Scoil Dara, Kilcock, Co.Kildare Christmas 2020
Advent Sunday heralded Christmas and the celebration of the Christmas season for the Scoil Dara school community. The focus of our planning and preparation was to share and communicate the Advent message of Peace, Hope, Joy and Love within and beyond our school community.
Each Monday throughout Advent our head boy and head girl share an Advent reading with our whole school community over the intercom reflecting the symbolism of our Advent Wreath and the key message of how to truly prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ.
On December 1st we launched our “Share the Sparkle” campaign. Every year our local branch of Society of St. Vincent de Paul are most sincerely grateful for the wonderful donations of food hampers that both students and staff contribute towards and which help to brighten the lives of those families most in need in our community.
As most of the volunteers in our local branch of SVP are elderly and to safeguard them in their voluntary role at this time, staff were not handling donations of food hampers this year.
To continue the vital role that Scoil Dara have always played in supporting the essential work of SVP our focus this year was to make a money donation to our local branch. This in turn will be shared out as food, fuel and meat vouchers to families who need this help to brighten and bring some cheer and sparkle into their homes this Christmas.
Our Meitheal leaders and our TY students got to work -posters were designed, announcements made, classes visited, texts sent all to promote this wonderful campaign. An appeal was made to students and staff to sponsor a bauble for our Christmas tree located in the 6th year social area with donations going towards this most worthy cause. All baubles are personalised by our wonderful TY students and may be gifted to that special person, oneself, family, friends, or to celebrate the memory of a loved one. Students and staff have the option of bringing home the bauble at the end of term and placing it on their own Christmas tree.
Scoil Dara is making a big difference for those most in need in our community by continuing to support the important work of our local branch of SVP. Through the huge generosity of our students, their families and our whole school community this Christmas, we are raising the hopes of others and helping to “Share the Sparkle” and bring joy into their homes.
The message of joy echoes through our school corridors with each base class busily planning and creating their Christmas door. The colour, creativity and competition is a joy to behold and has truly boosted the spirits of all our school community. Our windows are adorned in a feast of colour and Christmas scenes which are a wonderful testament to the skill and enthusiasm of our art students and our art department.
We are blessed with the gifts of excellent craftmanship in our Wood Technology department as evident in the beautiful bespoke nativity creations and of course of the big man himself, Santa, all of which take pride of place in our school building.
Our Religion and Music departments along with our Faith Promotion Officer are in the midst of the final preparations for our much-anticipated Christmas Carol Service. All this is in collaboration with our local parish priest and curate who always give so generously of their time and energy in supporting the spiritual development of our school community.
With our annual “Christmas Jumper” day to look forward to students plan on raising awareness and support for “Focus Ireland”. Our TY students are busily rehearsing for their Christmas drama, our YSI students are preparing for a Christmas dog walk with all money raised to go to KWWSPCA, the Scoil Dara gift of giving continues to grow.
Our hope for our school community this Christmas is that the peace and hope of that first Christmas in Bethlehem will resonate in the homes of every one of our students, staff and our wider school community bringing much joy and love into the lives of all.
Beannachtaí na Nollaig Dhaoibh go Léir ó Scoil Dara
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