December 2013

newsletter
in short
• On wet mornings, the children may
assemble in the hall from 8.20am.They
will be supervised, and class teachers will
collect them from hall at 8.30 am.
• Lost property is now in back porch of
school; items will be given to charity at end
of term if not claimed before then.
• Children should wear runners or bring a
pair in their bag as they will not be permitted
onto pitch, playground, or to take part in P.E.
lesson without them.
• Thank you for slowing down and
parking carefully. If you would be willing to
act as a helper with traffic in the mornings,
please contact Ciara on 086 8074 624.
• NO NUTS
• end-of-Term Break School closes
Friday 20th December at 12 – Monday 6th
January.
From the P T A committee
Thank you for coming out and
supporting our Winter Wonderland
event. It was another fantastic event
with lots of fun for all the family. We
hope you enjoyed it as much as we
did. Thanks to all the parents who
donated a wide range of items. Finally,
a huge thank you to all the volunteers
who made it a success again this
year with a total of €10,000 being
generated for METNS!
Our Coffee Morning dates have
been confirmed for 10th January and
7th February. This is a great way to
get to know other parents, so please
come in out of the cold for a cuppa
and chat if you can.
There will be a Sticks and Stones
Anti-Bullying Talk for parents of both
METNS and the Dalkey School Project
on 4th February 2014 at 7:30pm in
our hall. This is an award-winning
programme which provides parents
with extensive information on bullying.
The session will be highly engaging
and allow you as parents to share
experiences and voice concerns,
concluding with a question and
answers session.
Enjoy the winter break and the time
with family and friends...
METNS Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 01 230 3696;
office@metns.ie. Principal: Rosario Kealy. Roll No 20060G
From the Principal
december 2013
We are at the end of our first terms at METNS and what a term it has been!
We started this year off with many new initiatives including maths week, value of the
month, e-mail communication for parents, upgrading of our website and much more. All have
been a great success and some are still a work in progress. One unplanned initiative was our
WSE (Whole School Evaluation), however, that was also a great success and I would like to
thank the BoM and PTA for their support during this very important benchmark in the life of
METNS. Special credit goes to all the teachers and SNA’s for the incredible effort that was
put in over the past six weeks. No word can describe the enthusiasm, hard work, pride and
care that went into making METNS an amazing school to be in – and, it continues! Finally, the
children really impressed the inspectors as they showed off how much they knew!
Maths week this year was a huge success and the children made over €1,000 to buy maths
equipment from the copper kilometre fundraiser. Lots of use was made of our 13 iPads. The
children love this kind of learning and have asked for many more of these ‘fun’ weeks.
We have installed our aquaponics aquarium (a gift from 6th class parents 2013) and the
children are really enjoying looking at and naming all the fish! Please come and have a look,
they are just inside the back door. Thank you to Niamh, (Mum of Seán and Alanna) for setting
it up for us. Seán and Sam, from 1st class, put the first fish in; we hope that they (the fish!) will
be very happy at METNS.
Enterprise Ireland came in to interview 5th class about their perspective on the European
Union. 5th class also completed their incredible Nature Moves project. They will be proud to
show their film to the children here when it is ready.
Thank you to our Snow Patrol volunteers. We have a new (and some old!) team in place and
are ready to go!!
Last weekend, a wonderful day was had by all at our ‘Winter Wonderland’, a mammoth task
and an astounding success; thank you to all who got involved. The fair is a reflection of team
work and community spirit at its best.
Finally on Monday 9th December, Sam (Mc Guire) was brought in by our GAA coach
Darren. We all sang Cockles and Mussels, cheered Sam and the Dubs, and took lots of photos!
A few reminders:
• Winter festival of song: METNS Yard, 11am, Friday, 20th December
• School reopens on Monday, 6th January
• Please check lost property
• Parenting talk on anti-bullying: Tuesday, 4th February
Have a happy and peaceful holiday and we look forward to 2014, and all that it brings.
Le gach dea-ghuí,
Rosario
Sixth class
with the
Sam Maguire cup

Our ethos is alive at MET NS
As part of our ethos, we celebrated thankfulness last month and peace this month.
We have had many visits and presentations from various people in our community this term.
This included our annual grandparents’ day, which is always a favourite with the children.
