January Newsletter 2020

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! We are well and truely back up to full speed after our holidays. It has been a very busy few weeks. There are quite a few children suffering from colds & flu at the moment. Pupils may bring their own hand sanitisers/wipes with them to school.

The Department of Education has just published Circular 0005/2020 which sets out the standard breaks at Christmas, Easter and Mid-term in the first and second terms for the school years 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023. For more information see: https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Information/School-Holidays/.

Our school will reopen after the summer holidays on Tuesday, 1st September 2020. A more detailed breakdown of our school closures for the school year 2020/21 will be published in our next newsletter.

Le gach dea-ghuí,

Diarmaid

Pupil Collection

If your child is being collected by someone other than the designated person, please make sure to let the school know first. If it is a case that someone else is picking up your child at the end of the day, please let the class teacher know in advance by contacting the School Office (061-339123 or office@milfordns.ie) or by writing a note. For the safety of children, we cannot let a pupil leave the school with another person without prior notice.

Check in at Reception

In the interest of health and safety, upon entering the school building please remember to go directly to our school reception .

Absences

Please remember to write a note in your child's diary or use our Aladdin App to explain any absences. An automated text messages goes out to families when they have missed 13, 17 and 20 days. Please do not worry about these messages if you have explained absences. After 20 days, whatever the reason, we must report to the welfare board of the numbers of children that have missed 20 or more days of school.

Rise and Shine Morning Club

Spaces are still available for the Rise and Shine Morning Club. The purpose of this club is to facilitate parents who require morning care facilities for their children. Supervision begins in the Afterschool facility at 7:45am and children will be brought to their class lines at 8:45am. If you have any queries you can contact Ms. Emma Dolphin at emma.dolphin@milfordns.ie or Ms. Geraldine Mitchell at geraldine.mitchell@milfordns.ie.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Ms. Linda O'Meara on the birth of her beautiful baby boy.

Fitzpatrick Cup

We completed the 11^th annual George Fitzpatrick Memorial Cup Competition on Thursday, Jan 16th. Congratulations to the 89 boys and girls from 4^th – 6^th classes who took part. Consisting of 18 League games and 7 knockout matches, in total it took 25 matches to complete this entire series. Thanks to all of the parents for coming out and supporting us and for taking the time off work to attend the competition. In the end, Kate's team faced Conor's team in the final. The final went to extra time to decide the outcome. Congratulations to Conor and his team mates on a marvellous victory. A special thank-you to the 12 captains of all 12 teams in this year’s Fitzpatrick Cup. These 12 individuals were picked by the coaches in the school based not just on their hurling abilities, but also based on their leadership, management and communication skills. To be chosen by your coaches as a Fitzpatrick Cup Captain is a huge honour and it reflects the esteem and high regard in which these 12 players are held by the staff of Milford NS. A huge thank-you also, to the University of Limerick for the use of this fabulous astroturf facility and especially to Neasa O’Donnell, Sara Hartigan and Catherine Dooley of the Sports Department for their ongoing support, dedication and goodwill towards the school. George was tireless in the energy, dedication and service that he put into Milford NS. His influence and example lives on long after him. Many thanks, as always, to Mr. Nelligan for the excellent organisation of this very enjoyable and inclusive sporting event.

Indoor Camogie

Milford 5th class girls will participate in the indoor camogie competition on the 13th of February. Best of luck to the team.

Lego Robots

Ms. O'Sullivan's 5th class had a fantastic day recently building & programming Lego robots with Analog Devices. Congratulations to the winning team in the Analog Devices School Robotics competition! Ava, Seán, Elizabeth & Michael and move on to face other schools in the Limerick stage of the competition. Many thanks to Ms. Doody for coordinating the event and to Cormac & Fergal from Analog Devices for leading the workshops.

RSA - Be Safe, Be Seen!

Second class pupils are learning about the importance of making themselves visible when out walking, running, scooting, skating and cycling. They have learned the ‘Safe Cross Code’ and have made posters highlighting the importance of wearing high visibility clothing. Second class pupils now recognise the importance of being seen especially at this time of the year when the mornings and evenings are dark. They are making a great effort to wear their high visibility jackets on Tuesday mornings when they walk to UL for swimming.

