Winter 2016

WINTER 2016
newsletter
Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 01 230 3696;
office@metns.ie. Principal: Rosario Kealy. Roll No 20060G
in short
• SCHOOL CLOSES 22ND
DECEMBER AT 12PM. We hope
you will join us for our Winter
Songfest on at 11am in the yard.
• SCHOOL REOPENS 9TH JAN.
• Don’t forget to check lost property
regularly and especially near the
end of term
• COLLECTION FOR WINTER
FAIR (Sun, 11th December)
will take place Monday 5th and
Wednesday 7th December ONLY.
Please look out for our “elves” who
will be in the yard before and after
collection times with their collection
bin.
TEENY-TINY
PEOPLE APPEAL
Junior and senior infants are
looking for small figures
(approx. 10cm or less) to use
in our small world play. They
could be Duplo, Playmobil,
Happyland or any random figures
that you have lying around. They do
not have to match, and even one on its
own would be welcome. If you’re doing
a clear-out, we’d be very grateful if you
dropped them in. A box will be left on
the window sill outside room 8 (Karen’s
junior infant room) for any little people
ready for a new home. THANK YOU
FROM THE AISTEAR PLAY TEAM!
METNS Community
Winter Wonderland
Extravaganza
Sunday, 11 th December
11am – 3pm
From the Principal
I am delighted to welcome you all to the first
newsletter of this year. It has been a busy first
term with lots of new initiatives and exciting
events happening at METNS.
Dolores O’ Donnell has been appointed as
Deputy Principal, replacing Eilis Kendlin who
retired last year. We are currently appointing an
Assistant Principal to replace Dolores’s vacated
post of responsibility.
David Mc Givern, who is currently on a career
break, got married during the summer and
Deirdre O’ Shea got married in October. Shane
Nolan got engaged during the summer, and
both Emer Bergin and Liz Goodwin have had
beautiful babies while Claire Cantrell is due her
baby in January. Congratulations to all the staff
on all these happy events, I wish you all the very
best in your future roles and responsibilities.
Noelita and her team on the Board of
Management have made a great start to the
year already as have Jennie (PTA chairperson)
and her new team members as you will see
further on in this newsletter.
Many wonderful events have taken place
since the beginning of the year including
Grandparents’ Day where our new 6th
class choir sang beautifully (as did many
other classes). I look forward to many more
performances during the year- what a talented
group of children they are. We also had the
‘première’ of our fabulous grandparents which
was filmed by Conor Moloney last year. What a
great day this is every year!
GAA coaching has continued this year (we even
saw the Sam Maguire cup!), cycling skills for 5th
class and SOAR workshop for 6th class.
This term we have had Timm Jeschawitz,
lecturer at IADT, in both 3rd classes running
‘Musickit’ workshops. The children have been
composing wonderful music; thank you Timm
for this opportunity.
Science week was a wonderful success with
workshops going on nearly all week both in
school and also in the Lexicon, Dun Laoghaire.
Thanks to Áine who took some wonderful
photos which will be on the website very shortly
along with other photos of events this term.
Katy Losty, a physical therapist has been
facilitating ‘movement breaks’ for a number
of children at METNS, and also has given
workshops to all staff to enable us to continue
this with all classes
We have been revising our Positive Behaviour
policy in all classes and clarifying procedures
so that the children are more aware of what is
expected to enable them to play and learn as
safely, happily and effectively as possible.
Our 6th class girls’ hockey team are going
from strength to strength; they have jumped up
from league 7 to league 2 in Dublin – what an
achievement!
We look forward also to the following next
term... Maths Circles: parent, Ronan Flatly,
who lectures in mathematics, will facilitate this
wonderful set of workshops for 5th class on
Wednesday afternoons with help from some
parents. The Daily Mile: METNS will start this
in January as part of our school plan to get fit!
Watch this space as your children might start
this at home too. PE as Gaeilge: as part of the
New Language Curriculum guidelines for English
and Irish, we will be doing PE through Irish next
term to give the children (and the teachers!) a
chance to put all they are learning into practice.
