January 2026

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As we come to the end of another busy and productive month, I would like to sincerely thank our pupils, staff, parents, and wider school community for your continued engagement and support throughout January.

It has been a particularly active time in St. Anne’s NS. We were delighted to launch our Hot School Meals programme, which has been warmly welcomed by our pupils. We also enjoyed celebrating Grandparents Day, a very special occasion that highlighted the strong links that are evident between home and school. In addition, our boys and girls have been enthusiastically involved in Peace Proms rehearsals, as well as a wide range of sporting and extracurricular activities including hurling, tag rugby, badminton, and quizzes to name a few! It has been wonderful to see such energy, teamwork, and commitment across the school.

As we approach the St. Brigid’s Bank Holiday weekend, I encourage everyone to enjoy a well-earned break and take time to rest and recharge. We look forward to welcoming everyone back for more learning, growth, and opportunities in February. Thank you once again for being such a supportive and encouraging school community.

Kindest regards,

Dominic Tyrrell

Our school email address is office@stannesardclough.ie.

The school office telephone number is: 01-6273367.

We would like to wish the boys and girls in 3rd and 4th class the very best of luck as they take part in their Peace Proms music concert on Saturday, 7th February in the RDS. They have been working extremely hard since November to prepare for this wonderful and memorable event. Thanks to our school staff for the time and effort that they have put into ensuring that the boys and girls are ready for the show and indeed for giving the children amazing opportunity. We are so proud of their commitment and enthusiasm and we know they will represent themselves and our school brilliantly. Enjoy every moment!

Important Information

• The bus will leave St. Anne’s at 10am sharp to ensure that we arrive at the RDS in plenty of time for rehearsal.

• All children will be going on the bus travelling to the concert and all children will return on the bus to be collected at the school after the concert finishes approx 5:15pm.

• For safety and logistical reasons (due to the large crowds in attendance), children cannot be picked up from the RDS after the concert. All children will travel back to the school on the bus, to be collected from there. We appreciate your support with this.

• Children must only bring a sensible lunch and water in a disposable bag, preferably water in a disposable bottle. For lunch there must be no crisps, pop-corn, yoghurt, sweets or fizzy drinks. No nuts as there will be children at the choir event who have a nut allergy. Do not bring a school bag, lunchbox or water bottle as there is no place to keep them.

• Children must wear a plain white t-shirt/shirt/blouse (no school crest, no logos) and dark bottoms (black, navy or uniform bottoms are fine – skirt and tights or trousers). This must be worn on the day of the concert.

• Parents are required to sit in the section opposite the choir’s designated colour. Our school’s section is YELLOW.

Our boys’ and girls’ badminton teams had a super day representing the school at the Leinster Schools Badminton Finals in Baldoyle yesterday. It was a fantastic occasion filled with skill, determination, and great sportsmanship. The boys’ team put in a valiant performance, taking on the champions of Meath, Dublin, Wexford, and Kilkenny. They showed great resilience and teamwork throughout their matches, competing strongly against top-quality opposition.

The girls’ team also had an excellent tournament, qualifying out of their group with impressive performances. They progressed to the quarter-finals, where they were narrowly defeated by a strong Carlow side after a very competitive match.

Well done to all our players for their commitment and effort on the day. Special thanks to Mrs. Knightly for taking great care of the team and to our parents who travelled to cheer the teams on in Baldoyle. It was a great sporting occasion, and we are very proud of how both teams represented the school.

Our school was filled with warmth, smiles, and very special visitors as we celebrated Grandparents Day as part of Catholic Schools Week. We were absolutely delighted to welcome nearly 300 grandparents into our school, making it a truly memorable occasion for everyone involved. We also had a special Commemoration Board where the children were able to remember grandparents who were not with us on the day.

Grandparents enjoyed visiting classrooms and experiencing what school life is like for children in 2026, sharing in the daily routines and activities of our pupils. They had great fun in the classrooms - some grandparents even took it upon themselves to give whole-class homework vouchers! A sincere thank you to our Parent-Support Group, who very kindly provided teas, coffees, and biscuits, creating a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere for our guests.

Another highlight of the day was the children’s performances, as they sang a beautiful selection of songs to celebrate and honour their grandparents. These performances were filled with joy and pride and were clearly appreciated by all who attended. The smiles on our grandparents faces were wonderful to see! It was a truly special celebration of family, faith, and community, and a lovely way to mark Catholic Schools Week.

