Dear Parents / Guardians,
We hope you are all well. Our news is as follows:
- New Furniture: Thank you so much to those of you who have contacted us to say you can come in to help us move furniture on Friday at 1pm and receive our new furniture at 9am on Saturday 10th October. We would be really grateful of more volunteers to help us bring in the new furniture on the Saturday morning. If you are available and have an hour to spare from 9am on Saturday 10th October, please send us a message or phone Catríona in the office. The more helpers we have to carry our new furniture up to the classrooms the quicker and easier the job will be for everyone. Your support is greatly appreciated.
- Old furniture available for free: If you or anyone you know would like to take any of our old furniture, please come to the school at any time on Friday or on Saturday morning for collection.
- STEM Week: STEM Week: We will celebrate STEM Week at Bunscoil Bhríde from Monday 12th to Friday 16th October. STEM Week will be a special week dedicated to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and we have a number of exciting events planned. On Tuesday, Ms. Banks’ and Ms. Frawley’s Third Classes along with Ms. Feeney’s Junior Infants will take part in a biodiversity and LEGO workshop with Jessica Farrell, followed by Ms. Geraghty’s and Ms. Marrinan’s Second Classes and Ms. Costello’s Junior and Senior Infants on Friday. Throughout the week, classes will also complete maths trails and take part in various engineering and science experiments. The week will culminate in our annual Science Fair on Thursday, hosted in our school hall by Sixth Class and attended by all classes, which is always a highlight of STEM Week. Additionally, Ms. De Faoite’s and Mr. O’Sullivan’s Fifth Classes will visit Mount Lucas Wind Farm in Co. Offaly to learn about wind energy at a later date in November (to be confirmed). I want to thank our STEM Co-ordinators, Ms. Ryan and Ms. Gleeson, for organising all of the activities for STEM Week. Photographs of the events will be available on our school website.
- Flu Vaccines: A team from Rathangan Medical Centre will administer the flu vaccine to children, whose parents have given consent via the online link, in the school hall on Tuesday next, 6th October. The vaccine will only be administered to children whose parents have completed online consent.
- Oral Language: The theme for the month of October is ‘Listening’. Communication and learning skills grow out of effective listening. Hearing and listening are not the same – listening is an active process of focusing on sound; hearing is passive reception of sound. Listening means focusing on some sounds and “tuning out” others. All classes will be focusing on this theme for the month and we would ask that you support us at home, by encouraging and modelling good listening, asking your child to follow oral instructions, playing auditory listening games and questioning your child often.
- Uniform: Please ensure that all items of your child’s uniform and coat are clearly labelled with her name.
- Christmas Shoe-Box Appeal: All children will bring a leaflet next week from ‘Team Hope’, detailing the Christmas Shoe-box Appeal. If you wish, you can put together a shoe-box which will benefit needy children around the world (this is optional). Shoe-boxes may be brought in to school on Thursday 5th November only. They will be collected from the school on this day.
- Dangers of the Internet: While the internet is a wonderful resource, I would like to remind you that it can also pose many dangers to your child. While the school has safeguards in place with regard to pupil internet/website access at school, use outside school falls under parental responsibility. Children should never be allowed access to the internet at home without supervision, nor should they be accessing apps such as Snapchat, Tiktok, Whatsapp, Instagram etc., which all have a minimum user age of 13.
- Head Bumps: It is our school policy to phone home when a child bumps her head, however minor.
- Parents’ Association Annual General Meeting (AGM): The Parents Association will be holding their AGM on Thursday next, 8th October at 7pm in the school hall. All parents are very welcome to come along and to find out more about the Parents Association’s role within the school. We would encourage as many of you as possible to attend and will be giving a homework-free night on Thursday to facilitate this! This is an opportunity to learn about the previous year’s activities and how PA fundraising provides support to the school.
- Fórsa SNA Work-to-Rule & INTO Teacher Directive: You may be aware that the SNA union, Fórsa has directed its members to engage in industrial action, which began yesterday, Wednesday 30th September. This means that SNAs are expected to strictly adhere to their contracted duties and are not permitted to engage in Croke Park hours or additional extra-curricular and goodwill duties. The teachers’ union, the INTO has directed all teaching members to cease cooperation with Croke Park hours and to refrain from attending staff meetings and formal parent/teacher meetings outside of normal school hours, with effect from Monday 5th October 2026. Both of these union directives will impact our ability to meet with parents in the coming weeks for our usual School Support Planning Meetings. If your child is in receipt of extra support, the teachers will be sending home your child’s School Support Plan over the coming weeks and will be encouraging you to make any amendments to the Plan that you feel necessary and returning it to us for the changes to be made. After-school sports training will also cease during this period of industrial action. Both unions are also currently proposing that all members will engage in a 24-hour work stoppage on Wednesday 14th October, which would result in the closure of our school. We will continue to keep you informed of any updates on this and any other arrangements that may be affected as a result of this industrial action.
- School Closure: Please note that the school will close on Friday 6th November for teacher inservice in the new Primary Curriculum.This date along with two others that we have been notified of later in the year have been added to our Aladdin calendar and our school calendar on our website.
- Dates for the diary: All dates for the diary this term are available to view on the Aladdin Connect app under ‘Calendar’.
Kind regards,
Maria Rogerson