WELCOME ALFIE Our School Therapy Dog As you know we are a mainstream primary school with 3 classes for autistic children and we have just received our School Therapy Dog, Alfie, from My Canine Companion- Autism and Therapy Service and his first day at school was Monday, September 20th, 2021! It’s was a BIG surprise for all our boys! He is our puppy in training and is part of the charity’s new therapy dogs in school programme. We believe he is the first therapy dog in a mainstream primary school in Cork and we feel very privileged to have been chosen to be part of the programme. We are especially delighted now given the impact of Covid-19 and school closures on children across the country. Having Alfie in our school is going to cause a huge ripple effect of positivity across all areas of school life from social and emotional skill development, anxiety management, behavioural support and so much more. It truly will have a holistic impact on everyone with benefits that will far exceed anything we can imagine. Up until now dogs from My Canine Companion have gone directly to families and the benefits to the specific child who receives the dog and their families have been amazing. Now we have the potential to see and effect that level of change across more than 200 families in our CBS Exclusive Issue 4 2020/21
DON’T FORGET SCHOOL CLOSES AT 2:30pm ON FRIDAY for Training for Alfie and our school team will Mid-Term! school community and that is an absolutely fabulous feeling! We just cannot wait! span 2 years with regular classes for puppy training, constant access to group chats with dog training experts, and meet ups with other schools involved in the programme.
VOLUME 2021/22 ISSUE 1 22nd CTOBER 2021
We, as a school truly believe in the WATCH OUT FOR: benefits of school therapy dogs and that ☺ PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION Alfie is going to be of massive support and NEWS assist to our school team throughout the ☺ SPACE WEEK school.
Listed below are just some of the positives to be gained: • Lower people's blood pressure and stress levels.
☺ MONSTERS on the MOVE! ☺ SCHOOL DISPLAYS ☺ SCHOOL CALENDAR
• Increase levels of dopamine and serotonin. • Improve physical well-being. • Decrease anxiety. • Dramatically increase positive mood.
Inside this issue: • 1ST CLASS PG 6
• Ease social isolation and help children • learn social skills. •Help young readers gain confidence.
• 3RD CLASS PG 8
• 4TH CLASS PG 9
You can follow Alfie’s adventures on his • own Facebook and Instagram page: Paws A While With Alfie
2ND CLASS PG 7
5TH CLASS PG 10
• 6TH CLASS PG 11
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pa • wsawhilewithalfie
YELLOW CORRIDOR PG 12/13
Instagram: @pawsawhilewithalfie We cannot wait to start the next part of our journey! Page 1
More About Alfie: 6th Class I think getting Alfie was a great idea. I would like to thank Letitia because if it weren’t for her hard work we wouldn’t have got Alfie so thank you Letita. I haven’t got to rub Alfie yet but I hope in the future I will be able to. And I always tell my mom to look on Facebook for videos of Alfie. I love Alfie and I hope he will have the best life here. By Alex Wilson
Recently we got a service dog alled Alfie in our school. He is really nice. It is cool to be one of the only schools in Ireland to have a dog in our school. Priomhóide Niamh and Letitia are training Alfie. We can’t touch Alfie when he has his coat on him. If someone was having a bad day Alfie could cheer them up. Aflie is going to be in CBS for a while. It is sad that I will only have a year with
him but the younger kids will have loads of time with Alfie. Over the years it will be nice to see him grow. By Charlie McCarthy
Alfie & The Media Just in case you missed out on any of Alfie’s new found celebrity status updates you can check out all the links below:
RSVP Magazine: https://www.rsvplive.ie/life/corkprimary-school-becomes-first25056021?fbclid=IwAR2xMVOm37uULo16y96Hvlle nbLN9DSao6pg5bPH7l8j6CT6eXL1LTZGOAQ Neil Prendeville: Today’s Podcast @1:46: https://redfm.ie/listen/podcasts/ Her: Family: https://www.herfamily.ie/news/corkschool-therapy-dog-397773 TG4: https://youtu.be/di_7xbzvQYA Be sure to keep up with all Alfie’s adventures!
