Staffing Arrangements 23/24

August 2023 I am very sad to announce our Deputy Principal, Emer will not be returning to teach at Ard Rí CNS. Emer and her family have made the decision to return to her native Carlow. Emer will be greatly missed by the whole team here at Ard Rí. Since joining the school in 2014, Emer has made a huge contribution to the development of the CNS ethos, not only at Ard Rí but right across the model as she worked on the national GMGY co-ordinator group. Emer has put all her passion and energy into Special Education Teaching at Ard Rí and will leave a lasting legacy of best practice for assessment, teaching and learning right across the school. Emer was always great fun to work with. We all wish her and her family the very best of luck in her career and life in Carlow. Teacher recruitment is still on-going at Ard Rí. Please have a look at the updated table and changes to teacher allocation below: Múinteoir Laura will be teaching in Senior Infants Múinteoir Claire will be teaching in 5th Class Múinteoir Sarah will be teaching in 4th Class Múinteoir Cailín will be teaching in 6th Class Múinteoir Catherine Duplaa will join the Special Ed team Year 22/23Year 23/24NotesIncoming pupilsNiamh Donnachie Junior InfantsIncoming pupilsRachel Junior Infants Niamh Junior InfantsLaura Senior InfantsNo change in cohortLaura Junior InfantsAngela Senior InfantsNo change in cohortAngela Senior InfantsWilma 1st Class No change in cohortAilis Senior InfantsGráinne 1st ClassNo change in cohortRachel 1st ClassRuth 2nd ClassNo change in cohortWilma 1st/2nd ClassEdel & Maria 2nd/3rd Class No change in cohortRuth 2nd ClassJack...

School Reports- June ’23

Dear Parents & Guardians, School Reports will launch on Aladdin early this afternoon. If you need support to access the report just let us know. Your child’s report is a broad account of their progress during the school year. The report is written by your child’s class teacher and where relevant your child’s Special Ed teacher. It will take account of your child as a learner, their social and personal development and their progress in the curriculum. The report will take account of your child’s strengths and achievements, areas for development and will offer some suggestions how to further support your child’s learning. You can find more ideas on how to support your child’s learning on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) website (click here) From First Class and up you will see your child’s Standardised Test results. Standardised tests in English reading and maths measure your child’s achievement compared to other children in the same class across all schools in Ireland. Standardised Tests only take a snapshot of your child’s performance on one day. They are an indicator. Teachers are constantly assessing children both formally and informally. Teachers use a broad range of evidence when completing the report. NCCA have more information on how to interpret your child’s Standardised test score (click here) Pupil Voice is recorded in the report under ‘My learning in school’. It is a lovely opportunity to capture the child’s reflections on the year at school and often what their targets are going forward. Please review the report. If you spot a mistake or want to give any feedback email the office...

Ard Rí Blog (ed. 9)

Last week was action-packed, crammed with fun activities and experiential learning. Here are some of the highlights. First Holy Communion Congratulations to the children who received their First Holy Communion in Navan Parish on Saturday. Children are prepared to receive the Catholic Sacraments through the Parish Catechetical Program (PCP) and attend lessons after school. Bringing the children to these lessons and helping to teach them requires consistent dedication from the children’s families. Well done and I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ard Rí Grand Prix And it was go, go, go at Balreask Old for another year of the Ard Rí Grand Prix. We had well over 300 bikes and scooters for this much anticipated event. Community Garda Sabrina was on hand, as always to remind the children about road safety and most importantly to check everyone was wearing their helmets. Boys and girls rallied around our track and a super time was had by all. 4th Class School Girls Blitz 10 girls from Ard Rí CNS were among over 100 4th Class girls from local schools who took part in a football blitz at Simonstown Gaels Football Club. It was a real festival of football, with great skills on display. I want to pay a special tribute to the girls who were trying football for the first time. I hope this positive experience will encourage you to play sport into the future. Maith sibh ar fad. Junior and Senior Infant School Tour to Newgrange Farm I think everyone remembers their Junior and Senior Infant school tours. Excitement was at fever pitch as over 100 children headed...

