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Holy Family National SchoolNewsletter October 1999 |
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| WELCOME | |
| As we start a new academic year, we
welcome back all our children to school. We welcome in particular the children
who are here for the first time. We hope all the children will have a very
happy and productive year. We welcome a new addition to our staff, Miss Lawler,
as a replacement for Mrs. McKeon, who is taking a one-year career break. We
hope both teachers have an enjoyable and productive year. We also wish Mrs. Jo Curran a very happy retirement. Mrs. Curran taught for forty years, many of them as a valued member of our staff. She was a very gentle person both in her dealings with colleagues and children. We attended a very enjoyable function in her honour in late June where there were presentations from staff, parents and Board of Management. We wish Jo and her husband Pat many happy years in retirement. |
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| SCHOOL RULES | |
| As we start off a new academic year, I
would like to draw your attention to a few points from our Code of Discipline.
(1) School starts at 9.00am. We ask you to ensure that children are in school on time. (2) The Board of Management has provided a shelter for children in the school yard. Under no circumstances must children enter the school building before 9.00am. (3) We ask you to provide your child with healthy lunches to bring to school. Sensible food - sandwiches, yoghurts, etc. will aid your child's concentration over a long period rather than short bursts of energy derived from snacks, sweets, chocolate, etc. We had the privilege of a Nutritionist speaking to the children about healthy eating recently, which was very successful. (4) Homework, if consistently done is a great aid to your child's overall progress at school. The amount of homework given is tailored to suit the children's age and class and should provide little difficulty for most children. Please encourage your child to complete their homework early each evening when they are most alert. (5) It would be helpful if you discouraged your children from bringing items to school which may prove a distraction for them and other pupils in class. (6) We encourage you to send your child to school when the school is in operation as days missed cannot be made up easily. If your child is sick please, do not send them to school in the hope they will improve during the day. |
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| FOOTBALL FORECAST | |
| We had a great response to our All Ireland Football Forecast. We raised in the region of £480.00 towards our school sports fund. There were three winners, each receiving £34. Thank you to our sellers and congratulations to the winners. | |
| COMPUTER COURSE | |
| Our Computer Course is as always booked out for this term and has been a great success. Michael McGuane has again been employed by the Board of Management for the coming year. We wish to thank Mary Rooney, Chairperson of Board of Management for her own personal contribution of a computer to the school. We also received a new computer with the Tesco Tokens we have saved over the past two years. Thank you all for your contribution and we look forward to receiving more tokens from you this year when the offer starts again. | |
| SWIMMING | |
| Swimming as always is a popular class and 3rd class will be availing of it when the new term starts after Christmas. For organisational purposes it would be helpful if all children in 3rd, 4th, and 5th participated. | |
| PARENT/TEACHER MEETINGS | |
| Parent/Teacher meetings will be held on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd of October for Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 1st, 2nd and 6th classes. 3rd, 4th and 5th will also be held on Wednesday 20th. | |
| FOOTBALL | |
| We have three teams representing the
school. Boys U-11, Boys U-13 and girls team. U-11's team have won 3 out of 4 matches to date and U-13's are through to the quarter finals. While the results were not so successful, they have shown great improvement since the beginning of the year. |
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| NEW FURNITURE | |
| We received the new furniture for the school before the summer. Total cost was £14,023, the grant from the Department was £12,621, so the local contribution was £1,402. Many thanks to the Parents Association for their local contribution. | |
| SCHOOL BUS | |
| Ken Davis supplies the school bus to children from the Saggart and Tallaght areas, his phone number is 087-2232109, if you wish to avail of his service. | |
| NEW SHELTER | |
| A Shelter was built in the school grounds during the summer for children who arrive at school before nine o'clock on wet mornings. Many thanks to the Board of Management who arranged it for its erection so promptly. | |
| WELL DONE! | |
| To children of the school who participated in the Karate Championships held recently in the Community Centre. | |
| IMPORTANT DATES FOR TERM | |
| Oct 25th - Public Holiday Oct 26th - 29th Mid-Term Break Nov 1st - All Saints Day Dec 8th - Immaculate Conception Dec 21st - School will close ½ day for Christmas Holidays and will re-open on Jan 10th, 2000. Confirmation this year will be on Wednesday 7th June in Rathcoole Church. |
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| NEW CURRICULUM | |
| A new Curriculum for primary schools was
launched by the Minister for Education and Science, Micheál Martin on
the 9th September. It represents the culmination of many years of planning
where all the partners in education were represented. There will be many changes to the way subjects are taught and a new subject, Science will be taught in every class from Junior to Senior standards. A comprehensive programme of in-career development for teachers has been planned and will be implemented on a phased basis over the next three or four years. Schools will close for 6 days during the 1999-2000 school year - 3 days between October and January and a further 3 days between February and June. We have not yet been informed of these in-service dates. |
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| PARENTS ASSOCIATION | |
| The Parents Association are in the final
year of their 3 year term and to date have been very successful in fund-raising
for various school activities. They have played a very active role in the life
of the school which is very much appreciated. Recently they handed over a cheque for £3,000 to the Board of Management which was used: (a) to pay the local contribution towards the purchase of new furniture in the school (b) to contribute towards the cost of employing our computer expert, Michael McGuane. Employing Michael is a unique and bold initiative by our Board of Management because there is little point having a room full of computers if we do not make the best possible use of them to teach computer skills in a professional manner. In this day and age this is absolutely vital. The Parents Association have two major sources of revenue: (1) the family contribution (2) the annual sponsored walk. To date they have received great support from everybody for these fund-raising ventures. This year, however, they are planning a major fund-raiser for the school on the 12th of November in the Dew Drop Inn, Kill. This fund-raiser is necessary for a number of reasons (i) There is a shortfall of £1,000 between the cost of building the shelter for the children (£4,800) and the grant we received from the Dept. of Education (£3,800). (ii) The introduction of Science onto the school curriculum will incur great expenditure in providing new equipment etc. The Dept. will provide some money towards this but of course it will not be enough. (iii) There is a need for extra educational materials especially for a subject like Maths and for the Infant classes. (iv) This year again the Board of Management will need a contribution towards the cost of employing our computer teacher. Tickets for the night out in the Dew Drop Inn go on sale this week from the school and are available also from any member of the Parents Association. We urge you to give it your full support and we hope you have a very enjoyable night. |
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| Other Newsletters: | April 1997 | |
| October 1997 | ||
| March 1998 | ||
| April 1999 | ||
| November 1999 |
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