Dear School Community,
Well done to all our pupils and staff on another great week in school. We had fabulous weather and we got out for our hourly ventilation breaks. As it can be colder in the classrooms perhaps pupils could wear an extra layer of clothing from now on. We do need heat on but when windows are open there is a huge loss of heat. All pupils should have coats and hats going forward.
A huge thank you to everyone who brought in money for our Non-Uniform Day on Friday Oct. 23rd. We raised €320 for Down Syndrome Ireland. Thank you to our 5th/6th class Student Council members who helped to organise it.
I did send a News article earlier to announce the news that Mary Hayward is the new Chairperson of our Board of Management. We look forward to working with Mary.
Please see News article re: Flu Vaccine clinic coming to school in the next few weeks. Consent Forms have gone out today - please return on Monday. They will not be accepted after Monday the 9th November.
Also, we ask parents to please remember to send back Homework Folders every Friday as the teachers need them to prepare for the next week.
The App includes a new feature: Absentee Notes. If your child is sick at home you can go into the App on your phone, click on Absentee Note. It will ask you for the date your child was absent and the reason. This comes into our school email address where the teacher will see the note. It will then be checked and acknowledged by the teacher. Please use this from now if your child is sick. If the sickness is Covid related please call the school office.
Next week our website will have another new feature to allow parents to give permission for school activities, events etc. No more paper permission slips! Stay tuned for more information!
You will see a new tab on our website under News called Supporting Home Learning. This has been updated today. It has our Supporting Home Learning Policy which outlines the ways in which the teachers and SNAs will support the pupils in the event of a class or school closure. If you CLICK HERE you will be brought to the tab. It shows how we will use certain platforms such as Seesaw to support home learning. Next week when our Permission Slips have been set up on our website you will be able to give permission for your child to use Seesaw. Seesaw is a super way for pupils to develop digital portfolios and it will be used in line with our Digital Plan for the next 5 years (and will also be used if we ever have to close a class or the school - let's hope this won't happen!).
A huge thank you to all our adults in the school carpark who have worn their masks and kept us all safe! The masks even keep us warm at the moment! Silver linings!
Finally, Santa's robin came to visit on Wednesday!! He flew in through the main entrance door (the pros and cons of ventilation!!), he visited the walls of 4th/5th, he left some very personal belongings in different areas (even on the Doves that the pupils were colouring for Confirmation!) and flew back out. The word on the street is that he was checking everyone's behaviour and that he was very happy on his departure!!
I hope you all have a lovely weekend and stay safe,
Míle buíochas,
Audrey