Ard Rí Blog (ed. 8)

Bedtime Stories Thank you to everyone who took part in our Bedtime Stories reading initiative this week. At Ard Rí CNS we want to foster a love of reading in our boys and girls. Reading to your child has astonishing benefits: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun. Giving a child time and full attention when reading them a story tells them they matter. It builds self-esteem, vocabulary, feeds imagination establishes routine and even improves their sleeping patterns.  We all had great fun…and yummy cookies!!! Community is a Strong Circle of Helping Hands This week we unveiled a new display in our front porch. This colourful poster displays the information gathered in the School Diversity survey. Children and parents have had great fun finding the countries and flags which represent their family. At Ard Rí CNS we have 313 pupils from 232 families. These families represent 43 different nationalities and there are 36 different languages spoken in our school community. We look forward to learning greetings and facts about these countries in the coming weeks. What is the capital of Poland, Pakistan, Nigeria? Busy week next week… Hold onto your hats…next week is a real rollercoaster! Ranganna Wilma, Rachel, Claire and Cailín have swimming on Tuesday Junior and Senior Infants are on tour to Newgrange Farm on Wednesday We welcome pupils who will be joining us in September 2023 to the school on Wednesday morning There will be a 4th Class football blitz in Simonstown We celebrate Allergy Awareness week and look forward to a visit from a Paramedic Get your bikes, scooters and helmets ready for...

Ard Rí Blog (ed. 7)

Darkness Into Light for Pieta House The Ard Rí Community are delighted to support Pieta House on their Darkness Into Light ’23. The staff raised €157 at a coffee morning organised by Margaret’s son Leo and children from 4th, 5th and 6th Classes created a beautiful display of HOPE to mark the start line for the walk. Whether you join an official event or mark the event in your own way use tomorrow morning’s sunrise as an opportunity to reflect on your own mental health and to ask for help if you need it. No Mow May and Johnstown Tidy Towns Ard Rí CNS are supporting Johnstown Tidy Towns again this year by starting off 250 sunflowers for the Annual Johnstown Sunflower Trail. Well done to Rang Lucy for planting and caring for these beautiful flowers. You may notice our lawns are a little bit scraggy at the minute. We are taking part in ‘No Mow May’ where we let the dandelions and lawn flowers go wild to make lots of food for our friends the bees. Protouch Smartscreens Children and teachers in Rang Ailis, Laura, Niamh, Rachel and Wilma were totally thrilled when they came into school this morning to find brand new Protouch Smartscreens installed in their rooms. These 75inch screens are next generation to projectors and interactive whiteboards. The devices are effectively a large, fully-interactive, Android tablet with a HD screen and surround sound. We now have 9 of these devices installed in our...

Ard Rí Blog (ed. 6)

Confirmation Huge congratulations to all the children from 5th and 6th Class who received the Sacrament of Confirmation from the Bishop of Meath at St Mary’s Church. At Ard Rí, Catholic pupils prepare for their sacraments through the St Mary’s Parish Catechetical Program. They attend lessons after school on a weekly basis. I would like to commend the parents for their commitment in taking their children to these extra classes. I would also like to thank the volunteers and the parish priests, especially Fr Sebi and Fr Declan for their dedication to providing this program for our pupils outside of school time. Community Games Art and Handwriting Congratulations to all our Ard Rí medal winners in the Community Games Navan and Johnstown, Art and Handwriting area finals. We had lots of entries in both Art and Handwriting competitions from U8 up to U14. Gold and Silver medal winners go through to the County Meath Final in Wilkinstown on Sunday 7th May. We wish them the best of luck. Swim Team Ard Rí was represented for the first time in a swimming competition by two of our 4th Class pupils. They swam in the freestyle and backstroke categories in the Irish Minor Schools Championships at the National Aquatic Centre. These children have been training very hard and we support them all the way in future school and club competitions. Well...

School Tours Summer ’23

Last one out, switch off the lights…Ard Rí are going on tour. We are delighted to announce children will be going on school tour as follows: ClassDestinationDateCostJunior and Senior InfantsNewgrange Farm17th May€251st & 2nd ClassDublin Zoo7th June€253rd, 4th & 5th ClassCrystal Maze3rd May€256th ClassTayto Park8th June€30 All children will receive a note home with full details about their tour today. You will receive a payment request from Way2Pay. Happy...

