October e-Newsletter
Dear Parents,
Dates for your Diary:
Halloween Dress Up Day - Friday 25th October
Mid Term Break - 28th October to 1st November
Teacher In-Service - Tuesday 5th November (School Closed)
Parent Teacher meetings on Thursday 14th November from 2:40pm
Sacrament of Confirmation will take place on Wednesday April 22nd at 3:30pm in St. James' Church, Killorglin.
First Holy Communion will take place on Saturday 2nd May at 10:30am in St. James' Church, Killorglin.
Board of Management - Parents Nominee
As you may be aware the current term of the Board of Management will expire on 30/11/2019 and a new Board of Management takes up office on 01/12/2019. Two parents of children enrolled in the school (one being a mother and the other a father) must be elected by the general body of parents of children enrolled in the school. Please see attached documents in relation to same.
Halloween Costume Day
The Halloween Dress Up Day will take place again this year. All monies collected will be donated to the Killorglin Branch of IHCPT. The Irish Pilgrimage Trust travel from all over Ireland on Easter Sunday to participate in a very special and unique week in Lourdes. The Dress Up Day will be held on Friday 25th October. A donation of €1 or €2 is recommended on the day.
Clothes Collection
A clothes collection will be held in November, as a fundraiser for the school. Last year was a fantastic success! It's a great chance to have a clear out prior to Christmas!! We would appreciate at least one bag from each household if at all possible to get the most out of the fundraiser. Accepted Items: any previously loved clean clothes, linen, curtains, belts, handbags, scarves, shoes (pairs - tied together). No dirty or wet clothes, duvets, pillows, toys, soft toys, cushions or blankets. I will let you know the date for the collection asap.
Bishop Ray Browne
Our thanks to our Patron, Bishop Ray Browne, for his visit to the school recently. Bishop Ray visited all our classes and answered various questions from our very inquisitive pupils.
Curriculum Evaluation in Mathematics
Our Department Inspector, Gerard Quirke, visited for a Curriculum Evaluation in Mathematics at the end of September. Gerard visited all teachers and their classes as well as talking with our SEN team and the children themselves. Gerard had high praise for our teachers and our students. He was also very impressed with the positive atmosphere throughout the school. We were very happy with his feedback and look forward to reading his report in due course.
Time to Read
We are delighted that’ Time to Read’ will take place again this year. The children from 2nd Class will take part in this initiative. For “Time to Read” we are partnered with a local company, in our case, Fexco. Volunteers from Fexco will visit the school once a week over a period of 20 weeks and read with the children. The children will also visit Fexco along with a visit to our local library. The initiative was an enormous success over the last number of years with the children thoroughly enjoying this experience. As our numbers are growing, we do not have enough volunteers to work with all the children. We would hate for any child to miss out. We are hoping that a number of our parents/grandparents/relatives would volunteer their time to ensure no child is left out. If you are interested, please contact the school office for more information. I'm sure the parents and grandparents who volunteered last year would all agree that it was very worthwhile.
Junk Art
Our call for a constant supply of frequently used arts materials was very successful last year and we would hope to continue with same to have supplies available to use when required. If you could send in cereal boxes, shoe-boxes, kitchen towel rolls, etc. every so often it would be a great help. Note: We have enough glass jars at present. Thank you!
School Personal Accident Insurance
All pupils are insured under the 24 hour Pupil Personal Accident Insurance scheme. Please see attached summary of cover.
Parking - Reminder
While we are delighted that the speed limit around the school has been reduced to 50km we would like to remind you all to drive and park safely on drop off and collection. To ensure the safety of all children, please take serious note of the requests below as this is the expected behaviour of all parents/guardians without exception. 1. As you approach the area in front of the school gate, be mindful of pedestrians. 2. Drive slowly and keep traffic flowing. 3. NEVER pull up in the area outside the main gate to ‘drop’ children, no matter how late/early you are. This behaviour is noted as a serious hazard to the safety of all. 4. Please park in one of the designated car-park spaces first before parking on the roadside. 5. We note particularly that there is congestion when parents park and accompany their children to their class. Please escort your child to the school gate and do not delay in returning to your car and moving off to allow others to park. Please do not remain parked outside talking to other parents, etc. 6. Drivers should not let children out of their cars without pulling in and parking their car properly. 7. Wet days in particular seem to cause chaos. Be prepared! It is not acceptable that people abandon cars to escort children in to/from school. The majority of drivers do park and behave responsibly and we thank those parents – but there is also a persistent and thoughtless minority who continue to ignore our requests for their own convenience. we would appreciated if also if you could pass this message on to relatives/friends when dropping/collecting children.
Headlice
It has been brought to our attention that these "unwelcome" visitors are about. We ask all parents to check their children's hair and to continue to do so, on an on-going basis and treat accordingly.
Football
We welcome back Eddie Birmingham who will coach our football teams again this year. Many thanks to Eddie for volunteering to do so and for giving the school so much of his time. Our boys football team played and defeated Castlemaine NS and Castledrum NS to set up a Mid Kerry final against Glenbeigh NS. While it wasn't our day, the team can take great pride in their performance. After the boys game, our girls enjoyed a challenge game against Glenbeigh to get their year underway.
Parents Asssociation - AGM
The Parents Association AGM will take place on Thursday 24th October at 8pm in the school. All welcome.
Aldi Play Rugby Stickers
We are currently collecting the Aldi Play Rugby stickers to be in with a chance of winning one of the fantastic prizes on offer. (2 x €50,000 as well as 10 x €10,000 to spend on sports facilities). The stickers are flying in every day and we have filled 9 posters already. Last date for collecting stickers is 8th November.
Kind Regards,
Sinéad Pigott
Principal
