 Spring 2024 Newsletter Greetings to all of our Parents, Guardians and members of the extended Esker School Community. Time is flying and term 2 of the school year is almost complete. Once again we can report it has been a busy and productive 10 weeks. Take a look at a snapshot of school life this term. 6th Green Sixth Class Green attended an ‘Eccentric Energy’ talk in Lucan Library on Tuesday 5th of March. We investigated potential energy, wind energy, kinetic energy, electricity, heat and more! This has been a busy term and we are learning more than ever before. We have been learning about the universe, the objects we can find, how it was created and what will happen, but what is clear is that knowledge will take us to infinity and beyond! As well as learning, we've had lots of fun. We especially enjoyed getting to know our buddies in Junior Infants when we took them for a Spring Walk!  6th Red Term 2 in 6th Red has flown by in a whirlwind of hard work and good fun! Our maths work has been focused on maths talk, fractions, decimals, percentages, 3D shape, the circle, time, multiplication and division to name just a few. We have also been making our own maths book, using book-creator. We chose our favourite topic to work on and included a complex problem for other students to solve, so we are learning from each other too. During station tim we have been busy learning computer science and coding. We have been creating computer programs, developing problem-solving skills, working through fun challenges and making computer games. In History we have been working on a WW11 project. For art, we constructed arcade games from cardboard and invited other classes to enjoy them. In PE we were focusing on the gymnastics strand and then moved on to dance for our St. Patrick’s Day Ceilí. Something we all really enjoyed was our Buddy Walks with the Junior Infants. What else? We made characters for World Book Day-we learned how to sew-as you can see, we’ve been busy!!  5th Green Term 2 has been a very busy term for 5th class Green. The children had great fun taking part in lots of World Book Day activities, including a whole school DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time, featuring favourite teddies, blankets and other cosy things, and a World Book Day quiz. Seachtaine na Gaeilge was a great chance for 5th class green to use their cúpla focal and have a bit of spraoi! The children also took part in various Kindness Week activities including a chance to go on a buddy walk with 1st class Green (which also featured some words of affirmation), daily circle times and a whole school kindness assembly.  5th Red This term has been full of fun and exciting new experiences. We embraced the "Say Yes to Languages" introduction to Spanish programme. The class really enjoyed these engaging and entertaining lessons, which have kindled a genuine interest in and curiosity about the Spanish language! We had a wonderful World Book Day, an empathetic Kindness Week, and most recently, an exciting Seachtain na Gaeilge. We have started our STEMpathy journey also, which we hope to showcase for the parents after the Easter break. This will encompass all things Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths with a sprinkling of empathy thrown in, helping us to develop a better future as we plan for the year 2100. 4th Red This has been a very busy term so far for 4th class red! We’ve celebrated kindness week, we’ve had a book tasting and a very busy International women’s day last week. This week we have Seachtain na Gaeilge, Buddy Reading and Ramadan, we’ve loads to share! Take a look below at the photo of our book tasting, where we got a chance to try out a variety of genres including a few we’d never come across before!  4th Green Term 2 has been a busy and productive one in 4th class Green. There has been lots of learning and hard work taking place as well as oodles of fun and exciting activities and events to get stuck into. 4th class completed their ‘Say Yes to Languages’ Introduction to Spanish program led by the fabulous Maria Teresa. These fun and interactive sessions went down a treat with the boys and girls in 4th Green and have sparked a real love and curiosity for the Spanish language! We enjoyed a cosy World Book Day, a nourishing Kindness Week and most recently an action packed Seachtain na Gaeilge. 4th class made a big effort showing off their Irish comhra this week and particularly loved the Ceili Mor and buddy reading with senior infants. We learned all about dental hygiene thanks to Mona and Shermeen and continued on with our Women in Tech talks which are inspiring both girls and boys to consider a future career in technology.  3rd Green Students in 3rd class Green have been very busy this term but one aspect of their learning that they really enjoyed was their research about Japan. We were lucky enough to have a contact in Japan who sent us a video asking us some questions about Ireland. The students enjoyed answering these questions and making videos to send to this special guest. Students also looked at some photographs from their teacher’s time in Japan and made questions to send to the guest. Along with this, students practised using chopsticks over a number of weeks before finally trying them out with their school lunches. Check out the chopstick skills in the photo!  