To celebrate European Day of Languages, lots of fun activities and initiatives are happening  in our language classrooms today. We are wearing our language detective caps and investigating “‘word of the year’‘ in several different languages. We are challenging ourselves with some brain games and doing our best to learn the Greek alphabet as well as discovering interesting facts about world languages.The students have carried out a survey and established that in our school community we speak a total of 17 different languages. On this important day, we would also like to say Bonjour to our friends in Saint-Contest, Kilcullen’s twinning partner town in Normandy. We are looking forward to building friendships and connecting with the young people in Saint-Conteste in the coming months.

Dear Principal,

The Laura Brennan catch up program for Human Papilloma Virus(HPV) vaccine  has expanded to offer HPV vaccine to boys/males up to and including the age of 21 years. These boys were in school when the vaccine was introduced for first years in 2019 but it was not available to boys in higher school years at the time.

Boys, currently in sixth year, who were in 2nd year in 2019 did not get access to this vaccine. They can now get it, free of charge, through this catch up program.  All other boys in the school currently and all female students  will have been offered it in first year. If they did not avail of it at the time they too can get this vaccine now.  

Laura Brennan campaigned to make this vaccine available to all as she herself battled a terminal illness caused by this virus. This virus can cause, anal, penal cancers, genital warts and throat and neck cancers  in males. In women it can cause, anal, cervical cancer and genital warts and also neck and throat cancers. The HPV 9 vaccine, in a single dose, gives protection to boys and girls against HPV.

In her memory, until December 31st, this vaccine is being made available to females up to 24 years of age  who missed out on this vaccine and now also to males until 21 years of age.

Please can you forward on this information and the above attachment to all parents of  children in your school. We, the school team will continue to visit schools to provide the HPV vaccine along with the  MenACWY and Tdap vaccines to first years.  However parents of first year children may have older children who missed out and would now like to avail of this very effective and important vaccine.

We are running  a clinic through the Laura Brennan catch up program, on Friday 24th November in Athy Primary care centre, Dublin Road, Athy from 2.00-4.00pm. Registration is available through www.hpv.ie . It would be useful to share this information with your  4th, 5th and 6th year students who are eligible to consent for vaccines themselves from the age of 16 years.

This catch up program finishes in December and vaccines will only be available for first year students after this through national vaccine programs. HPV is a safe and effective vaccine.

Kind regards,

Deirdre Lane

Public Health Nurse

School Immunisation Team,

Kildare West Wicklow

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As a school community we are delighted to be celebrating mass this coming Thursday in Kilcullen Parish Church. At 9:30am a class from each yeargroup will gather as representatives of the entire school community to  participate in a mass to bless the new school year. We would like to extend an invitation to any parent(s), grandparents or family members who might be available to attend, you would be most welcome.

Colleagues,

Please note the upcoming HSE Health and Wellbeing Webinars below on Vaping and Men’s Health as well as the ongoing Stress Control online programme. We would appreciate you sharing this information with teachers and parents who may be interested. Please email us at: healthandwellbeing.communications@hse.ie if you would like to get in touch.

 Register here to join us on Thursday 16th November, 12pm – 1.15pm, to celebrate International Men’s Day through hearing from men sharing experiences that have prompted them to become advocates for men’s health and wellbeing. We have a great line up of speakers planned who will share their expert insights into working with men and boys to make a difference.

The online Stress Control Programme is currently live for free evidenced based stress prevention and stress management to improve mental wellbeing. Following the sessions and the timetable attached. As well as the YouTube videos there are free resources available on www.stresscontrol.ie. 

Regards,
Fergal Fox

Fergal Fox

Head of Stakeholder Engagement and Communications

HSE Health & Wellbeing, Strategy and Research, Healthcare Strategy

Team hope will collect our shoeboxes 9am Friday. Any outstanding shoeboxes please bring them in to school tomorrow Thursday 16th November. 

Our newly appointed TY Prefects had their training session today. Facilitator Pat Murphy spoke about leadership qualities and brought the students through a range of activities to enhance their understanding of this skill. Symbols shared included the Peace Candle which represents creating peace at home, at school, in the workplace and in the world. The symbol of the Lighthouse represented how the student will guide others in their role as prefects and as a beacon of safety. We are looking forward to the official conferring ceremony for our prefects which will be held next week. Well done Prefects! Ms Mills 

Ember Team 2023/24:

The five TY students, along with the Ember liaison teachers, Ms. H. Bucke and Ms. L.Whyte , have just returned from a three day, two night residential training programme in the Ovoca Manor in Wicklow where they spent time working as a team, planning events/activities and improved their interpersonal skills such as active listening and cooperating together.

The roles below have been decided on by consensus;

Chairperson: Mikey Arthur 

Secretary: James Meehan 

Public Relation Officers: Katie O’Donnell & Amy Schmelter 

Administrator: Lilly McQuarrie

They are now in a position of leadership, where they will be influencing, encouraging, and guiding other students in CPC in faith.

The aim of the Ember Programme is to;

- Create opportunities for students to experience faith in a way that makes sense to them.

- For the students to act as leaders, while also engaging in opportunities that have the potential to deepen their own faith.

Our students thoroughly enjoyed their training and look forward to bringing back their new skills, knowledge and ideas and sharing them with their peers in CPC. They also will liaise with last years Ember team for guidance. They are already busy planning their first event as CPC’s Ember Team. 

They ended their training with a commissioning ceremony, led by Fr John McNamara, representative of the archbishop.