Paradise Place ETNS Newsletter

We finish for our summer holidays today at 12 noon. I want to thank all of the children for a wonderful year of learning. You've worked very hard and made lots of progress and we're very proud of you.

Thank you to all our parents/carers who support us each day. We are grateful for your kind words and positive feedback for our work. We are very lucky to have such a wonderful community of supportive parents/carers.

As we reach the end of the year, it is a time of change. We have been saying our goodbyes to the 6th Class children this week and also to a number of staff members who are moving on, including Gregor Kerr who is retiring after 40 years of teaching service. Today, we say goodbye to Claire Murphy and Neasa Galwey. Each of them have contributed so much to our school community over the last few years and we thank them for all of their hard work and dedication.

We say a special goodbye today to Catherine Conlon, who has worked here for 18 years as she makes a move closer to home. We thank her for all of the care and support she has given the children she has taught over so many years, as a class teacher and as a support teacher. Catherine has also done lots of work on wellbeing and visual arts across the school for the last few years and so we thank her for her work and wish her well.

I want to say a big thank you to all of our wonderful staff - teachers, inclusion assistants, Colm and Liz. You do phenomenal work to create the amazing learning opportunities we offer children every day. The last term has been a very busy one and you've embraced it with energy and enthusiasm. You deserve every moment of your holiday - rest well and thanks for everything.

Children will start back to school on Thursday, 28th August 2025.

Classes for next year are as follows:

Junior Infants - Síle McDonnell

Junior / Senior Infants - Carla Manifold

Senior Infants - Molly Curtin

1st Class - Andreea Frona

2nd Class - Alannah Drumm

Autism Class - Lorna Staunton

2nd/3rd Class - Alison Moore

3rd Class - Claire Yeates

4th Class - Andy Wightman and Sean Gallagher

5th Class - James O'Shea and Derek Carney

6th Class - Shauna Marron

Support Teachers: Bríd Brophy, Katie Collins/Maria Buisan, Yvonne Dickson, Eleanor Dwyer, Patricia Graham, Marianne Hughes, Rosalia Kane, Aoife Kilkenny, Rita Kind, Michelle Roche.

HSCL: Kate McCaughey

Inclusion Assistants: Áine, Audrey, Conor, Dolores, Gemma, Lina, Una-Kate

We said goodbye to our lovely 6th Class on Thursday at their Graduation. The children have been excellent role models and leaders in our community and we thanked them for their contribution to our school over the years, especially through our children's teams and the Student Council. We congratulated them on their many achievements in the classroom and beyond, and reminded them that they are always welcome at Paradise Place. The children made their own speeches, thanking their families, friends and staff for the support they have received during primary school. They wrote beautiful poetry and shared it bravely. We hope they will come back to visit us to tell us all about how they are getting on at secondary school. We will miss them! Thanks to James, their class teacher, Aoife and Katie, their support teachers, Conor, their Inclusion Assistant and all the staff who supported the graduation.

Thank you to all the families who joined us for our end of year performance this week. As always, the children shone like stars on the stage and had lots of fun. Huge thanks to each of our class teachers who worked hard to put the performances together, and all the staff who supported the children to prepare and perform on the day.

We had a very fun Sports Day on Monday! The children took part in lots of different activities and races. Have a look at our video for the highlights. Huge thanks to every member of staff who supported the children and especially to James, Carla and our Active Team who organised and led the day.

We are delighted to let you know that we have been invited to be a DCU Changemaker School. A small selection of schools in the country are included in this network. Every child who took part in one of our children's teams and Student Council last year from our Young Interpreters, Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, Play Leaders, Diversity and Inclusion Team, Sustainability Team and Lámh Ambassadors were all awarded a certificate for being a Changemaker in our community - showing leadership, creativity, empathy and teamwork. We are so proud of them all! The children then raised our very special Changemaker flag that we will display proudly at our school gate.

The Diversity and Inclusion team hosted 'Tell-a Tale' in your home language in the month of June. Parents offered their time to come and tell the story of 'The Three Little Pigs' in their home language. The story was shared in Ukrainian, Arabic and Romanian. The children then engaged in activities to help them use/learn some of the key words from the story. Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time and thank you to the students for being so engaged!

From Patricia, Kate and the Diversity and Inclusion Team

Summer Stars is a free national reading programme for children that takes place in all public libraries in Ireland and online each summer. Children need to be motivated and supported to pick up a book and dive into the story that is waiting to unfold and everyone is encouraged to take part.

Each child is encouraged to read 8 books over the summer months. When the children sign up they receive a bag containing a seeded bookmark which they can plant, an activity book and stickers. At the end of the summer each child is invited to attend an award ceremony in Central Library in the ILAC Centre to collect a certificate of completion. There will also be a raffle for some prizes!

Children return to school for the 2025-2026 school year on Thursday 28th August at 8.50 a.m.

We're looking forward to seeing the children who have signed up for summer camp next week. Camp runs for two weeks from 30th June - 11th July at the usual school times. The children can wear comfortable clothes and will have breakfast and lunch provided.

Email: office@ppetns.ie
Website: www.ppetns.ie
Location: Paradise Place, Phibsborough, Dublin 7, Ireland
Phone: +353 1 8300 841