We will put some of the terminology up on
our website to help anyone who would like to
practise their skills at home.
Ethos: This month we are looking at
Thankfulness and Peacefulness which will
lead us into this special time of the year for
celebrations of many Christian religions. It is
also a time for giving and this year, through our
Christmas hamper and Christmas tree appeal,
METNS are giving to families in need in our
community and the homeless. We hope you
will join us for our Winterfest of Song on 22nd
December at 11am in the yard.
See news from our green team and student
council further on- lots to share!
Finally, thank you to all staff for a fantastic first
term, to parents/guardians for your continued
help and support, and to the children for the joy
and fun you bring into METNS each day.
Le gach dea mhéin,
Rosario Kealy,
Principal

How do the
kids fill
their day?
JI 1
SENIOR INFANTS
We created some wonderful pieces of
JUNIOR INFANTS
KAREN AND VICTORIA
Junior infants a and b are settling in very
well. We have been getting to know our
new school and, having met our exciting
new big buddies, we went out to explore
it for ourselves, tracking down lots of
important things like the playground, Joan’s
office and the fish tank! As well as learning
about our school, we have been sharing
some information about our families and
drawing beautiful self-portraits and family
pictures. We have been discussing how
to stay healthy – eating good food, having
exercise, and getting lots of sleep – whilst
remembering that as we grow, so do our
taste buds, so we need to keep trying
foods we don’t like yet.
We are enjoying learning through play, and
exploring our themes in our role-play corner
where we have had a school, a home
corner, a witch’s house, and a pizzeria. We
are exploring our senses with sand and
water play, and we are making an array
of foods and fantastical creatures with
play dough. We are developing our sense
of responsibility and getting really good
at tidying up after our play, keeping our
classroom neat and safe.
DEIRDRE AND SARAH
Senior Infants A and B have had a very
busy and exciting first term. We were
reunited with our wonderful sixth class
buddies in September after a long summer
break. They brought us on a lovely autumn
nature walk and we collected as many
conkers and leaves as we could possibly
fit in our pockets and hoods! We see our
buddies for fun activities every Wednesday.
artwork this term including our baby owls,
umbrella artwork, super self portraits,
rangolis and 2D train creations! We have
really enjoyed developing our GAA football
skills with Darren and have also played fun
playground games like beetle chase and
duck, duck goose.
SIwater areas and even turned our classroom
Don’t forget to check out our noticeboard
at the junior infant entrance to see what we
are doing next!
Senior Infants’ Super Self Portraits
We have investigated Aistear themes
including the ‘train station’ and ‘animal
hospital’. Come in and have a look at our
sociodramatic areas at the back of the
classroom! We love engaging in our learning
through play sessions each morning. We
have had lots of fun with our sand and
into a swimming pool one day by accident!
We have built some super constructions
using lego and block sets and we love
using our playdoh, junk art and small world
stations to create imaginary worlds.
1ST CLASS
First class have been very busy since
September! We have adjusted extremely
well to the longer day and we are enjoying
our extra-curricular activities. Both classes
learned lots about our school, ourselves
and our senses. We completed ‘feely bag’
investigations to discover how powerful our
sense of touch is; we used our sense of
hearing to identify environmental sounds.
In preparation for Grandparents’ Day we
learned the poem ‘Grandma’s Glasses’ and
read lots of stories about grandparents.
We welcomed our grandparents and
special friends into the school; we enjoyed
sharing our work and giving classroom
tours! The classes celebrated Diwali by
creating colourful rangoli patterns. The
children enjoyed dressing up for Halloween
and participating in the school parade.
We learned about traditions and customs
associated with Halloween. We are very
excited about participating on the green
team. Now that we are in first class, we
are old enough to share our thoughts and
ideas in keeping METNS a green school.We
read Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. The
children really engaged with the story and
it provided numerous curricular links. We
discovered lots of interesting facts about
foxes. We drew and painted foxes, and
learned the song ‘Little Red Fox’. We wish
you all a peaceful, relaxing winter break.
