School News 2016/2017: Term One

Click here for all the news from term three 2015/2016 school year

Click here for all the news from term two 2015/2016 school year

Click here for all the news from term one 2015/2016 school year


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Click here to see all the latest news as we aim to get our biodiversity flag this year.

Don't forget to check out our active flag page by clicking here.

Our new ICT page is now available to view here




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Christmas Holidays Thursday 22nd December.
Infants - First finish at 12:00
Second- Sixth finish at 12:20. 
Girls from second -sixth who have younger sisters can go home at 12:00
School reopens Monday 9th January at 9:10
From all the staff in St. John of God N.S we wish you a peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year.


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 Postponed to a later date due to bad weather.Santa Dash:Wednesday 21st December @11:15: as part of our Active Flag and organised byMrs.Golden.

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Fifth and Sixth Class Cake Sale for St. Vincent De Paul:Tuesday 12th December in the school hall. The proceeds from the cake sale will be brought up during the offertory procession at the Christmas Carol Service on Saturday December 17th: St. Joseph and Benildus @6:30

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Christmas Shows December 2016

Tuesday December 13th @ 1:00 : A Little Nativity : Senior Infants: Mrs. Golden

Wednesday December 14th @1:00: A Little Nativity: Senior Infants: Mrs. Hanrahan.

Thursday December 15th @11.15 : Whoops a Daisy Angel: Junior Infants: Ms. Dowling.

Thursday December 15th @2:00: Stable Story: First Class: Miss. Foley.

Friday December 16th @ 2:00: The Shepherd's Story : Third Class: Mrs. Libreri.

Monday December 19th @1:00 : The Snow Queen: Fifth Class : Ms. Hartrey.

Tuesday December 20th @1:00 : Straw and Order: Second Class: Miss. Crowley and Miss. O'Connell

Tuesday December 20th @2:00:  Stable Manners :Fourth Class: Ms. Butler.

​22/12/16: Carols and a prayer service in the hall this morning. Always a fitting way to end the term and the Christmas madness in school before we all enjoy our well earned break. 
​Merry Christmas and we will see you all in 2017 !

​21/12/16: Second Class ( Miss. Crowley) and Fifth Class sang Christmas Carols in Tesco Ardkeen and even Santa joined in on the action. We raised €275 which brings the total for the weeks carol singing to around €900 which is going towards our I.C.T  fund. The girls had great fun and received lots of compliments on their beautiful singing.

​21/12/16: A huge thank you to all the parents and girls who made up gift bags to take to the residents of St. Patrick's Hospital. The response was overwhelming.Sixth class brought up the gifts today and sung some carols. It was a lovely occassion enjoyed by all. Many thanks again.

​Senior Infants and Fifth Class: Carol Singing in Tesco Poleberry: 20/12/16

​Senior and Junior Infants trip to the cinema to see Trolls :20/12/16

​The Snow Queen : Fifth Class: Ms. Hartrey: 19/12/16

​Christmas Raffle 19/12/16: Thanks to all who supported the raffle.
A full list of winners will be posted here shortly.

​Stable Manners: Fourth Class: Miss. Butler :19/12/16

​Straw and Order: Second Class:Miss. Crowley and Miss. O'Connell: 19/12/16

​Carol Singing in Tesco Ardkeen
Second Class: Miss. O'Connell and Fourth Class: Miss. Butler: 19/12/16

​Visit to Winterval: Fourth Class: Miss. Butler: 16/12/16

​Whoops a Daisy Angel: Junior Infants: Miss. Dowling:15/12/16

​The Shepherd's Story: Third Class: Mrs. Libreri:15/12/16

​14/12/16: What a treat some girls from second  ( Miss. Crowley and Miss.O'Connell ) and third class ( Mrs. Libreri ) had this afternoon all organised by Ms.Flynn. They had a tea party in the staffroom with all the goodies baked  by themselves ( We knew eventually that mini oven we bought years ago would come in handy ! ) The girls made sausage rolls, ( which were my personal favourite) cookies, lemon drizzle biscuits and a gorgeous caramel slice cake. They even had hot chocolate ! As you can see from the photos below the girls had great fun getting everything ready and even the few lucky teachers you got to go enjoyed all the goodies. Huge thanks to Ms. Flynn for organsing such a lovely afternoon treat in the run up to Christmas.

​13/12/16: Wow we rasied €800.87 at the Cake Sale organised by fifth and sixth class this morning. This is a phenonmenal amount of money and I think the most we have ever riased at the Christmas Cake Sale. A huge thank you to all the girls and their parents who made cakes and delicious treats and to all the girls for being so generous with their money. The money raised will be donated to St.Vincent De Paul and brought up during the offertory procession at the Christmas Carol Mass on Saturday 16th December @ 6:30 in St. Jospeh and Benildus.

