JANUARY 6th - THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY

Student of the Year 2013-2014 Nominations

Page 4 Beannachtaí na Féile

RANG SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

Ms Henry’s

Juniors

Arthur Borkowski &

Oisín Mullane-Traynor.

Conor Dunlea &

John McLoughlin.

Tom Ward &

Krzysztof Kowalski.

Leon McShane &

Brendan Cowley.

Mrs

McGrory’s

Juniors

Adam Finegan &

Alec McGinley.

Reuben Wiebenga &

Matthew McCarthy.

Callum Gilbert &

Kacper Kubik.

Nathan Callan &

Niall McNeice.

Senior

Infants

Luke McCartney, Cian

McCoy & Ryan Mackin.

Adam Keenan, Sean

McNeice & Tomás Devlin

Oran Dardis, Christian

Dunne & Fionn Coyle.

Flynn Markey, Cian Lane

& Cole Leavy.

1st

Evan Keenan, Shayne Gor-

man & Jamie Callaghan.

Aaron Roddy, Paddy

McCrohan & Andy Mur-

phy.

Michéal Reid, Cormac

Bradley & Adam Gilles-

pie.

Byron Fay, Patrick Sven-

der & Jonah Higgins-

O’Brien.

2nd Eoin Shearman, Oisín Roe,

Darragh Roe & Oisín

McKeever.

Jamie McMullan, Kyle

Duffy & Donnacha

McCague.

Nathan Commins, Geor-

giy Anisimov & Spencer

Ward & Aaron McKeever.

Eamonn Smyth, Eric Jim

& Tiernan Markey.

3rd Luke Shearman, Conor

McCarthy, James Kieran

& Noah Coyle.

Dean Callan, Daniel Kerr

& Barra Leonard-Healy

& Mateusz Mlod-

zianowski.

Darren Gillespie-Wright,

Eamonn Finlay, Shane

Courtney & Jack Callan.

Dane Nolan, Nathan Hal-

penny, Sam Baylon &

Tadhg McDonnell.

4th Lee McCormack &

Oisín O’Brien.

Conor Halpin &

David McDonnell.

Ben Corrigan &

Jack Minogue.

Ciarán McConnon &

Frank Szostakowski.

5th Dylan McCormack &

Adrian Stepien.

Páraic McKenny &

Michal Szostakowski.

Dáire Finnegan-Rogers &

Colman Finlay.

Ben Kennedy &

Colm Farrell.

6th Ciaran Clinton, Darragh

McCoy & Paul Doherty.

Callum Markey, Tiernan

Corrigan & Carl Gillespie

Tom Jackson, Cian

Taaffe & Conor Horan.

Hugo Keenan, Jonathan

Commins & Josh Martin.

The Feast of the Epiphany is celebrated on January 6. This

feast commemorates the visit of the wise men to worship

the baby Jesus. Tradition tells us that their names were

Caspar, Melchior and Balthassar. The men were astrologers

who were looking for the star that would lead them to the

promised Messiah. This was prophesied in the Book of Micah.

According to the Gospel narratives, the wise men brought

gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh with them. These gifts

were very meaningful. Gold was a precious and expensive

gift, and showed how important Jesus was. Frankincense is a

sweet perfume which was often burned in the temple to

worship God. It was a sign that Jesus should be worshipped. Myrrh was used to keep things fresh, and it

was used by the women to anoint Jesus’ body when he died. By bringing it as a gift to Jesus, the wise men

foretold his suffering and death.

On January 6th, 2014 we will return to school and we will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany in our local

Church and in our school.

Monastery NS closes

at 12.30pm on Friday

the 20th of December.

It reopens on Monday

January 6th, 2014. .

Beannachtaí na Féile

ó Scoil na Mainistreach

Cinnlinte No.130 - Nollaig 2013

Christmas Concert 2013

Our Christmas Concert took place on December 11th and 12th. The

show was opened by our Choir and was followed by Junior Infants per-

forming “Purrfect” Cats. Senior Infants then showed us their Zumba

dancing. 1st class did a wonderful production of The Story of Christ-

mas. 2nd class showed us why they couldn’t do their homework while

3rd class did a cool Rap Around Christmas. The second act was opened

by Master Woods’ Tin Whistle Group who played some wonderful

tunes. Then 4th class flew in celebrities to appear in their version of

X Factor na Nollag as Gaeilge. 5th class did Something Different and

gave a wonderful rendition of Silent Night in sign language. And finally

6th class gave us Songs for Thought and in particular a touching ren-

dition of Scorn Not His Simplicity.

A word of thanks to all our staff who constructed the stage, deco-

rated the school, sold the tickets and prepared our boys for a won-

derful show. There are lots of photographs of our Concert on our

school website and a DVD of the show can be ordered by contact-

ing our school office as soon as possible.

Parents’ Association

News

Our Parents’ Association

held a church gate collection

in early November. A special

word of thanks to all the

parents who manned the col-

lections. Parents also sold

raffle tickets and ran the

sweet shop during our

Christmas Concert. Our Par-

ents’ Association use all

funds collected to support

our boys in our school. They

also hope to organise an Art

Exhibition of the pupils’

work combined with a cake

sale before Easter. Check

out the Parents’ section of

our new website at

wwwmonasterynsardee.ie .

Swimming Lessons

Fifth and sixth class have

just completed swimming

lessons. Third and fourth

class commence swimming

lessons on January 15th,

2014. The cost of swimming

lessons is subsidised by our

Parents’ Association.

Parish Carol Service

The Parish Carol Service

takes place at 7pm, on Sun-

day December 22nd.

