Dear Parents,

With less than three weeks remaining until the mid term break, I would like to bring the following to your
attention:
School Photographer
The school photographer will visit the school on Tuesday October 17th for the annual photographs. Please ensure
that the children wear a clean neat uniform/ tracksuit on the day.
24 Hour/School Activities Insurance
The deadline for returning premiums for the Allianz personal insurance scheme is Wednesday October 25th.
Please endeavour to send in any premiums by the deadline. Parents are asked to note that while we recommend
uptake from families,this is not a compulsory scheme and participation is at the discretion of parents.
Lunches
As you are aware, the children receive a daily hot meal prior to the lunchtime break. However we ask that you
continue to send in a snack/sandwich or similar for the morning break. A number of parents have enquired as to
what is appropriate for breaktimes. Under school healthy eating policy, the following items should not be sent:
Nuts, Crisps, Fizzy drinks or high sugar concentrates, Sweets, Chewing gum. Yoghurts or similar should be child
friendly to open and fruit such as grapes should be chopped and de seeded. In terms of treats for the children, the
school will provided these periodically as we must consider where children have allergies or where there are high
sugar and additives in the treat.
Party Invitations etc.
Teachers are happy for birthday invitations to be distributed in class on condition that all children are included.
Where small gatherings are planned the children can distribute invitations after school. We have a duty to include
all children and where individual children are excluded, this can be a cause of considerable distress. We also
discourage party bags or treats being sent in as there are a number of children with various allergies or children
who cannot partake due to dietary restrictions or religious reasons.
After School Activities
Our after school activity programme will begin on the week of Monday November 13th and will continue for
a six week period. These will be free of charge under the DEIS programme. Children will be allocated one activity
of their choice on a first come first served basis. Children will receive their application forms in the week before
the mid term break and will be informed of their allocated activity in the first week after the break.
Parent Classes.
The English classes are continuing and have been very well attended. We also were given an allocation of places
on the aerobics classes ongoing in the community hall for which there also has been a good uptake. Going
forward there are a number of courses planned for parents over the course of the school year of which we will
inform the parents once these are finalised.

Dress up Day.

The pupils will have a dress up fun day on Friday October 27th. Children can dress up in scary costumes.

School Attendance.
As you may be aware, a major facet of the DEIS programme involves school improvement in a number of areas
including, English, Maths and school attendance. All areas must be addressed as part of a three year plan during
which we are required to show a year on year improvement in all areas. We are very pleased to have broadly met
our first year targets in the academic areas of literacy and numeracy and have made considerably headway in
school attendance and punctuality. However this is an area where there still is considerable room for improvement
Our end of year return shows an overall improvement in the percentage of children who are absent for 20 days or
greater but we still have some way to go. We are required to provide information to TUSLA on
those children who miss greater than 20 days. On the upper end where there is persistent unexplained absence and
regular patterns of absence the Educational Welfare Officer becomes involved directly in the case.
Another area of concern is punctuality where children are either persistently late coming to school ,are collected
early from school on a regular basis or are left late for collection at the end of the school day. While this may be
sporadic as a result of children having appointments or similar, a large number of such indiscretions are not
sufficiently explained. In all cases the number of minutes late is recorded as is the times when children are taken
out early. This information may be requested by TUSLA. In the past year 13% of children were late for school on
more than one occasion over the course of the last school year which was an increase of 1% on the previous year.
We ask that parents make a special effort to make sure that where their children are not ill, they attend school
on time and for the full school day.

Allergies etc.
Please make sure that the school is made aware of where children have diagnosed allergies or where they may be
on prescription medication for health conditions. We will issue a form to parents in the next couple of weeks
to assist us in this regard. It is entirely at the discretion of individual families on whether they wish to inform the
school of conditions and parents are assured that such information will not be shared and will remain strictly
confidential.
Mid Term Break
The school will close at 12 p..m. on Friday October 27th for the mid term break. Children should be collected at
this time. We reopen on Monday November 6th at the usual time.

Finally, a number of parents have been in contact regarding not receiving emails or texts from the school. If this is
the case please email the school and we will amend/correct your email address to allow for future access to all
newsletters. Once again we thank you most sincerely for your continued help, cooperation and support.
Regards,
K. Dennedy