​A Little Nativity: Senior Infants; Mrs. Hanrahan: 12/12/16

​Stable Story: First Class: Miss. Foley: 12/12/16

​A Little Nativity: Senior Infants: Mrs. Golden :12/12/16

​Handwriting Competiton Winners: organised by Mrs. Morris : 9/12/16
​Click on a picture to see the winners names

​Christmas Art Gallery 2016 

​8/12/16: Second to sixth class are all going to 11:00 mass today in St.Joseph and Benildus to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

7/12/16: Fourth Class visit to the Reptile Zoo at Winterval

​1/12/16:Ms. Hartrey's fifth class along with Ms.Sheane's sixth class had a fantastic day at Carraig an Ard at the W.I.T's digital campus. They got to try out virtual reality and even met Damon Tiernan who was working there preparing his reports for RTE news. It was a great experience for all the girls and many thanks to Ms. Hartrey for organising the visit.

​Fourth Class: The Life of a Christmas Jumper with the One World Centre:1/12/16

​Pictured below is Jonathan Doyle presenting Mrs.Morris and Ms. Hartrey with our first class i-pad. Many thanks to all the parents who have helped organise the fundraising and to all who have donated so far.

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​17/11/16: Maggie the therapy dog enjoyed a visit to Miss.O'Connell's second class today. Annmarie her owner told the girls all about the great work Maggie does in nursing homes in Waterford City. Maggie was so well behaved but did manage to find some uneaten lunch on the floor and gobbled it up before anyone could stop her. Thanks to Maggie for coming to visit the girls.

​16/11/16 
Samples of the Christmas cards designed by all the girls have now come back.They all look great. 
If you would like to buy some to send to relatives this year- each pack is €10 for 10 cards. 
Please complete the order form and send it back with the correct amount to the class teacher as soon as possible.
The teacher will then mark the order on our online system and a receipt will be issued by text.Thank you.

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15/11/16: The girls received their tickets today to sell for our annual school Christmas raffle. There are 26 prizes -something for everyone and quite a few I would like myself ! The draw takes place on Monday the 19th of December, so make sure to have your tickets back in plenty of time. Please bring the completed card back to the class teachers and NOT Paula as each teacher has a list set up on our online system where your child will be marked off and also the amount they bring in. Thank you.

​15/11/16: Mrs. Morris has sent out a new newsletter today.All girls received a copy so please take a few minutes to read through the letter for all our latest news and what is upcoming over the next few hectic weeks.Thank you.

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Science Week Workshop: W.I.T:Sixth Class: 15/11/16

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​Sixth Class: Biodiversity Workshop: 14/11/16

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​11/11/16:
Dear Parents,

The pupils are asked to support our Christmas Gift Bag Appeal. This Christmas we will deliver Christmas Gift Bags to elderly patients in St. Patrick's hospital and Helping Hand Waterford which is a charity that helps the homeless people in our local area.

We ask your help in gathering the following items for the gift bags:

*t-shirts, socks, hats, scarves, gloves, hankies, tights.
*chocolate, soft jelly sweets, biscuits.
*deodorants, hairbrushes, comb, shower gel, shampoo, soap, face cloth/small towel, shaving items and toothpaste.
* Any small Christmassy items.
* Medium sized Christmas bags.

Please give any of these items to your daughter. Sixth class will make up the bags.
They will be delivered to the hospital and to Helping Hand Waterford the week before Christmas.

This is a voluntary collection and it is up to each family to decide if they would like to take part or not.


Thanking you in advance,
Class Teachers.

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​Fifth and Sixth Class: Orienteering in Kilbarry Nature Park :10/11/16

​7/11/16: Welcome back to all the girls and their teachers. We hope everyone had an enjoyable midterm break and that they are ready for a busy few weeks in the lead up to Christmas. These few weeks are always a lovely time of year in St.John of God and one of our favourite times in the school year.They are hectic but fun filled. I wouldn't be surprised to hear Christmas nativity show songs coming from various classrooms this week as preparations begin for what is always a fabulous week of Christmas shows and fun.

Don't forget your design for this year's Christmas cards needs to be handed to your class teacher by the end of the week 11/11/16.They will then be sent away to the company to create a sample. Each child will receive a sample card and then parents can decide whether they would like to buy a pack of cards. This was a great success last year with many fantastic festive designs so make sure and get your design in soon. All money raised will go to school funds as you are all well aware we are fundraising for a new computer room and a class set of ipads.

​28/10/16: We hope everyone enjoys the midterm break and Halloween. School reopens on Monday 7th November at 9:10.

​Halloween Dress Up 2016

​Mayor's Visit to hand out attendance certs : 27/10/16

​Sixth Class Biodiversity Walk in Kilbarry Nature Park:24/10/16

​20/10/16: Second class have been busy learning all about graphs. They were split into groups and each group had to survey a class in the school, even the teachers were asked what was their favourite subject to teach? The groups then came back to class and drew either a bar chart or block graph of their results.When it was completed they wrote some four pieces of information that they had learned from carrying out the survey.Second class worked great in teams and are now experts at graphs.

