Winter Market Special!

Family clay workshop Senior Infants funded by PTA

Well the winter market is nearly upon us so make sure to put the date of Saturday 8th December in your diaries:

Time: 11am – 3pm

We have some fantastic raffle prizes this year such as

iPad           Mixed media painting by Dec Irwin

 Dinner for 2 at Dún Restaurant     U2 Box Set

 Hampers and vouchers from:         Adventure Agency

Hartleys Restaurant                        Ouzos

 Tickets on sale next week and at the Winter Market. Prizes every hour! Don’t miss this chance to win some fabulous art, technology, hampers, vouchers!

2nd class Creativity in the Classroom funded by the PTA

What else is at the winter market?     

• hot & cold food stalls
• traders stalls including hats & scarves, jewelry, on-the-spot sketches
• second hand books and toys
• cinema
• tombola
• Santa !!

Yes – the school will be transformed on Friday 7^th December. 3^rd – 6^th classrooms become venues for stalls to be set up. Upstairs, 2^nd class becomes a cinema. The resource room becomes Santa’s grotto!

Senior Infants with artist Liz, workshop funded by PTA

Calling all parents/guardians!

We need your donations to make this market as attractive, exciting and enjoyable as always. What should you do?

Books
& Toys

From Thursday 29th November there will be boxes upstairs beside the lift and also downstairs beside the lift for collecting toys and books so please place your donations in there.  Please remember that we have to pay to dump any broken/unsaleable toys, so keep this in mind when donating.

Cakes and tray bakes for cake stall – to be delivered to the hall on Friday 7^th December after school or the morning of Saturday 8 December before the market begins at 11am

Bottles of wine/spirits – for tombola prizes – please leave these in the box in secretary Gillian’s office.

Clay workshop funded by the PTA

Help! Help! Help!

**We are in urgent need of people to help with the setup from 3pm on Friday 7th and to work on the stalls on Saturday 8^th. If you can help in anyway even just for an hour or two please call Nikki on 0872283571 or Isolde on 0870567965.  We will also have helpers lists outside the school at drop off and pick up from Thursday 29th so please sign your name if you can help.**

All the money raised from the winter market goes straight back to the children’s activities in school e.g. playball, dance, creativity in the classroom, art and music workshops, subsidising school trips etc.

It is a great family day out so make sure to tell all your friends and extended family. Come along and enjoy tasty food, warming drinks, time for chatting, prizes galore!

5th class warm up exercises at dance funded by PTA

Piano Auction: As part of our winter market fundraiser we are auctioning off the piano that is in the Junior Infants classroom. This piano is no longer needed in the school and all funds raised from this auction will go back to the children’s activities. The piano can be viewed before class starts in the morning or at pick up.  Mark Redmond, Piano Tuner has tuned this piano for the last few years.  He would recommend it only as a starter piano for somebody, so bear this in mind should you wish to bid on it . Mark has very kindly offered to include a free tuning! Transport will have to be organised by the lucky winner!  All bids to the PTA box and mark FAO Nikki Redmond by 5th December 2012.

6th class dance lessons funded by PTA

Educate Together Raffle Tickets:

Please get your raffle tickets in to the PTA box by this Friday 30th November.

Tá na laetheanta dorcha ag teacht isteach ach níl sé ag cur isteach orainn. The darker days are approaching but it does not dampen spirits at DSPNS. 1st class have been exploring the story of Rama and Sita.

1st class play about Rama and Sita

3rd class are lucky to have lots of parents available to help with art and cooking.

Making decorations

Many thanks to teachers and parent/guardians for the successful running of our parent/teacher meetings last week. This week we look forward to seeing how Senior Infants and 2nd get on with parents/guardians invited to do an art session with our Creativity in the Classroom artist, Liz. 4th and 6th classes will be benefitting from Liz’s expertise in the new year.

Artists at work

We are also fortunate to have two visiting teachers working with us currently. Fáilte roimh Ms Ní Ghlóinn go dtí rang a 6 agus José go dtí Naíonáin Shóisearacha agus rang a 2!

PTA News

We will be putting up ‘helpers’ lists for the winter market outside the classrooms next week. If anybody can help in any way, please put your name on the list with phone number and when available.  We need help setting up on Friday 7th December, working on the stalls on Saturday 8th December and the clean up after the market on Saturday 8th December.

As part of our winter market fundraiser we are auctioning off the piano that is in the Junior Infants classroom. This piano is no longer needed in the school and all funds raised from this auction will go back to the children’s activities. The piano can be viewed before class starts in the morning or at pick up.  Mark Redmond, Piano Tuner has tuned this piano for the last few years.  He would recommend it only as a starter piano for somebody, so bear this in mind should you wish to bid on it 🙂 . Mark has very kindly offered to include a free tuning! Transport will have to be organised by the lucky winner!  All bids to the PTA box and mark FAO Nikki Redmond by 5th December 2012.

Atheist, Humanist, Non-theistic Parent/Guardians Invite

Meeting for Atheist, Humanist and non-theistic parents/guardians.
Tuesday 27th November, 7:00. DSP national school.
Meet like-minded parents & guardians to discuss:
.supporting our children in Educate Together Schools
.ways of encouraging an appreciation of a growing community we can all feel part of!
Open to Dalkey School Project N.S. & Monkstown E.T. Parents & guardians.
Contact Rachael Prendergast Spollen. 087 7865862
rachaelprendergast@me.com

Old mobile phones at home?

