Subject: Newsletter and Update
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We have a lot of news for you this Monday afternoon, including, sadly, a further delay with moving in to our new school building. The Department of Education and Skills has explained a few minutes ago that while October 6th is the new date for moving into our school building, the Project Managers are currently waiting for back-up documentation to show the builders can achieve that date.
In the meantime we are prepared with several strategies/events set out below to maximise the amount of time classes, without a full-time classroom, can use a classroom:
Thank you: I'd like to thank all of you, parents of Senior Infants who turned up to support the coffee morning for new parents when we re-opened on September 4th. It was a great turn out and a lovely time was had by all. Thank you also to parent Alistair (Thacker) for donation of chairs and lots more furniture for our new school building.
Rugby on September 26th: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Classes will partake in rugby sessions.
Move It Mornings return 27th September: Dora will re-start our Move It Mornings on Wednesday 27th September at 8.20am in the school yard. Be there and join in the fun of movement and also encourage all the children to join in. If any of you would like to lead a Move It Morning please give me a call and we'll get Garda Vetting sorted so as you can start asap.
Photographs 27th September: Photographer Vincent McNamara will be in our school on Wednesday 27th September to take photos of the children, individually and in their classes. This year he will offer more of the smaller items as these were requested by parents: including keyrings with the option of 4 wallet sized photos and two keyrings for €15 and also the class name and date on class photo with children’s names added if required.
National Fitness Day 29th September: All classes will be active more often than not all day. We'll be making great progress on our run to France too. So be sure to be in P.E. gear.
Choir: As we are sharing classrooms etc at the moment we've decided choir will recommence after the mid-term break when we will be well established in our new building.
After School Classes: The Board of Management has asked the school to go ahead and arrange the rental of the school hall / classrooms for after school classes and we are very happy to let you know there will be after school classes in Art, Ballet, Drama, Irish Dancing, Gaelic Football and classes for Catholic Faith on offer for starting after the mid-term and we are looking into getting music / sport / science classes organised too so as to ensure a balance. If you know of a teacher interested in doing classes in our school please ask them to call me on 087 330 1332.
Facebook Page: The Board of Management has asked the school to direct families to the official school Facebook Page which is now being administered by Rachael (Byrne) our Deputy Principal and Teacher of Senior Infants.
PGTA: The Parents', Guardians' and Teachers' Association of our school will be holding the A.G.M. in October as soon as we're settled into our new school building. Please start thinking now about volunteering to get involved in some way on the committee. Your help is needed now more than ever as there is so much to do for our new building. I'd also like to add what I was explaining to parents of Junior Infants at their meeting last Wednesday: i.e. when our PGTA was being formed in 2014 the parents and staff met and agreed to have a PGTA including teachers rather than an association for parents alone, because we are all in this school together with the sole aim of ensuring the children are happy and learning to their best potential. So, please do come along to the A.G.M. and get involved.
Number of Enrolments: As we have not reached the enrolment numbers of 178 or 182 to keep two or three teachers respectively we are set to lose two teachers at the end of October. We are ready to appeal the situation following the deadline for reaching the required number on September 30th.
S.E.T. Special Education Teaching: We are setting up the new model for S.E.T. in our school and currently assessing children to ensure every child who needs support receives it and we will be arranging to meet with parents in the coming days/weeks.
If there's anything you would like to discuss please give me a call on 087 330 1332 and I look forward to getting back to everyone with a confirmed date for moving into our school building.
Very best regards,
Collette
Collette Dunne: Principal Firhouse ETNS
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We have a lot of news for you this Monday afternoon, including, sadly, a further delay with moving in to our new school building. The Department of Education and Skills has explained a few minutes ago that while October 6th is the new date for moving into our school building, the Project Managers are currently waiting for back-up documentation to show the builders can achieve that date.
In the meantime we are prepared with several strategies/events set out below to maximise the amount of time classes, without a full-time classroom, can use a classroom:
- Forest School went extremely well last week and many thanks to parent Rachel (Freeman) for organising it with Rachael our teacher as well as all of you who were able to send in gardening tools at short notice. We will run Forest School each Thursday and so ask you to loan gardening tools again next Thursday 28th September when classes will also do a litter clean-up of the grounds and surrounding park as part of our Green Schools Initiative.
