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Starting School

Parents and guardians can do a lot to help prepare their son for their first day of ‘big school’.   It is such an exciting time.   You will find this document ‘Preparing Young Children for Primary School’ really helpful.

A useful handbook to have a read of….. NCSE-Preparing-Young-Children-for-Primary-School-1 (1)

Getting Ready for Formal Writing!

Here in St. Patrick’s BNS, we will teach your child to write using a cursive (joined) script from the beginning.   By focusing on fine motor skills development, you are giving your son a great start in his handwriting journey.

Some information on Developing Fine Motor Skills.

English

Dolch Sight Words

This is a comprehensive list of Dolch Sight Words. These lists account for 50-75% of all words used in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines. The Dolch word list is made up of “service words” (pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs).

Most cannot be learned through the use of pictures. Many of these words cannot be sounded out because they do not follow decoding rules and, therefore, must be learned as sight words.

It would be of great support to your son if you cut these into flashcards, and every day got your son to say the letter names (do not sound the words out), and then the word. Other things that can be done include discussing the shape of the word, and tracing the letters.

Maths

 

SPHE

Social, Personal & Health Education

This year, our teachers will play an important role in supporting positive interactions and routines for your children and in encouraging healthy behaviours as they make sense of their new reality. The Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum is particularly important in responding to how Covid-19 has impacted on children in terms of their feelings, thoughts and behaviours. Learning experiences that support children to focus on their strengths, positive attributes and qualities to enable their reconnection with the school community will assist in easing the transition back to school.

To assist us in this endeavour classes from Junior Infants to 1st Class will engage in lessons from a series of books called “Self Esteem”. The activity topics in these books have been carefully selected to address issues specific to younger primary school students with a view to building self-worth and establishing resilience in challenging situations.

Pupils from 2nd to 6th class will engage with the “Weaving Wellbeing” programme we initiated in the school two years ago. This is an Irish-designed SPHE programme which teaches children evidence-based skills and strategies to develop positive mental health and wellbeing. It is based on Positive Psychology, which is the science of wellbeing. The aim of the programme is to empower children to become active participants in creating, maintaining and boosting positive mental health throughout their lives.

As always, we would appreciate your help in supporting your child. You can help by talking to your child about the programme he is engaging in and to encourage practical use of the skill he is developing.

Regards, Brian Horan, Príomhoide

Stay Safe – http://www.staysafe.ie/

Relationship & Sexuality Education – https://pdst.ie/node/811

Webwise – https://www.webwise.ie/

Walk Tall – https://pdst.ie/walktall

Be SAFE Online – https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/be-safe-online/