C.B.S. Primary School, Clounalour
An Edmund Rice School
Newsletter – October 2024
Dear Parents,
I have a number of issues that I need to bring to your attention. You will be glad to know that everybody seems to have settled in really well. Our newsletters will contain many important items during the school year. They are designed to keep you informed of school events and important issues relating to you and your child.
Brendan Smith
Principal
Health and Safety
We are appealing to parents to take great care when dropping off and collecting their children. Parking at any school is a difficult exercise, especially on wet days! We ask you to be mindful of our traffic warden, Jerome, and avail of his guidance when crossing the road. In particular, can you please avoid parking in a place that interferes with the work of our traffic warden. We have also to be mindful of our school gates at arrival and home times-the main gate is for pedestrians, the other gate is for vehicles. Accessing the school car park is for staff vehicles only.
Please help us to make arrival and home time a safe time!
School Uniform / Tracksuit
Please, please, please make sure your child’s uniform/tracksuit has his/her name clearly labelled. We would greatly appreciate your cooperation in ensuring that your child wears his / her complete uniform on non-PE days. Remember, white polo tops should be worn on P.E. days.
Application Forms for Enrolling Younger Brothers and Sisters
If you have younger children starting school next year, please contact the secretary’s office for an application form (closing date for next year’s Junior Infants is the 16th December 2024)
Parents’ Association
The annual general meeting of the Parents’ Association has taken place, but we are still looking for people to get involved for the coming year ahead. Those of you who are unable to get involved at committee level and still wish to help out should give your contact details to our Home School Liaison Teacher, Deirdre McDermott, on 087 3398365.
Gaelic Football
Training has already commenced for the children from 4th, 5th and 6th classes with staff members. Our emphasis is to make sure that everybody is given the opportunity to take part and we try to organise as many games as possible for them. Children will be informed of their particular practice day and time.
Basketball
Basketball sessions will take place on Thursdays for children from 6th and on Fridays for children from 5th class. These sessions take place after school, so it is important to organise collection times for those children when the sessions end.
News from the Board!
Our Board of Management held its first meeting of this academic year in early October and here are some of the items brought before the Board: Our 1st and 2nd Class children moved into our new school building entitled the “Callan Building”, named after the birthplace of Edmund Rice. CBS Primary Tralee staff have received First Aid training during September. Our school Board ratified a new Policy-EAL (English as an Additional Language). All school policies are published on our school website (www.cbsprimarytralee.com) A Nasal Flu Vaccination service, working with the HSE and Lloyd’s Pharmacy, will be provided for the pupils in our school hall on Monday 21st October. Please see further details on Facebook or on your child’s class on Microsoft Teams on how to register your child to receive the vaccine.
Student Council
We recently elected our 12-student council representative from 3rd to 6th classes for 2024/2025. By participating in the student council, children gain valuable skills such as communication, problem-solving, and decision-making, as they represent their peers and work collaboratively to improve their school environment. We are looking forward to working with the boys and girls. Great things to come!
Immersive Reader
We want to make sure that parents can access our school documents, and we have prepared a video for you which has been shared on Microsoft Teams. This demonstrates how to use Immersive Reader in Teams when you receive a document.
If you have not tried this at home on your laptop yet, why not give it a go?
Mobile Phones
You are asked to read the notice in the school journal re: mobile phones. If your child must bring a mobile phone to school, parents/guardians must write to the principal giving valid reasons for the phone to be brought to school. Otherwise please no mobile phones!
First Holy Commmunion
We have received our First Holy Communion date-Saturday 3rd May at 10:30 in St. John’s Church. An introductory talk for parents and children took place over the last few weeks in St. John’s Parish Centre.
Confirmation
We have also received our Confirmation date for our 6th class pupils-Thursday 20th March at 2pm. The 6th class teachers will provide more information throughout the year to assist in the preparation for Confirmation.
Emergency Contact Details
Please ensure that we have an up-to-date telephone number for you. This will ensure that we will be able to get you if / when we ever need to contact you in a hurry. This number should be written into your child’s school journal or please notify the school secretary if your number has changed.
*Dates to remember*
Halloween Holidays:
School is closed from 28th October-1st November
School re-opens: Monday 4th November at 8:45am