- Visit by 1st, 2nd and 3rd Classes to St. Enda's Park, House and Monumental Follies in Rathfarnham on 4th October and the only cost will be for the bus which we will send out shortly.
- Yoga Classes for !st, 2nd and 3rd Classes will take place on Wednesday 27th September and for Infant Classes on Wednesday 4th October in the hall of Firhouse Community Centre at a cost of €2 per child to be brought in by the children on the day.
- Junior Infants will join together for Aistear (learning through play) thus giving a classroom to 1st Class and similarly Senior Infants will join together for Aistear / music and drama giving 3rd Class a classroom. This way 2nd class has their classroom in the community centre for most of the day.
- We'll hold assemblies / friendship buddy chats / Zuu Chimps etc. for Senior classes in Community Centre and then at a different time for the four Junior classes thus freeing up classrooms for use.
Thank you: I'd like to thank all of you, parents of Senior Infants who turned up to support the coffee morning for new parents when we re-opened on September 4th. It was a great turn out and a lovely time was had by all. Thank you also to parent Alistair (Thacker) for donation of chairs and lots more furniture for our new school building.
Rugby on September 26th: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Classes will partake in rugby sessions.
Move It Mornings return 27th September: Dora will re-start our Move It Mornings on Wednesday 27th September at 8.20am in the school yard. Be there and join in the fun of movement and also encourage all the children to join in. If any of you would like to lead a Move It Morning please give me a call and we'll get Garda Vetting sorted so as you can start asap.
Photographs 27th September: Photographer Vincent McNamara will be in our school on Wednesday 27th September to take photos of the children, individually and in their classes. This year he will offer more of the smaller items as these were requested by parents: including keyrings with the option of 4 wallet sized photos and two keyrings for €15 and also the class name and date on class photo with children’s names added if required.
National Fitness Day 29th September: All classes will be active more often than not all day. We'll be making great progress on our run to France too. So be sure to be in P.E. gear.
Choir: As we are sharing classrooms etc at the moment we've decided choir will recommence after the mid-term break when we will be well established in our new building.
After School Classes: The Board of Management has asked the school to go ahead and arrange the rental of the school hall / classrooms for after school classes and we are very happy to let you know there will be after school classes in Art, Ballet, Drama, Irish Dancing, Gaelic Football and classes for Catholic Faith on offer for starting after the mid-term and we are looking into getting music / sport / science classes organised too so as to ensure a balance. If you know of a teacher interested in doing classes in our school please ask them to call me on 087 330 1332.
Facebook Page: The Board of Management has asked the school to direct families to the official school Facebook Page which is now being administered by Rachael (Byrne) our Deputy Principal and Teacher of Senior Infants.
PGTA: The Parents', Guardians' and Teachers' Association of our school will be holding the A.G.M. in October as soon as we're settled into our new school building. Please start thinking now about volunteering to get involved in some way on the committee. Your help is needed now more than ever as there is so much to do for our new building. I'd also like to add what I was explaining to parents of Junior Infants at their meeting last Wednesday: i.e. when our PGTA was being formed in 2014 the parents and staff met and agreed to have a PGTA including teachers rather than an association for parents alone, because we are all in this school together with the sole aim of ensuring the children are happy and learning to their best potential. So, please do come along to the A.G.M. and get involved.
Number of Enrolments: As we have not reached the enrolment numbers of 178 or 182 to keep two or three teachers respectively we are set to lose two teachers at the end of October. We are ready to appeal the situation following the deadline for reaching the required number on September 30th.
S.E.T. Special Education Teaching: We are setting up the new model for S.E.T. in our school and currently assessing children to ensure every child who needs support receives it and we will be arranging to meet with parents in the coming days/weeks.
If there's anything you would like to discuss please give me a call on 087 330 1332 and I look forward to getting back to everyone with a confirmed date for moving into our school building.
Very best regards,
Collette
Collette Dunne: Principal Firhouse ETNS