Safer Internet Day will take place on Tuesday, 10th February 2026. The celebrations will be based around the theme, AI Aware: Safe, Smart and in Control. Generative AI technology is part of many of the tools and platforms children and young people use every day, from social media to search engines. While these technologies offer exciting benefits, they also introduce complex risks that challenge existing online safety frameworks. This Safer Internet Day we’re encouraging children and young people to be AI Aware: Safe, Smart, and in Control. The aim is to empower children with the skills and knowledge to safely and responsibly navigate AI. The campaign will highlight the practical guidance and resources available to schools and parents to support children to build these skills.

Everyone has a role to play in creating a safer internet. Schools, parents, and young people can access a wide range of free resources and activity ideas to get involved. Parents can access a wealth of resources to support with the promotion on healthy digital habits. These resources can be found at this link:

In St. Anne’s in February we will be focused on creativity as part of the nationwide Arts Council Creative February initiative https://artscouncil.ie/developing-the-arts/flagship-programmes/creative-schools/creative-february/. This means that in school we are engaging in lots of creative activities, celebrating all that we already do that is creative and linking up with other classes in the school to share creative ideas, across the Curriculum. We will also be sending some samples of your child’s work home for you to look at and discuss with them during the month of February. Special thanks to Ms. Bambury for all the work that she has done in preparation for Creative February in St. Anne's.

We are really looking forward to all the creative activities next month and we hope that the children will enjoy being part of this initiative.

We extend our warmest congratulations to our fantastic school quiz team who proudly represented our school in the Cumann na mBunscol quiz, competing against schools from across the county. This was a wonderful achievement and a great honour for our school. The team performed with confidence and teamwork, finishing in a very respectable sixth place in a highly competitive field. Their hard work and positive attitude was evident throughout the quiz rounds, and they should be extremely proud of their efforts. Well done to all involved, and sincere thanks to Mr. O'Leary who helped to prepare and encourage the team along the way.

Thank you for your ongoing vigilance and care in our carpark. As always, our ultimate aim is to get the children into and out of school in a safe, orderly manner. As a reminder, please ensure that you use the 'drop and go' system in the morning. We ask that parents drop the children off and then exit the carpark as soon as possible to make space for the next car to come in. The boys and girls are used to lining up outside the PE hall at this stage. The doors are opened up at 9am to allow children to enter the building. Many thanks in advance for your support with this.

At our monthly assemblies we will be presenting the Spirit of St. Anne's award to one child from each of our classes. This award links in nicely with our 'Bí Cineálta (Be Kind)' policy where we are praising our children for showing kindness, compassion and care to themselves and to others around them. The January winners of the Spirit of St. Anne's award are:

Missing from photo: Dylan Doherty Price

Our boys and girls are making a huge effort to improve their handwriting and presentation of their work. Each month we will be awarding the 'Handwriter of the Month' certificate to one boy or girl in each class. This award is for children who are trying their best, at their level, to improve their handwriting and presentation skills. The winners for January are:

Missing from the photo: Seren Reed

Each month, one pupil from every class is honoured with our Creativity Award — celebrating those who shine in the arts! Whether through music, drama, or visual art, these pupils show imagination, passion, and a true love for creative expression. Congratulations to this month’s winners for inspiring us all with their artistic talent and enthusiasm! Keep creating and sharing your wonderful ideas with the world.

Missing from the photo: Senan Coulston and Ruairí Brennan

We were delighted with the successful launch of our Hot School Meals programme. It has been wonderful to see the children enjoying warm lunches each day. As with any new initiative, there have been a few minor teething problems, which were to be expected, and we thank everyone for their patience and cooperation as the programme settles in.

We encourage children to be adventurous and try different foods on the menu. Please remember that orders must be placed up to 48 hours in advance. Any leftovers will be sent home so that parents can see what their child has eaten. Children should also continue to bring a snack to school each day.

If you have any queries or concerns regarding the hot meals programme, please contact info@thelunchbag.ie.

Let’s Talk About Parenting – Spring Series

Parents may be interested in the Spring series of Let’s Talk About Parenting, a programme of talks taking place in Kildare libraries and online. The talks are organised by Kildare Library Service, with support from the Kildare Children and Young People’s Services Committee and the Kildare & West Wicklow Parenting Forum.

