January-February 2012

newsletter
METNS Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 01 230 3696; office@metns.ie
Principal: Rosario Kealy
Roll No 20060G
february 2012
in short
Staff Meetings All staff meetings take place
after school hours at 14h10.
Contact details If you have moved house
or your contact details have changed, please let
the office know as soon as possible at office@
metns.ie.
Dogs Please note, no dogs are allowed
on the school grounds at any time, even
on leads.
metns clothing Hoodies still available –
check in school office.
Mid–term Break Monday,
13th February to Friday, 17th February inclusive.
School closes at the normal time on Friday 10th
February.
Lost Property Any
abandoned clothes
will be displayed
in yard at the end
of each mid-term
and any unclaimed
items will be sent to a
charity shop.
www.
metns.ie
Have a look at our fab
website for school policies,
event dates, school
calendar, photos and
lots more!
The PTA committee
The PTA has organised a talk with
Sheila O’Malley on parenting skills and
practical tips on Wednesday, February
22nd at 8pm in METNS school hall.
Sheila is a parent mentor and has trained
with Dr. Tony Humphreys for over 4 years.
For further information please see
www.practicalparenting.ie This event is
free to parents/guardians of our
school community.
The new Extra Curricular Activity
term will start at the end of February.
Forms went out in school bags at the end
of January. Please complete and return
forms with payment as soon as possible.
Places are only secured with fully
completed form and payment in full.
The FUNKY SEOMRA (sponsored
danceathon) fund raiser will take place
again this year after the mid-term break.
It was a great success last year raising
approx. €2,000 for our school and the
children had a fantastic time bopping
the day away.
From the Principal
Welcome to our second term at METNS. We have had an exciting start to our term
with a special visit from astronaut Dan Tani. Dan gave the senior children a wonderful
presentation on life in space and both children and adults were enthralled with his stories
about eating, brushing teeth and much more, without the help of gravity. The children
asked many excellent questions and Dan finished with magnificent photos of our world
from outer space. It was a truly wonderful experience and Dan pitched it perfectly for the
children with 100% engagement throughout. Thank you Dan, and thank you also to the
IADT for facilitating this visit. Have a look in this month’s Dun Laoghaire Gazette at the
fabulous photos of the visit.
We have been celebrating Martin Luther King’s birthday, St. Brigid’s Day, Chinese New
Year and World Religion Day with some wonderful drama and song from 6th, 3rd, 2nd
and Junior infants at our assemblies. This week we are all looking out for our friends as we
celebrate St Valentine’s Day.
We continue to encourage the children to be punctual and, as always appreciate your
support and effort on this. We also appreciate all your support on our campaign to get our
community walking and cycling. Please keep an eye out for all events and wow days
associated with this and get those walking shoes on. Hopefully the brighter days and
weather will help!!
Look out for our food dudes survey and please send in your ideas for healthy lunchboxes
to Lorraine who plans to share them with all of us.
Thank you to our Snow Patrol volunteers. We have a team in place, we have
the shovels and salt - now all we need is the snow!!
A few reminders to finish
• Garden dig out (11th Feb) – all help welcome
• Parenting talk from Sheila O’ Malley (22nd Feb)
• Calendars still available – don’t forget your friends
Finally, have a happy and restful mid-term break and we look forward to
Seachtain na Gaeilge, Funky Seomra and much more on our return.
Le gach dea-ghuí,
Rosario
Voluntary Contribution The BOM would like to thank parents
for your voluntary contributions so far. We would also like to remind parents who have not
contributed yet to make an effort this year to give even a small contribution. The reality is that we
are about 27% DOWN on the VC contributions this year as compared to last year.
The annual capitation grant that the Government gives schools has been cut due to our
economic situation. This grant has been cut by 2% in 2012, 2% more will be cut in 2013 and 1%
in 2014 and 2015. Although this grant should cover the running of a school, it does not cover
the heating, electricity, and cleaning bill for the school, not to mention the insurance, water, pest
control, admin costs, security, books, resources etc.
Our bill for cleaning, gas, electricity and admin so far this year has come to over €30,000 and
that does not include many other costs.
To compensate for the drop in financial support from the government, our target is to raise
€25,000 this year on the VC. So far, we have raised approx. €16,000.
Simply put, our school cannot manage without your contribution. €1 per day amounts to €185.
We are asking for less than a euro a day to ensure that your child gets the education that he/she
deserves. Please contribute if you can. METNS BOM
The Student Council are selling friendship bracelets
this week for €2 in aid of Amnesty International.

What are
the kids up to?
left Mr Srong
by Mikey ABOVE Lily's
Mr Sneeze
junior infants MARIE Hello from
Junior Infants and Happy New Year to you
all! We are back in full swing here in Room 2.
We are loving our sessions of Gymnastics on
Tuesdays. We have been celebrating Chinese
New Year in our class, making colourful
Chinese dragons and dancing/parading with
them. Junior Infants welcomed in the Spring
with our “Flower Masks” and song about St.