3rd Red In January, third class started their 6 week block of swimming lessons. The students were really excited heading off on the bus to the pool! The teachers really noticed an improvement in their swimming. We also really enjoyed our ‘Buddy Walk’ with 2nd class during Kindness Week. So many students in Third Class displayed kindness and empathy to their ‘buddy’ on the day of the walk-we hope that’s a quality that they will continue to display in their day-to day lives. We also took part in a construction project to integrate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths )skills with our history topic of ‘The Monastery’. This month Third Red have been doing fantastic work on their Gaeilge during Seachtain na Gaeilge. We have really enjoyed using the iPads to listen to stories as Gaeilge and using them to translate new vocabulary. We finished off Seachtain na Gaeilge with our ceilí after two weeks of practising our Irish dancing skills!  2nd Green 2nd Green have been learning all about water - exploring floating and sinking, the Titanic, fish tanks, pond life and water safety. We have been doing lots of experiments and fun activities. We even wrote old letters, imagining we were on board the Titanic! We also performed during assembly, went on a buddy walk, read outside for World Book Day, danced in the céilí for Seachtain na Gaeilge and created some books on the i-pads. We finished off our term with a pizza party - delicious!  2nd Red 2nd Class Red have been working hard to develop their skills on the ipads. We have been using the iPads during English, Maths and SESE lessons. We have been learning to scan QR codes, to use the Book Creator app to take and upload a photograph and to make a voice recording. We really enjoy using technology in the classroom.  1st Green First Class Green have really enjoyed their second term in school! We have been very busy over the last few weeks. We really enjoyed taking part in Kindness Week. We went on a buddy walk with our friends in Fifth Class Green. We made lots of new friends and enjoyed giving each other compliments! We also enjoyed World Book Day. We brought in slippers, blankets and our favourite book. When we finished our reading we enjoyed some hot chocolate. We also mastered our baking skills this term by making some delicious cupcakes. We have really enjoyed our second term!  1st Red First class have had a fantastic second term! We have kept in touch with our pen pals and we enjoyed a cosy World Book Day. We have really enjoyed doing Lift Off and are really proud of all our hard work.  Senior Infants Green Senior Infants have been learning about people who help us in our community. We have been Role Playing in the Fire Station and we have had a very exciting visit from Garda Alan from Pearse St Station! We asked him lots of questions and even got a tour of a Garda Vehicle!  Senior Infants Red Senior Infants Red performed their Learn-Together showcase in front of the whole school! They showed the audience a slideshow about what they’ve been learning in Aistear - 'The Restaurant'. They then performed a funny drama called 'There's a Fly in My Soup!' Finally they finished with a wonderful performance of Nat King Cole's 'L-O-V-E' for Valentines Day.  And last, but by no means least … Junior Infants Green Junior Infants were learning about the journey of a letter. The children wrote their letter, put a stamp on it and then went on a walk to the post box with 6th class Green. We posted our letters to our homes. The children were delighted when their letters arrived safely. Another highlight for the infants was when their big biddies in 6th class Green read books to us as Gaeilge during Seachtain na Gaeilge. Junior Infants Red Junior Infants have been enjoying planting cress seeds and going on a Springtime walk this month, whatever the weather!  In other news … A message from Linda Our cookbook is coming along really well and we have close to 40 recipes from parents and staff! We’ve had a great time tasting the delicious dishes and chatting about the heritage of the food and countries they come from. We will be launching our cookbook in June at our Summer Fete. English classes were running this term with a tutor from the ETB, they are going so well that we will be continuing after Easter. If you would like to join the classes (Tuesday mornings), please get in touch with me. Our wonderful PTA presented some gorgeous books about Neurodiversity to the school in February. Each class in the school has received a range of books- Thank You PTA. Student Council Currently the Student Council are at the planning stage for their next projects. A survey of all classes was carried out to get ideas for what to do. Reps from older classes visited the junior classes to seek their input. Following this consultation process all the ideas were collated by Anna and Victoria (3rd class reps). Ideas were grouped under different headings-e.g Special Days-Building Awareness Days -Active Days. Consideration was also given to choosing projects which the SC could manage themselves, with minimal input from teachers. The view was that there was no point choosing a project, even if it was a fun idea, if the SC would have to hand it over to teachers to organise. After several meetings and much discussion, two projects were chosen. Mellow Yellow Day (suggested and led by Kitty and Sarah in 4th). This will be a dress-up/ fundraising day -the children will wear yellow and bring in €2.. Summer Scavenger Hunt (suggested by Christopher in 3rd class). The SC acknowledge there will need to be