The series is designed to support parents and professionals working with children and families across County Kildare. All events are free of charge and open to Kildare library members, although booking is required. Library membership is free and available to anyone who lives, works, or studies in County Kildare, with easy online registration.

A full programme brochure is available online at the link below. We hope parents find this programme informative and supportive.

The student council are hosting a Valentine’s Bake Sale at school on Friday 13th February. We are fundraising for new games and activities for the yard to improve our playtime and we also hope to make a donation to charity. To help us, we are asking families from 3rd to 6th class to donate any cakes, cookies, buns, biscuits etc. to sell on the day. Please drop off any donations on the morning of Friday 13th February from 8.50am to the hall.

Please note:

• We kindly ask that the ingredients are listed and attached onto your donation to ensure we know all possible allergens.
• Please label any containers/plates clearly with your child’s name so we can make sure this is returned to them.
• Please note we are a nut-free school- so please do not provide any items containing nuts.
• Healthy treats are welcome too!
• All classes will have a supervised time slot to visit and purchase a treat or two!
• We really appreciate your support in helping us make our first fundraiser event this year a big success!

Please find below an updated PSG Calendar for the school year.

One of our parents (Aoife Gaughan) is looking to set up a Community Games Committee for Ardclough and Straffan. If any parent is willing to get involved, please contact Aoife on 0851227522.

Junior Infants have had a wonderful start to the New Year with lots of exciting learning taking place! The girls and boys have been developing their writing skills by forming letters in rice. In Gaeilge, they have been learning all about the weather! Our Aistear theme this month brought us on an exciting journey to the Antarctic. In History, the children learned all about the life of Tom Crean. We loved reading The Emperor’s Egg and creating penguin print art using potatoes!

This month in Senior Infants we are learning all about Space and the Wider World. It’s definitely one of our favourite topics of the year! We have been sharing our writing about space, playing in our classroom space station, making model planets with playdough, creating our own solar system pictures, constructing rockets and much more! We have also enjoyed tasting our new Hot Meals everyday.

Check out some lovely photos that were taken in January in Ms. Malone's Senior Infants classroom.

First class have been very busy this January! Some highlights from this month include creating tooth fairy traps in junk art, group work making drama freeze frames, tag rugby and hurling.

Written By Súsanna, Matthew and Ted.

This month, we are doing procedural writing and we wrote a recipe for our ‘Perfect Grandparents’. It took two days but it is for Grandparents Day which is on Thursday (29th of January). It is going to be so much fun and we are so excited! We also had to write a recipe for how to make Rice Kripsie Cakes so we could make them and then we ate them. In Maths, we learned about subtraction and going up and down on the Hundred Square to help solve a difficult problem.

For Art, we made Fireworks using glue and fabric and glitter. We also made St. Bridget’s Day crosses because it is St. Bridget’s Day soon. Then, we painted Self Portraits, but first we sketched them with pencil and had to paint them in bright colours.

During STEAM Time, we created loads of interesting creations like towers that touched the roof, blocks and people, horse stables and pyramids. For SESE, we learned about China and made group projects with important facts and also learned about Martin Luther King Jr.

We have been doing lots of movement and brain breaks because it has been raining really heavily. We danced to music, did yoga and discovered the Paca Paca song which is one of our favourites! We also started hurling on Fridays, so our PE day changed. Now we do some yoga on Thursday and hurling on Friday.

January was a very wet month in second class, so we did lots of fun dances during break instead of going outside. We planted cress seeds in science and are excited to see them grow. We celebrated Ms Walsh’s birthday and were sent home because the heating was broken in the school! We also got our prize from Mr Tyrrell for winning the Christmas door competition. We learned interesting facts about China and learned how to play the Waltz on the tin whistle. We also started our hot lunches, and we are really enjoying them. It was also Grandparents Day, and we played games and took pictures together. Finally, we were very excited to hear that Anna’s little sister was born.

Written by Naoise, Patrick and Jodie

Here's a little insight into some of the learning that took place in Room 10 during the month of January.

Ms Hassett’s class has had a very exciting return to school this January, full of learning, fun, and engaging activities. We explored different forms of transport, sorting them into land, air, and sea categories. The children created beautiful hot air balloons and enjoyed exploring and sorting photographs of old and new types of transport.

