St. Rynaghs National School

SCOIL NAOMH RAGHNACH

Main St., Banagher, Co. Offaly   -   Phone: 057 91 51419
email: strynaghs@strynaghsns.com

Junior Infants

tracy-dolan

Thank you for choosing St. Rynagh’s N.S. for your child.  We are looking forward to welcoming your children to school in September.  We will post videos and pictures on our website that you and your children can watch so the Junior Infants can see their school, classroom and teachers before coming to school.

We will have two Junior Infant classes in order to give the infants the best start possible.  Ms. Garvey will teach one of the Infant classes and Ms. Sullivan the other.  We will bring the two classes together for some activities.  The two classes will play together on the yard in the designated Junior Infant yard area.

It is essential that any anxiety the adults have be they teachers, SNAs or parents is not transferred to the children.  If you have any concerns now or during the summer please ring or write to the school and we will ring you back if you leave a message.  This way we will try to make as confident a start as possible to encourage the feelings of confidence and openness necessary for children to thrive.

We have some long-term preparations we would like you to make with your children to ensure a good start to Junior Infants.

We have included a picture of a pencil grip.  This is our preferred grip for children to use so you can practice this at home when your children are colouring.  Colouring with a crayon should be done with the same grip as writing.   If your child is starting to write their name, teach them to use a capital letter for the first letter then to use lower case (Mary, Tom).

It will be beneficial if your child can manage their lunch independently.  Practice opening their school bag at home, taking out their lunch, opening the lunch box themselves (some boxes can be quite difficult for them to open), opening the lunch and eating it without assistance.  A small lunch that they consume completely is the ideal.  I think for the moment yogurts could be left at home and fruit should be peeled or easily peeled.  We will help your child but the more we can minimise that help, the smoother the lunch time will be.

When you get the uniform later, please get your child to wear it, go to the toilet, and fix themselves up closing buttons afterwards.  They could also practice taking off and putting on their jumpers and coats themselves.  We will help them if necessary, however, the more independent they are the smoother the management will be.

I have included a video of me reading a story.  Read to your child.  The Libraries are open so join the Library, choose books together and explore the excitement and the shared enjoyment of books.   Children can find it very reassuring to hear the same story several times, this is one of the reasons why fairy tales are so successful through generations.  Albert Einstein said “If you want your child to be intelligent read them fairy tales, if you want them to be more intelligent read them more fairy tales.”  So, if you only have a few books, they can be read again to your children.

Limit screen time to short definite times, so children are used to having to stop playing.  When it comes to September do not allow any screen time before school.

For numeracy talk to you child about numbers.  Count out biscuits, give them sand or water to learn about capacity.  Ask how many cups are needed to fill the jug.  If throwing a ball, ask can they catch the ball if they are 1 metre away, then can they catch the ball if they are 3 meters away.  Talk about time, differentiate between a short journey in the car 5 minutes and a longer one half an hour or 30 minutes.

Play board games as they teach turn taking, cooperation and strategy.  Toys such as Lego and jigsaws are essential for fine motor skills and spatial awareness.  Speech and language difficulties have become more of an issue in recent years . Learning Nursery Rhymes and saying them regularly is wonderful for speech and language.  All possible sounds are in nursery rhymes, regular repetition gives great enjoyable practice and the children develop a sense of rhythm.

All Junior Infants are invited to visit the school, their classroom and their teacher before they start school in Sept.

Parents and students can come to the school hall.  The teachers will collect the children from the school hall and the parents can remain in the hall where they will be given a short presentation about starting school and an opportunity to ask questions.  The teachers will bring the children back to their parents at 2.30 p.m.

A story from Mr. McMahon, Principal.

Click on images to enlarge