September Newsletter
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Welcome/Staffing:
Welcome back to the children of Glounaguillagh National School. We extend a very special welcome to our 18 new Junior Infants as well as Rylee and Iveragh who have re-joined us up the school. The children are settling in very well to life here at Glounaguillagh. At present, our total enrolment is 143 students.
We welcome Ms. Aoife O’Sullivan back after her maternity leave as well as Ms. Ann O’Shea who re-joins us this year covering Ms. Quirke’s maternity leave. Ms. Caitríona McCarthy has also returned and will continue to job-share as our SET (Special Ed. Teacher). Ms. McCarthy will work with Ms. O’Sullivan for the coming school year.
We also welcome Ms. Niamh Dalton (Wednesday), Ms. Ciara Dynan & Ms. Clíona Moynihan (Monday - Ciara & Clíona job-share every second week) who will visit the school one day per week as part of our Special Education team.
Ms. Dynan and Ms. Moynihan will also cover Ms. Pigott’s Principal Release Days, 1 per week, every Tuesday.
Dates for your diary:
Please find attached a school calendar for the year 2023/2024. We will keep you updated should there be any changes.
Contacting the School:
If you have a query, the office may be contacted via telephone 0669769402 or by email glounaguillaghns@gmail.com. A reminder that the office is not manned during class time. You can leave a voicemail or email us with your query and your child’s class teacher will respond as soon as possible.
The school will continue to use Aladdin to send whole-school text messages to inform parents of any important information/events. If you have changed your mobile number recently, please contact the office to update your number. We may, on occasion, need to contact you via phone-call during the day. Therefore, it is vital that we have up-to-date mobile numbers and emergency contact numbers.
We will continue to send a monthly email update via Aladdin. If you need to change your email address for any reason, please email the school office.
We ask that all visitors to the school make an appointment prior to their arrival. Please respect this.
Uniforms:
Please ensure that children wear the agreed uniform i.e., navy and white. Leggings are not appropriate for school. Ensure that jumpers are clearly labelled otherwise it is impossible to determine ownership. PE for Junior and Senior Infants will be on a Thursday. PE day for the remainder of the school will be on a Friday. On PE day, pupils wear their plain navy tracksuit and runners. As the weather is unpredictable, please ensure your child brings a waterproof jacket (with a hood) to school each day.
We have an ever-growing box of lost and found, particularly jumpers. If you would like to come and take any please do so as it’s a pity to see them sitting there.
Absence Notes:
While certain absences are unavoidable, such as when a child is sick, it is important to remember that the school must inform the statutory Educational Welfare Services of the Child and Family Agency if your child has missed 20 days or more in the school year. Following an absence, please complete an absence explanation note. All families have been/will be provided with a booklet of these. If you need a replacement booklet, please let us know. The absence notes at the back of the Homework Journal (1st – 6th Class) can also be used.
Lunches and Allergies:
We remind parents that fizzy drinks, chocolate, bars, buns, chocolate spread, biscuits, sweets, lollipops, crisps and chewing gum are not permitted in lunchboxes. Due to allergies, we ask that nuts or products containing nuts are not included in lunchboxes either. Furthermore, we ask that eggs are not included in lunches in Senior Infants.
Books & Costs:
This year the government are paying for all books for each child in our school. Please note that the books remain the property of the school so we would ask you to take due care of all items. €25 per child will be collected to cover the following school costs: pupil insurance, art & craft materials, photocopying & communications, and online subscriptions to pupil learning platforms. Payment links will be sent via Aladdin. Money may also be brought in. Please have money sealed in an envelope with your child’s name on it.
Parking:
The safety of the children around drop-off and pick up times is always on our minds. We would ask parents to be please be mindful on approach to the school and to park responsibly when dropping your children to, and collecting from, school. Please do not park behind the staff cars. Pull in to the car-parking spaces properly or use the other side of the road to park. Finally, we ask parents not to stop their cars in the immediate vicinity of the gates and allow children to hop out of cars. There are a number of cars who continue to do this in the morning, we ask you to please be more considerate. If your child is dropped to school by another family member, please pass this information on and ask them to behave responsibly in the area surrounding the school.
Eircode:
The Department are now requesting eircodes on our Pupil Database (POD). We will send a quick survey form in the coming days for you to add yours, should you wish to do so.
Arts (Sport, Music & Art):
Football will get up-and-running again this month with Cumann na mBunscol getting underway in October. We will compete in the 6 – 7 Teacher category. We will welcome PJ back next week and are working on recruiting help for our teams this year.
Clay with Kelly: 3rd Class are completing 6 weeks of clay with Kelly McGrath. We had our first session with Kelly today and really enjoyed it. We look forward to the next number of weeks.
Seán Treacy will continue to visit weekly for the coming year. He will work with Mrs. Fleming’s & Mrs. Galvin’s classes as well as whole school sessions around Christmas time.
Build Update:
Our roof works were completed over the summer as that was our main priority heading into the winter months. Our attention now turns to getting our build underway and we look forward to welcoming our builders back on site again in the coming weeks. It’s been a long two years but we’re finally at construction stage and are delighted to be getting underway.
Website:
We remind you all to check the school website www.glounaguillaghns.ie regularly for updates and all the latest information.
Regards,
Sinéad Pigott
Principal
P.S. A reminder that you cannot respond to this email address - please use glounaguillaghns@gmail.com