Evening Echo: https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid40702271.html
Paws A While With Alfie
RedFM News: https://redfm.ie/post/exciting-dayfor-students-at-midleton-cbs-primary-school-astherapy-dog-alfie-arrives/ Cork Beo: https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/localnews/cork-schoolwelcomes-irelandsfirst-21608897
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The nurture room is a place where you can be calm and relax. What I like about the nurture room is when we have toast and drinks. It is very relaxing. We do lots of fun things in there. We do yoga and exercise. We talk about what we do at home. We make things like pictures and who am I cards.
drinks, play games and we bake in there. It is just very relaxing. There is a tent. There are board games. There's lots of fun things. The teachers are very nice and
By Basit What I like about the nurture room is when we have toast and
We are so proud of Michal and Igor who participated in the UK taekwondo championships this weekend with @midletontaekwandoclub. Igor won gold in the u11s green belt sparring. Michal
won silver in both the special technique and the u11s sparring. Outstanding
Unfortunately our Parents’ Association has not been in a position to meet face to face this year due to the on-going restrictions as a result of Covid19.
and the school during particularly challenging year.
However we are hopefully that we will be in a position to change this once we return after the Mid-Term break. We would like to thank, most sincerly , the outgoing committee for all their hard work and dedication to our boys CBS Exclusive Issue 4 2020/21
funny. It is fun and we play games. We do art in there. We go there every day for a small break straight after lunch. My friends and teachers are fun and kind in the Nurture room.
stuff boys! Well done!
a
We are hopeful that some of the members will remain on but are also conscious that a lot of our members were parents of last year’s 6th Class boys and will no longer be in a position to help out.
such as Chairperson, PRO, Treasurer etc some parents may simple wish to add their name to a list of people willing to volunteer and help out at various events. We are grateful of any help you are in a position to offer.
Every parent who has a child in our school automatically becomes a member of the Parents’ Association and while some parents hold positions Page 3
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The boys in Muinteoir Mairead’s 3rd class made our First Holy Communion on October 9th 2021. Our priest was Father Jim. We made our Communion in The Church of the Most Holy Rosary Church. We waited a long time because of COVID 19. We were very excited to have our First Holy Communion. The ceremony was shorter because of COVID 19 also. A member of our family was able to come with us to receive The Host for the first time which made it really special. By Jakub Kurek & Kaiden Janssen On Saturday October the 9th October it was my First Holy Communion day. That morning I started getting ready to go into the church. When I arrived at the church I saw some of my friends. My friend’s mom asked if I could take a picture with him. Later we went into the church. We took part in the mass and said our prayers. Then we went up to
To all Parents & Guardians, the Board of Management wishes to inform you that the annual review of the school’s Child Safeguarding Statement was completed at our meeting in March 2021 The review was
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receive our communion. Afterwards we went home and had a great day. Oliwier Guz
On Saturday the 9th October my communion took place. It was very special. After the church, I went to the Midleton Park Hotel. I got lots of presents and cards – even from the hotel! I dressed up in fancy clothes. It was one of the best days of my life! Adam Wojtal
My first communion was very exciting for me and my family. My mum cooked dinner and baked me a cake. My family and friends came to dinner – it was so much fun. I’m happy that I got some gifts but the most important thing is that I was able to take my first communion. Bartosz Wilk
conducted in accordance with the Checklist for Review of the Child Safeguarding Statement published on the DES website. Copies of this statement are on public display in the school and can be viewed at reception.
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Click HERE to view our 1st Class Webpage
Our new school is fun. We love our dog Alfie. We like doing art in our new classroom. We have made lots of new friends. We like playing with them. We like doing Aistear. Our new school is cool. By Max, Celestino, Jack, Kayden, Nathan, Maks and Szymon.
I was excited on my first day of school. We met Múinteoir Amy and our friends. We did work and play. I made new friends. I like having fun on the yard. I like playing catch with my friends. Alfie is our school dog. We get to rub him. We have fun playing in Aistear. We used rice to play small world. We played with sand, playdoh and the kitchen. I like having fun in my new school. By Kingsley, Bradley and Tyler
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Click HERE to view our 1st Class Webpage We arrived to our new school feeling nervous, excited and happy to see what Midleton CBS was like. Since then, we have made wonderful new friends, met super new teachers, explored our new school, played with lots of toys, learnt many different things and had lots of fun.