teacher input in this in order to create a scavenger hunt that will be suitably challenging for all class levels. Research was done and samples were downloaded from the internet. It was agreed to consult Liz, as she leads the Active Committee. Liz is happy to help and is going to attend the next meeting, which is scheduled for Friday 15th March. It should be noted that the members of the SC are giving up their lunch breaks to meet currently, so as not to miss class time. Catherine, who attends the meetings, has been really impressed by their energy, commitment and organisational abilities. Green School’s Committee The Green Schools Committee has been very busy over the last couple of weeks. They have been helping First Class to research where our food comes from. They are very excited because the seeds from Incredible Edibles have arrived.They have already planted strawberries and they are looking forward to planting more with Barry and Anna in the next few weeks. The yard and school grounds look better since the litter pick. The collection of the waste batteries is progressing nicely. Reminder -please send in any used batteries that you have at home. Every battery counts!  Active Committee The active committee had a great time during Friendship week, leading the classes around the active trail and helping the younger children to read the compliments there to be read. “Feel Good Fridays” will be running throughout March, where the active committee are teaching the children in the whole school different yard games during little breaks each Friday. Santry Trials Trials for the Dublin Schools Athletics Competition for U14s and U12s boys and girls took place on Thursday the 21st of March. Training for the competition, which is held in Santry, will then take place each week after the holidays.  World Book Day Ireland celebrated World Book Day on March 7th, and here in Esker we marked the occasion with a lovely relaxed day filled with reading related activities. Children brought in things that made them feel cosy -cuddly toys, blankets, cushions and slippers-and got comfortable reading their favourite books. 4th class participated in a Book Tasting Menu. Junior to Senior classes buddied up for story time and every class spent the day on interesting reading related activities. The children are currently participating in a “Readathon” whereby each class counts the number of books they read over a six week period. The competition continues until 12th April, when there will be a prize for the winning class. Hopefully lots of reading will take place over the holidays! Seachtain na Gaeilge D’éirigh thar barr le Seachtain na Gaeilge i mbliana. Bhí seachtain an-ghníomhach againn ag foghlaim ár ndamhsaí céilí agus fiú ceol a bheith againn sa chlós ag am sosa le damhsa a dhéanamh! Bhí cairde ag léamh as Gaeilge sna ranganna ar fad, agus na páistí níos sine ag léamh go dtí na ranganna níos óige ag baint úsáide as ár leabhair Ghaeilge nua. Don chéad uair riamh thugamar cuireadh do thuismitheoirí páirt a ghlacadh inár gcéilí sóisearacha. Bhí tuairim is seasca tuismitheoir/aintín/uncailí/seantuismitheoirí páirteach sa rince agus craic! Buíochas le gach duine a sheol grianghraif isteach dár gcomórtas, maith sibh lenár mbuaiteoirí Johar agus Sahib. Is seachtain iontach í i gcónaí nuair a fheiceann na páistí an Ghaeilge ag teacht ar an saol ar bhealach an-bhrí. This year's Seachtain na Gaeilge was a huge success. We had a very active week learning our céilí dances and even having music in the yard at break time to dance to! Buddy reading in Irish happened in all the classes, with the older children reading to the younger classes using our new Irish books. For the first time ever we invited parents to take part in our junior céilí. We had about sixty parents/aunties/uncles/grandparents join in the dancing and craic! Thanks to everyone who sent in photos for our competition, well done to our winners Johar and Sahib. It's always such a great week where the children see the Irish language coming to life in a very meaningful way.  Movement Trail We have a fantastic new resource in Esker for our pupils’ movement breaks. Children can now stop off at 12 stations around the school, scan a QR Code and have fun trying out some sports skills with our new dedicated sports equipment. The trail is a lot of fun, helps our pupils develop their motor skills and helps them focus when they get back to class. A big thank you to our pupils who made demonstration videos for the trail, and to Katie and Aisling who got the whole trail up and running. Gross Motor Skills 20 pupils from 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th have been having lots of fun in the hall every morning doing sport with Katie, Liz, Harriet and Mary. We work in stations on sports activities that help us develop our gross motor skills in a really fun way. It’s a great way to start the morning, and the children agree that starting this way helps them to focus and concentrate better for the rest of the day. The Big Sing Excitement is building amongst the members of the Esker Choir as the countdown to this year’s Big Sing concert has begun. The concert takes place in the National Stadium on the evening of 18th April. 40 pupils from 3rd -6th will join choirs from 10 other schools to perform a repertoire of twelve songs and medleys which they have been practising since the start of term-that’s a lot of words to learn! Well done to all the choir members for their efforts -we’re sure it’s going to be a wonderful musical evening!  