Parents Newsletter 9th September 2024
Dear Parents,
Many thanks to you all for helping to make sure we have had a very smooth return to school. The children are well settled back into school already and from Thursday 12th September our new Junior Infants will be in for a full day and will finish at 1:30pm. I spoke with the older children about wearing their school uniform on non-PE days and, most important of all, about attendance. The school lunches are hugely popular with the children and the benefits are already there to be seen. This week is Healthy Eating Week in our school and children will be discussing healthy food and learning how to make proper choices to lead a healthy lifestyle. With your cooperation, we aim to make improvements in all 3 of these areas in the coming months.
Thanks again for all your support
Brendan Smith
Principal
DEIS – Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools
I would like to remind parents that we provide a hot lunch every day for every child at no cost to you the parents!! There are many other supports that our school / our families can benefit from – I will keep you up to date as these become available. These supports are designed to benefit all of the children in the school.
Attendance
In our DEIS Plan, a key priority will be attendance. We have a large number of children who attend almost every day for the full day – this school year, we want to be able to say this about every child.
‘Every Day Counts’ – you will hear this repeated over the course of the year. If your child is in school every day and for all of the day, you are giving them a great chance to achieve their potential – to be as good as they can be. Sometimes parents collect a child early for a dentist or doctor appointment, which is fine, however, we shouldn’t have early collections, from now on, for anything other than appointments
This year, our plan is to bring our attendance levels back up to a much higher level – we can only do this with your cooperation!
Attendance Alerts.
Many parents receive texts regarding attendance. Our school system automatically sends a text to inform parents/guardians when their child misses 5, 10, 15 and 20 days. After 20 unexplained days the Túsla Attendance officer has to be notified by law. Absences need to be explained. Please use the school journal, MS Teams or phone the school office to explain an absence.
Parents can also ring Deirdre McDermott, our Home School Liaison teacher for any queries 087 3398365
Healthy Bodies = Healthy Minds
We are all delighted with our school kitchen this year and the fabulous school lunches, packed with healthy food, that is provided every day. The App is very easy to use and I have encouraged the children to make sure ‘Food is ordered on Fridays’ for the following week. If you have any difficulties in relation to our school lunches, please get in touch – if we can’t sort it ourselves then we will get in touch with the staff in the kitchen. I have spoken with the children in relation to healthy food choices – we ask you to send water in as their drink and to leave any ‘treats’ (chocolate, crisps, biscuits etc) for home. Again, we ask for your cooperation with our approach to Healthy Eating. Please see our Healthy Eating Policy on our school website and in our school journal.
School Uniform / Tracksuit top
Our school uniform has many benefits – it is designed to make life easier for parents in the morning and to bring a sense of belonging to all of the children in our school. Children from are to wear the uniform on non-PE days and tracksuit on PE days please. This is very good training for secondary school also. Please help us to make sure every child is wearing plain navy tracksuit bottom and white polo top with their school tracksuit top. Grey trousers / skirt / pinafore is to be worn with the uniform. Children in Junior and Senior Infants wear the school tracksuit only. Thanks again for your cooperation.
Positive Affirmations
We recently placed positive affirmations on the steps of our school stairs such as: “I belong here. I am important. I am loved. I am strong.”
Hearing or reading positive affirmations helps children build confidence, develop a healthy mindset, and foster resilience by reinforcing their self-worth and positive thinking. Thank you to Mrs Sugrue for designing and installing them. They look great!
Friendship Week
A number of years ago we worked with the children to create Conflict Resolution Posters. These are now in your child’s journal. During Friendship Week (Sept 16th to 20th) we use these to explore what it means to be a good friend (Rocking Behaviour), what to do when difficulties arise (When someone is bugging me…) and when to tell an adult (It’s time to tell). Classes from 1st to 6th will be surveyed in order to address any issues. This is repeated throughout the year. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact your child’s teacher.