Brigid, which we performed on 1st February
at Assembly. Remember to keep an eye on
our “Monthly Focus” for Junior Infants; we
hope that everybody is still practicing being
independent in taking on and off coats and
shoes and hanging up our coats. Learning to
do all of these little tasks can really help the
children’s confidence. We had fun painting Mr.
Men/Little Miss characters as they are very
popular in Junior Infants!
senior infants LIZ We’ve had great fun
over the past few weeks learning lots of new
and interesting things! We have being studying
magnets and identifying magnetic objects.
We even made our very own magnetic “Go
Fish” game! We really enjoyed celebrating
Chinese New Year. 2012 is the year of the
dragon and we made some fantastic dragons
to decorate our room. Senior Infants would
like to welcome Patrick to our classroom! We
are delighted to have a new friend to play with
and we’ll work hard to make him feel very
welcome. At the moment we are preparing
some lovely songs and poems for Valentine’s
Day as we are leading assembly with our
friends next door. We feel very lucky that we
have so many special people in our lives that
love us so much – we will have to make a lot
of cards!!! Slán!
2012 started off with a bang! Dan Tani, a real Nasa
astronaut, came to vi:sit our school; we celebrated
Chinese New Year; and in fifth class we composed our
own music!
Artwork by Beth
in Senior Infants
Third Class DONAL Before Christmas,
Manunui Tito from New Zealand joined Mr.
Patterson’s third class. Manunui has given us a
super insight into life “down under”.
Third Class has been busy with their
Poetry Projects. The boys and girls have
enjoyed creating their Sound, List and Still
poems which can be found on the 3rd class
notice boards.
Third Class “Tourist Board” information is
well worth an inspection – book your holidays
to these exotic locations as early as possible as
places are being grabbed!!
We had an in-class Talent Show – photos
can be viewed on our notice board. The boys
and girls produced a first rate show which
Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell would be
proud of.
To celebrate Martin Luther King Day,
we staged a production of the life of Martin
Luther King. The boys and girls put great
effort into the drama and were supported by
the whole school. It has been a busy couple of
weeks but thoroughly enjoyable.
A very excited fourth class waiting to meet
Dan Tani, a real Nasa astronaut!
Fourth Class Caro Fourth Class had
an exciting start to the new year when Dan

snippets
Tani, a NASA astronaut, visited the school
and gave us a fantastic talk. Dan signed a
photograph of fourth class and we all got a
copy! We worked hard on our Middle Ages
projects just before Christmas and
will complete this study with an upcoming
visit to the Living History Program at
GRANDSTAND Just a reminder to all if buying sports wear or equipment – consider
Grandstand Sports in George's Mall in the Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre; they credit
METNS with 10% of the value spent by parents and children who mention the school
name when purchasing goods. Credit built up can then be used by the school to purchase
sporting goods. www.grandstandsports.ie
YOGA WITH FRANK Chill Out and Wind Down. Tuesday evenings 7.30 - 9.00pm at
METNS. Classes are E12 to drop-in or E10 per class for 4 or more classes. If you would
like to try a class, please call Frank on 087 415 8989 or email fbrooks@gmail.com.
CÓrus in the School Open to everyone, come and sing your heart out to the music
that's been the soundtrack or our lives: Pop, Rock, Country, Irish and Gospel. Tuesday
evenings 7.30pm - 9pm at METNS. Contact Córus in 01 278 1990, 086 811 5854, 087 943
9380 or email info@corus.ie; www.corus.ie.
Isabelle Heuze
by Tiernan Mason
Absences If your child is absent, please remember to put a
note in his/her homework journal to explain the absence, and
give to the class teacher on return. If your child will be
absent for a longer period, please phone the office on 01 230
3696 and let us know, if possible, followed by a written note.
Ana Cullen by
Emma Connor
Dalkey Heritage Centre. We are talking about
skeletons, dinosaurs and fossils this month.
In PE we are busy with both gymnastics and
swimming. Fourth Class were invited to attend
‘Back to the Eighties: the Musical’ at Holy
Child School in Killiney. It was a brilliant
show and we enjoyed it very much!
fifth class EVA We have been very busy
since coming back from our holidays. In art,
we have completed some fantastic portraits of
each other, using 2B and colouring pencils. In
music we used body percussion to compose an
accompaniment to a poem called “Weather”
by Aileen Fisher, and at the moment we are
working on composing an accompaniment
for a younger child’s book using percussion
instruments. When our compositions are
complete we will perform them for our
Buddies in Junior Infants! As part of our Learn
Together curriculum, we have been learning
about Amnesty International who work to
protect people’s human rights. We have
created an illustrated guide to the declaration
of Human Rights to help foster awareness. We
are looking forward to a fun-filled February
with an animation workshop and a trip to
Kilmainham Gaol coming up soon!