This month, we have also been busy learning about positional language, taking part in fun word hunts around the school and practising following instructions with Bluey. All of the children have been working extremely hard on their reading, and our junior children have now completed almost all of their Jolly Phonics sounds, as well as their blue and yellow tricky words — a fantastic achievement!

We really enjoyed the story “Me on the Map” and created our own maps, naming our towns and deciding which services we wanted to include. We have also loved learning about penguins, creating wonderful pieces of art and completing projects on different penguin species.

We have enjoyed our trips to the shop and have also been having great fun baking cookies in school. Each time we practise, we are becoming more independent — including with washing up and cleaning the room afterwards! 😊

This month our theme focused on Titanic and writing reports. Members of our class were able to share such brilliant information about the Titanic ship and it’s journey. We chose our own animals and researched them using the Chromebooks. We also drew portraits of the animals. We looked at our Solar System and the Hubble Space Telescope and created some beautiful art to match.

Another busy month in 4th class. Here's some of our highlights:

4th Class had lots of fun learning about the Bronze Age during the month of January.

The longest month of the year has gone by in a flash for 5th class. In maths they created 3D shapes with card and matchsticks before moving onto fractions and decimals. The corridor has been brightened with glowing disco balls created with oil and chalk pastels. Students also completed a still life drawing of their shoes which they have displayed at the back of the room. Bhain siad taitneamh as seó faiseanta. Scríobh siad script agus bhí ‘catwalk’ sa seomra. Alongside this they squeezed in gymnastics and tag rugby for PE and a trip or two to the school library!

January was another busy month in Mr O’Leary’s class. The children began tag rugby lessons which were really enjoyed. There was great excitement on Monday 19th January when the first hot lunches arrived in the classroom. These were quickly devoured and the class are trying new meals everyday to get a sample of all the options.

As part of preparations for Grandparents Day, the class conducted surveys with their parents and grandparents to ask them a series of questions about when they grew up. We then collected and studied the data to find what had changed over the years and what had stayed the same. On Grandparents Day, we welcomed visitors to our room to explain our surveys and discuss our thoughts with those who visited. It was a great experience. We also completed an artistic piece based on St. Brigid’s Cloak for Grandparents Day and also to celebrate St. Brigid’s Day.

Ms Cassells’ Sixth Class have spent January learning about Daniel O Connell, the Penal Laws and life in Ireland in the 18th century. In our learning, we further integrated this topic by exploring France, where Daniel O’ Connell studied and learned about the heart. Did you know that after his death, Daniel wanted his heart to be sent to Rome? We then learned about the human heart and completed some heart pictures and diagrams. We also drew ‘Come Holy Spirit’ pictures in preparation for our Confirmation in March. January was also a very busy month for us as we went on our Confirmation Retreat to Dublin, we had our RSE talk with Mary Dillon and finally, Grandparents Day on 29th January.

This month, our class was very busy from the beginning. After returning to school, those children making their Confirmation went on retreat to De La Salle Retreat Centre and enjoyed a day of reflection. Mary Dillon visited our class later in January to support delivery of the RSE (Relationships and Sexuality Education) aspect of the SPHE curriculum and Biology in the Science curriculum. The children tried a variety of lunches as the hot lunches scheme took off with gusto.

In art class we sculpted clay heads, in Science we focused on magnetism and in History we learned about Daniel O’Connell. We visited the library to exchange books and in Irish class we watched excerpts from Nuacht Cúla 4 to hear some current affairs “as Gaeilge”.

The highlight of our month, however, was when some of the children’s grandparents visited our class. We showed them the ways that we learn nowadays, and we heard some lovely stories of what it was like when they were at school. Thank you for visiting!

Ardclough GAA Club and St. Anne's NS collaborate on a weekly lotto draw to raise funds for both organisations. The draw takes place every Friday evening, just after 8pm . Long and short term ticket options are available. Paper tickets can be purchased in the clubhouse and tickets are also available online at this link https://ardcloughgaa.clubzap.com/draws

Thank you to everyone who supports the draw and to our PSG members who support the Club Committee to run the draw each week. Best of luck to everyone in the draw.

• Monday February 2nd - Bank Holiday (School Closed)
• Saturday February 7th - Peace Proms
• Friday February 13th - Student Council Bake Sale
• Thursday and Friday (19th/20th February) - Midterm Break
• Wednesday 22nd April - Staff Training (Primary Curriculum) - School closed for pupils