Good afternoon everyone,
There is lots going on in our busy school this week so I’ll dive right in.
New addition to the team
This week, we welcomed our newest SNA, Woon Young Park, to our staff. Woon Young will be supporting children in the mainstream classes in our school. Her appointment follows a successful exceptional review of our SNA allocation over the summer. We wish Woon Young all the best as she gets to know our school community.
Scholastic Book Fair
The book fair is currently taking place. Children visited the fair yesterday and today with their teachers and the children had an opportunity to complete the Wish List form. If you decide to purchase one or more books, there are two ways to pay this year:
- You can pay on Scholastic’s website using the following link: https://bookfairs.scholastic.ie/pay/1281311
- You can pay in person at the school using a credit or debit card on Monday or Tuesday morning between 08:30 and 09:00.
Parents and guardians are also welcome to browse the fair next week at the times above if they’d like to buy something.
Book Dress Up Day & One Day Together fundraiser for Educate Together – Friday, 27th of October
We will be holding the annual Book Dress Up Day on the final day before the mid-term break: Friday, 27th of October. Children (and staff!) are encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character. On the same date, we will be holding a fundraiser for our patron body. Educate Together is a small educational charity which is committed to the national provision of equality-based, democratic and child-centred education. This fundraiser, One Day Together, is a crucial source of income for the national office. The funds raised will be put towards achieving Educate Together’s goals: to lead on important system reforms, to support quality and build capacity across the school network, and to increase access to equality-based education so that more children and young people can benefit. If parents wish to donate, an optional payment link is available on Aladdin.
Respect rap by Emma’s 6th class
Emma’s 6th class made a wonderful video of their performance of a rap on the theme of Respect, our school’s Monthly Value. Why not check it out for yourself? The video can be found at this link.
Well done to everyone involved!
Community Gardaí visit
5th and 6th class were visited this week by two community Gardaí, Linda and Phil, from our local station. The Gardaí discussed the topic of staying safe at Halloween. The Gardaí were really impressed by the excellent active listening skills demonstrated by both groups and the insightful questions the pupils asked.
Parent volunteers wanted to help in the library!
We are making great strides in the set-up of our library. We are now moving to the phase of registering each book by its ISBN to Aladdin; this will allow clear book management as pupils begin to borrow from the school library. If you could give an hour some morning or afternoon, we’d love to hear from you! Please use the sign up form at this link to indicate your availability.
Parent Teacher Association AGM – Monday, 16th October at 7:30 pm
As previously flagged, our PTA is holding its AGM this Monday evening at 7:30pm. The evening will start with a guest speaker followed by tea and coffee. There will then be a voted on the ratification of the proposed new constitution and the election of the new PTA committee for 2023-2024. Under the proposed constitution, there would be eight spaces on the new committee, of which two must be designated for parents who were not on last year’s committee. The parent nominees to the Board of Management would make up the ninth and tenth positions on the committee.
I would strongly urge as many parents and guardians as possible to attend Monday’s meeting.
Board of Management 2023-2027
The term of the current Board of Management will end at the end of November. We are then required to create a new board. The places are filled as follows:
- The patron (Educate Together) will nominate two board members (one to be the chairperson)
- The Principal is automatically a member of the board and acts as secretary to the Board of Management
- The teachers will nominate one member at their staff meeting in November
- The parent body nominates two members (one mother and one father)
When the six board members above are selected, they hold their first meeting in December and select two community nominees.
Later this month, I will be seeking nominations from the parent body for the two parent nominee roles. I will provide further detail at that time about the nomination and election process. Anyone who would like to know more about this in the meantime can reach out to me.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Paul O’Dwyer, Principal