Health and Safety Issues
Staff Car Park is for Staff only Please do not use staff car park at drop off or
collection, it is endangering the children and also in serious breach of our Health and
Safety policy. Car parking Please drive carefully and park in designated car parks only.
School Warden Please try and avail of the service provided by our wonderful school
warden, Teresa. Arrival /Departure School starts at 8.30 am each day and ends at
1.10pm for infants and 2.10pm from first to sixth class. At arrival time the children line up in
the designated areas and the class teacher brings them in. At going home time infants are
handed over to their parents/collector and the other classes wait in the yard until they are
collected unless otherwise directed by their parents. If a parent/collector is late for any reason
your child should return to the class teacher or to Rosario until collected. Well done to
all walkers, scooters and cyclists!! Please dismount at the gate, you may
not cycle or scoot within the school boundaries. medical profile form Please make
sure that you have filled out a form for your child. If there are any changes to existing ones,
they will need to be updated. Head lice Please check your child’s head regularly as this is a
particularly busy time for them! Mobile Phones If your child has a mobile phone coming to
school, you must complete the appropriate permission form available from the office. Mobile
phones must be turned off (not on silent) during school hours and on the school premises
unless permission is given by a staff member to use it. Any breach of this will result in the
mobile phone being confiscated. Parents can retrieve phones from office and must sign for
them. Messages for children in school can be left at office during school hours.
No Nuts! Please note that nuts
are banned from the school at all times.
Please remember this for school bakes, fairs etc.
It's your party... In the interest of the children, please
don't distibute birthday invites in the classroom or in the school yard - no one
likes being left out!

2011-12 Green team.
Green Schools Transport Theme
As you know, METNS wants to W.O.W…Walk on Wednesdays and Walk on Weekends.
We are trying to encourage a culture of walking/cycling, to school and back, and, if this is not
possible, cutting down on car journeys at the weekends in favour of the healthier option of
walking or cycling. Our children are so young and impressionable that we can create a habit
of exercise in their lives, or indeed, the habit of jumping in the car for the shortest journey.
We have nominated 3 weekends and three Wednesdays where we are putting a huge
emphasis on walking/cycling/park- and-striding to school. We have identified three sites
(a 10-15min walk away form the school) and we are going to have helpers to meet children
at these sites on those WOW days. Parents in a hurry to work will have nothing more to do
than drop the children there, safe in the knowledge that the children will be safely walked to
school, and parents who have the time to walk along would be so welcome. Our first WOW
day is February 22nd and we are asking for 3 parents to volunteer to be a leader, one at each
site. It is simply about a 30 minute commitment, three times this school year and perhaps
three times next year.
Guided tour of
Dun Laoghaire
METNS PARENT PRODUCES
TWO SMARTPHONE
APPS FOR POPULAR
DÚN LAOGHAIRE WALKS
Aileen O'Meara, mother of Sophia
Guiomard (4th), is a multimedia producer
based in York Road, and she has
produced two free smartphone Apps
which take you on a guided audio tour
(with maps and photos) of the East Pier
and the Metals in Dún Laoghaire.
From your Android or iPhone, or
indeed your iPad, you can learn all
about the rich history and heritage of
this area. Did you know why there is a
Romanov seal on the Russian Cannon,
for example, or what the Anenometer is
for when you stride out on the East Pier?
And did you know about the ingenious
engineering story behind the building of
Dún Laoghaire's harbour?
To download the Apps, go to your
App store and type in "Dun Laoghaire"
in the search section, and they'll turn up.
OR you can scan them RIGHT HERE
onto your phone if you have a scanning
App such as "Red Laser" or "i-nigma".
Point your phone's camera at this QR
code and follow the instructions. Best to
do this in a wi-fi area.
Site 1 On the Rochestown Road. There are houses set back from the road a little with a wide
path in front of them. If you are driving up towards the Pottery Road intersection, it is on the
right, a little after the hospital.
Site 2 The Deansgrange business park, on Kill Ave. Those familiar with the NCT centre will
be used to driving in there. It is a parking metre site, €1 per hour.
Site 3 On the Glenageary Road, before the Honey Park intersection. There is a lay-by before
the entrance to the building site and parking for 10/12 cars. It is also a good place to pull in
and drop children quite easily.
>
We have also asked Fr John Killeen, parish priest of Holy Family, for
permission to park on his church car park on those dates and give the
parents of younger children especially, a chance to park 5-10 minutes
away, and have a safe walk through the grounds of the IADT. We
will know if this is a possibility soon and let you know. Check out
the school website Green Schools section for child-friendly maps of
our sites!
The children are coming up with good slogans to encourage us in our
endeavours and one of the good ones that Fionn in 3rd class loves is
WEAR OUT YOUR SHOES, NOT THE ENVIRONMENT!
Walk on Wednesdays
Hands-on
garden day
Don’t forget to give us a
dig-out in the garden
Saturday 11th Feb
from 10.30am.
6th class
planting
saplings of a
native Irish
hedgerow.