Scoil Bhríde,

Presentation Primary

School,

Old Youghal Road,

Midleton,

Co. Cork.

Phone: 021 4631593

(main building) 021 4613656 (infant building)

Fax: 021 4632633

www.ppsm.ie

Contents

Principal’s Address 1

Parents’ Association 1

Sciath na Scol 2

Herzlich Wilkommen 2

Recipe 2

Latest News 2

Christmas Concerts 3

Staff News 3

Liturgical News 4

Wordsearch 4

Green School 4

Chr is tmas Newsletter

Volume 2, I s sue 1

Pr incipa l – Mrs S í le Murphy

V ice Pr incipa l – Mrs Patr ic ia O’ Dono-

van Newsletter

Principal’s Address

Parents’ Association News As we get ready for the festive season we would like to take this opportunity to update you on our activities since September. The children all enjoyed dressing up for Hallowe’en and the day raised €900. We had our inau-gural Table Quiz in November which was a great success. Thank you to all who supported us by attending on the night and also by donating prizes. We raised €996 and the money raised from both of these events is already be-ing put to good use through the purchase of books, musical programmes and treats for all on Presentation Day. We were delighted to be able to sponsor a special treat of a McDonald’s lunch to the victorious football team after their fantastic victory in the final of Sciath no Scol. Tickets for the Christmas raffle are currently on sale and the draw will be held on Tuesday 20th of December – best of luck to all! There are some great prizes on display in the front hall of the senior school. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all parents, staff and students of St. Brigid’s a happy and peaceful Christmas and we look forward to a busy 2012. Merry Christmas! Trisha Bamber & Liz Murphy

Dear Parent(s)/ Guardian(s), Season’s Greetings from Scoil Bhríde! Christmas is almost upon us! Here at Scoil Bhríde we’ve been busy with Christmas Concerts! We’ve had four great nights with 8 great shows, 17 classes taking part in total! Even getting some time on stage for rehearsals be-came difficult in the end, with everybody scrambling for that most coveted place, the stage! We’ve had a full house each night. Thank you for your ongoing support. Proceeds from the concert will go to school funds. I am very grateful for your support as school funding has been reduced in recent years and will continue to be reduced into the future. The highlight for this term must have been winning the Sciath na Scol Final against Scoil Mhuire, Ballincollig on the 9th November in Páirc Uí Rinn, on a scoreline of 2-5 to 1-1. As you are aware we now have a new Board of Management in place since 1st December. I would like to thank the outgoing Board members for all they have contributed to Scoil Bhríde over the last four years! They were present during the building and official opening of the senior school, the Whole School Evaluation, a number of staff retirements and many appointments, along with all the other day to day duties. Mile buíochas! Our New Board members are: Patron’s Representatives: Fr. Gerard Cremin & Sr. Eucharia Fenton. Community Representatives: Mrs Myra Sheridan & Mr. Gerard Shortiss. Parents’ Nominees; Mr. David Rabbitte & Mrs. Margaret O’Donnell. Teachers’ Nominee: Mrs. Patricia O’Donovan Deputy Principal and Síle Uí Mhurchú. The “Per-cent for Art” grant for new buildings allowed us to complete two art projects in the Senior School. • Artist, Liz Johnson created 4 mosaics. The mosaics mounted on the wall outside

the staffroom (upstairs) in the Senior School depict the Legends of St. Brigid. • Three stained glass windows were installed by Aria Stained Glass, Galway, in the

foyer of the new building. The theme running through the windows is the life and vision of Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Order. You are most welcome to visit and view!

We are sorry to say goodbye to Mrs. Honor Mangan, who will retire on the 8th January. Honor has worked dili-gently in the area of Special Needs in Scoil Bhríde for the last 11 years. Honor was constantly up skilling and com-pleting professional development in this area. Honor, we thank you for your contribution to the lives of the pupils of Scoil Bhríde and we wish you a long and happy retirement. Guímíd ráth Dé ort! A special thanks to the Parents’ Association for organising three very successful fundraisers this term! To all parents, thank you for all your support during the term! Le gach dea ghuí i gcóir na Nollag agus na hAth-bhliana. Every good wish to you and your families for Christmas and the New Year!

Síle Uí Mhurchú

School Newsletter School Newsletter School Newsletter School Newsletter

Sciath na Scol

We kicked off our football Sciath na Scol season in early September with 40 girls turning up for training sessions. Interest this year proved very strong. The girls improved greatly over the summer months. Skill-level was high from the on-set. The girls won 4 matches, drew against Car-rigtwohill

and lost to Beaumont, qualifying us to compete in a playoff against Carrigtwohill on the 25th of October. Fortunately our girls were victorious on the day which led us to the Sciath na Scol final! This was held in Páirc Uí Rinn on the 9th of No-vember against Scoil Mhuire, Ballincollig. Our team showed their hunger in the first half with a half-time score of 1-2 to 0-0! Second half proved more difficult, however, the skill and dedication of our girls won through with a final scoreline of 2-5 to 1-1. Our captain on the day was Claudia Kearney (6th) and our vice captain was Erin Burke (6th). Well Done to all in-volved from 4th, 5th and 6th classes. This remarkable victory would not have been possible without the efforts of coaches: Ms. O’ Riordan, Ms. Smith and Ms. Hill. A special thanks to Muiris Quirke and Martin McSweeney for all their help with the team. The camogie season will begin after Christmas—looking forward to seeing both new and former players.