1ST CLASS A SARAH J. & THERESA
First class a are busy bees! During maths
week, we invited our parents to our class
to show them all the games and activities
we use to develop mathematical skills and
concepts. We made 2D shape monsters for
Halloween. Maya’s mum came to visit us
with her double bass. We loved listening to
the sound of this beautiful instrument and
had lots of interesting questions to ask her.
We had enjoyed performing ‘We’ve Got
Rights’ at assembly, and learned lots about
rights and responsibilities in November.
1ST CLASS B NIAMH AND HELEN
We are very busy in first class b and
we love playing math games with dice
and cards!! We explored Marion’s Wood
for signs of autumn. First class created
beautiful paintings of the trees we saw
on our nature walk. We learned about
hedgehogs and made hedgehogs with
funky spikes! We discussed the history
of Thanksgiving and how we are
thankful for all of the wonderful people
and possessions we have in our
lives. We also invited parents
into our class for junk art in
November, it was so much fun!

2ND CLASS A DERVLA
2 3 4
2nd Class A Halloween Line Up
second class a have had a busy start to
the school year but have settled in very
well! We have done a lot of Hallowe’en
themed work recently. In English, we
studied a poem called ‘It’s Hallowe’en’ and
we read a book called Pumpkin Soup. In
history, we discussed Hallowe’en traditions
in Ireland and we studied the history of
Hallowe’en. In geography, we learned
about how Hallowe’en is celebrated all
around the world. In science, we had great
fun making a ‘Jack-O-Lantern’ and we
also tasted some pumpkin seeds! In art,
we made paper-plate pumpkin faces! In
music we learned two new songs- ‘Jack O’
Lantern Song’ and ‘Halloween Is Coming’.
Over the last few weeks we have learned
all about Diwali-the festival of lights. We
have learned that Diwali is a very important
Hindu celebration and that it marks the
start of their New Year. We have learned
that rangoli patterns are drawn on floors to
welcome in visitors to people’s homes and
that they are also thought to welcome the
Goddess of Wealth (Lakshmi). In art, we
designed our own rangoli patterns using
lots of bright colours and we also made
clay Diwali candle-holders called ‘diyas’.
We are looking forward to what the rest of
the term holds for us! Watch this space!!
2ND CLASS B MARIE
There is great fun and learning taking place
in room 1. We are learning about An Scoil
i nGaeilge, our maths classes are busy
busy with mental maths strategies and
hand-on learning. We are learning about
how “magic e” makes vowels change their
sound in phonics and we are working hard
on our handwriting. In SPHE, we have
been focussing on ‘ourselves’ as a theme,
exploring our features and personalities and
how we are different and similar to others.
We have had fun while developing our
positive emotions through writing positive
things about others and having them
written about us. We are now exploring
how we make decisions and choices and
looking at the theme of Children’s Rights.
We did fun paint splats with bubble wrap.
We also looked at the work of the artist
Jackson Pollock, who used the actions
of rolling, dipping, splattering, pouring etc
in his work. We then used the inspiration
of Jackson Pollock to do our own
action paintings! This term,
we will are learning about
some of the Festivals Of Light
which are celebrated around
the world through role play/
songs and crafts : Diwali,
Hanukkah, Winter Solstice
and Christmas.
3rd Class A take to the wood
3RD CLASS A COLUM
3rd class a have had a very busy and
productive start to the year. In maths,
we have been getting to grips with
multiplication tables for the first time!!! We
have also been learning how to play the
tin whistle and have already learned two
whole songs! In English, the children have
been studying our first class novel Charlie
& The Great Glass Elevator and we have
been having a lot of fun creating Wonkabased
art through fabric & fibre. In addition
to all of this, we have been out and about
in nature quite a lot as we learn all about
habitats. We have also had lots of fun in the
woods searching for signs of autumn and
we even created an autumn nature table in
our classroom. Just before the break, we
somehow managed to find the time to walk
down the catwalk in our amazing Halloween
costumes. Overall, it has been a wonderful
start to the school year! Well done to all the
children in third class for a huge effort and a
great attitude. You are amazing!
