School Newsletter

6th December 2022-12-06

Dear Parents,

As we approach the end of term 1, I would like to express our gratitude for your continued support over the course of what has been a challenging time for our school, particularly in terms of classroom accommodation. We do hope to have a little relief in this area at the beginning of term 2 when we will have a new prefab building in place to host the Fifth Class (Ms. Cunnane) currently accommodated in the school hall. We also hope to have extra accommodation by the end of the school year once we have dealt with a number of administrative issues in this regard. We thank you sincerely for your continued patience and assure you that the children have not been deprived in any way. In the meantime I would like you to take note of the following notices:

 End of Term.

The school will close on Wednesday December 21st at 12:00 p.m. All children will go home at that time and should be collected promptly. The school will reopen on Thursday January 5th at the usual time.

After School Activities

Thanks to all of our teachers who hosted our After School Activities programme and to the pupils for enthusiastic participation in the activites. We are delighted with the success of the initiative to date and particularly with the positive feedback from our parents.  The first series of after school activities will finish on Thursday December 15th and hopefully we will continue with a new programme of after school activities in early February. The after school programme is financed by the DES under the DEIS schools initiative.

Swimming

Fifth Class will complete their swimming programme on Monday December 19th. Fourth Class pupils will commence their swimming programme on Monday January 9th for a six week period.

Athletics 

The pupils in second class will complete their athletics programme on next Monday 12th December. From next term all children in First Class will receive the course for a three week period. Parents will be informed of dates and times when we return after the Christmas break. Children will attending with their class group.

Crumlin Childrens Hospital Fundraiser.

On Friday 16th December, we will host our annual fundraiser for Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin. We ask that all children (and teachers!!!) should, if possible, wear Christmas Jumpers to school. If the children cannot access a Christmas Jumper they should wear Green and Red on the day. All children will be asked for a contribution of €2 towards this very worthy appeal. Thanks to Mr O’Brien for organising this event. We look forward to your support.

Drama Performance.

The children taking part in our Drama After School Activity under the tutelage of Ms. Olivia Burke and Ms. Cusack will perform a play entitled, Pirates V Mermaids‘ in the School Hall on Tuesday Deember 21st. All are welcome to attend. The performance will commence at 6:30 p.m. 

School Choir

Our school choir will perform at the parish Christmas Carol service which will take place in Thr Friary Ballyhaunis on Sunday December 18th at 7 p..m. This service will feature contributions from all Ballyhaunis Parish choirs.

Home School Community Liaison.

Our thanks to Ms. Flanagan and to Mrs Lyons (BCS) for their hard work in setting up the Home School Liaison scheme. We also thank the parents from the various ethnic groupings for their active participation in the Coffee Morning initiative hosted by Ms. Flanagan and Mrs Lyons in cooperation with Ballyhaunis Friary Resource Centre. We are currently processing feedback gleaned from these meetings with a view to putting initiatives such as Social Language Classes, Art Classes and a social walking club in place for parents of all backgrounds. We strongly urge parents to take part, if at all possible, as the importance to the school of inter community familiarisation within our school community cannot be understated. All of these initiatives will be free of charge to parents of Scoil Íosa and of Ballyhaunis Community School under the DEIS scheme and under the Friary Resource Centre. We thank Stephen Grogan and Tracy McDermott of the centre for their cooperation, liaison and broad support in catering for our diverse parent body.

On another note, please ensure that the good work undertaken on improving school attendance, punctuality and prompt collection of pupils after school continues. Your assistance in this regard is producing favourable results so far and with your continued vigilance we can continue to see improving attendance trends. Please continue to inform the school where your child cannot attend school either by a phonecall to the school office, an email to your child’s teacher or a note to school on the child’s return. We need to stamp out unexplained absences from school.

Inclement Weather

It appears that we are in danger of having very cold temperatures over the next week with readings possibly as low as -5 or -6. Please make sure that your children are appropriately dressed for the cold weather with a warm coat/jacket and if at all possible a warm hat and gloves. This is the time of year in which the children are most suseptible to colds, flu and various viruses and as such we should make sure to minimise the risk therein.

School Meals.

We remind parents that should they wish to change the choice of daily food for your children, that this should be done no later than  Wednesday to allow the supplier to make the change for the following week. Also a number of parents have asked as to whether the meat in the meals is Halal. We are assured that this is the case (other than sausages) and that much of the meat used comes from Halal suppliers in Ballyhaunis. 

With Thanks

K. Dennedy