Notices
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Class
St Brigid's GNS is delighted to announce that we have received sanction from the National Council for Special Education to set up an ASD Class. We have made our application for accommodation and await correspondence with the Department of Education before opening for enrolment. We are very excited about the positive impact this will have on our school and our school community.
World Book Day
We will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 7th March. We will be celebrating in school by reading, sharing reading recommendations and discussing our favourite books. We invite students to dress up as a character from a book they've read on Thursday 7th March!
School Closures
- Friday 8th March- School will close as it will be used as a polling station in upcoming Elections.
- Monday 18th March- Bank Holiday St. Patrick's Day
- Friday 3rd May- School closed for New Maths Curriculum In-service Training.
Message from HSE
The HSE has asked that awareness be raised among parents of symptoms of measles and the importance of the MMR vaccine. Please find information below.
Interesting Initiatives
Science & Engineering Week
This week we celebrated Science and Engineering Week in St Brigid's. There were lots of activities planned for the entire school to enjoy, such as teacher swaps, STEM challenges and robotics workshops. A big thank you to Tom Cleary and Joanne Brennan who facilitated workshops for different classes.
How Spongy Is Our School?
Our senior students had a visit from John Stack, water engineer from Dublin City Council. John explained the "How Spongy Is Our School? Rainfall and Flood Resilience Investigation’." As part of the investigation, the students will be in charge of recording rainfall and pH using the GLOBE precipitation protocol daily for two weeks, and in the third week, they will develop a school solution suggestions in creative ways. Following the three-week observation and planning period, students will be encouraged to try to implement their Spongy School Proposals.
The 5 Second Rule: Is it True?
Students from Ms Barry's 6th class have been exploring the question "The five second rule: is it true?" as part of their Science Blast investigation. Students predicted that foods that were dropped on the ground for any amount of time would grow bacteria! And their hypothesis was correct, students found that the amount of time a piece of food was on the ground didn't matter - and bacteria will grow regardless. The girls decided to spread the word with their new motto: "If in doubt, toss it out!"
Japanese Pen Pals
Fourth Class girls have exciting news. They have been learning about Japan in geography and are now going to write to pen pals in Kobe, Japan. They will not only tell their new Japanese friends about life and culture in Ireland but also about St. Brigid's endeavours to help improve the world we live in.
Seachtain na Gaeilge
We will be celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge from 11th-15th March. We will have a number of exciting activities to mark this week including lá glas, céilí mór and seanfhocail freeze frame competition. Keep an eye on Aladdin and Instagram for more details. Get practising your dance moves for our Family Céilí in place of Wake Up Shake Up on 15th March!
Active Week
We are busy planning for our Active Week which will run from 29th of April-2nd of May. More details about the activities will follow soon. We hope to get our parents and grandparents involved in the activities throughout the week. If any parents would like to provide some taster sessions of a physical activity to classes, please email parents@stbrigidsgns.ie
Extra Curricular Activities
Park Run
On Sunday, 24 March 2024, Active School Flag and parkrun Ireland are encouraging as many schools as possible to join their local junior parkrun for the inaugural Active School #parkrunTakeover. This initiative provides an excellent opportunity for schools, families and the local community to work together to get more young people, more active, more often.
Our local parkrun is St. Anne's parkrun. This is a free, fun, family event for all children from 4-14 years that starts every Sunday at 9.30a.m. The children run/walk 2km. If this is your first time to participate, please register for free by clicking button below in advance, to get a barcode which will be used to give your daughter a time at the finish line. If you are free to volunteer to help out on the 24th of March (or any Sunday) please email: stannesjuniors@parkrun.com
Soccer
On Wednesday 28th February, our soccer team will take part in a Primary 5s Astro Competition in Rivervalley Swords. The soccer team will then have a cup game on Thursday 29th against St Raphaels National School! They are really excited to participate in their first soccer competition this year, with two strong teams entered and under the wonderful direction of Mr Kierans. We wish them the very best of luck in all competitions and games- C'mon Brigids! 💪
GAA
The Gaelic team are training very hard every week in preparation for the Fingal Leagues starting in March. They have some great new members on the team this term from 4th class. A challenge game has been organised for Tuesday 27th February for the team against Whitehall Girls School in Ellenfield. Wishing our super team the best of luck in their upcoming league!
Choir
Our choir will be competing in this years Interschools Music Festival on Friday the 1st March in Wesley College, Ballinteer. They will also compete in Feis Ceoil in the Primary 2-Part competition and Cóir Bhunscoile - Dhá Pháirt on Monday March 11th in St. Bartholomew's Church, Dublin 4. We wish them the very best of luck!
Proper Programmes!
Sustainability Scheme- "Sponsor a Panel"
Our school has been chosen to be included in the first phase of the Schools Photovoltaic Programme. This initiative launched by the Department of Education will fund up to 6kWp of roof-mounted solar PV, will include connection to the grid and a monitoring system and display screen in our school.
To coincide with this installation we are asking parents/local businesses if they would like to "sponsor an extra panel" so that we may maximise the benefit to the school. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor or would like to know further details about this project please email info@stbrigidsgns.ie.
Lámh: A sign a day
Ms Fitzgibbon has been teaching students in 6th Lámh (hand signs) to help students to converse with others with communication needs. Lámh is a manual sign system used by children and adults with intellectual disability. So far the girls have learnt the signs for hello, friend, mam, dad, lunch water and the days of the week. They are excited to be able to pass on what they have been taught to other students in our school.
IHF Bereavement Workshop
As part of our efforts to meet our SSE Wellbeing Targets in social & emotional skills development, Ms Farrell (Family Liaison Critical Incident Team) recently engaged in training provided by the Irish Hospice Foundation. This excellent training provided insight on best practices in dealing with bereavement in the school community.
Transition Programme
The start of our transitions programme kicks off tomorrow with Our Lady of Consolation. Students from 5th & 6th class will be visiting to participate in some gruesome science experiments such as 'Dirty Bertie' and 'Disgusting Digestion.' Students will also try out a number of playground games and challenges led by Mr Kierans.
Our Transition Team is currently conducting a piece of research in collaboration with a number of local secondary schools to collect data from first year students on the greatest challenges that faced them in transitioning from primary to secondary school. This research will inform our transition plan going forward. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Manor House, Holy Faith Clontarf and Holy Faith Killester for their cooperation with our research.
Junior Entrepreneur Programme
Students in Ms Barry and Ms McGrane's 6th class are taking part in this years Junior Entrepreneur Prorgamme. The JEP is an entrepreneurial awareness programme that teaches children about developing their own businesses. Students will be selling their products/services in the school in the coming weeks!
What Music Means To Me?
As part of UN World Social Justice Day we asked students in our school to discuss what music means to them. This project was introduced by Music Generation, with the belief that music has the power to transform lives. Our students discussed things like music giving them the freedom to be and express themselves, they said it helps them feel like they are never alone in the world and makes them want to dance! Check it out below!
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.
Louis Pasteur