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Scoil Bhríde are fortunate to have an excellent German teacher, Mrs. Sally Hayes, who educates both fifth and sixth class in the German language. This year fifth and sixth class celebrated the European Day of Languages on 26th of September in German style! Tara Cooney, from Mrs. O’Donovan’s 6th class explains the event for us. “This year, our sixth classes made something called ‘Die Schultúte’. Die Schultúte, or school cone in Eng-lish, is a cone that is given to a child on his or her first day of school in Germany. It is normally filled with all sorts of treats such as small toys and sweets. As the fifth class are new to the wonderful lessons we have with Frau Hayes, sixth class decided to make some Schultútes for them, not welcoming them to school but welcoming them into the German language.

“Herzlich Willkommen!”

What’s the best Christmas pre-sent in the world? A broken drum—you can’t beat it!

Pig Out this Christmas! Chocolate Truffles

You will need: 100g ( 4 oz) bar of plain or milk chocolate 3 tbsp double cream ½ tbsp vanilla extract 15g (1/2 oz) butter 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1.Snap the chocolate into a bowl. Add the

cream, vanilla and butter. Put the bowl over a pan of simmering water to melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally.2. Let the chocolate mixture cool, then put it in the freezer. Stir every 5 mins or so until the mixture is thick and fudgy.3. For each truffle, roll a teaspoon of the fudge mixture into a ball in your hands, quickly so it doesn’t melt. Then roll it in the cocoa powder or coconut with green/red colouring. A trick for these truffles is to place them on parchment paper and store them in the fridge for up to a week – will they last that long??? Enjoy!

Sixth Class performed a carol service in Market Green in November.

Thanks very much to parent, Mrs

Trisha Bamber, who has kindly

given her time to set up and

train a school basketball team.

Sixth Class spent an enjoyable day

at Fota Wildlife Park. What is the difference between the Christ-

mas alphabet and the normal alphabet?

No L.

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Christmas Concerts!Christmas Concerts!Christmas Concerts!Christmas Concerts! It is that time of year again and Scoil Bhríde was a hive of musical activity for four days and nights as it hosted Christmas

plays for pupils, staff and parents. The children were excellent and the hard working staff were very proud of the pro-

ductions! The school band also performed a melody of tunes with teacher Mrs. Geary. The band certainly brought an at-

mosphere of Christmas with their pitch perfect, polished performance. Congratulations to all pupils and teachers, the

standard was exceptionally high this year, well done to all!

Staff News

We want to extend a warm welcome to new staff members this academic year. Ms. Julienne Buckley in 3rd class, Ms. Emer Fahey in Senior Infants/Sixth class, Ms. Niamh Kelly in Junior Infants, Ms. Sandra O Shea, shared Learning Support/Resource and Ms. Aoife Hill, Language Support. We wish them the best of luck and we hope their time in Scoil Bhríde will be rewarding and enjoyable. We welcome back Ms. Shirley Healy from her maternity leave and we wish Ms. Karen Pender the best of good luck for her coming leave. Congratulations to Réidín McSweeney on her engagement to Kevin earlier in the year. Hearty Congratula-tions also to staff member Valerie Casey and her husband Paul on the birth of their little boy, Samuel. Best wishes to Ms. Sinéad Walsh on her upcoming Christmas wed-

ding to Mr. Richard Barry. May they have a perfect day and a long

life together filled with good health and happiness!

Before t

he turke

y became

tra-

ditional

at Chri

stmas pe

ople

ate swan

, goose,

peacock

or

boar.

People spend an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes wrapping pre-sents.

For every real Christmas tree harvested, 2 to 3 seedlings are planted in its place.

Christma

s Facts!

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Liturgical News

We attended Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of the 7th of October and we are extremely grateful to Father Gerard Cremin who, due to terrible weather condi-tions, at short notice, celebrated Mass in the school hall on the 8th of December.

Sixth class performed a very moving play to

celebrate and highlight the life of Nano Nagle

for Presentation Day on the 21st November.

We introduced our ‘Walk on Wednes-day’ (WOW) days theme this term. We wish to promote travelling to school as being an en-joyable, safe and healthy experience for all. We acknowledge those children living near school who already walk and we encourage those living nearby to join them. “Park and stride” refers to parking a short distance from school and walking the remaining distance in a safe manner. Both these suggestions give the opportunity for more exercise as well as help-ing the environment. We would like to thank Ollie for the large part he plays in monitoring our waste, energy and water policies. Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas.

Green School Committee.

Fifth class harvested onions and carrots from the school garden.

Green School Committee.

Wishing you a Happy & Holy Wishing you a Happy & Holy Wishing you a Happy & Holy Wishing you a Happy & Holy Christmas from all at Scoil Bhríde!Christmas from all at Scoil Bhríde!Christmas from all at Scoil Bhríde!Christmas from all at Scoil Bhríde!

Why is a Christmas tree like a bad knitter?

They both drop their needles!

Ann was busy this Decem-ber knitting this beautiful Advent Calendar.