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Presentation Primary School Waterford

A great tradition of education in Waterford since 1798

Welcome to Our World

As part of our Wellbeing Week and School of Sanctuary recognition process, we will welcome a team of eight monitors to our school, to meet with some of our students and staff. The theme is Welcome to our World Wednesday’ and the aim is to give an insight into our wonderful class/school community.

There will be a short gathering in the hall, from 2nd – 6th Class on Wednesday 21st February where we will have the countries of our school projects on display, some art work, posters and poems. Pupils will give a little insight about the event, hear two songs from our Peace Proms choir (thank you 3rd Class!) and some poems from our  recent SoS competition.

You can view our school padlet here, which has been shared with the SoS monitors & showcases our SoS journey – https://padlet.com/PresentationPrimaryWaterford/presentation-primary-school-our-school-of-sanctuary-journey-a1nroyp40vft8th9

Catholic Schools Week and Grandparents’ Day

We celebrated Catholic Schools Week at the end of January. It was a lovely opportunity to remember that we are all part of a community – a community of faith. Pupils from Fifth and Sixth Class read a lovely reflection over the intercom each day. We had an extra special event for Grandparents’ Day. Pupils from Senior Infants performed two beautiful songs, read prayers and spoke about what they like doing with their grandparents or special people in their lives. A huge thank you to Mrs O’Neill, Mrs McCarthy and Mrs Mundy for this lovely occasion.

Listen to Senior Infants singing for all the Grannies and Grandads! Today’s for You! and We Sing a Song to Brigid

Kindness at Christmas

Presentation pupils are spreading kindness this Christmas…
We are so incredibly proud of our wonderful school community, for the amazing response to our school Christmas Appeal.
A massive thank you to everyone for coming on board and getting involved, your donations will go a long way to ensuring that lots of people in our community will have food this Christmas! Well done to our 6th Class pupils and our School of Sanctuary Ambassadors for leading this initiative! The season of goodwill is well and truly alive in the Presentation.

Presentation Day 2023

We celebrated Presentation Day on Tuesday 21st November. Both Primary and Secondary Schools joined together to celebrate mass in St. Paul’s Church. Well done to those who read, brought up gifts and sang so beautifully. Thank you to Monsignor Pat Fitzgerald for such a beautiful ceremony.

Mrs Anne Marie O’Mara made a presentation to Sr. de Lourdes to recognise all the wonderful work that she does for the school community.

Pupils remembered Nano Nagle and the wonderful work that she did. We strive to follow in her footsteps and ‘go one step beyond’.

Amazing Achievements

What amazing pupils we have here at Presentation Primary School….

In Mrs Brett’s Junior Infants Class, Grace Hearne completed Summer Stars reading programme.

In Mrs O’Neill’s Senior Infant Class, Mathilda Horgan and Revan Mohammed both received medals for completing the Summer Stars reading programme. Both Mathilda Horgan and Freya Barry won medals and trophies in their recent Irish dancing feis competitions.

In Mrs O’Brien’s First Class, Emily, Leah and Freya completed the Summer Stars Reading Programme. Isabela, Jorgie , Charlotte and Lily Ryan got a medal for camogie. Freya got a trophy for Irish Dancing.

In Mrs Southard’s First Class, Grace and Maisie completed the Summer Stars reading programme. Grace won lots of medals and a trophy for Irish dancing too!

In Ms. Shiel’s First Class Fatima completed the Summer Stars reading programme.

In Miss Feighery’s Second Class, Amyah Morrissey won a trophy for her treble jig in an Irish dancing competition in Wexford recently. Leah Collins took part in a lyrical dance competition in Dublin and she won a trophy and a medal.

In Mrs McKenna’s Second Class, Aisling Brophy, Sophie Cosgrave and Harper Kent in Ms. McKenna’s 2nd got certs for the Summer Stars Reading Programme.

In Miss O’Connor’s Second Class, Sadie Brazil won a camogie blitz, Sienna Moore completed the Summer Stars programme and received the certificates, Layla Grace Collins Brazil won a kick boxing competition and Natasha Dembinska won the Polish speaker at Polish school.