3RD CLASS B EIMEAR
Third class b have had a very positive
start to the year and they are enjoying
the challenges and responsibilities of the
senior end of the school. On Tuesdays we
are very lucky to have the opportunity to
work with Timm, who is helping us explore
different ways to create music via a music
app he has created. We are really enjoying
this investigation along with learning how
to play tunes on the tin whistle during our
own music lessons. In Learn Together we
took a trip to Annabel Warshager’s home to
celebrate Sukkot, a Jewish celebration. We
got to see what a Sukkah looks like and we
had a lovely time decorating it by making
colourful paper chains. We are enjoying our
P.E. lessons which so far this term which
has included gymnastics and a range of
indoor and outdoor games such as hockey
and tag rugby. In science, we have learned
lots of facts about the moon, particularly the
recent super moon and the different stages
that the moon has. During science week we
made our own display of these stages using
oreo biscuits!! We have created some lovely
pieces of artwork such as autumn hanging
leaves, dutch canal houses using stencils
and chalk and posters to celebrate the
Sam Maguire cup coming into our school.
We are working hard on our
hand-writing and looking
forward to improving
lots in the coming
weeks so that we
obtain our pen
licence- we’ll keep
you updated!
4th Class
Bank Vole project
4TH CLASS A & B HELEN & MICHELLE
4th class a and b have hit the ground
running with our new S.E.S.E programme,
Small World. 4th class b did individual and
co-operative cross-curricular work on Irish
mammals in the form of project work and
clay sculpting. We also learned about the
Romans and made catapults, which was
a lot of fun! 4th class a explored Ancient
Greece through pair work art projects
(vases and people).
4th class a are stepping up to a tin whistle
challenge, where playing any three tunes
(without music) earns a bronze certificate,
five tunes earns a silver certificate, and eight
tunes are rewarded with a gold certificate.
This is a great incentive and helps children
realise how many tunes they can play with
just a little effort.
4th class a and b attended a wonderful
performance of stories from around the
world interpreted in mixed media by the
IADT stage students in the IADT theatre.
3rd Class B’s
Halloween Party
4th Class discover
Ancient Greece

5th Class working on ‘the Grest Famine’
5 1 5
5TH CLASS A NEIL
We are settled in, learning plenty and
enjoying ourselves in 5th class a! We are
working hard and making great progress
in maths, English and Gaeilge as well
as exercising our creativity in the arts. A
number of scientific projects have also
been planned, designed, made and
evaluated. Some of these projects included
investigating materials to discover whether
they were good thermal insulators or
conductors, exploring the splitting and
mixing of light using prisms, and learning
about gravity by designing parachutes for
Lego people. We have studied in detail The
Great Famine and we used the novel Under
the Hawthorn Tree to gain further insight
into the lives of people during this time. We
constructed a famine village incorporating
all of the buildings that might have been
found in a village during The Great Famine.
Rinneamar an-obair ar ár gcuid Gaeilge
chomh maith. D’fhoghlaimeamar go leor
nathanna cainte nua trí cluichí éagsúla agus
is féidir libh forbairt mhór ar an Ghaeilge
a cloisint timpeall an seomra ranga i rith
an lae. We have been doing so much in
other areas of learning too: We completed
a bicycle safety training course, practised
gymnastics, hockey and throwing skills,
learned about Judaism, the history of
Halloween traditions; about the Earth, its
moon and the Solar System; as well as
discussing children’s rights, equality and
famine around the world. We have also
worked hard on developing our own social
and interpersonal skills through circle time
meetings and games. Look out for further
news of what we’ve been up to in 5th class
a in the next newsletter!
5th Class showcase
Great Famine workhouses
5TH CLASS B CARO
We have had a busy start to the year in
rang a cúig b. We are up and running
in languages, maths, sciences, the arts
and Learn Together. We have studied the
novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward
Tulane and made some amazing dioramas
of our favourite scenes from the novel!
