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Principal�s Note
Hello all!
We are just about ready to take our holiday and I�m sure everyone is looking forward to a nice rest and relaxation.
The spring term was certainly busy with all our projects and visitors coming to the school. The openness and friendly atmosphere in the school ensures our visitors enjoy the delivery of their projects and most importantly the interaction with the children is most satisfactory. Time and time again the feedback is the same: i.e. that there is a lovely atmosphere in the school. It is well noticed too that the children are very expressive and that they are very receptive to their visitors� new ideas. This is wonderful and gives continued encouragement to us to engage in out-reach programmes as they arise.
Our school is reaching out to our community also with our visit to Gaelscoil na Lochanna, our basketball match with Valleymount and our entry into the Terenure College drama competition, not to mention the appearance on TV!!!!
A big thank you as always to the special endeavours of the Parents� Association for their contribution to school life and all the successful fundraising projects. Again thank you to all staff and the BOM for the continued contributions to our schools development and for their teamwork.
Have a lovely holiday and see you all on April 20th.
Best wishes
Rosemary

B.E.T.N.S. Budding Stars
The school production of Bully entered a drama competition and got through to the finals in Terenure College along with three other schools. They had to perform in front of a large audience and the nerves obviously didn�t get the better of them as they won second place. A huge amount of hard work paid off. The stars brought back two hundred euro in book vouchers to the school. Big congratulations to all.

Dates for your Diary
School closes for Easter Holidays on Friday 3 rd April at 12 pm Reopens on Monday 20th April at 9 am. Friday 24th school closes at 1.40pm for staff meeting.

La Glas agus Seachtain na Gaeilge
The whole school was invited to a ceili in the gaelscoil for Seachtain na Gaeilge. The hosts taught us some great dances and our children joined in with great enthusiasm as well as trying to speak cupla focail.
The dancing continued the next week thanks to th students from 5th and 6th who did a wonderful job of teaching the other children a reel�.. Maith thu to one particular 5th class studentfor her wonderful performance too.
La Glas saw a sea of green arrive to school and we were all trying to spaek more Irish during the week with a clever competition arranged by a 6th class student to encourage the children along. Irish is enjoyed by the children, particularly with all these events to add fun.

Den TV
RTE arrived in to interview the middle and senior class on the election of the new American president. The children gave their opinions on Obama and saw themselves appear on Den TV news. You can catch the TV stars on RTE the Den News2day Archive

World Book Day
The day was marked with guest readers that the children really enjoyed. The dress up day is on the last day of the term when the children are invited to dress as a character from their favourite book.

More congratulations
Well done to the two Credit Union teams who did a great job representing the school. The questions were as tricky as ever and both teams did well with the senior team coming 4th.
A 5th class student came 2nd in with her beautiful painting of Poulaphouca reservoir in Avon Ri�s competition.

Summer Camp at BETNS
Rosemary is pleased to announce that the second Culture Kids Summer Camp will be happening this year with two weeks on offer.
6th July to 10th July
13th July to 17th July
Application forms are available from Rosemary or the office.

Thank you...
As always many people have been of great help to the school�Thank you to the parents involved for organising Hot Dog Day which was a very tasty fundraiser, also thank you to Dan Kenny for sponsoring the event. Those parents who joined on World Book Day, thank you, the children love to have visiting readers.
We also have a paired reading and Maths programmes that relies on parents kindly giving their time. Thank you to the parents involved.
Thank you parents for your Super Valu Kids in Action tokens that will get us even more PE and play time equipment.
Tesco vouchers are currently being collected.

Absences
Parents and guardians are requested to complete an absence form when a child does not attend school. The school is obliged to inform the NEWB of any absences 20 or higher. The school will send out a letter informing parents when their child has missed 15 days. Thank you for your co operation in this matter. 5 reports must be made each year, the dates of the next two are 8/5/09 and 10/7/09.

Keyhole Garden and Food Dudes Projects
Duncan Stout, the man who brought the chick project to our school is back with a very exciting venture. He will be working with the children to build a Keyhole Garden in the school grounds. This raised vegetable bed will have a central hollow column for a compost heap and the children have been thinking of what they would like to plant. B.E.T.N.S. Organic vegetables coming soon!! Duncan will be starting on Thursday April 2nd at 11 am. Anyone with an interest is very welcome to come along. The Dept. of Education�s Incredible Edibles project is integrated with the Keyhole Garden initiative, with a project entitled Food Dudes that will be starting in the summer term. The project is designed to encourage children at national school to sample fruit and vegetables and understand the importance of a healthy diet.

Open Day
The Open Day on March 11th was a great success with many parents and children visiting the school. A big thank you to all the parents who helped out on the morning.

Confirmation and Communion
Congratulations to those in 6th class who were confirmed last month and to those children in 2nd class who will be making their First Communion on May 23rd.

Basketball
The school basketball team played Valleymount National School. It was a great match and fun to have another school visit us.