We were so surprised to see all of the lovely things that were in our new school. We really loved the Astro-Turf pitch and the jungle gym that are outside. The long beam that turns is the trickiest
part of the jungle gym. It is very hard to get across without touching the floor. Our new school is very colourful. There are lots of different corridors. We are still learning about all of the different rooms and corridors. Inside, there is also a dog named Alfie. He comes to visit us
Aistear Right now, we would like tell you about our AISTEAR time. During AISTEAR we play with toys that relate to our theme. Right now, we are learning all Autumn and Hallowe’en. We have four stations; junk art, play dough, small world and the dramatic station. When we are on the small world station, we play with trees, hedgehogs, squirrels, moles, autumn leaves and different seeds. We imagine that we are hibernating animals in the woods. When we are on the dramatic play station, we pretend that we are customers in a fruit and veg shop. All of the fruits and vegetables that we play with are ripe at this
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time of year. In the junk art station, we use junk to create art relating to our theme. We have made pumpkins, trees, ghosts, monsters, leaves, hedgehogs, witches, monsters in a box, carrots, spiders and scarecrows. During the play dough station, we get a chance to create pumpkins, autumn trees, autumn words, scary monsters and mummies. Our teacher told us that we will be getting a new station soon and we can not wait!
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Click HERE to view our 2nd Class Webpage
So far this year in second class we have learned a lot. We learned about houses. For example, we learned that there are lots of different types of houses, like detached, semi-detached,
apartments, bungalows and cottages. We did an experiment on the digestive system for the Reel Life Science Competition. We made poo! We learned an Irish song called the Hócaí Pócaí. At the moment we are doing Halloween Aistear and Halloween art. By Sebastian B., Alex, Seán, Rokas and Bradley
Space Week is a special week to learn about and celebrate space. You can go to a website called spaceweek.ie to learn about space. If you download Google Earth you can look at Earth from space. You can press a button to look at Google Moon, Google Mars and Google Sky.
is called a constellation. Mars is the called the red planet because of iron oxide on its’ surface. The biggest volcano in our solar system is called Olympus Mons and it is on Mars. The holes on the surface of Mars and the moon are called craters. Earth is very different to Mars because it is blue and green. The green is land and the blue is sea or Here are some space facts! water. On Mars we would be lighter because of There are 8 planets in the gravity. solar system. When stars Shared writing my M. Lisa’s 2nd class. make a pattern in the sky it
Aistear helps us to learn and have fun. The more we do it the more we learn. We learn about themes and every month we change the theme. It’s really fun. We do role play, small world, playdough, construction and art. This month the theme is autumn. We do role play to act out and experience different things. We love playing in our farmers market. We harvest all the crops. Then we sell the crops. The chef uses them to cook soup and make pies. In small world we play with the people, a CBS Exclusive Issue 4 2020/21
tractor and a combine harvester. The people bring food to the city. Then they harvest more food. There are lots of building blocks and lego for construction. We are so happy to have Aistear. Writen by Múinteoir Amy’s 2nd Class Page 11
Click HERE to view our 2nd Class Webpage
Space Week 2021 was a fantastic week in M. Lisa's 2nd class solar system and constellations our 2nd class boys
. We even made Martians!
. We learned about Mars, our Amazing work from some of
#spaceweek #stemeducation
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Click HERE to view our 3rd Class Webpage
Muinteoir Mairead’s 3rd class have been working very hard making a shock absorbing system for astronauts to land on another planet safely. The materials we used were elastic bands, paper cups, marshmallows, straws and cardboard. We tried to make it so it didn’t crash land. We put 2 marshmallows in as the astronauts. We also made planets during our artwork to create the scene for the landing. We recorded a video and entered a competition so fingers crossed we win!! We loved learning about space travel for Space Week. By Aidan Pinto and Daniel O’ Sullivan
Our Friend Alfie Alfie is a very cute and young dog from My Canine Companion. He is very busy all the time because he works with children all day. He is also very tired after he is done from the six hours in school. He is a very good pet for the entire school. He is very fluffy and soft and he calms me down. My dog Barney died recently but Alfie cheers me up Filip Slawinski when I give him rubs. I hope that Alfie will stay at CBS for a very long time so that he can help all of Alfie is really cute and cuddly. He is going around the students. to all of the classes to get used to the children. Callum Quish Alfie is a Goldendoodle and he is a puppy. I wonder if Alfie is confused with all of the people around him. Sometimes he comes to my classroom. We saw him on the news too! Alfie helps kids if they are stressed or angry. He goes home with a staff member every night. Alfie has his own bed in the office! Our new friend Alfie joined us in September. He helps us settle into school each day. When Alfie wears a green vest we can’t distract him because it’s his training time. He spends his days helping students and sleeping in the office. Even though he is a dog he is our best friend.
