St.

Michael’s Scoil Mhichil,

Rackwallace
E Rath Mhic Mhalais
Monaghan Muineachán
H18 XY66 H18XY66

secretary@stmichaelsns.com 047-85282

24 January 2022

Dear Parents,

Sacraments: The parish has informed us that the sacrament of Confirmation will take place
in St. Macartan’s Cathedral on Saturday April 30th. They have no word of a time yet as they
need to see if they will be conducting one ceremony or doing two ceremonies to cut down on
numbers in the cathedral.
We have been told that First Holy Communion will take place in St. Michael’s Church in
Ardaghey on Sunday May 1st. We expect this ceremony to take place at the usual mass time
of 9:30am.
As you can imagine the arrangements for both ceremonies haven’t been finalised as the parish
will need to see which guidelines are in place in April and May.
Canon McGinn has said that he would prefer to have the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the
school, the way he did it last year. He felt, and I agree, that it kept the focus on the sacrament
and was very relaxed and comfortable for the children. He’ll give us a date and time as soon
as he knows.
This may be a good place to put in a subtle reminder that I still need someone to put legs on
the display boards we use at First Communion!

Singing: Both classes, and teachers, had a great time singing with Shane McVicar last
Tuesday. He had lots of fun games and silly exercises to help us develop our voices. Both
teachers spent the week singing ‘Bob has a Head like a Ping Pong Ball’ so apologies if your
child has been singing that song in your house. It is very infectious.
Shane will be coming to the school each Tuesday until the end of June. Last Tuesday’s
session took place outdoors, but we have bought extra screens in case the weather means we
have to move inside.
Thank you to those parents who have returned the €20 fee. It is important to remind you that
the lessons are being very heavily subsidised by the Cavan Monaghan Music Partnership.

GAA Training: Thanks to Paddy who is coming to our school each Friday to do GAA
training with all pupils. We have had great fun over the past two weeks and Paddy has lots of
great drills and training ideas. Paddy’s emphasis is on fun and participation and even our
most reluctant sports people are enjoying his sessions. The county board are providing these
sessions to the school at no cost to us.

Covid News: It is nice to be typing this newsletter and to have Covid as item number 4
instead of top of the list. We are extremely grateful to those parents who have contacted us to
say that either; their child has tested positive or that their child is a close contact. As soon as I
get a message from a parent, I pass it on to the relevant classes. This means that (as a parent
said to me at the wall) ‘everybody knows everything’ and we can all take precautions in our
own families.

Roll number: 16954C Charity Number: 20132170 twitter: @rackwallacens website: www.rackwallacens.com
 It is still very important that we don’t send sick children to school; which is something that
doesn’t happen in our school.

Creative Schools: The children in the Senior Room had a visit today from Joann from
Creative Schools Ireland. We secured an Arts’ Council Grant of €4000, and Joann wanted to
get the children’s ideas of how the school could use the money.
This afternoon all four of our staff agreed to stay behind after school to meet with Joann so
she could get our input as well. Thanks to Dympna, Mrs. Ferguson and Ms. King for giving
up their time for this initiative.
Hopefully, with Joann’s help, we’ll draw up a plan over the next few weeks and we’ll let you
know what our pupils decide.

STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths. Since before Christmas the pupils in the
Senior Room have been working on a huge project using all the aspects of STEM. This is
part of an initiative called ‘Ireland’s Future is Mine’. The project is sponsored by Microsoft
and uses the Minecraft platform. The pupils have recreated the area of Rackwallace from the
church down to Jim and Mary Macklin’s farm in Minecraft. They have imagined it as an eco-
friendly place with ports for charging electric cars and solar panels on each house.
Every building on the road has been recreated including the church and community centre.
The project is being led by the Sixth Class pupils and being built by all the pupils in the class.
At the moment they are finishing up the work and have contacted Microsoft to see if there is a
way of allowing our school community to see their work, and to see what Rackwallace could
look like.

Review of the School Transport Scheme: The Department of Education and Skills are
conducting a review of the School Transport Scheme. I’m sure I’m not alone in finding the
word ‘review’ a bit worrying. If you have a moment I would appreciate if you would fill in
the survey. We really do depend on the bus running to and from the school.
There is a link on the school website. www.rackwallacens.com

Enrolment: We are beginning our enrolments for September and will be accepting
applications on Mondays (I’m in the office each Monday) from now until the end of
February. If you would like an enrolment form, please contact either myself or Dympna. If
you know anyone who has children of school going age would you, please let them know that
we are accepting enrolments.

In our next newsletter I will be including a leaflet with information about our school. If you
would like an extra copy of this leaflet, please let me know and I’ll send them out.

Flyer: We have been asked by the organisers of Ardaghey Camino 2022 to distribute the
enclosed leaflet to all families and we a happy to oblige this wonderful community initiative.

Yours sincerely,

_____________________________
Séamus Grundy
Principal.

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