The Irish Autism Action is running a scheme collecting old mobile phones to help children with Autism to get i Pads. An i Pad with specialized software can help a child with autism with communication, learning, organization, fine motor skills and behaviour.  If anyone has any old mobile phone to donate to this great cause, please bring them to Ms O Donohue in 3rd Class

Diwali art work Junior Infants

This is a busy week with parent teacher meetings taking place today and tomorrow. Meetings that take place during the school day are in resource rooms or the prinipal’s office. Check class door for notice of where to go. After school meetings will take place in classrooms. You are welcome to knock on the class door to let teacher know you are waiting. We are doing our best to keep meetings to schedule. Each meeting is scheduled for 10 minutes.

Diwali art work Senior Infants

Dates for your Diary

• Winter Market Saturday 8 December 2012. See last week’s blog (7 November) for details. All help appreciated! We are aiming to have a high footfall at the event. It’s our main fundraiser.
• Educate Together Raffle tickets will be issued next Monday 19 November 2012. This is ET’s big fundraiser this year. Details included with raffle tickets. A poster outlining ET’s aims is on view on front railings.

Incident

There was an incident on Thomastown Road yesterday morning that involved a youth threatening members of the public including a parent of a child in DSP. Some DSP students witnessed this. The school took the following procedures:

We checked everyone was safe in school and began school routines.

Miriam phoned the detective involved for facts. He reported a person had been arrested. We reassured the children in question they were safe and that their parents were safe.

The community guards visited the school to support us following the incident. They recommended against speaking to whole school, that it would be best to talk to classes where children may have been upset, as whole school talks could escalate concerns. Following a consultation with all teachers who assessed the effect of the incident on classes, it was agreed the guards would talk to 3rd, 4th, 6th. They did a safety talk, reassuring children they were safe, the incident was most unusual, that to go and seek help from a trusted adult was the best thing to do if worried. Teachers monitored children all day.

Miriam phoned or talked to parents of children who may have been upset by incident.

A statement was put on website. A text was sent to all parents. Miriam was outside school to meet parents/guardians at 1.10pm and 2.10pm.

Miriam phoned National Educational Psychological Services (NEPS) for advice. They advised as follows:

• Tell children the incident was unusual and unlikely to happen again
• Continue normal routines
• Create a safe and supportive space so that children can talk about anxieties
• If child is anxious about walking to school make sure they are accompanied

Children and parents may go to resource teacher Ms Robinson or principal tomorrow if they are worried still about incident. All staff are aware and will be monitoring the children over the following days to check they are not presenting with anxieties. This is in line with our Critical Incident Plan (which is available in the office).

Thanks to all parents/guardians and staff who helped deal with this incident in a caring manner.

Reports of an incident at the Dalkey School Project that have been circulated online this morning are factually incorrect. A youth (15yrs) was seen with a knife on Thomastown Road about 200 yards from the school and he was subdued by locals. The guards took the youth into custody at the scene. The incident did not happen on school property.

Zombie dance to 'Thriller'

We are back to a chilly start this week after midterm break. That prompts us to prepare for the possibility of a severe weather incident. Attached to the hard copy of this week’s newsletter is a letter seeking volunteers to help keep our school open should such an event arise. If you do not get a newsletter in the bag, please feel free to sign up as volunteer by phoning the office. Severe weather letter

4th class work

Our core value for this month is Honesty.

We will tell the truth.

We will be true to ourselves.

We will make a sincere effort in school.

Parent/Teacher meetings next week!

Parent/Teacher meetings are scheduled for next Wednesday 14 November and next Thursday 15 November. School closes at 1.55pm on Thursday 15 Nov as meetings begin at 2.10pm.

Respect our Neighbours

A neighbour’s son was cycling to school yesterday morning when a car door opened and he was knocked off his bike. Fortunately, he is fine. Please be aware of the safety of all children at drop off and pick up times. Children need lots of reminders about road safety – look before opening a car door, before stepping off the path onto the road.

Try to park a distance from the school gates e.g.round the corner on Bellevue, and encourage children to walk the last part of their journey to school, practising safe and considerate use of a busy area, stopping at the edge of footpaths and checking for cars, bikes etc. A good rule of thumb is we share paths and roads with others. Let us all be respectful of each other. Road safety is a life skill all children need to learn.

PTA Update

The Halloween disco was a great success again this year, all of the children enjoyed it as did a lot of the parents!  A big thank you to all involved for all their help and to the children for helping to make it a great success.

The winter market will be held on Saturday 8th December from 11am to 3pm.  This is our biggest fundraiser of the year so please support us in any way you can.  Every year it is great fun, there is hot food, hot drinks, crafts, toys etc and even Santa makes an appearance!  We need volunteers to help on the day, if you can help in any way please contact your class rep or Isolde (0870567965) or Nikki (0872283571).

We will also be holding a raffle at the market, if anybody has a prize they would like to donate please contact Saoirse on 0879102653 and Claire on 0868090545

Educate Together Ethos Conference Saturday 17 November 2012

http://www.educatetogether.ie/ethos-conference

All members of school community are welcome to attend. Guest speaker – Olivia O’Leary. Please phone the office to let us know if you are interested. It would be great to have a representation from DSP there.

BOM meeting next Wednesday 13 November 2012 7.30pm

Please see attached sheet for information on a series of talks for parents organised by the HSE.