Sixth Class Chess Tournament The pupils of Esker did us proud last Thursday, 7th March when they represented their school at the Ficheall Chess Tournament in St Lorcán’s, Palmerstown. 32 pupils attended, and each participant played 6 matches over the course of the day. I’m told we did very well, although we have to wait a couple of weeks to find out the official results. But whether we won or lost, the attitude and behaviour of our pupils is what made the school really proud. They were polite, friendly, co-operative and sporting. A credit to their families and their school. Many thanks to Katie and Daniel for getting so many students interested in the game and for organising our participation in the event.  Book and Treat Sale One of the favourite days of the year in school is the Book and Treat Sale. The children really enjoy visiting the hall, browsing the wares and choosing what to buy. Many thanks to our super Parents’ Association for organising another successful sale, and for all the work they do on behalf of the school. Currently there is great excitement as the children view the many chocolatey prizes to be won at the Spring Raffle, another annual favourite run by the PTA.  After School Extra- Curricular Activities Art Club with Louise and Mary Art Club was run this term for 1st and 2nd Class. The children made lots of different crafts and developed new skills. They drew and designed robins, made love bugs for Valentine’s Day and created beautiful tulips for Spring! They enjoyed a party on their last day of Art Club too! Lego Club with Arlene Lego Club was run this term for 1st and 2nd Class. The children from 1st and 2nd class were so excited to be a part of Lego Club. Each week they were encouraged to take on different challenges, but of course we always had time for some free play too! The children engaged well with each other each week, developing their social and turn taking skills. They also enjoyed their little treat on the last day! 🙂 Science Club with Eimear Science Club was run this term for 3rd and 4th Class. The children engaged in both science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) activities. We improved our coding skills on the iPads. We also designed and built balloon powered cars and even a marble run! Drama Club with Laura Drama Club was run this term for 3rd and 4th class. The children had the opportunity to take part in a range of drama activities and even made up and performed their own mini drama sketches in small groups. We had lots of fun playing drama games and there was lots of giggles during the ‘Try not to Laugh’ game. Tin Whistle with Emma Tin Whistle was run again this term for 3rd Class. We focused on traditional Irish tunes. We showed off our new found musical talent when we performed at assembly for Lá Glas. All the whistlers take a bow!  Frisbee Club with Emer Frisbee Club was run this term for 4th and 5th Class. We have welcomed some students back into the frisbee club this term, but most students who have joined are new to the sport. Each week we start with basic throwing skills, practising backhand and forehand throws. We then go into a drill involving throwing and catching. Finally, we end with a match, 6v6 / 7v7. We then finish our session with a “Spirit Circle” which is practised in the community of frisbee players after every training session or match. The spirit circle is a positive reflection space where players can highlight things they liked about the session or players that stood out for them. 
Crochet Club with Catherine R
Crochet Club was run this term for 4th, 5th and 6th Class. We have had so much fun this term and are so sad to be finishing up. We have gone from not being able to slip stitch, to beginning our first granny squares. Soon we’ll be master-crocheters! Soccer Club with Rob Soccer Club was run this term for 5th and 6th Class. A great effort has been put in by all working on the basic fundamentals of football, along with some more advanced skills and techniques. I’ve seen great progress so far. In addition, it has allowed us to improve our general wellness and level of fitness while having fun. Festivals marked over the past term. As an Educate Together school, it is important to us to celebrate diversity and acknowledge special occasions in the calendar for members of all faiths and none. This term we researched, discussed and acknowledged St Brigid’s Day on 1st February, Chinese New Year on February 10th, the beginning of Lent on February 14th, and the start of Ramadan on March 11th. We send our best wishes to all members of the community who celebrated important days over the past few months. Special congratulations go to the 6th Class children who made their confirmation at St. Patrick’s Church on Saturday 2nd March. Well done Oscar, Ben, Fionn, Noah, Jamie, Daria, Zuzanna, Tommy and Bobby. To finish..... Thanks to all members of the Esker school Community for their support this term and their participation in events and activities. May we take this opportunity to wish all our Muslim families Ramadan Mubarak and to all those of the Christian faith, Happy Easter. To everyone else, Happy Holidays! Enjoy the rest, enjoy family time and the outdoors. We’ll see you all back again bright and early on Monday 8th April for the start of our summer term. Best wishes, All the staff of Esker ETNS
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