November/December 2022

Hi there

Every year I send out a short message about how we teach about Christmas in our school. As an Educate Together school, we must be mindful of the fact that while many Christians and non-Christian people alike celebrate the festival, there are many families where the festival is not celebrated at all. In fact, even those that do celebrate Christmas in their homes experience it in many different ways and often on different dates. For example, I'm writing this to you on 8th Decemeber, which in Ireland is a Catholic celebration called the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Many Catholic schools close on this day in order to allow families celebrate Mass. Furthermore. many of you will know that the main celebration of Christmas is the 24th December or 7th January in some family traditions. However, there are other festivals of light around this time such as the Sikh festival of Gurpurab and the Jewish festival of Chanukah. Later in the month we'll see people celebrating Yule and Kwanzaa and other festivals.

Educate Together schools teach about all beliefs and none in an objective way. Children are encouraged, if they wish, to share their own experiences and to be able to converse in a respectful manner with each other. We teach children about Christmas and, much like any faith, we teach them about the story of the festival and how it came to happen, how it is celebrated, and so on.

In order to ensure that everyone is included in our school, we try to use language that ensures everyone feels welcome. While again this year we won't have a concert due to COVID19, we deliberately call it a winter concert, for example. Some families wonder if they are allowed to wear Christmas jumpers or Santa hats to our school, and the answer is the same as we would give to any faith group. You are absolutely welcome to wear whatever you like to our school, keeping in mind safety. This year we have had a number of queries around COVID-19 and I thought I'd use this opportunity to answer some of those questions.

CHRISTMAS CARDS

In normal times, there is no issue with children bringing in cards for their classmates. With COVID19, the sharing of cards may be a little more problematic and it can be difficult to manage but we don't want to ban nice gestures like this. Please check with your teacher if they are able to have systems in place. However, please understand if a teacher may not be in a position to share Christmas cards this year.

PRESENTS FOR STAFF

We never expect to receive gifts from families but, we really appreciate people taking the effort to say thank you. Similarly to Christmas cards, we don't want to ban anything or appear ungrateful. If you would like to send in a gift to your teacher or another staff member, we will leave this to your own discretion.

WINTER FUNDRAISING

A huge thanks to Emma and our Parents' Association for taking the time to support the school. This year we are selling a 2022 school calendar. We are also holding a raffle with massive prizes thanks to the generosity of our school and wider comminity. Please help support us by logging into your Aladdin app where you can take part.

I hope the above makes sense and comes across in the manner it's intended. I do feel that we do strike the balance of marking Christmas appropriately. As some of you know, I come from a family that didn't celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense so I am very conscious that we mark the festvial with the same effort we do with all the various other festivals that we normally teach about. It's a very special time of the year for many families in our community. Whatever way you mark December in your home, I wish you the happiest of times. I'll be in touch before we break up for the holidays

In the meantime, keep happy, safe and learning

Simon