Workshop for Parents
This information session will explore some of the key elements in preparing your child for post-primary school. For first time parents, the session will give you an understanding of what secondary school is like. We’ll look at ways in which parents can support their child through this time bearing in mind that going to First Year also coincides with adolescence for a young person.
The session will also give a brief overview of the new Junior Cert and provide some website links where parents can keep on top of developments as their child moves forward. Furthermore, we will briefly look at the structure of parent/teacher meetings, home school communication and people your child might meet in post primary school.

Venue: Central Hotel Tullamore
Dates: Thursday 13th June 2019
Time: 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Facilitator: Margaret Joyce, National Parents Council Facilitator
To book a place on this presentation, please contact Yvonne, Laois Education Centre at (057) 8672402 or yvonne@laoisedcentre.ie

· There is no fee for the above course.
· Booking is essential.
· Places are reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.

Congratulations to the children from 2nd Class who made their First Holy Communion on Saturday.

Thanks also to the children who sang so beautifully in the choir on Saturday morning and to their parents for getting them there.

Over the past couple of months all classes have been covering the Stay Safe Programme as part of the SPHE curriculum.

What is Stay Safe?
The programme aims to give children the skills necessary to enable them to recognise and resist abuse/victimisation and teaches them that they should always tell (an adult that can help) about any situation which they find unsafe, upsetting, threatening, dangerous or abusive.

You can find out more about the programme and the lessons taught in school here.

It is important to speak to your children about the topics covered in the programme and encourage them to talk to you about any issues that may arise.

We undertake standardised testing twice in the school year. 1st to 6th Classes complete these tests in October each year and results are communicated to parents at our Parent-Teacher meetings in November.
Every May 2nd, 4th and 6th Classes are tested again. Results are given to parents in the school report and are also submitted to the Department of Education. 6th Class’ results are also given to the Secondary Schools as part of the Education Passport process. To find out more about standardised tests click here.

Offaly County Council and the Department of Rural and Community Development provided funding under the Digital Innovation Programme to roll out this new digital initiative for 16 primary schools in Offaly. The aim is to expose students to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) fundamentals within the context of building, coding and programming a robot using Vex IQ.

The students competed against 15 other schools from Offaly in the Vex IQ Offaly Championships on the 16th of May.
After an evening of various challenges the Geashill team won the Coding and Programming 1st prize. This was a great achievement and well done to the pupils in 6th Class who along with Mrs. Bell worked very hard on the project over the last couple of months. Special thanks also to Offaly County Council for organising this event and for all their support throughout the process.

The picture above shows the pupils being presented with their trophy by Seán Canney, Minister of State for Digital Development.

Active School Week takes place next week.  As well as all our usual activities we will be trying out badminton, tug of war, zumba, ju jutsu and much more besides.  We’ll also be having active homework for all classes.  Get all the family involved and remember Be Active!

Great News!!

We have been awarded our 6th Green Flag by An Taisce.  Well done to all our Green School Committee, Ms Galvin and Ms. Mooney for all their hard work promoting and raising awareness of environmental issues in our school.

Thanks also to Geashill Tidy Towns for all their positive involvement in our school.

The school is closed for the Easter Holidays.

The summer term begins on Monday 29th April.

We wish everyone a very Happy Easter!

We had great fun on our Easter Egg hunt today in the Glebe Walk. Thank you Miss Leonard for buying the eggs and to Ms. Burns and Eddie for hiding them!