Ard Rí Blog (Show Racism the Red Card Edition)

Today our school turned red as a strong message that ‘Ard Rí says NO to racism’. This week the children have been learning about the 9 Grounds of Discrimination and we have all made a strong promise to be kind to everyone we meet. It is important that our young citizens know:  “It’s not enough to be non-racist, we need to be anti-racist” (Zulaikha Patel- UN). Each class created a display and presented it to the school assembly. The Chairperson of our Board of Management, Yemi Adenuga, was with us to help celebrate this very important day. You can see all our lovely work and a synopsis of our Assembly presentations below. As chairperson of Board Management of @ArdRi_CNS , I was delighted to lead the school today, along with principal Darragh Roe, in wearing RED to #showracismtheredcardSo proud of our teachers & students, they wore RED in solidarity with this @immigrationIRL initiative👏🏽#WRD2023 pic.twitter.com/nzdzdQ81Ai— Cllr. Yemi Adenuga – PEACE COMMISSIONER (@SharingWithYemi) March 31, 2023 In Junior infants we were learning about age-ism. Age is just a number. We can all do it! In Junior infants we were learning about age-ism. Age is just a number. We can all do it! Boys and girls should be treated equally and have the same rights. If boys and girls are not respected equally it would not be fair. We read the story about Charlie the Fire Fighter. The children in the story were surprised in the end to find out Charlie was a girl working as a fire fighter. When you grow up you can be anything you want to be. People...

Ard Rí Blog (ed. 4)

Pupil Council The pupil council are working hard on their first project, creating some new artwork for our school reception. The children are making a display to celebrate the diversity in our school. The project is part of our ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ initiative. Next week, children will learn all about the 9 Grounds of Discrimination and there will be lessons to remind us to always be kind to everyone we meet. Children will all wear red next Friday as a strong message that ‘Ard Rí says NO to racism’. Seachtain na Gaeilge We had a full week of Irish cultural and language celebrations to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge ’23. Children enjoyed quizzes, daily assembly, art, a parade and a céili mór and concert on Lá Glas to celebrate our Irish pride. Maith sibh gach duine. Bhí sibh go h-iontach. Rahooo!! Meath Athletics Cross Country at Navan Adventure Centre Weather conditions were favorable but the ground was very heavy underfoot for the 36 Ard Rí athletes who ran the 800m, 1000m and 1200m courses. Cross country is a tough event with challenging uphill stretches, long grass and muddy patches. Everyone poured out their best effort. It was the school’s most successful day at the races. We scooped one individual bronze medal from the 6th Class race and our 6th Class girls came 2nd place in the team event (pictured below). Well done everyone. There will be another day out for our athletes in Claremont Stadium for the Meath Athletics Track and Field…bring it...
Ard Rí Blog (ed. 3)

Ard Rí Blog (ed. 3)

Seachtain na Gaeilge Mí Marta atá ann. Táimíd ag ceiliúradh Seachtain na Gaeilge. We are flying the Irish flag and we have lots of lessons and activities planned to celebrate our pride in Irish culture and language. We will be wearing green to celebrate the Ard Rí Shamrock Festival on Thursday 16th of March. You will receive a €2 Way2Pay for this event- all money raised will go the Parent Association Fund. Extra Mile Award Ewa and Anna are the cleaning team at Ard Rí CNS. Ewa has worked at Ard Rí for 10 years now. In that time she has never missed a single day. Ewa worked very hard during Covid and always keeps the school spotlessly clean. She is very proud of her work and always has a smile and kind word for everyone she meets. Ewa has had her hard work and dedication at Ard Rí CNS recognised by her company. She has received this month’s ‘Extra Mile Award’. Hip, hip, hooray! LMETB Robert Ballagh Art Competition Every year LMETB host an art competition judged by Irish artist Robert Ballagh. We are delighted that three of our pupils won the top prizes in the Primary School category this year. Below, you will see the winning works of art and our artists with their fantastic prizes. Well done to everyone who took part in the competition. The school gallery is covered in all the children’s beautiful artwork. Inspirational stuff! FAI Spar 5-a-side Blitz This week it was the girls turn to represent Ard Rí at the FAI 5-a-side blitz in the MDL. Two teams were entered from...