October Newsletter

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Dates for your Diary:

• Halloween Dress-Up – Thursday 23rd October (optional)

• Presidential Election – Friday 24th October (school closed)

• Mid Term Break – 27th October to 31st October inclusive (school closed)

• Back to School - Monday 3rd November

• First Confession – Thursday 12th February, 7pm

• Confirmation – Friday 27th March, 5pm

• First Holy Communion – Saturday 16th May, 12 noon

Halloween Dress-Up Day:

Our annual Halloween Dress-Up Day will take place on Thursday 23rd October. This year, we are delighted to use the occasion to support My Canine Companion, the charity that provides our school therapy dog, Mollie. All funds raised on the day will be donated directly to this wonderful organisation. Children are welcome to come to school in their Halloween costumes (if they wish). A donation of €1 or €2 is kindly suggested to support the fundraiser. We look forward to a fun and festive day while helping a great cause.

Presidential Election:

A reminder that the school has been requisitioned by the Office of the Kerry County Returning Officer for use as a Polling Station for the upcoming Presidential Election. Therefore, the school will be closed on Friday 24th October.

Fees:

As previously communicated, €45 per child is being collected to cover the following school costs: pupil insurance, art & craft materials, photocopying & communications, and online subscriptions to pupil learning platforms. Payment links have been sent via Aladdin. For those whohave paid, we thank you for your prompt payment. It is greatly appreciated. We ask that any outstanding payments are addressed in the coming days. Should you wish to speak to us in relation to the fees, please contact the office on 066-9769402. If you do not wish to use Aladdin for the electronic payments, please put the money in an envelope with your child’s name and class.

Parent-Teacher Meetings:

Parent-Teacher meetings will take place on Thursday 13th November. Class Teachers will be in touch directly in relation to their own schedules, etc. For classes where no specific times are scheduled, parents are welcome to meet with their child’s teacher from 2:40pm onwards on the day.

Hot Meals:

We have concluded the tender process and are now moving forward to the next stage of contract signing, etc. with a view to introducing the hot meals after Christmas. We will continue to keep you updated.

Enrolment:

Enrolment for September 2026 will open on Monday 24th November. ​​For the 2026/2027 school year, applications for enrolment will be taken online via Aladdin. We will share the link with you closer to the time. ​The link will go live at 9am on Monday 24th November. If any have any questions in relation to enrolment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Reminder to Label:

Please label your child's clothing and belongings. There are a number of jumpers in lost and found. If your child is missing a jumper, please stop in and have a look through the items we have collected.

Football:

Our school football team took part in the Cumann na mBunscol 6/7 teacher blitz at the end of September in Cromane. We started strongly with a great win over Réalt na Mara, Cromane, in our opening game, but unfortunately lost the following two matches narrowly to Caherciveen N.S. and Cullina N.S., which brought our involvement in this year’s competition to an end. Everyone played their part and the team can be very proud of their efforts. A special word of thanks to Sinéad and Mike, who kindly donated treats for the children after the games. They were very much appreciated.

Rugby:

Lily Morris, from Killorglin Rugby Club, is visiting the school for a number of weeks to provide a non-contact introduction to rugby. We ask that the children wear a tracksuit and runners on a Tuesday please.

Swimming:

Swimming lessons will commence for 5th & 6th classes on Thursday 6th November.  The lessons will take place every Thursday for 6 weeks (November 6, 13, 20, 27, Dec 4, 11 ). Lessons will take place from 13:00 – 13:45. Lessons will run for 45 minutes in total and will consist of 35 minutes teaching and 10 minutes play time. The children will attend swimming lessons by bus. We will leave the school at approx. 11:50am and aim to be home at 2:30pm. The Parents’ Association are again contributing some of the cost in order to help us offer it at a very good rate. We thank them for their support and assistance in making this possible. 3rd and 4th Class will begin their 6-week block on Thursday 5th March. Details/payment links will be shared with parents closer to the time.

Placement:

Ms. Moriarty has been with us over the last number of weeks on placement. She is working with Mrs. Fleming's 1st and 2nd Class. Nicole will be teaching for one more week after the Mid-Term. We also had three TY students giving us a helping hand last week, Ava, Orla and Jack. Our thanks to the three students for their help throughout the week. We will be welcoming some more students over the course of the year and look forward to having them with us.

Enjoy the mid-term break!

Kind regards,

Sinéad Pigott

Principal