Stay Safe Programme

The personal safety education programme called Stay Safe is taught in Milford NS during this term. The aim of the Stay Safe programme is to teach children personal safety skills so they can look after themselves in situations which could be upsetting or dangerous. It deals initially with common situations which most children will experience at some stage or other, e.g. getting lost or being bullied. The programme also teaches children the safety skills necessary to protect themselves from physical or sexual abuse and emphasises the importance of telling a trusted adult about any problems they have. The Stay Safe programme is part of the Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum which all primary schools are required to implement. Co-operation between parents and teachers is essential to the success of this programme. It is important that parents are aware of the content of the Stay Safe lessons and are able to discuss the lessons with their children. Your child may bring home worksheets which will inform you on the topics being covered in class and how you can reinforce the messages at home. You can familiarise yourself with the content of the Stay Safe lessons at www.staysafe.ie/teachers/resources.htm. Please contact the school if you wish to discuss the programme further.

Parents' Council Donation

Many thanks to our Parents’ Council from their very generous donation of €2,000. The school has purchased additional iPads for the children to use in class.

Meeting the Teacher

The preferred method to arrange an appointment to meet with your child's class teacher (or SEN teacher) is by filling in the contact form located on the home page of our school website (www.milfordns.ie).

ePayments via Aladdin Connect

Our school is delighted to announce that we are rolling out the Aladdin ePayment system to parents/guardians of children in our school.

Our school uses the Aladdin software service for administrative purposes and the ePayment system will give you access from an internet browser on your computer, phone or tablet to make secure payments to the school using your credit or debit card. The purpose of the ePayment system is to facilitate the easier payment of school money collections for parent/guardians and to reduce the amount of cash and cheques being sent into our school in line with recent central bank directives.

Aladdin uses state of the art security to safeguard information entered by you and the school and data is stored and processed in strict compliance with Irish data protection laws.

Going forward, when money is due for any school activity that is relevant to your children, you will receive a text/email message/noticeboard message containing your payment access link. Please do not forward this text/email or share this access link as this link is unique for your family only. The link will bring you to a parent payment page which will contain all payments requested for all siblings in a family. There is only one link per family ensuring you have the option to pay all amounts due for all your children in one transaction. Once you have completed your payment, you will be issued with a reference number. You will also receive an email receipt which will contain details of the transaction and reference number. Please quote this reference number in any queries you may have as regards this payment with the school.

Should it be the case that you do not wish your email address or phone number to be used to receive details relating to payment access links and new payment requests, please let us know.

We hope that you will find the Aladdin ePayments facility useful and that it is a very successful system for all.

Sincerest Condolences

Sincerest condolences to Ms. Louise Hill & Ms. Claire Quinlan and their family on the recent bereavement of Louise's dad, Claire's grandad, Mr. John Hill. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.

Parenting Support Clinics - Primary Care Child and Family Psychology

The next Primary Care Child and Family Psychology parent workshop will run on Thursday 6^th February 2020 from 10am – 12pm and will focus on the topic of Toileting. As usual, the team will be holding Psychology Parenting Support Clinics in tandem with this during February 2020. These clinics will offer parents an opportunity to meet with a clinician to further discuss the challenges that they are experiencing in relation to toileting. These Parenting Support Clinics will take place on Tuesday 11^th and 25^th February 2020. There is limited availability for these 1:1 Parenting Support Clinic sessions, therefore, booking is essential. See the photos below for additional information.

David Coleman Talk

A big thank you to our Parents' Council for organising, in conjunction with Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh P.A. and Monaleen N.S. P.A., the upcoming David Coleman Talk for Parents (Wed 5th Feb 2020). Tickets are sold out.

Choir

The boys and girls in Milford National School choir are busy preparing for their upcoming performance in the Redemptorist Church in Limerick on Friday February 28^th, as part of the Limerick Choral Festival. The 70 members of the choir are preparing two songs for this event. Parents will be welcome to attend on the morning of the competition. Many thanks to our choir teachers Ms. O'Meara, Ms. Hynes, Ms. O’Sullivan and Ms. Reidy who work with the choir every Thursday after school.

Band

The School Band will participate in a band spectacular to be held Thursday, February 27^th at Shannon Airport. Parents will be welcome to attend on the morning of the competition. Many thanks to our band leaders Ms. Fenton, Ms. Hynes, Ms. O'Meara, Ms. O’Sullivan, Ms. Taylor, Ms. Ryan, Ms. O'Neill and Ms. Reidy who work with the School Band every Thursday during lunch break.