St.

Michael’s Scoil Mhichil,

Rackwallace Rath Mhic Mhalais
Monaghan Muineachán
H18 XY66 H18XY66

secretary@stmichaelsns.com 047-85282

24th November 2022

Special Newsletter
Dear Parents,

I usually limit myself to one newsletter a fortnight but I really couldn’t wait to share the good
news Ms. King brought us from Athlone, so please excuse this extra newsletter.

Learning from the Extremes: Huge congratulations to our super Deputy Principal, Ms.
King, on securing an EU ‘Learning from the Extremes’ grant of €10,000 for our school.
I know from personal experience that these grants are over-subscribed and that many schools
will have applied and been disappointed. I also know from the phone calls, emails and text
messages over the summer break just how much work Ms. King put into her application.
The grant will be spent on an exciting project that we are hoping to run with the local
community. However, we will wait until the new year to give further details of this project.
In the meantime, we are busy organising the purchase of new ICT equipment for the school.
This huge injection of funds into our small school will allow us to build on the already great
infrastructure that we enjoy in St. Michael’s.

Our PTA and Board of Management have fundraised and paid for so much ICT equipment in
our school already, from our fast wi-fi and our large number of tablets and laptops to our
bright, clear interactive boards, we are already an up to date, well resourced school.
This grant will give us the freedom to replace outdated equipment and also to ‘future proof’
the IT infrastructure in the school. Not to mention our ‘exciting project’.

While I am writing I will just update you on a few other matters.

Christmas Concert: We are looking forward to entertaining our parents, grandparents,

families and the wider community with our concert on Friday December 16th. I know this is a
huge undertaking for the Community Centre committee and especially for Nora Rooney and
on your behalf, I thank them for giving our children the chance to perform. The show will
begin at 7:30pm. We needed to choose a time that would allow parents to come home and
have something to eat, but also that wouldn’t be too late for our younger cast members.
Both classes have begun to work on their performances and no doubt houses are being
searched for costumes. Please don’t go to too much trouble. This is a bit of fun and a chance
for our children to shine on stage. If you’re having trouble sourcing something just let me
know and I’m sure between our families we’ll get everyone into a costume. Thanks to the
Community Centre Committee the children will all have a microphone and be lit up on stage.
You can start dropping in the raffle prizes from now on. The ‘silent raffle’ is a great success
because the results are instant and it doesn’t delay the performance, but it takes a fair bit of

Roll number: 16954C Charity Number: 20132170 twitter: @rackwallacens website: www.rackwallacens.com
 organising, so the sooner we have the prizes in the sooner Dympna can start preparing the
tickets.
Carol Singing: Our Carol Singing is on the same day, December 16th at 12p.m. It’s probably
no harm to have both on the same day as it’ll be a fun, exciting last Friday of the year. As
always, we will be carol singing in aid of the Monaghan Branch of the St. Vincent dePaul.

Kris Kindle: A few parents have asked me if we’re doing Kris Kindle in the school this year.
I think it’s a nice idea and I’m happy to continue the tradition. I would remind the children
that the whole point of Kris Kindle is that we treat the person we draw from the hat as if they
were the ‘Kris Kindle’ (the Christ Child) and so the emphasis isn’t on the gift on the last day
but rather on treating the other person well over the next few weeks.

Christmas Cards: It is lovely to see children bringing in cards for their friends each year. It
would be unfair to ask children to bring in a card for everyone in their room but can I ask
parents to make sure that if your child is bringing in cards they remember everyone in their
class group. And of course, I know some families don’t send Christmas Cards so no one
should feel that they have to send in cards.

Yours sincerely,

----------------------------
Séamus Grundy
Principal

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