National Parks Visit
We were delighted to welcome Eleanor and Paul from Glendalough National Parks and Wildlife Centre. They visited each class with an exciting talk on bugs for Adele�s class and Lynn�s class learned all about Irish mammals. Rosemary�s class had a presentation about local habitats.

News from the Junior class
Adele�s class have been learning the skills of tag rugby - not an easy task for 4 to 7 year olds! Adele and her assistant coach from 1st class (age 7) are impressed with their team and think we might be looking at another grand slam in the future!
The talent doesn�t end there, on display in the class are the wonderful regal self portraits we have painted, complete with gold frames!
The science experiment to design a boat that would float was great fun, with a very impressive model by one Junior Infant student and her granddad that inspired the class. There were a few Titanics but that was fun too!

Lynn�s class �Books of Myths
We wrote our own original myths, they are very interesting. The first thing we did was draw a picture of our own mythical creature and we wrote about their powers. Next, we had to write three paragraphs and then draw a picture of the scene our story would be set in. The next step, the best part- we wrote the story and drew the front cover picture. When it was finished our teacher kindly put the book together and we each drew a little picture of the character for the front of our class book. I can tell you something, it looks wonderful. We are dying to read it and I bet you are too.
By 4th class student
A special mention goes to a 2nd class student who wrote 13 pages of a story entitled The Missing Teacher.

Senior Class library project
The classes of 5th and 6th (Rosemary�s class) have all done a wonderful library project. They all worked so hard reading and writing the books they have read. Some of the projects included the diary of Anne Frank, Best Friends, Twilight, Lizzie Zipmouth, and many more. We all enjoyed it very much. We all a very fun time doing it and we are all sad that it is finished.

Ceile in the Gaelscoil Na Lochanna
On the 4th of March, we were all invited up to the gaelscoil, to do some Irish Dancing. We got a bus up to their school. And the principal Sean welcomed all of us. So we gave them some flowers they were very grateful.
Then we got to play in their yard until the children of the gaelscoil came out. We gathered up and started walking up to St. Josephs Hall to dance. We let the gaelscoil go first, they were really funny. Then it was our turn with some of the other children. We had a practice first, and then we danced.
When we were all finished the children from the gaelscoil, very kindly gave us little lights to hang on our coats.
Then we walked back to their school to have another play. We got drinks then Sean took a picture with everybody in it. We all said it was a great day and we would all like to visit again.
By 5th class student.

DCU Science visit
On Tuesday 10th March Lynn and Rosemary�s class had a talk about the Human Body with a guest speaker form DCU Science Dept.
The talk entitled MAMBO (Me and My Body) discussed the heart, blood and our blood cells. We learned new interesting science facts and we refreshed our minds with the ones we already knew. We did a lot pf amusing activities including listening to our heart beat with a stethoscope�though some of us had trouble finding our pulse!! We compared our pulse after we did a minute of exercise to see how much faster it was.
We learned about our heart�s four valves, that there are 100,000,000,000,000 cells in each of us! We also learned how to keep our hearts and body healthy too.
By 6th class student

Student Council Report
Since December the student council have fundraised for Web X 5, which raised 78 euro. We also raised 80.45 euro for other projects. Selling valentines rose pencils and valentines cards and we had a lot of fun at the sponsored swim and hot dog day. Seachtain Na Gaeilge was last week and all the children dressed up in green and did a bit of Irish dancing. The Amnesty International Friendship Day 2009 will be coming up next month to raise money for street children in Guatemala. We would like if all the children in the school to come up with ideas and share them with the student council.
Goodbye and happy Easter.

BETNS PARENTS ASSOCIATION UPDATE
Hi to all parents, just a few words from the PA to let you know how we are doing and what�s planned for next term.
The fundraising effort has been tremendous with the many events being very successful. We hope the great support can continue as the need for fundraising is still very necessary.
Firstly a big �congratulations to all our stars in 4/5/6th class.
The PA would like to present each of you with your own
�BULLY� DVD � The live show, as a keepsake of your fantastic achievement.
Upcoming Events � Mark these in your calendars for some great fun and a good opportunity to make some much needed funds for our school.
Sponsored Walk: There is a sponsored walk planned for late April/ early May, following the Easter Break, dependent on weather. Notice will be given shortly advising of when and where.
Golf Classic: The inaugural BETNS Golf Classic is scheduled for June 19th @ Citywest.
It is E90.00 per head for a great round of 18 holes and a fabulous meal to follow.
Further details will be advised in our next newsletter.
Women�s Mini Marathon: To all mums/ women/ teachers/ mothers/ sisters who want to run, walk, hop, skip or jump come out in force on June 1st and do it for the school fundraising. Log on to www.womensminimarathon.ie to complete and application form or get them in the evening herald Wednesday�s and Saturdays from now till April 15th. We will arrange sponsorship forms to be given to each of the students to help raise some funds and support the-would be entrants�.so get started with some early evening walks and limber up for summer!
So come on get along to one or all of these events and let�s support our kids to have the best days of their lives.