Dear Parents/ Guardians,
I hope you had a lovely relaxing summer and we welcome you all back St. Thomas’ JNS. To those of you who have children starting with us in St. Thomas’ JNS we are delighted that you are sending your child here. All staff are most dedicated to ensure the highest quality teaching learning takes place in our school.
A reminder of school times
Senior Infants 9am to 1.40pm
1st and 2nd class 9am to 2.40pm
Junior Infants: Wednesday 30th Aug - Friday 1st 9.20am to 11.30am,
Monday 4th to Friday 8th September 9am to 12 noon
Monday 11th September onwards 9am to 1.40pm
After school clubs
Morning Club: A couple of teachers are considering starting a morning club again if numbers allow. If you are interested in having supervised care for your child from 8am to school starting each morning please email morningclubesker@gmail.com for more information. Flexible options will be available.
Speech and Drama club will begin Monday the 11th of September for 1st and 2nd classes at 2.45pm. Please email Ms O’Loughlin at eskerdramaclub@gmail.com for further information.
Smiling Soul Kids Yoga will start on Tuesday the 12th of September – 10th of October for 5 weeks in Room 19. Available for all classes.
Kids yoga gives children an opportunity to explore body and mind while gaining strength, flexibility and balance through fun positive and relaxing activities. They will benefit from learning life skills, which would help them to cope with stressful situations and build self-esteem and can enhance creativity. Children will also take part in:
- Mindfulness and relaxation
- Breathing techniques
- Art and journaling
For more details and to secure a place please contact Ms. Doherty smilingsoulkidsyoga@gmail.com
Coding classes with Ms Foley and Mr Kelly will be running coding classes this year. Please contact coolcodingclub@gmail.com for more information.
Lego Club with Ms. Palmer will take place every Wednesday from 13th September to 18th October (inclusive; 6 weeks) in Room 9 at 2:45pm – 3:45 pm. All Junior Infants - 2nd Class children are welcome! This club costs €60 per child (€50 for siblings in the family). Benefits of Lego Club include; creative thinking, problem-solving and mathematics skills, fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination, communication and language development, teamwork and social skills. This club is limited to 20 places, first emails received will be allocated places. Please contact Ms. Palmer at mspalmer.legoclub@gmail.com. Please include the following details in the email; child’s name, class and teacher’s name.
Art Classes: Junior/Senior Infant art classes will be held on Thursdays in Room 7 with Ms Barnes. Children will be given the opportunity to explore their artistic skills. Classes will be fun, instructive and encouraging. Children will learn and practice the basic skills, concepts and techniques of creating art. Please contact Ms Barnes at artmsbarnes@gmail.com for details.
Engineering club Young Engineers Lego technic classes. Classes start 11th September. €80 for 7 weeks 2.40pm-3.45pm. If interested please contact Sophie on 085 2867429 or at Klc@youngengineers.ie.
Green Schools
A friendly reminder that St Thomas JNS participates in the Green schools programme. For our Litter and Waste reduction we are aiming for Zero Waste in your child’s lunchbox. Your child should have a re-usable bottle and lunchbox. Bento style lunchboxes are super for segregating food items. Please use kitchen roll instead of tin foil or plastic as it is compostable and more sustainable. We will be monitoring waste in the classrooms as part of our ongoing work for Green Schools. Many thanks for assisting us to become a more environmentally friendly school.
Clothing Collection
We welcome all kinds of unneeded clothes (clean and wearable), shoes (in pairs), hats, scarves, bags, belts, bed linen, towels and curtains. Please note that pillows and duvets cannot be re-used. You can drop bags of clothing at any time during school hours to reception. If you are doing a spring clean of your wardrobes, we would be delighted to take any unwanted clothing off your hands. Please place the clothes you are donating into the blue clothing bin inside the gate on your left as you walk into yard. All money raised will go towards buying resources for the pupils of St. Thomas’ JNS. Many thanks for your support.
Little Library Bag for children starting school in September 2023 To help children to navigate starting school, libraries have put together a bag of books just for them that can be collected at Lucan Library.
The ‘My Little Library Book Bag’ initiative is a collaboration between Libraries, the Department of Rural and Community Development, and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth as part of the First 5 Strategy.
My Little Library Book Bag is available free for every child starting school in 2023 to help them to prepare for this big step. Parents or guardians along with the child can collect their bag from Lucan Library. This is the perfect opportunity to join the library and access all the wonderful free resources the library offers.
Each My Little Library Book Bag contains: three books on starting school, making friends and being comfortable to be yourself; a story card on going to the library; a postcard the child can write or draw on and send to their new teacher, or bring to give to the teacher on their first day at school.
The staff at Lucan Library are always happy to answer queries and join new members! Come along and meet us – we’re open Mon – Thurs 9.45am – 8pm and Fri/Sat 9.45am – 4.30pm. Many thanks, The Lucan Library Team
The Lunch Bag Company delivers fresh lunches to children for families who wish to avail of this service. They have a wide variety of healthy options and ordering of the lunches is processed through an App on the parent's phone. More details can be found on www.lunchbag.ie.
Best wishes,
Teresa Moynihan
Principal