I hope everyone had a lovely summer and you enjoyed the wonderful weather. There’s always a lovely mixture of excitement, nerves and complete disbelief that the summer holidays are actually over, so hopefully the first few mornings go as smoothly as possible in every household!
The first week of the school year is always an exciting time for everyone. Everyone is getting to know their new teachers, SNAs and everyone else and the children are getting to see their friends, meet new friends and get used to new surroundings.
Our newsletter is designed to keep you informed of what's happening in our community. If you'd like to share anything interesting, please make sure to let us know. We're happy to share any community events or volunteering opportunities or courses that might be going on. Erin, our Home School Liason Teacher will be in touch regularly with families to let you know what's happening in school.
I also have a little bit of personal news to share.
From Monday, I will be taking parental leave until the winter break. My son, Emrys, is going into 6th class this year and I’ve decided to take the opportunity to spend these few months being a dad rather than his principal. You don’t get too many chances to do that, particularly when they reach this age, so I’m really looking forward to it.
I should emphasise that I am very definitely coming back! I’ll return as principal in January after the winter break.
I’m also delighted that the school will be in excellent hands while I’m away. Clare will be Acting Principal for the period of my leave, with Adrian taking on the role of Acting Deputy Principal. I have every confidence in both of them and in the wider staff team, and I know the school will continue exactly as it should while I temporarily swap principal duties for Dad duties.
I’ll be dropping Emrys to school every morning, so there’s a fairly good chance you’ll still see me regularly. I’ll just be the parent trying to get his child into school on time rather than the principal reminding everyone else to do it!
For now, though, I hope everyone has a really positive start to the new school year. A particular welcome to anyone joining our school community for the first time, and best of luck to all of our children as they meet their teachers, catch up with friends and begin another year.
Here’s to a happy, safe and enjoyable school year for everyone.
Simon
When I started teaching the only thing Aladdin meant was a character in a Disney film. Nowadays it is one of the first apps any parent with school-aged children has to download on their phone. Those of you that have used it before will know that you can use Aladdin to send in an absense note, pay for school trips and even share your details with classmates for birthday invites and so on.
Last year we introduced Aladdin as the app for school communication. If you need to send your teacher a message, you can now do so on Aladdin rather than email. It worked really well last year so we'll be continuing to use it this year.
You can still ring or email the office any time if you need anything. The purpose of this tool is to ensure messages between school and home don't get lost. We'll see how it goes and look forward to your feedback.
Just a reminder for everyone about our traffic management system. Please remember, we have over 300 children leaving the building at 2:30pm and many are now walking or cycling home and will be crossing the roads. Please ensure to drive under the speed limit of 10kph and please do not use your phones while driving. As you know, children can run out on the roads very suddenly, and it's simply not worth the risk.
We also ask you not to arrive before 2:25pm any day. We can only fit 32 cards in the queue around the site so we don't have space for much traffic. Cars are not allowed to move until all buses are gone so arriving before then makes little sense. We have everyone picked up within 10 minutes so you won't be waiting around very long. We need to keep the Athy Road free from traffic and we appreciate your coooperation. If you find yourself here early, please consider supporting some of the local businesses like the Delta Centre in Strawhall who have a lovely café and loads of parking.
All smartphones and person internet connected devices are not allowed to be used by pupils in our school. There is no point during the school day where a child needs a phone. Because some children walk home from school, there may be occasions where a parent wants their child to have a device. In these very rare cases, they must be switched off and in their schoolbags. Families must fill in a permission form if they need their child to have possession of a smart device on the school premises. You can fill out the form here: https://forms.gle/duvoiiWoeABVPAtB8
While we don't expect children to have devices, we do encourage meaningful use of technoogy, and we have a number of devices in school which children use to support their learning. From 3rd class upwards, the children are assigned projects and optional homework via Google Classroom. In Junior Classes, all homework is put on Aladdin. The apps that we use support your child's reading (they have access to over 5,000 digital books), spellings, and maths.
In the next couple of weeks, 4th to 6th class will be engaging in our programme Workshop Wednesdays. The idea behind the scheme is to give children access to curriculum subjects on a deeper level including some new subjects. Children will be divided into groups of 15 and throughout the year they will take part in 5 different workshops. Subjects are yet to be decided but last year they had the experience of learning: Modern Foreign Language (either French of Portuguese), Physical Education through Irish, Literacy through Technology, Science through Outdoor Education, and Visual Arts. Children gave their feedback on the programmes last year so we will be trying to accommodate their choices. They will have 5 weeks in each workshop and we're looking forward to hearing what they think.
We have lots of after school clubs running this year. A full timetable will be produced in the coming weeks but keep an eye out for something that might interest you. From Sports to French to Yoga to Keyboard lessons, there's something for everyone!