St. Fiacc's National School

Shoebox Appeal – Our annual Shoebox Appeal was once again a resounding success. This year, we were delighted with the response and over 110 boxes were collected by the charity. We are grateful to all who donated.

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony – Graiguecullen Community Development Group and holding their annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on Friday 5th December at 5.30pm. Come and join us and local choirs at the Croppy Grave where Santa will turn on the lights. Afterwards you are invited to the Activity Centre at St Fiacc’s House for refreshments and the launch of our new free directory “What’s in Graiguecullen for Me”

Mass of Giving – All parents and guardians are invited to attend St. Fiaccs NS Advent Mass of Giving. Our Mass of Giving will take place on Tuesday 9^th December 2014 at 11.30 in St. Clares Church, Graiguecullen.
The following is the suggested list of food items which may be donated by each class group:
Junior Infants-Packet Soup
Senior Infants-Tea Bags
1^st Class-Pasta
2^nd Class-Ketchup
3^rd Class-Sugar
4^th Class-Mayonnaise,
5^th Class-Peas/Beans
6^th Class-Cereals.
These items will be used to make food hampers for the needy in our community.
All Classes from 1^st to 6^th will also attend mass for the Feast of Epiphany on Tuesday 6^th January at 1.30.

Christmas Concerts – This year we will celebrate Christmas with TWO Christmas concerts. On Tuesday 16th December 14 from 11:30 to 12:30 approx. our Junior, Senior, First and Second Classes will host a Christmas concert. On Wednesday 17th December 14 from 11:30 to 12:30 approx. our Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Classes will host a Christmas concert. Both concerts will take place in St. Clares Church, Graiguecullen. We are delighted to invite all parents and guardians!

Peace Proms 2014 – The school choir will participate in the Peace Proms concert on 31^st January 2015. This is a unique opportunity to perform as part of a national showcase with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland, one of the most acclaimed orchestras nationally. The performance will take place in the RDS. Rehearsals have resulted in beautiful singing permeating through the school walls. Tickets for this event are available from www.peaceproms.com.

Christmas Cards – As part of our Green Schools Initiative and also in an effort to reduce pressure on parents we would ask you to discourage children from bringing in Christmas cards for pupils in their class. We will be encouraging the children to simply wish one another a very Happy Christmas.

Christmas Reports – This year each student will receive a Christmas Report Card. Reports will be sent home.Please complete and detach the slip on the end of report card and return to class teacher. This is to ensure you received the report. Please note dates for Parent Teacher meetings. Appointments will be sent out in January.

Anti-Bullying Week: November 24th to 28th was dedicated to our annual Anti-Bullying Week. Many activities were organized including Show Racism the Red Card. Mr. Gary Coady from the FAI recently visited our 4th Class Students in relation to the “Show Racism the Red Card” Programme. The focus is to highlight the problem of Racism, how to spot it and most importantly, how to address and stop it. Gary showed the students a DVD in which many celebrity sports personalities spoke about racism and how they had been subjected to racist comments and gestures. They spoke about the lasting and hurtful effect this form of bullying had on their lives. The students were given some interesting activities and team building tasks to help them understand incidents of racism. Gary held a number of PE activities focusing on getting students to work together in groups. Students took the tasks very seriously and worked together under the guidance of Gary who was fantastic with them. The message from the day was loud and clear. This was the perfect introduction to our Anti-Bullying Week.
Bullying through Drama Workshops also began. The main of this workshop is to increase awareness of bullying through the medium of drama with children working together to understand the resolutions to bullying.
Students also took part in many class activities including creative writing competitions and art competitions. The school also sang along to our Anti-Bullying Anthem every day “ We Are All The Same”.