Jack McCarthy
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Click HERE to view our 4th Class Webpage
le Jordan McCarthy Keane Tá madra nua againn. Alfie is ainm dó. Tá sé go hálainn. Tá gruaig bhán air. Tá eireaball agus fiacla air. Tá Alfie gleoite agus gruagach.
Tá sé ina chónaí san oifig le Letitia. Tá Alfie cairdiúil agus tapa. Itheann Alfie bia madraí. Ólann Alfie uisce.
Alfie is our new school dog. He is a therapy dog from My Canine Companion. We are so happy to have a school dog. He wanders around the school with our principal in and out of classes. He is being trained by our principal to not get distracted when students are around him. Alfie wears a green vest. When he has the green vest on we know we can’t shout out his name or distract him.
Is uiliteoir é.
It was a sunny day, but figuratively rainy for the other competitors. The tension was high. It was speech time. It was time to talk. They were extremely good. People made lots of promises. Unfortunately, not all of these promises they could keep. One person stood out for being well organised – Jack. This is why he won my vote. The speeches were told, the votes were cast and the student council competitors were biting their nails (figuratively). The class was silent… then the teacher broke the silence. “The winner is… oh this is a close one… JACK!” At the end of the day everybody won because we got a great representative on the council. By Ollie Jarosz
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We have had a great start to 4th class. We enjoyed learning about Space Week. We learned all about the theme for this years Space Week. The theme was “Women in Space”. We learned all about the first woman in Space. Her name was Valentina Tereshkova. We looked at the Solar System and the Planets. We then designed our own planet. It was very cool!! We also did an art project. We created foil printed moons and they turned out lovely. It was great fun. We read many interesting facts about Space.
We did our first project in 4th class on Ancient Greece. We learned that Ancient Greeks believed in many Gods. In Ancient Greece all boys had to become soldiers when they left school at eighteen. In Ancient Greece they also believed in mythical creatures. The Greek people had a fascination with making vases. We created our own vases in class. We designed and coloured our very own Greek vase. We had a lot of fun! Page 14
Click HERE to view our 5th Class Webpage
It’s dark in the night, With no sense of sight. The owls are hooting, While the ghosts are booing. The crickets are snapping, While the skeletons are snapping. The witches holding their brooms With all their might. And that’s what happens on Halloween night. By Brian Nimpa
In September, in the CBS, we got a dog like we never had before. His name is Alfie. The people who are keeping him are Príomhoide Niamh and the school secretary, Letitia. He came from My Canine Companion. They trained him but he is still in training. When you see him in a green vest it means you have to ask before you touch him. Alfie is a Goldendoodle. He is so fluffy and has floppy ears. Alfie is really playful and cute. He lies on his back looking for belly rubs when you rub him. Last week we got to know Alfie a bit better. He came with Letitia into our classroom. We got to rub him. He rolled onto his back and we were rubbing his tummy. Then he started licking people’s faces.
Alfie is the best boy in the school and everybody loves him! By Kevin, Damien and Harry
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Click HERE to view our 6th Class Webpage
Since we have returned to school we have created some beautiful and fun art. In our first week back, we created some self-portraits using mirrors and photographs of ourselves. Then we did some really cool art based on aboriginal dot paintings. We learned all about the different meanings
We would like to thank Tesco’s in Midleton for choosing our school for their sponsorship tokens. We are really grateful for all the money received. We are very excited for all the sports equipment we will get with all of this money. We hope we can get more sponsorship money in the future to continue to make our school better. By Alexander Bursztynski
The
other
behind aboriginal symbols and how to use different materials to create dot paintings. We have also created some really cool autumn zentangles and created some really spooky Hallowe’en art.
