now modern, warm, stand-alone classrooms - fully equipped with white-boards, toilet facilities and all of the necessary educational tools and equipment. And, of course, the short term inconvenience of not having all of the Junior School under one roof will be well worth it when, for the academic year 2019/2020, we will have a brand new wing on our Junior School! The new space will comprise a large corner-suite library which will put reading and literature at the centre of our school’s activities. It will also have an Arts Zone, and a Collaboration Lab to reflect the latest educational innovations – of team learning, projectbased learning, discovery learning and a “maker-space” to support and encourage STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The new building will also have a
second open staircase which will link the ground floor with the upper floor – hence enhancing the connectivity of our Junior School building and reflecting our community spirit in the architecture. After some initial difficulties with acoustics (which have now been rectified), our Solar Dome will be fully operational for the new school year. All classes will have some lessons each week in our “outdoor classroom” – be it horticulture, creative writing, science or quiet time for prayer and reflection. It is a wonderful and very different space – do take time to visit! Certainly an innovative and interesting time ahead for education in our school! So time now to recharge the batteries in order that we are all ready for the exciting year ahead. Before closing, I would like to sincerely thank all those who make our school community the caring and vibrant centre of learning that it is. Firstly, to you the parents, thank you for your kindness and support and above all for entrusting your children to our care and to our vision of education. I would particularly like to thank our Library Team who not only ran our Junior School library with efficiency and order but also, at year end, packed every book into boxes (as our Library and Multipurpose room will be a classroom next year!), carefully catalogued each item and painstakingly worked to ensure that books will be available to each class next year – albeit in their classroom instead of in the Library! Our Gardening Team worked with Std. 4 and planted an amazing biodiversity hedge which will ensure the safety and longevity of our native wild life for decades to come. Another amazing team of Mums painted wonderful back-drops, made incredible costumes and face-painted hundreds of children for our Christmas and Summer plays; and our wonderful In-House Committee made endless cups of tea and coffee to celebrate First Communion and Confirmation and ran our Bar-B-Q on Tennis night. I also thank the Junior School staff team who are the heart of our school and who ensure that our school is a vibrant, lifeaffirming, and learning-filled community. And finally of course I thank our wonderful boys and girls – who are the life and very soul of our school and who are a joy to be around day in day out. I continually remind myself how blessed I am to work in such a collaborative, caring and happy school community. I wish you all a very happy Summertime – filled with memorable moments with your wonderful children.
2018