Táimid ag déanamh an-iarracht forbairt a
chuir ar ár chuid Ghaeilge labhartha agus
suim agus grá sa teanga a daingniú!! In
SESE we talked about our local area and
looked at the history and geography of
DunLaoghaire Rathdown focusing on
maps and project work on local historical
sites. In science we have looked at a
number of aspects of human biology
and of native woodland habitats. We
also undertook a course of bicycle safety
training. We have been so excited to
meet and make friends with our new little
buddies in junior infants and have already
shown what great big buddies we will be!
We have welcomed our grandparents,
worked on our friendships, discussed
how to resolve problems and considered
Judaism as a major world religion! Finally
we finished the half-term with some bangup
Halloween celebrations. We are now
back to business as usual after half-term.
Look out for the next exciting instalment!
6TH
5th class celebrate Halloween
Excited participants at
Science Week in the Lexicon
5th Class Sponsored Walk
6th Class enjoy Science Week:
The Physic of Juggling
CLASS A SHANE
Talented people can make difficult things
seem almost effortless. This is indeed the
case with the pupils of 6A as they have risen
to, and overcome, the challenges that come
with the transition from 5th to 6th class.
The year began on a high note as both 6th
classes joined forces to a form the school
choir. The inaugural performance of which
received much praise from our visitors on
Grandparents’ Day. This wonderful occasion
provided the pupils with the opportunity to
proudly show off some of their work. From
collaborative paintings to spooky pastels,
the children have decorated their classroom
with a variety of beautiful art. Most recently
they have created layered abstract pieces
inspired by Ethiopian artist Julie Mehretu.
6A’s creativity is also very much evident
in their SESE projects. Topics of which
include the history of education in Ireland,
African countries and bridges of Ireland. In
other SESE news the children are currently
participating in a series of lessons designed
by St Patrick’s College, to explore the issue
of climate change. There is never a dull
moment in 6A and it is impossible to cover all
their news in such a short space. With this in
mind, the class have created their very own
monthly newsletter! Keep an eye out for the
next issue which is due out the last Friday
before the end of the month.
6TH CLASS B JENNIFER
6B have had a busy start to the year but
have settled into our final year in METNS very
well! In September we reminded ourselves
of all the things that help us to work hard in
school and created our class contract. We
said hello to our buddies in senior infants
again too and it was great to see them again
after the long summer holidays! We began
revising our maths and Irish from last year
and created a great piece of writing telling
Jennifer about what we had gotten up to
over the summer. We had our first 6th class
choir performance on Grandparents’ Day
and thank you to all the special people who
came to see us. We hope to have more to
show you during the year! We saw lots of
exciting things during Science Week too. We
went to the Lexicon Library to find out more
about the science behind the circus. We also
made some gunge when Junior Einsteins
came to school! And as if that wasn’t
enough, we also facilitated and enjoyed a
workshop brought to the school by the SEAI
about energy. We’re really looking forward to
the rest of the year!

Ethos
The METNS Ethos Committee re-convened in September
this year, having finished on a high note last summer with the
publication of Living the Educate Together Ethos at METNS- A
Guide for Parents and Guardians. This year, we hope to build
on our work to date and to continue our mission to support the
staff, children and parents/guardians of METNS community.
We will continue to liaise with the BOM, PTA and the wider
community (including our partner committee at DSP) to inform,
engage and bring to light issues relating to ethos.
We were happy to join the PTA in supporting the staff for
Grandparents’ Day in October – a much-loved annual event.
We were particularly delighted to see the premiere screening of
a video, featuring interviews with grandparents at the event in
2015. The film, an initiative of the Ethos Committee, was really
well received by grandparents and subsequently enjoyed by the
children at assembly. I would like to take this opportunity to
express our appreciation of the work put into this production by
Conor Moloney and his team at Independent Pictures & Agtel,
who sensitively recorded and edited our material and delivered
a finished piece that is a joy to watch! Our brave participating
grandparents were open, honest and great fun, and their
individual testimonies were wonderful to hear.