In Mr. Stokes Third Class, Anika Ratheesh, Emma Pascolini and Daisy Daniels O’ Shea completed the Summer Stars reading programme. Aurora O Brien came 2nd in her set dance competition in Cobh.

In Mrs Cody’s Third Class, Kate Barry, Lemas Yassin and Pietra received their Summer Stars certificates.

In Mr. Curran’s Fourth Class, Amelia O’Byrne recently won her first ever kick-boxing match. ⁠⁠Emily Fitzgerald recently won her Irish Dancing competition for her St Patrick’s Day Dance.

In Miss McNamara’s Fourth Class, Victoria Kosla won a bronze medal in a jiu-jitsu competition in Dublin. Noor Ahmed, Lucy Ryan and Victoria Kosla took part in the Summer Stars reading programme.

In Mrs O’Dwyer’s Class, Ava Keating, Robyn Davies and Aria Jacob took part in a feis in Laois recently, winning countless medals and trophies. Ava Ryan and Alyssa Hennessy Coughlan took part in the Solas Walk for Life. Sadhbh Langford came first in a recent Cross Country final.

In Ms. Power’s Senior Language Class, Dominik and Catherine both completed the Summer Stars reading programme. Max got a medal for a football blitz. Ken won a sack race and received a medal too.

In Miss Fortune’s Fifth Class, Caitlin McKenzie and Caoimhe Dwyer completed a 10k walk for the Solas Centre.

In Miss Curry’s Fifth Class, Ana Kelly won a county final for Gaelic Football. Holly Roche Murphy was selected for the Waterford U-12 Developmental  Football Squad. Ameyah Ratheesh took part in the Summer Stars reading programme.

In Mrs McAra’s Fifth Class, Emily Power was on the winning Gaelic Team U12 Eireanns Own team who won the U12 shield. Hannah Whelan was awarded her yellow belt in Tai Kwando. Emily Butler and Emily Power were on the U12 Mount Sion Camogie team who made it all the way the the county Championship final against Ballyduff Upper.

In Miss Power’s Sixth Class, Weronika came 1st at a recent gymnastics competition. Nicole Murphy completed Summer Stars Reading Programme.

In Miss Duke’s Sixth Class, Abbie, Ella, Lisa Jayne and Eve represented De La Salle in the U11 Tournament in Dunhill and won the cup! Ella placed 3rd in her first ever gymnastics competition. Ehi participated in her first show in Garter Lane, she was a part of Soul Dance Art’s performance of Aladdin. Grace won her first three adjudicator championship in Cork! Lisa Jayne represented Ireland in the World UDO Competition and she placed 3rd in the u12 category! Sofia’s art piece from her art classes was chosen to go on display in the Waterford Art Gallery! Vittoria was chosen to be on the U12 Waterford Development Squad in soccer. Beth had her harp performance on Saturday, after months of hard work and  practice.

Overall, 45 boys and girls participated in the Summer Stars Reading Initiative for reading books from the library during the summer. They received their certificates and medals from the librarian in Brownes Road Library last week.

WOW!

Maths Week 2023

During October our school celebrated MATHS WEEK and the main focus is to get all our students participating, collaborating and enjoying Maths activities.

Maths is all around us and is a very vital part of everyday life, so the goal is to help students to recognise this and to have some fun with Maths.

Some of the activities included Guess How Many Ducks in the Jar competition, Maths Eyes‘Maths at Home’ photo competition and Maths trails around the school grounds.

Mrs O’Connor’s Second Class… we used cubes to help us learn about the greater than and less than signs.

Miss Fortune’s Fifth Class… we were very busy for ‘Maths Week’ in room 17. We picked a number a day and made as many equations as we could for that number. Our next activity we completed a ‘Figure Me Out’ page, the girls made some equations about themselves for example our age, house number, number of siblings and shoe sizes. We then swapped these with our class members and they ‘figured out’ all the information about us.We also designed some Maths trails for our buddies and brought our buddies on a Maths trail around the school. We also did some fun Maths in the computer room – Miss Fortune gave each of us a budget and we got to spend that budget on designing a room in a house. We researched different websites to find items that we could buy within our budget. Lastly we did some data with smarties. We first predicted how many smarties were in the box, then we counted them and divided them into groups of colour. We made bar graphs based on these. Finally we got to eat the smarties.

