Folllowing the Taoiseach’s announcement all schools are to close from this evening and to remain closed until Sunday, March 29^th. Schools are expected to re-open on Monday, March 30^th. Information and advice for parents on Covid-19 is available from the Department of Education and Skils at: www.education.ie/covid19. 

Hot off the press… our student-produced February Newsletter! We hope you enjoy reading about our literacy learning adventures so far this year.

Great news! Invites have been emailed to all parents to access your child’s online learning portfolio on Class Dojo. This will allow parents to see a snapshot of your child’s learning in the classroom and promote discussion at home. If parents are having any difficultly setting up, please do not hesitate to contact Anne Marie. Uploads will begin after the February mid-term break.

On Thursday, February 13th, all children will visit Kilcullen Library and explore Kilcullen Farm and Nature Trail at an Tearmann, run by the Bridge Camphill Community. To reduce travel costs, we’re asking you to bring your child(ren) to the Church car park in Kilcullen (opposite Kilcullen Library) next Thursday morning between 9 and 9:15am. Please ensure children have suitable clothes and footwear for outdoors, a good lunch and a reusable drinks bottle. Children will be back at school for collection at the usual time.

The school calendar for 2020/2021 is now available (download file)!

All parents are welcome to our next meeting on January 29th, 9:50-10am. Agenda items include: improving our school grounds (and the. climbing frame), school policies (admission, attendance, administration of meds, etc.), plans for Enrolment Open Days and ideas for our Bookfair which begins on Thursday 26/03 for one week. 

Congratulations to all our students (2nd to 6th class) who presented our research at the Primary Science Fair: ‘A healthy way to beat bad breath’. Our sincere thanks to Dr. Dheeraj and Dr. Ewen, Teagasc for their leadership and support. It was a fantastic experience from start to finish!

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School closes for the Winter Break for all children, at 11:45 on Friday, 20th December. We wish BCNS families and friends every joy and happiness over the Christmas season. School reopens on Monday, 6th January.

We’re looking forward to a wonderful visit to Dunshane, Camphill with chidlren from 2nd to 6th class. Children should wear their tracksuits and footwear suitable for outdoors – for a tour of the gardens and farm.

All are invited to the Brannoxtown CNS Winter Gathering, from 3-5pm on Saturday, 14th December, in collaboration wtih the Brannockstown Community Group. We’ll have Tea and Treats, Santa’s Grotto, our first Craft Fair and Children’s Workshops. Our event will conclude with Santa leading us to the 1885 school-house to switch on our Christmas Lights!

Our long-awaited Rugby Blitz is scheduled for Thursday, 5th December. Children should wear their tracksuits and bring a change of footwear. 

Sacramental Preparation Classes for Communion and Confirmation will take place every Wednesday. Classes will begin at 2.30pm and finish at 3.30pm. Children are welcome to bring an extra snack for the class. Children will receive a small amount of homework every week. Múinteoir Dawn will be running the classes weekly. 

Shoeboxes for Team Hope will be collected from our school on Friday 22nd November. Children from 2nd to 6th class opened up some Team Hope Boxes last Friday and discussed filling boxes with the four Ws (wash, wear, write and wow!) All families are invited fill/help fill a shoebox for children around the world who may not otherwise receive a Christmas gift. Any individual items children can bring to help fill boxes and/or empty shoeboxes are very much appreciated. You can find out more here. Thank you in advance.

Children from 2nd to 6th class are in for a treat; a Science Workshop on global warming is scheduled for our school at Birr Castle on Friday, November 15th. Children should wear tracksuits and footwear suitable for outdoor walking and playing.

We are very excited to visit Dunlavin Dairy this Friday (8th). Children come to and return from school at the normal times. Please ensure your child has a warm coat, good footwear, a snack and lunch and a reusable drinks-bottle. After an exciting day of learning at Arthur’s Dairy Farm on Friday, children will have a long weekend. Our school is closed on Monday 11th to facilitate staff training in the Primary Language Curriculum.

Hot off the press… our student-preoduced October Newsletter! We hope you enjoy reading about our learning adventures so far this year.

Our school will end at the regular time this Friday for the half-term holiday. School will reopen on Monday, November 4th. This Friday, children are invited to wear a Halloween costume (or part of a costume!) to school. Copies of our half-term newsletter will go home with children also on Friday. On behalf of us all, thank you for your great support this term. We wish you a wonderful holiday!

Parents of children preparing to receive Catholic Sacraments durign this school year are invited to meet with Fr. Mackey in St. Joseph’s N.S. on Monday evening, 21st October:

• 7:00pm Meeting with parents of Communion children (2nd class).
• 7:20pm Meeting with parents of Confirmation children (5th and 6th class).

We are delighted that our school has been chosen to participate in the longitudinal study, Children’s School Lives (CSL). The purpose of the study, led by researchers at UCD, is to learn more about children’s lives so that education policy can be more in-tune with and responsive to children. Your child received a Consent Form today for you to read and to sign, if you are happy for your child to participate. We think this is an important opportunity to ensure children’s voices shape national policy. Click here for more information.

First to Sixth Class: Maths trails and tour of park lands. Children to come to school at the normal time. We will return to school before 2.30pm. This trip is funded by the school. Please ensure your child has a warm coat, good footwear, a drink with a screw-top lid and extra snacks.

The 11 Mobile Library dates for the current school year (every third Tuesday, 10:30am-12 noon) are:

• September 10th
• October 1st and 22nd
• November 19th
• December 10th
• January 14th
• February 4th
• March 3rd and 24th
• April 28th
• May 19th

The Library is available for the Brannockstown community; no class is assigned to the Library from 10:30 to 10:45am. Your regular library card can be used in the Mobile Library or a new account can be set-up for you.

We are very excited to welcome Busy Fingers Creche to Brannoxtown CNS! Busy Fingers Creche will provide an Afterschool/Homework Club at Brannoxtown CNS up to 4:30pm from January 2020 and a Pre-school (ECCE) from September 2020. You’ll find more information on our Parents page.

To facilitate staff training and development of our school, the following are additional school closures for Term 1:

• Monday, Oct 7^th: School closes at 11:50am (Staff development)
• Monday, Nov 11^th: School closed (Language Curriculum training)
• Monday, Dec 2^nd: School closed (Language Curriculum planning)

Huge thanks to Clem Ryan and the team at Kfm for the opportunity to talk about Brannoxtown CNS this morning (interview begins at approx 2:45):
https://soundcloud.com/kfmrad…/kildare-today-04-09-19-hour-2

For all children, school tracksuit days are: Friday, Monday and Tuesday and (formal) school uniform days are: Wednesday and Thursday. Stand-alone crests are available for purchase from the school during the year (€5 per crest).

Our school will re-open on Friday, August 30th. All parents received this letter with information and updates for the new school year.

BCNS School Booklists, are available online for all classes, Junior Infants to Sixth Class.

Wonderful things happen here and our school is growing! Check out the Q and A about our school . To schedule a meeting to discuss enrolling your child(ren), email brannoxtowncns@kwetb.ie or call 087-1124310.

Our school opened as a Community National School (CNS) on September 3rd, 2018.  For more information on the CNS model visit: www.cns.ie