The annual Educate Together Conference will be held on
Friday 25 /Saturday 26 November at The Alexander Hotel in
Dublin. This year’s theme is ‘Raising the Student Voice’. The
conference will bring together a range of educationalists to
discuss strategies and classroom activities that will encourage
students to speak up and speak out. Representatives from the
staff and Ethos Committee will attend on behalf of our school
community. This event offers great opportunity for the wider
ET community to reflect, re-energise, exchange ideas and be
inspired! Update to follow.
Dolores (Chairperson, Ethos Committee)
Welcome to our new...
GREEN TEAM
Our new green team has been elected and the theme for this year
is Global Citizenship with Litter/Re-cycling and Waste. It reviews our
Litter green Flag and broadens it to being more than just a good
citizen in Monkstown or even ireland, and looks at what we can do a
citizen of the world. We will first of all be looking at all the nationalities
in our school and we may even survey them to see how good those
countries are for re-cycling and caring about the world. Lots more
interesting work to follow.
Screen time & Children
Parents often ask us about screen time – what is the right amount and
how does it affect children’s behaviour and learning – so we thought we
would share two sources that we think are worth considering.
Check out the TEDx talk by Dimitri Christakis on YouTube, ‘Media and
Children’. It is a compelling argument in favour of limiting television time
and screening what exactly children are watching. Also, search out Joe
O’Shea’s article, ‘A New View on Screen Time for Children’, published
in the Irish Independent this October. It provides more up to date
information, as well as the positive side of children’s interactions with
screens and media.
We are in a technologically exciting age, but it is not without challenges
for carers and educators as we encounter both unexpected benefits
and consequences. We hope that you enjoy reading and watching.
Garden work
We had a bumper crop of vegetables from our garden this year.
Potatoes, carrots, beetroot, and lettuce were all harvested by
senior infants, 1sts and 2nds and they all went to market. Our
‘Young Farmers market’ raised enough money to buy the seeds
for next year and for spring bulbs too. The after-school garden
club are sowing ‘green manure’ on the beds which will grow
over winter, and be dug into the soil in spring, ensuring plenty of
nitrogen in the soil for next year’s crop.
Our first ever GAA METNS team. 3rd and 4th class boys
and girls competed in a GAA inter-schools tournament and
competed so well. They are sporting our new school jerseys.

Science Week
Photos courtest of Aine Teahan
Sam Maguire comes to METNS
Cuala and Dublin footballer ​Con O’Callaghan and ex-Dublin
footballer & METNS GAA coach Darren MaGee on Friday
‘Celebrating Difference’
Congratulations to Sorcha Kearns, 5th class, who won an
award at the recent DLR art competition.
Well done Sorcha!

Halloween
Monster Mash

Report from
the Board of Management…
It has been a busy first few months of the school year, not surprising given we have 448
students and a staff of 42. We have a super new PTA in place who are about to embark on
their first winter fair. As this will be the sole fund-raising fair for the school we ask the entire
school community to support our PTA in both organising and running it, but also by attending it
and spending some of your hard-earned money. Fabulous winter wonderland plans are afoot.
Hello also to the new school council and Green Team – I am sure we will hear much from them
throughout the year.
Ethos
The 2nd annual Ethical Education Conference entitled Raising Student Voices took place
on November 25th and 26th. 3 members of staff and 3 parents from the Ethos committee
attended. The BOM provided the funding for this. The Ethos committee continues to look at
how we as a school community, can best live the ethos is every aspect of what we do in school
life.
Buildings & Maintenance
As part of the summer works scheme, the heating system in the school has been upgraded
and apart from a few teething issues is now working well. Painting, varnishing and general
maintenance is ongoing. We do have some issues with the roof which has been inspected and
a full audit of what work needs to be done is underway. New fire assembly points/notices will
soon appear in the yard and on pitch. We continue to work with IADT on maintenance issues
around the car parks and footpaths. Again this year, trying to secure access from car park A to
the pedestrian footpath is on our agenda.
