Holy Family National School

Newsletter April 1999

If you wish to have your child enrolled in Junior Infants for September you must do so immediately and not later than 30th April.

The above notice has already been read out in the church. However, if you have a neighbour who has children of school-going age you might bring this notice to their attention.

The Department of Education has requested the use of our school to host a "Substance Mis-use Prevention Education Programme" on Friday April 30th to train teachers and other school personnel from Saggart NS, Brittas NS and Holy Family NS. The school will be closed on that day.

The boys gaelic football were beaten at the semi-final stage of their league. The girls gaelic football team reached the final for the second year running but were narrowly beaten in Croke Park.

For the first time ever we fielded an U-13 soccer team in the FAI league. While the boys and girls performed brilliantly some of the results didn't go our way. Our thanks to Rathcoole Boys FC for giving us the use of Frank Cox field for our home matches.

Preparations and training are well under way at present for the athletics finals in Santry in early June. This year we will be competing in the 100m, 200m, 800m, relay, long jump and hurdles. After the huge haul of medals and cup last year we will be looking for a repeat performance.

Lessons in Naas swimming pool finish next Monday. Children were presented with their certificates and badges last week. Congratulations to all.

We have just been informed by the Department of Education that they have approved the purchase of new furniture for the whole school. This will cost about £10,000 and the Department will provide 90% of the funding.

The Parents Association have agreed to finance the other 10% mainly through their participation in the Ladies Mini-Marathon. This takes place on Sunday June 13th and sponsorship cards have already been distributed and more are available in the school office if required. For those who are participating the final date for entry is Thursday 29th April.

The children have been working like little beavers collecting Tesco/Esso Tiger Tokens for a new computer. We need a total of 11,000 tokens to collect our preferred computer and as we go to print we have a total of 10,670 tokens. We appeal to parents and children to make that final push over the coming weeks.

Our school was selected by the Department of Education as a participant in a pilot scheme for a new type of assessment of schools called Whole School Evaluation (WSE). Inspectors visited the school during March to assess the quality of management, the role of the Principal and most importantly the quality of learning and teaching.

We await their written report with interest but we have already received a very positive oral report from the inspectors.

Sadly we had to say goodbye to our Caretaker, Gerry Mitchell, and we were without a Caretaker for some time but thankfully that has now been rectified. We welcome Philip Devlin from Newcastle who starts work with us on Monday next.

To Stephen Murphy (6th Class) who won a prize in the Dublin GAA magazine `Hill 16'. His prize - he gets to train with the Dublin Senior Football Team in Parnell Park.

To David Freeland - a winner in U-13 category of the Credit Union Art Competition.

To Gary Walsh and David Freeland for their winning entry in "The Great Goal" in the Hill 16 magazine Poetry Competition.

Sincere congratulations to Ciarán Claffey (4th Class) for the outstanding achievement of winning an Irish Essay Competition (Beir Bua) organised by Bord na Gaeilge. This is a national competition for children in 4th, 5th and 6th classess in Primary Schools. To win such a competition is indeed a tremendous achievement.

Ciarán will be presented with his prize - a Playstation - next Wednesday 28th April by Michelle de Brúin at a ceremony in Bord na Gaeilge headquarters. Maith an buachaill, Ciarán!

The most recent 10 week computer course has drawn to a close. A new 6 week computer course commences on Tuesday May 4th and will cater mainly for those children who could not be accommodated last time. Two separate week-long courses will be held during July and August. More details later.

The Parents Assocation has presented a new scanner for the computer room to the school. This will be used for scanning texts, photographs, art work, etc, and will be very useful for school projects. We will be able to have photographs in future newsletters.

Mr Manning is at the moment setting up our own web site on the internet. A history of the school and all current activities in the school are being included. We have many photographs relating to the school over the last twenty years but we are looking for some old photographs of school life in Rathcoole. If anybody has an old photograph you might give it to us where it will be scanned and returned immediately.

Many thanks to the Behan Family, Maple Grove for their very generous donation of a new amplification system to the school. It is very much appreciated.

We received a grant of £1,000 from the Dept of Education and Science towards the purchase of new library books. Our thanks to the Parents Association for their work in organising the school library where there are now almost 4,000 books.

Due to the increasing number of children attending our school from the Saggart area, it is envisaged that a bus service will be in place by September next. For further information contact Mary at Tel: 4589055 or Debbie at Tel:4623441 as soon as possible.

The Board of Management intend to build a shelter in the school grounds for children who arrive at school before nine o'clock on wet mornings. Tenders for its erection are being sought at present. The BOM cannot accept responsibility for children arriving before 9 o'clock. It is important to note that while the official time for starting formal teaching as laid down by the Dept. of Ed. is 9.20am, most work starts at 9.05am.

Therefore the rule for children is:

"Be in line at nine!"

Important Dates for Term

30th April - Drug Awareness Training Day.

3rd May - Public Holiday

4th June - School Holiday

7th June - Public Holiday

25th June - School will close for Summer Holidays and will re-open on 1st September.