Sept' 08
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Welcome back to all members of our school community. It is great to see everyone back with us after the beautiful summer weather we have all had. We look forward to another busy year ahead and hope the children have a memorable time this year.
Uniforms - I would like to say a huge thank you to the Parents Association for all their hard work in organising the distribution of uniforms. Due to an error on the manufacturing side many uniforms had to be recalled. This added greatly to the workload of the association and yet they carried it out in great spirit in order to save parents the inconvenience and added expense of sourcing the uniforms themselves.
As you know we have a new crest on our school tracksuit. Please be assured that the old tracksuit is still perfectly acceptable. In both cases the children wear a white or sky blue polo shirt with the tracksuit. Our uniform renlains the same, that is grey jumper, grey trousers and light blue shirt for boys and grey cardigan, grey pinafore or skirt and light blue shirt for girls. Thanks to all the parents for supporting the uniform policy. It is wonderful to see the children proudly wearing the uniform or school tracksuit and our school crest.
Early Arrivals - Parents are reminded that school commences at 9.20 a.m. Teachers do not take children into their care until that time. The school doors at the front of the school are opened to allow staff access the building. Parents may also escort Junior Infant children to their classes from 9.10 onwards to allow them settle in. All other children are collected from the school yards at 9.20 by their teachers. It is particularly important in the winter months that children are not left standing in the cold or rain and for this reason we ask you not to send your child to school before 9.20.
Greenschools - Our Greenschools programme continues. Children are asked to use re-usable lunch boxes and bottles and to bring home any papers or peels in their box. We would ask everyone to remember WOW (Walk on Wednesday) as we encourage as many people as possible to leave their cars at home. We sent out a leaflet to all families in the past week regarding the Safe Cross Code and would encourage parents to revise the code with their children.
Sport -Congratulations to the school football team and their mentors, Ms. O'Boyle, Mr. Hickey and Mr. O'Donnell for their performance in the Skerries football blitz last week. They put in a stirring performance. \Ve also have several visiting coaches providing extra P.E. classes at the moment. Niamh, our GAA coach from Round Towers is continuing her programme with the children while Eoin is giving lessons to five classes in Sports Conditioning (suppOlied by Fingal County Council) and Kevin from Skerries Rugby Club is also carrying out rugby classes. The children seem to very much enjoy the sessions and we are delighted with all activities which improve the activity levels of the children while also teaching them new skills.
Contact Details - Over the next month every family will receive a sheet to update our data base. We would ask all families to return it directly to ensure that we have the most recent contact details for the children.
Book Lending Scheme - We would like to say a huge thank you to Pearl, Catherine, Donna and Anne who gave up a large part of their summer holidays to manage this scheme, The scheme allows our families to make substantial savings on the cost of books. Those savings couldn't be made without the hard work of the ladies mentioned above.
School Car Park - We would ask parents to ensure that all children use the pedestrian gates and pathways to the right and left of the school gate in order to ensure their safety. A free flow system operates along Chapel Road. We request that no cars stop opposite the school gates or on double yellow lines outside the schoo! as this blocks all traffic along the road. Due to the number of staff now working in our school an overflow area has been created behind the scouts den for staff parking. We would ask that parents do not park in this area as space is limited and it could be a danger to the children.
Improvements - Over the course of the summer we carried out a substantial programme of works to improve the school building. New pre-fabs were installed to cater for our increased school population, paving was laid at the front door, flooring repaired in classrooms, paths laid, fencing erected and trees and shrubbery pruned. We would like to thank our caretaker Paul for all his hard work over the break.
Voluntary Subscription - We will be communicating with parents regarding the Voluntary Subscription in the coming weeks. This year the programme will be ajoint appeal between the Board of Management, the Parents Association and the school. Sincere thanks to the parents of Junior Infants who have already subscribed. As you know there is an array of school activities which could not take place without this support.
ICT - Manynthanks to UCD-fBrthe donation of a Powerpoint Projector to the school. This is an added resource for our lCT programme. We hope to further invest in lCT once the Voluntary Subscription has been collected.
Regards,
Principal: Paul Comiskey, B.Ed., Dip. Ed. Man., M.St.
Deputy Principal: Peggy O'Connor N.T., D.A.1.
