Janaury 2020
Happy New Year!
It's been a very busy start to 2020 and we're already looking forward to one of the highlights of our school year - Friendship Week, which takes place from 10th to 14th February. One of our most popular events in the past has been our Multicultural Day where we invite everyone in the school community to come together to share food in the hall. We ask families to bring something from whatever country, culture and background to the school and spend the day getting to know each other better while sharing food. We're also collecting recipes from around the world so hopefully we'll get enough of them to create a receipe book, which we can give to you to get some more inspiration. This year we are getting the children very much involved. They will be asking Rhonda and The School Food Company to create a dish from their favourite country. Whichever country gets the most votes will set the challenge and we'll see what the kitchen will provde on the day! Mark's Cookery Club will also be providing some food. It all takes place on Thursday 13th February and we hope we will see as many of you as possible in school. There's loads more going on so, enjoy this month's newsletter and keep happy, safe and learning!
News
Friendship Week
Friendship Week takes place from 10th to 14th February. As well as our Multicultural Food Day, there's loads happening throughout the week. Keep an ey on your email for more news.
Mid Term Break
Mid Term Break will take place from 17th to 21st February. School will be closed. Please contact Play Together have limited childcare available for the week.
THREICE
Congratulations to Adrian, Emer and all the THREICE team with their fantastic conference in Carlow during the month. Our school and Play Together were part of a research project exploring our focus on relational awareness and an holistic, child-centred approach to learning. THe project involved schools and colleges from Ireland, Poland and Portugal.
Enrollment News
You may have heard in the news that the Admissions Bill has finally passed. This ensures less discrimination in the Irish education system for those from minority backgrounds who wish to attend their local primary school. Although the new legislation mainly affects religious schools, there are sections that also affect Educate Together school. Our strict First Come First Served rule has to be examined and some small changes made including a siblings' policy and a designated enrollment time each year. A questionnaire will be sent to you soon as we need to get feedback from families. We have been instructed not to accept any pre-enrollments for September 2021 onwards until the new policy has formed. Any pre-enrollments that have already been processed will be honoured.
Traffic and Parking
Things are going reasonably smoothly with traffic at 1:30pm and 2:30pm. However, there are a couple of ways you can help us to make traffic even more smoothly.
- If you are in the Set Down Area, please make sure to be ready in/at your car when the children come out. While you might be having a conversation with someone else, we need people to move as quickly as possible and any car that is stationary blocks the flow of traffic.
- If your child has forgotten to come out and has gone to after school and you are in the Set Down Area, please ask a member of staff for help. They will direct you either to the basketball courts or to the front of the school and will get your child for you.
- Please never park in staff parking in the morning. We need every space. Furthermore, reversing into oncoming traffic is dangerous.
- Please never park in the Bus Areas between 1pm and 1:35pm or 2pm and 2:35pm. Even if there are no buses in these areas, it is the only place where an ambulance or fire engine can set down if the need arises.