We had a great week for Maths Week in our class and saw how Maths is everywhere and can be very fun.

 

Competition Time – Well done to…

Edie O’Keeffe in Mrs Southard’s Class – ‘Maths at Home’ photo competition. Nearly 100 entries were received for this competition. Edie set up a shop at home and was playing with her mam. in her photograph.

Emma Pascolini in Mr Stokes’ Class- ‘Guess How Many Ducks in the Jar’ competition. 350 entries were received for this competition. Emma was 2 away from the real answer which was 177.

A huge thank you to Miss Stones for organising lots of fun activities and competitions throughout the week. Check out our photographs below to see what we were up to during fabulous ‘Maths Week 2023’

Green Schools

Presentation Primary school has a proud tradition of participating in the Green Schools initiative.

In September we established a new Green school Committee. We meet every month and discuss Green school issues.
Our first job was to organise a WOW- walk on Wednesday to mark National Walk to School Week. We had a great turn out and are looking forward to organising more.
We are currently working on our eight Green School Flag – Global Citizenship Marine Environment.
We are excited to bring awareness of Marine issues to our school community and learn more about our oceans over the coming school years.
Green School Committee.

Summer Stars 2023

Look at all the pupils who took part in the Summer Stars Reading initiative during the summer.
Ann Marie from Brown’s Road Library presented the girls and boys with their certificates and medals last week in our own school library.
The pupils recalled stand-out and favourite books of theirs and promised to show off their medals to their classmates.
This has been our biggest group yet, we might not fit in the school library next Autumn!
Thank you Ann Marie and also to Ms. Lyons for organising it here at school. Keep up the reading everybody!

Congratulations to Lily Collins!

Well done to Lily Collins in 1st Class who won a prize during Anti Racism month last year. She won this prize from the library for her drawings in the Senior Infant category.
Part of Lily’s prize was for an author called Kensika Monshengwo to visit our school.
Kensika Monshengwo, along with Anne Marie from Waterford Library visited on Friday 29th September and spoke to 1st – 6th Classes in the hall. Kensika read aloud from his book “Okani and the Crocodile Queendom.” Our pupils really enjoyed the experience and discussed at length the topic of diversity.

Friendship Week

This school week is dedicated to “Friendship” which as you know is so important for our wellbeing. During this week, our pupils are engaging in and enjoying all sorts of activities as we focus on what it means to be a friend and to have friends. Throughout the school, classes at all levels are involved in fun activities like “secret friends”, “happy hampers” and recipes for friendship. Random acts of kindness are flourishing.

Friendship is the theme for art and music activities. Our infant pupils have been getting to know their buddies in senior classes as they enjoy many fun lessons together.

Thursday 21st September is also World Gratitude Day and expressing gratitude daily is a very important ingredient for wellbeing and happiness. Each class has been given a flower on which to draw or write something they are grateful for.

And on that note, I would like to express my gratitude for the support you give me and the staff of Presentation Primary School. I am so thankful to be part of this wonderful community of parents, guardians, staff and pupils.

Anne Marie O’Mara

New Curriculum for Primary and Special Schools

As always, a new school year brings new ideas and initiatives. I have attached an information leaflet from the Department of Education about the new school curriculum.

While the attached leaflet is in English, it includes links to where you will find the information translated into other languages for your convenience.

Click here to read more…

An invitation to Walsh Park

Our camogie team and their coaches met with the Minister of State for Sport and Physical Education Thomas Byrne who visited Walsh Park on Friday 2nd June. Minister Byrne was accompanied by our local Minister Mary Butler amongst others and spoke very encouragingly to the girls about the importance of their participation in sport. Our girls were the first to sit in the new seats in the newly renovated stand and even got to have a few pucs on the playing  field.

A Big Well Done…

On Tuesday 13th June we held a flag raising ceremony for the 2 flags we achieved this year – the Green School Flag and the Amber Flag for Promoting Positive Mental health.
The members of each committee were also presented with their certificates for all of their hard work this year.
Well done to everyone involved.

