Hi All!

Please find an update re events in the school .It has been a very busy half term!

• Friendship Week-The children have been grouped all week for Friendship Week-they play in groups with a child from each class-Infants-6th daily. This has worked out really well. The older children are leading the groups.

All the children are learning new skills regarding communication, friendship and also there are a lots of positive peer interactions. Thanks Becky for sorting out all groupings.

• Friendship bracelets are on sale in aid of Amnesty International .The Student Council will sell them at the front of the school and children can bring in 2 euro if they wish.

Short assembly led by Shane’s class (4^th) tomorrow morning

• Spelling Bee Competition-knock out competition took place today with 5th and 6th class-Chloe Hansen will represent the school. Well done!
• Empowering Parents Course-thanks to Fiona and Gearoid for their input here-contact Gearoid for further info
• Peace Prom-the choir sang at the peace Proms in the HELIX the weekend before last. Thanks to Fiona Rachael and Maria who brought them and gave up some of their weekend to do this. They were great!
• Debating-congrats to those who made the team-Eoin from Colum’s, Eva from 6^th, Livia from Kevin’s and Chloe and Ciana from Karl and Colum’s who are timekeepers and chairpersons. Thanks to Kevin and Viv for organising the debating. We are entering a competition and a friendly debate took place today –see below

-St Fiachra’ SNS, Beaumont   -Children should be allowed to have TVs in their bedroom   (FOR)

St. Francis of Assisi Primary School -Children should be allowed to have TVs in their bedroom (AGAINST)

Winners St Fiachras

-Belmayne ETNS -There should be an hour of exercise every day in school   (FOR)

-St Brigid’s Glasnevin- There should be an hour of exercise every day in school (AGAINST)

Winner St Brigid’s

• Gardening Club with Viv is now full. If anyone wants to go on the waiting list they can
• Afterschool clubs-info will be given after midterm

Credit Union Quiz Competition

• Senior Credit Union Quiz team (Ellie, Isobelle, Vedh, Emaan and Jan) finished in 2nd place in the local round of the quiz and missed out by just 1 point from qualifying for the next round.
• Junior Credit Union Quiz team (Oisín Mc, James, Darragh Johnson, Caoimhe and Anton) finished in 1st place in the local round and will be representing the school in the regional final on the 5th of March.
• School Calendar-The Dept released the calendar for 2017/2018 yesterday. I am aware people are waiting to book holidays and flights for 2017/2018.
• Please note-there are a few dates around the bank holidays I need to finalise-three days that are not included. I will give you the full calendar next week but the definite holidays are as follows-

-Return to school August 30th 2017. Junior Infants start at 9 on the first morning.

-October Midterm 2017 30th October to 3rd Nov inclusive-school closed

-Xmas Break 2017-last day of school-Dec 22nd return Monday 8th of Jan

-Feb Midterm 2018-Closed midterm Monday 12-Fri 16th of Feb

-Easter Holidays 2018– last day of school -March 23rd and return April 9th

-Last day of school-June 29th 2018

• P/T meetings are in place all this week. Ronan’s will take place after midterm.
• Enrolments-we have large waiting list for enrolments-up to 300 for some years-can you ensure that all siblings are enrolled. The only classes that we have availability is fifth class
• New SEN Model-a new allocation system of support for children with needs is being put in place this year. Therefore we won’t be applying for support for individual children and there will not be an allocation of hours per child any more. Prior we would receive a diagnosis, apply for support and a child for eg with ASD would receive 4.25 hours a week from a resource teacher.

Now the school will simply be allocated a support team fixed for two years and have to work with all the children in the school. Schools are very nervous re this as an allocation that for us for eg that is given this year does not include maybe five diagnoses and new enrolments with increased numbers and we will be expected to work with this for two years. However as we have not received this allocation yet we will wait and see how we are provided for-we may be pleasantly surprised!!! I will update you re at the AGM

• Supervision-I just want to remind parents children are not supervised until handover at 8.30 in the morning
• Website Our website will be undergoing some significant updates over the next 3 weeks. As a result, the website will be inaccessible for a short time during the February midterm. When we return to school, the new website may temporarily have some broken links or empty pages while we update the content on the new site. We apologise for any inconvenience caused but ask that you bear with us as we perform these essential updates. Many thanks to Bryan McMahon for his invaluable help with this. We hope you enjoy the new and improved website!
• Hot Chocolate /flavoured milk day-the SC have been organising this along with Gearoid and some parents monthly-Gearoid and Lavinia were put through their paces last week-the children are really enjoying this!
• School Building -Throughout this process the PC will be very important as a core group for the BOM to run ideas by so anyone who has an interest should put themselves forward this year at the AGM as it will be busy but exciting!!
• Update re school and correspondence from the Dept below.

The school building project for Belmayne ETNS RN:20308Q has been assigned to this section for inclusion on the Department’s Design & Build Programme for delivery in 2018. As you are aware, Planning permission has already been secured under the previous Traditional Design Team so the tender and construction stage will be handed by the Rapid Section.

It is the intention of the Department to call both yourselves and St Francis of Assissi (as this will be a joint project delivered under the one contract) to an information meeting on the rapid process in the next 2 – 3 weeks. This will cover the process of delivery and other queries you may have.   I will also have details of other similar schools built under the rapid process for you on the day.

Upcoming Dates

• Midterm-the school will close next week for midterm
• March-
• 2nd ISM and PC/BOM get together –Hilton Hotel
• 6TH Wellbeing Week
• 9 Staff Meeting
• 13th-16th Seachtain na Geailge(Joe)-Ceili on the 16th
• 16th ISM
• 17th School Closed
• 23rd School Disco-Hilton 4th-6th-6.45-8pm
• 24th March-Walk and Picnic
• 30th ISM /AGM

Have a lovely midterm. Talk soon

Sinéad