Thank you to Stephanie, Hazel and Cara who designed the logo for our upcoming musical.  It's a wonderful representation of the show.  Well done.  

Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are currently seeking prize donations for our Parents' Association Christmas Raffle.  No matter how big or small, all prizes are accepted.  For those of you who don't already know, the Parents' Association has replaced the voluntary contribution envelope with this raffle over the last two years, in order to raise vital funds for our school.  It has been a huge success thus far.  If you can dig deep and give generously for this great cause, we will be most grateful.  Thank you to those who have already donated.  It is very much appreciated.  

We are so proud of Saira, Anna, Chidinma and Laoise who represented our school at the Phoenix FM School Duel Quiz.  They were triumphant against St. Patrick's Corduff and are now through to the quarter final.  It is a great achievement for the girls and for the school.  They were excellent representatives for our school and we are all enormously proud of them.  Well done.  

We love partnering with our local library.  Well done to the boys and girls in Rang 4 (Ms Fortune) who had a great time yesterday as they engaged in mindful meditation, programming and accessing library resources.  

Ms Fortune brought her fourth class boys and girls to Blanchardstown library on Wednesday to enjoy a day filled with wonderful experiences.  The students learned how to code using programming language.  It was a great experience and another step on our journey to becoming a digital school.  

Mr Thynne brought his fifth class to Blanchardstown library this week.  The students were delighted to engage with the accomplished author Megan Wynne who inspired the boys and girls to pick up a pen and write.  It was a wonderful day.  

Thanks to our wonderful colleagues Tina, Esther and Sandra, our boys and girls can now enjoy savouring a book in our newly rejuvenated 'Reading Garden'.  The courtyard outside the Atrium has been transformed into a warm and welcoming space where our students can sit and read.  It is a little haven which encourages peace and tranquility.  In this busy world in which we live, couldn't we all benefit from some quiet time with a book.  

Ms Lucey, together with members of the Green Team, visited Airfield Farm in Dundrum earlier this week.  It was part of a whole range of activities ongoing in the school which enable our students to learn more about biodiversity, sustainability and food culture.  The boys and girls were thrilled to meet with the farmers on site and enjoyed thoroughly the majesty and beauty of the farm animals.  The donkeys and goats were particular favourites given their timidity yet eager curiosity.  We are so fortunate to enjoy wonderful opportunities to broaden our horizons and we love to learn about the beauty of the natural world.  

We are delighted to welcome faces new and old, to Huntstown.  We are looking forward to a productive year where we will learn and grow together.  New beginnings can be a little daunting at times, but with kindness, cooperation and patience, we will all enjoy our year and flourish in unison.    

Please take a moment to watch and savour the extraordinary talents of our boys and girls and their teacher Mr. Herity.  They wrote, developed, produced and edited this truly stunning film.  Evocative and thought provoking, the film is a testament to the imagination of the students and their teacher.  It is being entered into the FÍS awards 2019.  Well done to all involved.  
https://vimeo.com/344570471

The school will be closed on Monday and Tuesday (6-7 May) for the bank holiday and in-service training for teachers.  All children return to school on Wednesday 8 May.  

Sixth class boys and girls in Mr Herity's room were learning all about bridges recently.  They found out that there are lots of different types of bridges, including Cantilever, Beam and Truss bridges.  They decided to design and make a selection of their own bridges using newspaper.  We love their ingenuity and creativity.  

As part of the Environmental Awareness and Care strand of the Science curriculum, sixth class students were delighted to welcome Emily Robyn Archer to their classroom.  She conducted a workshop on the dangers of plastic to our oceans.  The display below, was made using plastic coffee lids.  It is a reminder to us all that we need to preserve and protect our beautiful oceans.  Reusable coffee cups are a great idea.  

Owing to the hard work of our parents, guardians and family members, we have managed to collect enough tokens to fill 12 Aldi Posters.  That is an impressive total of 3,600 tokens.  We cannot believe it.  Thank you to everyone for being so generous and thoughtful.  We really hope that we are successful in our efforts.  

On Thursday last (28 March), we hosted a wonderful Intercultural concert in the school hall to showcase the rich tapestry of cultures and traditions that make Huntstown so special.  We were delighted to welcome parents, guardians and family members to join in our celebrations.  We enjoyed acrobatics, music, fashion and dancing.  What a joy to behold.  

Across the school this year there were opportunities to celebrate 'Engineering Week'.  The sixth class students hosted a number of workshops for other classes.  They built catapults, pasta towers and egg protection devices.  We were amazed by the creativity of our students.  

Congratulations to Cara, Casie and Robyn who were winners in the Sligo Feis Art Competition recently.  We are so impressed with the quality of their submissions and are not at all surprised that they were selected by the judges for an award.  Well done girls and thank you to Ms O'Dea for coordinating the submission.  

https://sacredhearthuntsto.wixsite.com/stemlearning2019 
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There are so many opportunities to enjoy STEM learning in our school - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  We are entering the Primary Science Awards for the third time and we hope that by June, we will be awarded the Plaque of Excellence for our efforts.  All classes in the school have contributed evidence for our 'Log of Evidence'.  We are so impressed when we witness the lengths to which classes go in order to explore, discover, question and wonder.  It is no surprise that we are a centre for curious discoveries.  Whenever a question is posed, we use STEM learning to plan, implement, review and hypothesise.  Clicking on the link above, brings the user to our digital log of evidence.  We regularly add material to the blog and we hope to submit the blog to Science Foundation Ireland in the coming months.  
Well done to all the boys and girls for continuing to ask questions.  

'Illegal' is a work of fiction by the Irish author Eoin Colfer.  We are lucky that so many of our boys and girls love to read and whenever we are given a recommendation to read and enjoy a new text, we are always willing to take a look.  Ms O'Connor facilitated this display in the atrium recently which highlighted the wonders of this very engaging text.  Last year, the book club members in the school even got to meet Eoin Colfer when they visited Smock Alley in May.  Well done to all involved.