Parents Natalie Warshager and Nancy Ward both gave presentations at assemblies on
Hanukkah and Thanksgiving respectively. The children loved having parents in to share their
cultures with them. Annabel, Jonathan and Tadhg were very proud!
Our Christmas tree this year is decorated with doves and ribbons as a gesture of our
thankfulness and we raised funds for the people of the Philippines. The feedback has been
very positive. Many thanks for all your generosity.
For disability awareness week, we had a visit from Rosemary Smyth and her beautiful
guide dog ‘Clint’. Rosemary was joined by the Guide Dogs Association, two
training dogs and their foster owners. It was a fabulous presentation and all the
children will especially be mindful when they see a working guide dog. We also
had a visit to 5th class from past pupil, Sean O’ Kelly, and his friend Bobby,
who are wheelchair users. 5th class were completely smitten with these
inspirational people. They gave a powerful presentation and the pupils even
had a go in the wheelchairs!
The 4th class presentatioin on CO² gave the children a real insight into
global warming and hopefully has created a renewed awareness of looking
after our environment.
Our new student council are in place and they are delighted to announce
that the children raised €527 for Temple Street children’s hospital.
We celebrated Christmas this week and are looking forward to all the
parents/guardians joining us for Winter Festival of song on Friday 20th
December in the yard. Wear your woollies and bring your festive cheer! Rosario
METNS Student Council looks back...
In November, the METNS student council elections took place and we now have a new
team. Last year’s student council and the incoming student council had a celebration
with Helen and Rosario:
• Reuben liked being on the student council “because we have a say”.
• Adam liked coming up with different ideas.
• Abby really enjoyed helping the school.
• Sean said “I really like making the rules for the playground.”
• Kate liked having a say in things that were going on.
• Jessie and Nikita liked helping with assemblies.
• Daniel: “I liked fundraising for Amnesty International- when we sold the
friendship bracelets.”
We wish the new student Council well next year and hope they enjoy it as much.
METNS Student Council- 2012/2013
WE HAVE MADE IT!
THE AFTERSCHOOL
MOVES TO
ITS NEW HOME!
The afterschool has moved in to its new
home with much excitement! This idea
started with a survey of parents in 2005
to see if there was interest in having an
afterschool for 1.10 – 2.10 everyday
to help families who had two
collections. With much hard work
and support from parents, past
parents, teachers and Board of
Management members over the
last 8 years we now have a proper
home and are open full afternoons
from 1.10-5.30. Thanks to everyone!
The children (and Teresa, Fiona
and Alison!) are loving the new
space and have been asking when
they can have a sleepover! All of the
profits made are put back into the
school so using the afterschool is a
way of supporting METNS and with an
hourly rate of €5 it makes financial sense
too! Bookings are now being taken for
January for children of all ages so if you are
interested please contact Teresa at 087
6770855.
In January we will be looking for
suggestions from children and parents to
name the new space and develop a logo so
watch this space!
Green Schools So, another year, another challenge. We have started our 5th
Flag programme, with the theme of BIODIVERSITY. We will continue to review the first four
themes of RRR, energy savings, water and travel, and we would ask for your help as parents, to
support us in our efforts, particularly in the weekly/monthly WOW’s (Walk on Wednesdays, for
the new parents to the school). We have achieved a great enthusiasm for not jumping in the car, so it would be great to continue it.
With the biodiversity theme, we will be busy exploring various habitats and building new ones around our school. We are going to be building
bug hotels in the spring and want to collect materials for this. Parents Corinna O’Sullivan and Kevin Speer have been really helpful in sourcing
old pallets to start us off. We will be planting a ‘butterfly garden’ with plants that will attract the butterflies, and many more projects. We have great
expertise in this area among the parent body, and will be leaning on this over the next 18 months. If you could help us out by building any bird
houses, or helping a class make them, it would be great. We plan to have a lot of houses in the ‘wild’ area beside the new afterschool/playground.
We held on to a lot of the topsoil that was removed, to build the new afterschool, and this will have to be shovelled into the garden. If you would
like to help out on a designated Saturday in February, this would help a lot too. It will either be February 8th or 15th depending on the weather, so
I’ll keep people informed. Thanks for all the help over the years, and a special mention for Grainne Dempsey, one of our staff members, for all the
fabulous work she has been doing around the school gardens.
