Newsletter January 9th 2023
- School will be closed tomorrow January 16th to facilitate in-service training for all staff in crisis prevention.
- Parent teacher meetings will take place on Wednesday and Thursday February 8 and 9.Over the coming weeks families will be allocated times to attend those meetings.
- Thanks to everyone who supported the Parents’ Association Christmas tree collection fundraiser. A particular thanks to those who volunteered to supply transport and trailers for the collection. A total of €315 was raised.
- Applications are now being accepted for our Junior Infants class for this coming September. Applications can be made online via the school website snndunlavin.com. Enrolment forms are available from the school office. Closing date for applications is Tuesday January 31.
- The mid -term break in February takes place on Thursday February 16 and Friday 17. Easter closing takes place on Friday March 31.
- Next week Mon 23rd to Friday
- We would ask parents not to send children to school if they are unwell or showing symptoms of being unwell.
- Food Dudes will start this week on 18 January for children in Junior Infants, Senior Infants and 1st It will begin for older classes in 2 weeks time. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE YOUR CHILD INVOLVED IN THE PROGRAMME OR IF YOU CHILD HAS SPECIFIC ALLERGIES TO CERTAIN FRUIT OR VEGETABLES PLEASE CONTACT THE SCHOOL OFFICE ON TUESDAY. Information on the programme is included below.
Food Dudes is an award winning curriculum-linked evidence-based healthy eating programme, developed to encourage children to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. It is based on repeated tastings of fresh fruit and vegetables, rewards and positive role models.
A new and improved programme is now being rolled out in schools and includes new varieties of fruits and vegetables, additional tasting days, new eco-friendly rewards, and new supporting materials including DVD and bilingual activities.
There are three phases to the Food Dudes Healthy Eating Programme, designed to encourage children to eat fruit and vegetables. The programme is based on the three Rs: repeated tastings, rewards and role models
School element - 16-day intervention
- Daily fruit and vegetable deliveries
- Rewards
- Letters from the Food Dude role models
- DVD episodes featuring the Food Dude role models
- Lunchbox at the end of the Phase
Home element - Post intervention
- Parents encourage children to bring fruit and vegetables to school in Food Dudes lunchbox
- Teachers record daily progress on classroom wallcharts
- Children receive certificates on reaching/completing phased milestones/goals
Maintenance phase – tasting days and specially designed educational materials
In the two years following Phase 1 and 2, tasting days accompanied by educational materials such as a passport to healthy eating and short informative video clips encourage a listening whilst eating approach to learning. This phase maintains long-term programme engagement post-intervention and continued increase in consumption throughout entire school year. This allows children to develop healthy eating habits for life!
The updated Food Dudes programme sees revised programme elements such as:
- New-look characters
- New DVD series*
- Key messages from Irish celebrity role models
- Visual fun & games for you to play along in our own classrooms
- New eco-friendly rewards
- Bilingual print materials
- Bilingual website
The new programme will also see the introduction of a maintenance phase (3) in Year 2 and 3, where children will be offered:
- Tasting days
- Passport to healthy eating
- Suggested activities to help develop/launch a Food Dudes ‘Healthy Eating Week’ in their school
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