​Fifth Class: Waterford Walls Workshop in the old sorting office of the G.P.O
19/10/16

​Sixth Class: Mind Your Money:Budgeting for Youngsters
​ W.I.T :19/10/16

​14/10/16: I would love to have been in sixth class this afternoon as looking through the photos below they seem to have had a fascinating studying various artefacts they had brought in from home. It just shows hoe much Ireland has changed over the decades and I'm sure the girls learned lots about the past and were able to compare and contrast to today. Take a look through the slideshow below and see do any of the photos stir any memories for you.

​13/10/16: Fourth and Fifth class had an enjoyable morning visiting all the wonderful artwork created during the recent Waterford Walls festival.

​12/10/16: This year as well as working towards achieving our bio-diversity flag and maintaining our active flag we are aiming to become a digital school of distinction. Everyone is already well aware we are fundraising for a class set of i-pads which will only further enhance every girls learning and we are hopefully doing up our computer room to make it state of the art. This year to help us earn the distinction we are expanding our computer skills and the girls and teachers will be learning all about coding. Sixth class spent this afternoon working on their hour of code and Ms. Sheane was very impressed with their skills. In the next few weeks all classes will be trying out some coding.

​12/10/16:Second Class were out in the garden yesterday on a materials hunt.They had a lost of objects they had to find and then see what properties were associated with that object. They worked in pairs and discovered whether the objects were hard, soft, shiny, rough, bendy, crumbly, round, brown, grey or green. All the girls had great fun.

​First Class enjoyed planting in the school garden this afternoon 10/10/16

​Whole School Walk for European Disability Week:23/9/16

​Senior Infants Nature Walk 22/9/16

​20/9/16: It feels like only yesterday that we were down at the School's Cross Country in the glorious sunshine but a year has passed and today we were back for the 2016 event. Over 90 girls from first to sixth class took part in the long distance running and once again they performed brilliantly and made us all so proud. Lots of girls won medals and we came third overall after all the points were added up.We all had a great day and we are already looking forward to the next athletics event. A huge thanks to Mrs. Golden for organising everything and to Mrs.Fitzgerald, Ms. Hartrey, Ms. Butler, Ms.Crowley, Lynn and Alison for accompanying the girls to the R.S.C. Why not have a look through the slideshow of the photos taken today.

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19/9/16: A huge thank you to all the parents and girls who gave up their time on Saturday last either bag packing in Tesco or collecting in Ardkeen Stores. It was very much appreciated. We raised over €2,000 which will go towards our I.T fund for a new computer room and equipment.

​​19/9/16: Tracy from Waterford City Library paid us a visit this morning. She presented the girls who had completed the Summer Reading Challenge with their medals and certificates.She also reminded us that the library is free to join and now with their new service books can be requested from most libraries all around the country. It's important to keep reading not just in school as there are lots of wonderful worlds and characters waiting between the pages of books to be discovered. So make sure if you are not already a member of the library to join up and pay Tracy and the other librarians a visit. They would be delighted to see lots of John of God girls visit any day.

​15/9/16: There was great excitement in St. John of God this morning as thanks to Mrs. Golden Olympian Thomas Barr paid a visit to our school. All the girls and staff gave Thomas a very warm welcome.The active committee for 2016/2017 interviewed Thomas on stage and asked him lots of interesting questions about his career and training and how he felt on the day as he competed in the Olympic final. We were very lucky as Thomas raffled some Athletics Ireland hoodies and a girl from each class won. We finished off this special visit with a rousing rendition of Ireland's Call. ( I had videoed it but forgot to hit record !!! So sorry I can't share it here) Check out the photos below.Many thanks to Mrs. Golden for organising the visit and to Thomas for taking time out of his busy schedule to come this morning.

Fourth Class: Ms. Butler: Japenese Gardens in Tramore: 8/9/16

9/9/16: The Parents Association have organised a bag packing day in Tesco Ardkeen for  Saturday 17th September from 9:00-5:00 in order to continue to fund raise for our new computer equipment. They need volunteers for the day.All you would be required to do is a one hour slot. If you could help out there is a sign up sheet down by the noticeboard near the office. All help is gratefully received. Also on that day there will be a bucket collection at the door of Ardkeen Stores. So if you are passing don't forget to throw in a coin or two. Many thanks.

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9/9/16: Junior Infants: Miss. Dowling enjoyed their first ever dancing lesson with Dawn today.

​31/8/16: A warm welcome back to all the girls and their teachers and in particular our new Junior Infants experiencing their first few days of school with Miss. Dowling. We hope you all had a fun, enjoyable and relaxing summer ( which of course went way too fast as it does every year) and are ready for a brand new school year in St. John of God. Check back here over the course of term one for lots of news and photos of everything we get up to in our school. The first week or two are normally quiet as we settle into our new classes and get back into the swing of things but from then on we'll have lots of updates. In case anyone wanted to know the school calendar for the 2016/2017 school year there is a link to it at the top of the homepage with just one more date to be confirmed. We're looking forward to sharing lots of exciting things with you over the coming months and hope you will visit the website often.