October 2022

Contents of our Newsletter:

1. Dress Up Day on Friday 🧙‍♀️

2. Parent Teacher Meetings in November 🤝

3. STEAM Week including a Science Walk for families 🧪

4. Parents'/Guardians' Coffee Mornings ☕

5. Language Ambassadors 🌍

6. Outdoor Learning 🍁

7. Active Travel 🚲

8. Sport in the School ⚽

9. A Word on Homework 💻

10. Winter Concert 🕺

This Friday there will be our annual Dress Up Day where children can come to school dressed in theri favourite costume. There will be an autumn festival parade during the day where the children will march around the school grounds in their finery and there will be lots of fun in the classroom learning about festivals like Halloween, Samhain and Diwali, which all occurred this week, as well as some other lesser well known harvest festivals. This year we will be raising money for Temple Street Hospital and your support will be very much appreciated. If you can send in whatever you can afford, we will collect it and donate it on Friday.

Parent Teacher Meetings will take place this November on the week of 21st. Bookings for meetings will open on Monday, 7th November. This year you will have the opportunity to choose either a face-to-face meeting or a phone meeting. Make sure to download the Aladdin App for the quickest way to book your meeting.

The week of November 7th is our school's annual STEAM Week where children learn all about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. This year's theme will be "Females in Computer Science" where we highlight to children the impact women have had through history in computer science. We've all heard of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs but what about Grace Hopper and Margaret Hamilton?

One highlight of the week is our annual Science Walk where we invite families to join us for a 2km walk from the Town Hall Car Park along the River Barrow and into school where a Big Breakfast will be hosted. A bus will be available to bring adults back to their cars or you might choose to walk back along the river in peace and quiet! The walk is happening on Wednesday 9th November from 8am at the Town Hall Car Park, which is opposite the main park in Carlow/Graiguecullen. It's always a lovely event. Last year we had over 100 families join us!

Every month, the Parents' Association host a coffee morning for all families in the school. All parents, guardian and other family members are welcome to come along for coffee and a chat. It's a nice way to meet new people and become part of our growing community. Keep an eye out for the next one!

We are lucky to have so many different nationalities in our school community bringing with them rich experience. We put a call out to families to ask them would they consider being Language Ambassadors, which consists of helping us out with some translation of important messages and perhaps to come in to help a family with interpretation. We were overwhelmed with the huge response and delighted to reveal our special Language Ambassador section on our website: http://www.carloweducatetogether.ie/language-ambassadors/ We are also pleased to include a translation service on our school website so anyone can read our website whatever language they speak.

Over the last number of years , we have been developing a culture of outdoor learning in the school. As awful as COVID19 was, one shining light was an increased focus on getting everyone outdoors for learning and this has helped us deliver this culture a little more easily than we expected. We now have classes being taught outside every day of the week with two outdoor classrooms, a thriving garden and polytunnel and lots of outdoor spaces for learning and play. We also host a gardening club for preants and guardians with Dee Sewell, one of Ireland's best outdoor educators. Here are some photos of what's happening around the school andi n the community.

As part of our school's commitment to sustainable development we are actively looking for ways in which we can help children to be able to walk or cycle safely to school.

Carlow is a relatively small flat town with the vast majority of our own pupils living within 3.5km of our school. We are trying to identify routes which could be enhanced by the installation of some safety features such as pedestrian crossings, segregated cycle paths and the prioritisation of people over traffic in certain key areas of our town. We have some good cycling and walking infrastructure leading from the Athy Road roundabout to the school building but many of the routes which might be used by our school community are not currently not safe enough to use.

The National Transport Authority currently has a public consultation underway called Cycle Connects which outlines a more sustainable travel plan for Carlow. We have attached the map and the document outlining the proposed changes to this email but it is also available at https://consult.nationaltransport.ie/en/consultation/cycleconnects

If you have an interest in you or your children in being able to walk or cycle to school or around Carlow Town in the future there are two things we'd love you to do:

1. We would really like to hear from you. We are trying to get as many people in our school community involved in our Active Travel Plan as possible and would love to hear any ideas that you think could help. Simply reply to this message to show your interest.

2. Have your say. If there are elements of the Cycle Connects Plan you think could be improved or altered or anything you feel could be included you are able to make your feelings known by emailing activetravel@nationaltransport.ie and putting Cycle Connects - Carlow in the subject line.

As you know, there is a lot fo discussion around homework in the media. Research consistently shows very little benefit to traditional homework and we have to be mindful of the changes across the education system both here in Ireland and beyond. Second level schools have also moved away from the traditional model of homework to more project based learning, as part of the Junior Cert Cycle. Technology is playing an increasingly important role in terms of the delivery of homework. Over the last ten years we have been studying the changes in education and we have established a strong foundation in terms of how we see homework. The following tips may be useful to you:

1. Homework should be meaningful to a child. There is little benefit in a child doing pages of work they already understand. Equally, there is little point in a child struggling for hours trying to do work that is beyond their ability. Any homework that is given will be meaningful and give your child the opportunity to practice what they have learned in school. Nobody ever gets into trouble for not doing homework.

2. Much like anything, a little bit of practice often, helps with learning. We suggest that your child has opportunities to read or be read to every day. From 1st class onwards, we suggest 5-10 minutes of Mathletics.

3. If your child is struggling with a concept, all teachers provide a weekly summary of what is being covered in class and if you need further assistance, ask your child's teacher. If you can't find the summary, pleae inform the teacher and they will assist you.

4. If you are receiving homework, make sure it fits within your family schedule. Don't worry if your child has lots of activities on particular days and you don't get any schoolwork done.

5. Our school uses SeeSaw for infants in order for families to interact with the school. It is also where homework and ideas are presented. Teachers will also share things that have been happening in class too. From 1st class upwards, the children move to Google Classroom and other tools. It's important to familiarise yourself with these tools. Any problems, please make sure to get in touch and we are always happy to help.

Our Winter Concert is back after a three year enforced break. We've been thinking of ways to make it more fun and more inclusive for everyone and we can't wait to share the details with you.