Letter at Christmas
December 2016
Dear Parent/Guardian
As you may be aware the planning application for the new school was lodged in early November, the details of which are available on the planning section of Kildare County Council’s website. We are eagerly awaiting a positive decision from Kildare County Council (due on January 7th) so the project can progress to tender. The architectural design team continue to work on the detailed drawings and preparations for the next stages. Thank you all for your support and patience regarding this matter.
This year saw increased numbers of students from St Paul’s progressing on to third level and further education. Year on year we are seeing students academic performances improve and more recently we see more students aspiring to third level. There is terrific work being done in the school to promote third level progression and it is crucial that this is supported by you, our parents. Encourage your child to consider third level, raise your expectations and their aspirations, finances must not be a barrier and remember there is a college for everyone.
It has been a busy time for sport in St Paul’s with successes and near misses aplenty. We continue to punch above our weight on the basketball court with regional victories for the Senior Boys and Runners Up for both the Cadet Boys and Senior Girls. The Cadet Boys have reached the All Ireland semi-finals in the cup in January and I wish them every success. Our U14 boys football team narrowly came up second best to Prosperous in the Kildare Final but the surprise of the year was the outstanding performances of our first year girls futsal team. Having won the county title in Newbridge they progressed to the Leinster championship in Dublin. The girls defied the odds by beating the county champions from Offaly, Wexford, Wicklow, Laois and Meath to reach the final against Kilkenny Pres. Alas, it proved a bridge too far as the Kilkenny team proved too strong in the final, no shame in going out to the eventual All Ireland winners. Well done and thank you to all the students, teachers, coaches and parents who work and support our sports teams, it is an essential element of the educational experience offered at St Paul’s.
Regretfully, the Industrial Action that caused our school not to open, for days just before and after the mid-term, at this point remains unresolved. The Board of Management is keeping abreast of developments and will endeavour to protect tuition time as a priority.
The entire school community were treated to a wonderful Christmas Carol Service in the church on Wednesday December 21st. The musical society, teachers, sixth year students and our Syrian students performed thirteen beautiful carols and songs. It was most pleasing to see so many parents, brothers, sisters and grandparents in attendance. With each year the musical society gets bigger and better and a special mention goes to Ms Dempsey and Ms Murray who put so much time and effort into its development.
On behalf of myself, the staff and the Board of Management I wish to thank you for your continued support of the school and I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas and I wish you all a happy and healthy 2017.
Yours sincerely
Brian Bergin