St.

Michael’s Scoil Mhichil,

Rackwallace Rath Mhic Mhalais
Monaghan Muineachán
H18 XY66 H18XY66

secretary@stmichaelsns.com 047-85282

13 December 2021

Dear Parents,

Covid News: Congratulations to all the pupils in the Senior

Room who are wearing their masks in school and on the bus
without any trouble. The pupils are very good at reminding
each other if they forget and are also taking regular breaks
outside if they find they need to take their mask off for a few
minutes.
Thank you also to the parents who sent in spare masks.
Sometimes a pupil forgets their mask or their mask gets
damaged during the day and it is good to be able to offer a
replacement.
During Storm Barra our air purifiers certainly came into their
own as the pupils were safe indoors and were also warm.

Storm Barra: Over the two days of the storm a few families contacted us to say their roads
weren’t safe or their way into school was blocked. Although we have to record the children
as being absent, we would certainly rather that you take the safer option and stay at home than
risk damage or injury travelling to school. If we experience wintery weather over the next
few months I would urge families not to take any risks travelling to school.
Thank you to the parent who rang in to tell us about the fallen pole on the road. I was able to
text all the families the warning.
We decided to bring the children into the school early; rather than have any child standing
outside in the rain and cold. Thank you to Amy in 3rd class who volunteered to stand at the
door and get the pupils inside to the warmth quickly. Thank you also to Ms. King who
supervised the pupils as they came in.

Support Services for Children: Included with this newsletter you will see a leaflet from the
HSE in relation to Mental Health and Wellbeing Information for children and young people.
The HSE has requested us to give a leaflet to each family and we are glad to do so.

Flu Vaccination: The HSE National Immunisation Office has asked us to encourage
families to avail of the flu vaccination programme for children. They gave us one copy of a
leaflet outlining the benefits of the Flu Vaccine. To save photocopying we will put this on
our school website and also email a scan of the document to each family.

Special Visitor: We are hopeful that Santa will have time to fit in a short
visit to our school before the Christmas closure, as we know he would like to
meet with all the boys and girls.

Roll number: 16954C Charity Number: 20132170 twitter: @rackwallacens website: www.rackwallacens.com
 We will take a photo of Santa with each of the children and will email it out to parents in time
for Christmas.

Christmas Card: Each year the children in both classes draw pictures which Dympna uses
to design our school Christmas card. This year Jake McElroy and Zoe Greenan had their
pictures chosen and hopefully you will soon be receiving their card in the post.
Thank you to all the children who drew pictures. ( you can view all the pictures on our school website)
and thank you to Dympna who takes on the job of printing all the cards and always does this
so well.

Work Experience: This week we welcome a work experience student to our school. Anne
Grundy will be helping out in the Junior Room over the rest of the term. We hope she enjoys
her time in our school and gets an insight into the work of a teacher.

Holiday arrangements: At the moment we plan to close on Wednesday 22nd December at

12:30pm. We will have our usual Christmas Jumper Day in aid of the Crumlin Children’s
Hospital. Pupils and staff are invited to wear, either a Christmas jumper or some bright
clothes, and also to make a contribution to Crumlin Hospital.
As always this is entirely voluntary and no family should feel under any obligation to
contribute.
I am aware of rumours that the Department of Education and Skills may close schools early
but we have no word from the Department. It may be a good idea if the children were to
bring in their Kris Kindle gifts on Friday 17th, just in case. If, as we expect, the school
continues until Wednesday 22nd we’ll let the children pass on their gifts before we finish on
the Wednesday 22nd.
We remind the children that the whole point of Kris Kindle is the kindness that you show
your Kris Kindle over the weeks leading up to Christmas. The gift is to be a very small token
of friendship. I am conscious that some families have two or three children in our school and
I certainly don’t want to put any family under stress choosing and paying for Kris Kindle
gifts.

The school will reopen on Thursday 6th January at 9am.

I will be encouraging all the staff to switch off their laptops and take the chance to recharge
their batteries over the break. If you do need to contact us for any reason you should email
myself: seamusgrundy@stmichaelsns.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Finally: On my own behalf and on behalf of Ms. King, Mrs. Ferguson and Dympna I thank
our families and the wider Ardaghey community for your whole hearted support over this
past term. The four of us often comment on how lucky we are to work in this school.

The staff of St. Michael’s N.S. wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a very Healthy New
Year.

Yours sincerely,

______________________
Séamus Grundy
Principal

Roll number: 16954C Charity Number: 20132170 twitter: @rackwallacens website: www.rackwallacens.com