by Rónán Mackessy
For science week we learned all about our bones, joints and the circulatory system. We learned lots about different types of joints such as ball and socket joints. Hinge joints and gliding joints. We discussed and talked about how the skeleton protects some of our most important organs, in particular our heart and lungs. We learned all about the
This term 4th, 5th and 6th class have had an election for Student Council. Each class elects one person to be on the council. In my class two people put themselves forward, I was one of them. We had to make a presentation giving reasons why we should be elected. person was
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circulatory system and how our heart is the muscle that pumps blood around our body. We watched some really cool videos and did an experiment to test our heart rates (bpm) at rest and while exercising,.
by Alex Molumby.
fantastic but after our presentations, the class voted and I was elected. My first meeting is soon and I’m so excited. When we meet up we will put forward our ideas and have student voices heard. My ideas were to buy better sports equipment and have soccer balls on the yard. I hope everyone is putting forward good ideas and helping students have their voices heard. By Oliver Taylor
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Click HERE to view our 6th Class Webpage
We were very excited when we heard TG4 were coming to our school to talk about our new therapy dog Alfie. Six people from our class were chosen to talk about Alfie for TG4. We did all of the filming in the school garden. 1 person was speaking to the camera while the rest of us were in the background with Alfie. After we were finished the cameraman, Matt
came to our classroom and we got to ask him questions about his job. Matt told us about his trips to countries like Africa and America. A person in our class got to lift the camera. He gave us tips on how to make videos and told us editing was now a key part of his job. We enjoyed having Matt in the class. By James Duggan.
The boys in M. Gails Class have been presenting their fantastic country projects all week. She was amazed at the planning, research and presentation skills the boys had. Here is a snippet of some of their projects. Well done boys
This Halloween our school is going to be doing the ‘Monsters on the Move’. Monsters on the Move is a charity walk. Some of the boys and teachers will get dressed up. Every boy in the school got a Sponsorship Card and if they fill out the whole card they will get a night off homework. On the day of the Monsters on the Move all the boys in the school are going to walk down town and back. 1st,2nd and 3rd will be going first. 4th,5th and 6th will be going after. We are all looking forward to having a fun and exciting day. By Alessandro De Fritas.
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Click HERE to visit our Yellow Corridor webpage The boys in the Yellow Corridor have been As Autumn is ending, the boys having a blast so far this term. They have all had been learning about the been learning so much. changing of the seasons, Recently, the boys have been exploring harvest festivals and also Space Week where they learned about the enjoying the dry spell of planets, the moon landing and the Mars weather with trips to our local rover. They are budding astronauts and playground. scientists in the making.
Well done boys on a great start They have also been learning about fire to the year! safety which is especially important around Halloween.
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Colourful Corridors Continued…...
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This year, just like every other, the corridors are awash with colour made up of all the hard work of the boys themselves. But unlike any other year you, the parents./guardians cannot get in to see them all. So we decided to put together a montage of all the work that can be seen on our school noticeboards since midterm.
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Colourful Corridors Continued…...
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Click HERE to visit our Yellow Corridor webpage Colourful Corridors Continued…...
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Happy Halloween to everyone from the staff and children at Midleton CBS Primary! Have a safe and healthy Mid-term break and we will see you all on the 1st of November Contact Information: Midleton CBS Primary School, Rosary Place, Castleredmond, Midleton P25 EK13
Phone: 021-4631419 Email: office@midletoncbsprimary.ie Website: www.midletoncbsprimary.ie Facebook: www.facebook.com/MidletonCBSPrimary. Twitter: https://twitter.com/midletoncbs Instagram: @midletoncbsprimary YouTube: MidletonCBSPrimary School
Christmas Holidays: School will close on Tuesday 22nd of December at 12pm and will re-open on Thursday 6th of January 2020.
St. Patrick’s Weekend: School will be closed on Wednesday 17th & 18th of March.
Easter Holidays: School will close on Friday 8th April at 12pm and will re -open on Monday 25th of April.
Public Holiday: School will be closed on Monday 2nd of May.
Public Holiday: School will be closed on Monday 6th of June.
Summer Holidays: School will close on
Spring Mid-Term: School will be closed on Monday 21st—Friday 25th of February. CBS Exclusive Issue 4 2020/21
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