Policies
Three new policies have been signed off since September, including Data Protection, Garda
Vetting, and the Health & Safety Audit. A big thanks to all who were involved in drafting, giving
feedback and editing these policies.
Staff
We have several new teachers on site this year so a warm welcome to each of them.
Congratulation to our new deputy principal Dolores O’Donnell on her appointment. Over the
past few months, many members of staff have undertaken diverse training courses which have
been funded by the BoM including First Aid, Movement Breaks, Lámh, Sensory Issues and
Mental Health First Aid.
School Finances
Voluntary contribution letters went out at the end of October and a huge thank you to those
who have already contributed. We know this is an expensive time of year for families, but it is
worth noting donations can be made at any time throughout the year. The monies received
by way of voluntary contribution are the lifeline of the school – this is what allows us keep
classrooms warm, well lit and clean, provides IT for our children and funds the running of the
school office. Be assured that any amount donated will be used wisely.
Parking
Parking remains a key concern for the BOM. Through the efforts of a small number of
dedicated parent/guardian volunteers, there is a drop zone in operation for 8.30 a.m. drop
off but a small number of adults continue to park in the drop zone instead of designated park
bays. The rules of the car park are in place for the safety of all our children and to facilitate
parents in a timely drop-off of their children in the mornings.
Pulling in on the bus corridor on the main road to drop children
is highly dangerous. In relation to collection and drop times, the
IADT has informed us that their clampers will be very active over
the next few weeks enforcing parking regulations.
We are always looking for more volunteers for the parking rota.
In Brief
The Educate Together AGM will take place on Saturday January
29th 2017.
We have just purchased a laptop trolley plus a further 16 laptops
for students.
The Den is operating at full capacity which is a great service to the
entire school community.
Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful winter break and we look
forward to seeing everyone back in school on January 9th.
Noelita Lane Chairperson, Board of Management
From the
Student
Council
The METNS Student Council 2016/2017
had their first official meeting earlier this
month. The student council currently
comprises of 4th classes a and b and
includes consultations with other senior
classes on matters as they arise.
At our meeting, we discussed the
meaning of chairperson, minutes and
agenda. We outlined the scope of the
METNS student council which at present
is as follows; organising one school wide
“fun” fundraising event for a designated
charity, taking responsibility for one
aspect of the organisation/reorganisation
of the school day , the annual selling
of the friendship bracelets for Amnesty
International, visiting our Dáil, hosting
a talk from a member(s) of the school
community who is involved in a non
profit organisation, consulting with senior
classes on matters of school interest and
writing to either the principal, the BOM or
the PTA as relevant, helping out at school
celebratory events such as Grandparents
Day, Spreagadh and graduation. The
children were interested and enthusiastic
and are looking forward to this new
responsibility and challenge.
From the PTA
A big hello from the METNS PTA Committee!
We are in full swing of the magical madness
of this eventful season. Get your diary out,
the METNS Community Winter Fair 2016 is
on from 11am-3pm, 11th December! Make
sure to arrive early as Santa has promised
to arrive, with the kind assistance of the fire
brigade, at 11am!
We’re doing our absolute best to ensure that
it’s a roaring success as always, packed with
fun and frolics for all the family. It couldn’t
happen without the amazing teamwork of the
METNS community and we the PTA, could
not do it without your incredible support,
thank you!
A massive thank you to all the children
for taking part in dress-up day on the
2nd, it was a huge success. The junior
classes in particular were in serious
cuteness overdrive! An enormous
thank you to all the parents too,
we were truly blown away by the
generosity of your donations.
We’ve plenty planned for 2017,
so keep your eyes peeled for
communications on a swapsie night
in January, Mother Tongue Day
in February and lots, lots more!
Until then, happy festive season
everyone!
Jennie Cotter
PTA Chair