Photo of the Green Team. Names are 6th, Conor,Joe, Naomi, Caetano, 5th Emily, Tadhg, Suffie, Lily 4th Maja, Liam, Seán, Joe, Malachy,
Eva, Eoin 3rd Simon, Hemant, Emma, Charlotte, April, Sadie, Diarmaid 2nd Oliver, Cathal, Dearbhla, Aleesha, Ella, Amelie, Tara, Hugh 1st
Charlie, Aiba, Oisin, Henry, Martino, Oscar, Martha, Ruby

Report from the Board of Management……
• A staff sub-committee has been formed to review and put together the first draft of the new anti-bullying policy, ensuring the departmental
guidelines are taken on board. This first draft will be given to the committee, which will include representatives, BoM, PTA, parents and
staff. Children will also be consulted. Rosario will circulate any pertinent research and reference documents to the wider committee.The
committee is going to meet in January and the BoM representative is Ziene Mottiar.
• Rosario and Conor had a first meeting to discuss the review of the communication policy. A sub-committee of staff, parents and BoM has
been established. A first draft policy has been circulated to the parent and BoM reps on the committee. Feedback has been received and
the committee will meet in January.
• There was almost 100% uptake from METNS homes to make the ‘BIG SWITCH’ to email communication. This is great, because it saves
the school a lot of money in paper, photocopying and ‘people time’. It also fits so well with our Green School programme.
• WSE - At this stage, the school has been through our Whole School Evaluation. We would like to thank all our wonderful staff for the
huge effort each and every one of you contributed. It was a very comprehensive review of our school and was welcomed by all. Every
group within our community was consulted and met by the ‘visitors’, as the children called them! We just had the first reports back from the
inspectors and am happy to say that we have done really well! The report will be published by the Department by end February.
• There have been about 30 responses to the Voluntary Contribution request to date. We thank all those who have made a contribution
to the running costs of the school and would really encourage all those remaining to consider giving whatever contribution they can. The
school really does need your support!
• Clodagh is finalising the report on the results of the Ethos Survey. Apologies for the delay with this but the WSE intervened!! However,
in advance of the written report, the Board of Management and the staff of the school have taken on board some of the issues raised
and are already addressing them. The ethos ‘Value of the Month’ calendar; the new ethos boards within the school; the presentation
by parents at assemblies on different faith/cultural celebrations; the review of our communication policy and how we can improve
communication with each other; the undertaking to set up an ethos committee within the school - these are just some of the responses that
have been put into action.
• We are continuing our recruitment drive for the new Community Representative to the BoM. We are talking with Educate Together and
others within that world to recruit someone from the wider community to the BoM.
• A HUGE bravo and welcome to our new afterschool building, which is now open! We, as a school community, are extremely lucky to have
this resource, which is there to serve the families within the school. Thank you to all who made this happen.
• Planning permission for the ‘resource hub’ has been approved. Conor is driving this project on behalf of the BoM. We are ready to go
to tender for the building and have set up a fund-raising committee to raise the additional money we will need to fully finish and equip the
resource rooms.
• The BoM discussed new Student Council procedures, which in the future will include an annual meeting between the BoM and the
Student Council.
• Brian has been looking after all our building maintenance issues. All issues regarding blinds, taps and windows are now resolved. The
problem surrounding access to the eaves by pigeons has also been resolved. It was agreed that Brian would expedite the erection of a
fence inside the main gates, to prevent the potential occurrence of people slipping and falling on wet ground.
• Another HUGE bravo to the PTA for organising such a wonderful Winter Fair! Thank you to all the class reps and all the parents who
worked on the day. It was such a great day to be part of METNS.
Another busy, full, exciting and happy term at METNS!
Wishing all our children, families and staff a very happy and peaceful winter break.
Clodagh O’ Brien , Chairperson, board of management
The school is decorated througout with beautiful and colourful art
– so much creativity and talent in Metns!

Winter Wonderland
Thank you to all our
wonderful sponsors!
Doyle Nurseries
Howbert & Mays
Pandora Bell
The Jelly Bean Factory
Weirs of Baggot Street
Windyridge Nursersies