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Nuachtlitir Mí Feabhra
Punctuality & Attendance:
Some pupils are indeed repeatedly late for school. I ask that you make every effort possible to have your child in school on time. Pupils can only start arriving from 8.50am onwards (as there is no insurance covered before this), where I supervise them in the yard. On wet days they are allowed enter the school building.
I accept that there can be genuine reasons for pupils being late. If such a situation arises a brief note of explanation is required. I encourage you to send your child to school, no matter how late it is. I would much prefer to see them in school, having arrived late, than for them to stay at home all day.
The school year only consists of 183 days and all pupils should be at school for all of these days. If a pupil misses 20 days in a school year I have to report this fact to the National Education Welfare Board.
If a pupil misses 20 days each year for their time at school then they will have missed close to a full year
(8 x 20days) of school. Their performance at school work will inevitably suffer as a result.
“It is important that parents realise that patterns of non-attendance are habit- forming. In other words, a child who misses school regularly in primary is more likely to go on missing school in secondary and is also more likely to drop out of school.” Eddie Ward, Chief Executive of the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB).
School Uniform:
I hope to see all pupils wearing their uniforms and tracksuits during the school year. They are very smart and we have had many comments on how well the children look with their school uniforms on. Full school uniform to be worn – including ties – to be worn Monday – Wednesday and School Tracksuits only, to be worn on Thursday and Friday. Please adhere to this.
Parking at school gates
The start of the school day is busy and many parents are rushing to try and drop children off before doing other things, so we would like to ask parents to leave the two parking bays on either side of the gates free from parked cars. This will now be classed as a set down area only. If you want to park your car please leave it further down the line. Please think of others when parking your cars.
Healthy Eating:
Parents please adhere to our Healthy Eating Policy. Do not send in chocolate bars/crisps with your children. It is unfair to pupils and parents who do follow our policy.
A healthy lunchbox includes a piece of food from the first four shelves of the food pyramid. An example of a healthy lunch might be:
a sandwich, a yogurt, some pieces of fruit and a drink of milk, juice or indeed water.
Foods that are not recommended include the following: (These may be allowed on special occasions Christmas, birthday etc...)
Fizzy drinks, sweets,
bars, chocolate,
Biscuits and crisps.
To encourage the pupils to try their best during the week we will allow one treat-size bar on Fridays.
This policy has been a tremendous success over the last number of years and it is up to all parents to keep up the good work.
Grass
The children will be on the playground now for the foreseeable future as the grass has become very muddy and patchy and as a result of this the children are bringing the grass and mud into the school, onto the carpets, and also home with them!. As the children are off the grass it will be reseeded and hopefully have a chance to re grow.
G.A.A. Coaches:
Our GAA Coaches have been with us now for two weeks and will be with us till the mid term break. They will return to the school again in April again on a Thursday and they will be giving hurling coaching to all classes. The infants will only be using very small hurls and will use bean bags to start off with to learn the proper skills. Please be assured that the coaching will be carefully controlled and safety will be very important with all our pupils. If pupils have hurls and helmets at home they can bring them in on these days, if not they will be supplied by the school and coaches.
Swimming:
All senior classes are enjoying swimming, some are forgetting bits and pieces. Where possible, maybe a hat for your child might be a good idea as it can get very cold especially with wet hair.
Pupils Achievements
Congratulations to Jack Byrne who won €100 in the Credit Union Incentive Savings Scheme. Also congratulations to Oscar McGrath who won the Spelling Bee competition for his class. He now goes on to represent Camolin National School in the National Spelling Bee run by Eason and RTE. We have introduced an ‘achievements’ board in our school as we are very proud of our pupils.
Vol. Contribution:
The amount for this term is €25 per family. Please make every effort to pay this money as we have a lot of extra bills to pay. Please pay your voluntary contribution as soon as possible in whatever way you want.
Daily Mirror Book Tokens
We will be starting to collect Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror book tokens from Saturday 4th February – Sunday 13th February. Just two tokens will allow us one book so hopefully we will be able to collect a good amount and receive some lovely ladybird books for our classrooms.
Enrolments
We are now taking enrolments for the new school year Sept 2012 - 2013. Enrolment forms will be available from the office between
9am – 12 noon Mon – Fri. If you know of anyone who will be starting the school please let them know that these are available.
Recycling drive
Our local clothing recyclers are collecting again on the 23rd February. There will be a leaflet going out nearer the time. Please have a root around at home and help us raise some money for the school. We are also collecting old used batteries also, each classroom has been provided with a box to store these.
Newspaper Initiative
Thank you for your support with the newspaper initiative. The recycle bin that was full over Christmas has now been emptied. Please continue to use our container to recycle your old newspapers. In the next few weeks we will be organising a collection unwanted electrical items. Let us know if you have anything and more details will follow in the coming weeks.