Phil Healy Olympian Visit for Athletes

The 4th, 5th and 6th Class girls who took part in after school athletics training with Ms. O’Connor, Ms. Nugent and Mrs. Morgan were visited by Olympic athlete Phil Healy. Ms O’Connor is a training partner of Phil’s so she organised for Phil to come and visit the girls. Phil spoke to the girls about her journey as an athlete, her training, her nutrition, and her journey to the Olympic games. Phil finished her visit by doing relay races with the girls and signing some autographs on Irish flags. The girls loved meeting an Olympic athlete and learned so much about the sport. Thank you Phil!

National Children’s Choir 2023

Congratulations to Eve, Aoife, Molly, Kassie, Grace, Zuzanna, Abbie, Charli, Lily Ellen, Nicole, Lisa-Jane and Sorcha who sang so beautifully as part of the National Children’s Choir at the National Concert Hall, Dublin on 29th May. Presentation Primary School was the only Waterford school represented at the event. Many, many rehearsals took place before the big night. A super experience for everyone and lots of happy memories were made. A huge thank you to the teachers involved in the preparation for this event. Work started in September and continued to the regional concert and right up to the finale on May 29th. Well done to everyone!

First Holy Communion

Congratulations to our Second Class pupils who made their First Communion on Saturday 6th May. Many thanks to their teachers who prepared them so well for this very special occasion in their lives.

Wonderful Writers

Well done to the three 4th Classes who have been working hard on their narrative writing and completed the “Our Class Book” project from CJ Fallon.
Every girl wrote a story and these were compiled and published into Class Books. Pupils and parents had the opportunity to order a copy of these wonderful books.
A special well done goes to the girls in Ms Hennebry’s Class – their book has been chosen to be sent as the sample for all classes in the future!

Challenge to Change

Mrs O’Dwyer’s 4th Class took part in the Challenge to Change project this year with their project called “Climate Change and Clothes: What Can We Do?”
Their project focused on the impact which Fast Fashion is having on the environment and highlighted sustainable fashion choices. The girls got the opportunity to tie-dye old t-shirts, shorts and socks, and with the help of parents and grandparents, the girls learned how to knit headbands. They then put on a fashion show for 3rd and 4th classes in the hall to highlight the message that you don’t have to have new clothes to have nice clothes. 10 girls travelled with Mrs O’Dwyer to the Challenge to Change showcase in the Lyrath hotel, Kilkenny on April 20th. They enjoyed the opportunity to showcase their project to girls and boys from other Presentation schools and also learn from their projects too. It was a very enjoyable project.

Sports News

The Presentation camogie team, which is made up of 4th, 5th and 6th Class girls, have gotten their 2023 season underway!

The first game saw our team come up against a strong and physical team from St Ursula’s, the girls fought for every ball and played with fierce determination, coming back from being twelve points down at half time, to being beaten by just one goal at the final whistle. An excellent come back from the girls, who were so unlucky on the day.

Friday saw our team line out against Holy Cross in Cleaboy. They put on a super performance and really worked together as a team. They won on a final score of 9-4 to 1-3. It was a great team effort and all 21 girls played a part on the day, while also having great fun!

A special thank you goes to our 5th and 6th class supporters! We loved your posters and chants on the side-lines

Huge congratulations to everyone on the team. We are so so proud of you. Pres Abú!

Aldi Stickers
A massive thank you to all the boys and girls in our school for bringing in their Aldi rugby stickers!
Together, we managed to fill 8 posters, that is 2400 stickers!!
Our posters have been submitted and we will keep our fingers crossed for the prize draw!
Well done everyone 🙂

Wear Red Day

The boys and girls in the Presentation Primary School showed a red card to racism.
On March 31st, the students and staff in our school joined schools all across the country by supporting Wear Red Day.
Classes had wonderful discussions on the importance of treating everybody with kindness and respect and also the importance of celebrating diversity and our differences.
Sixth class shared a lovely message on the intercom and we all took a kindness pledge, where we promised to be kind to ourselves and others.
Students were very proud of the fact that our school is a kind, caring and welcoming place and that we work hard to make sure everybody is happy in our school.