Hello Everyone,
Firstly I'd like to note our thanks and appreciation to Dr. Declan Fahie, our outgoing chairperson. Declan will always be dear to our hearts as the first Chairperson of our school's first Board of Management. He inspired our hugely successful coffee-morning for politicians and spoke so engagingly at all our meetings and events. I know we all agree we owe a great big "Thank You" to Declan for all the time, energy, guidance and advice he has so generously given to our school.Let me take this opportunity to wish Declan all the very best for the future and we look forward to keeping in touch and inviting him to our school building opening.
Secondly I'd like to welcome our new Chairperson, Francis Fullen, on board. Francis has a wealth of experience as Chairperson of Griffith Barracks Multi-Denominational School, which is also a member of Educate Together. We look forward to working with him to develop our great little school at this crucial stage when we are about to move premises, in the Summer, to our permanent site.
Many of you had the opportunity of meeting Francis at our open meeting on February 11th for all current and future parents/guardians of Firhouse ETNS pupils to discuss proposed changes to our school's Enrolment Policy.
The changes discussed at the meeting have been sent to our patron Educate Together who will present them to the Enrolment Policy Board at their next meeting. Educate Together's response to the proposed changes will be notified to everyone. The two changes to the policy may be, as discussed at the meeting: 1. Sibling Priority and 2. Children for future years must be aged 4 years by May 1st of the year they will start school in Junior Infant Classes. The catchment area, which is assigned by the Department of Education and Skills, was discussed at length at the meeting, as was the proposed lottery system which was not agreed upon.
In addition, there are many many things happening in our school:
Let me know if you think of anything I may have left out. :-))
Again, thank you all for your help and support and simply for being part of our great little school.
Very best regards,
Collette
Firstly I'd like to note our thanks and appreciation to Dr. Declan Fahie, our outgoing chairperson. Declan will always be dear to our hearts as the first Chairperson of our school's first Board of Management. He inspired our hugely successful coffee-morning for politicians and spoke so engagingly at all our meetings and events. I know we all agree we owe a great big "Thank You" to Declan for all the time, energy, guidance and advice he has so generously given to our school.Let me take this opportunity to wish Declan all the very best for the future and we look forward to keeping in touch and inviting him to our school building opening.
Secondly I'd like to welcome our new Chairperson, Francis Fullen, on board. Francis has a wealth of experience as Chairperson of Griffith Barracks Multi-Denominational School, which is also a member of Educate Together. We look forward to working with him to develop our great little school at this crucial stage when we are about to move premises, in the Summer, to our permanent site.
Many of you had the opportunity of meeting Francis at our open meeting on February 11th for all current and future parents/guardians of Firhouse ETNS pupils to discuss proposed changes to our school's Enrolment Policy.
The changes discussed at the meeting have been sent to our patron Educate Together who will present them to the Enrolment Policy Board at their next meeting. Educate Together's response to the proposed changes will be notified to everyone. The two changes to the policy may be, as discussed at the meeting: 1. Sibling Priority and 2. Children for future years must be aged 4 years by May 1st of the year they will start school in Junior Infant Classes. The catchment area, which is assigned by the Department of Education and Skills, was discussed at length at the meeting, as was the proposed lottery system which was not agreed upon.
In addition, there are many many things happening in our school:
- great parental involvement in Junior and Senior Infants for Maths and Literacy; let us know if you'd like to join in
- Stuart (parent of Conor in Junior Infants) has been in school for many hours during mid-term ensuring our internet access is working; Thank You so so much Stuart.
- committees to review our school's English Plan and Code of Behaviour met on February 3rd and will meet again on February 24th; it is hoped to have updates to send to all parents shortly;
- Alive-O classes (Catholic Faith Formation) commenced in January; they are facilitated by teacher Carmel Corcoran and take place in our Senior Infant classroom between 13:10 and 14:10; (please note there will be no class on Wednesday 4th March)
- PGTA is organising a fundraiser 'Night' in April and more details will be posted here very soon
- PGTA will also be looking for a volunteer to join the committee
- Hoopskool: Gillian did three weeks of basketball training with Junior and Senior Infants in January which was much enjoyed by all and the focus on 'encouraging others' was a joy to watch
- Adam form St Anne's GAA is back with us on Wednesday mornings and will continue for the remainder of the school year; St Anne's will also facilitate our school for a Sports' Day in June: this was a huge success last year and we look forward to all those fun events again... including the adults versus students tug-o-war!
- Nollaig and Peter from Thomas Davis GAA are currently coming in for six weeks on Fridays and their obstacle course is proving a big hit!
- Chatterbox with Redfield Educate Together Academy in Bristol is continuing via Skype, although no internet access in the last week before mid-term meant no chatterbox. However, thanks to Stuart, we're all set for next week
- After school music classes are in the process of being organised; if you're interested please let us or PGTA know
Let me know if you think of anything I may have left out. :-))
Again, thank you all for your help and support and simply for being part of our great little school.
Very best regards,
Collette