Under 13 Gaelic Team Win McArdle Cup at Third Attempt

Monastery NS, Ardee 1-17 St Malachy’s BNS, Dundalk 3-8

The Allianz Cumann na mBunscol Final of the

Corn Mhic Ardail 2013 for division 1 large urban

schools was played between Monastery NS,

Ardee and St Malachy’s BNS, Dundalk on

Saturday, November 9th at Monasterboice. The

Monastery NS team were trying to win the U13

league county title for the third consecutive

year having lost the last two finals in 2011 and

2012.

Monastery NS Ardee faced the Friary boys

from Dundalk for the second consecutive year in

this final. The Ardee lads played against the

wind in the first half but settled early with captain Johnathan Commins knocking over several points.

Monastery NS began to dominate midfield and Tom Jackson gained possession in the middle and made a long

run through the Friary defence to blast the ball into the net. Karl Gillespie added superb points from play and

from close in frees. Jay Crawley at centre half back was stopping all Friary attacks with the help of half

backs Paraic McKenny and Conor O’Brien. By half time Monastery NS led by 1-8 to the St Malachy’s 4 points.

From the throw in of the second half the Friary went on the attack and scored a goal. Monastery NS

responded with an excellent point from Eoin Corrigan-Clarke. But the Dundalk lads were on the front foot and

put another one into the net. Monastery NS continued to battle hard with Tiernan Corrigan, DJ McKeever and

James McGillick adding points to the score. Again the Friary boys came back and from a free kick managed to

scramble the ball across the line for a third goal. The Friary boys were now one point behind Monastery NS

who were not going to give away their lead easily. Monastery NS went on the attack twice and two frees were

conceded each time. Jonathan Commins played the captains role and from a distance calmly stroked the

winning points over the bar. The final whistle blew and we had won by three points on our third attempt!

This title was last won in 1996. The team is managed by Mr Dermot McCreanor and Ms Leanna Cusack.

The Monastery NS team was; Luke Dunne, Callum Markey, Paul Doherty, Cillian Keenan, Paraic McKenny, Jay

Crawley, Conor O’Brien, Jonathan Commins (0-6), Tom Jackson (1-2), Carl Gillespie (0-5), Eoin Corrigan-Clarke

(0-1), Tiernan Corrigan (0-1), Conor Horan, James McGillick (0-1), DJ McKeever-Traynor (0-1). The substitutes

were Ciarán Baylon, Ben Corrigan, Colman Finlay, Dean Kenny-Walsh, Ciarán McConnon, Darragh McCoy and

Christopher Woods.

Page 2 Beannachtaí na Féile

Monastery NS and Louth County Council Christmas Decoration Competitions

Monastery NS recently held a “Christmas Decorations from Recycled Materials” competition.

Entries were on display before the Concerts. The Monastery NS class winners were as follows;

Junior Infants - Jack Moran & Rhys McDonnell. Senior Infants - Daniel Traynor.

1st - Josh Taaffe. 2nd - Georgiy Anisimov. 3rd - Blake Martin. 4th - Lee McCormack.

5th - James Conachy. 6th - Paul Doherty.

The following boys’ entries were also submitted for the Louth County Council Competition; Brad

Murray, Paul Doherty, Oran Hand, Luke Dunne, Ciaran McConnon, Frank Szostakowski, Oisín

O’Brien and Blake Martin.

Our Parents’ Association have contacted Santa Claus in the North Pole and

asked that he come to the school. He is very busy at the moment but he said

that he will be able to visit Junior and Senior Infants on Wednesday the

18th of December. It is rumoured that he will arrive at 1.10pm and

infant parents are welcome to come along and see Santa at this time

Santa Visits Monastery NS

Our annual Christmas Raffle for Concern took place at our Christmas Assembly. This year Junior

Infants collected the contents for the hamper and the other 11 prizes. The winners were as follows;

1st - Gareth Commins; 2nd - Byron Fay; 3rd - Conor Horan; 4th - Jean McLoughlin; 5th - Aaron

Roddy; 6th - Oisín McKeever; 7th - Aaron Roddy; 8th - Michelle Scanlon; 9th - Ciarán Baylon; 10th -

Conor Gilbert; 11th - Dylan Commins; 12th - Dylan Commins. The raffle raised €200 and this money is

being donated to Concern’s relief effort in the typhoon devastated areas of the Philippines. Once

again a sincere thank you to all the boys who sold tickets and to all who supported this appeal.

Raffle for Concern

The Monastery National School Board of Management met twice since the beginning of the school

year and would like to report the following to parents;

Enrolment – our enrolment continues to grow and we appointed our 9th classroom teacher this

September. This enabled the provision of 2 small Junior Infant classes with 18 pupils each.

Curriculum – The School Improvement Plan for Literacy was ratified and is currently being

implemented by staff; Assessment – the evaluation of and reporting of standardised test results to

DES was completed.

School Policies – The annual Child Protection Policy Review was carried out and staff and Parents’

Association notified accordingly. New Anti-bullying and Music policies were also ratified.

Building – The CCTV Camera system was upgraded and maintenance works were carried out on the

school roof.

Special Education Needs – The Board approved of a Resource hours cluster and Learning Support

hours cluster with other local schools for the 2013-2014 school year.

Board of Management Report to Parents

Cinnlinte No.130 - Nollaig 2013 Page 3

School Choir for Senior Citizens

Our School Choir, under the direction of Annamarie Brennan and Paul O’Brien, will sing for our

senior citizens at Moorehall Lodge today. They will be accompanied by Master Keane on guitar. The

School Choir will also take part in the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland’s Peace Proms in Citywest,

Dublin on Sunday, February 2nd 2014 at 2pm. For more information visit www.cboi.ie

Parent Teacher Meetings Parent teacher meetings take place the first week of February, 2014. More information will follow

in January, 2014.