Thursday 2nd April 2020

Dear school community

Important Dates * All dependent on length of current school closure

School Holidays – Monday 6th April to Friday 17th April inclusive – The school will close for holidays at 12.30pm on Friday 3rd April for all pupils and will re-open on Monday 20th April.

Friday 1st May – School Closure for staff training – The school will be closed for all pupils on Friday 1st May in order to facilitate Primary Language Curriculum staff training.  Our aftercare facility will open on that day should we have a minimum of 15 children booked in.

Junior Infant Hearing and Vision Screening Mon 11th – Thurs 14th May – Information will be sent home in school bags in advance of that date.

School Tours – We are currently finalising our school tours for this school year, which will be communicated out shortly after the Easter holidays.

6th Class Graduation – Wednesday 24th June 2020 at 6pm 

 

A note from Graham, Chairperson of the Board of Management

Dear Pupils, Parents and Staff,

As we approach Easter, we wanted to take the opportunity to wish you a restful and enjoyable break. We have all had to get used to a very new way of life over the last few weeks and it has been amazing to see how an entire community has managed to support itself and keep going in spite of the external challenges.

Firstly I would like to thank the outstanding work of the office staff Lisa and Alma – you are a constant in how you support all within the school community, your hard work and kindness does not go unnoticed, in particular during these challenging times.

Thank you to all parents and guardians who are delivering work at home and helping all of the children to continue to learn in new surroundings, it is not easy and it has necessitated the need to learn how best to approach it, but has also provided an opportunity to brush up on some areas for ourselves!

Thank you to all of the pupils who are challenged with learning in an environment that is very familiar but that is not school, it is not an easy adjustment, but you are demonstrating your amazing capabilities in continuing on where you left off – You are also doing a little teaching yourselves!

Thanks finally to our brilliant teachers for delivering work and maintaining consistency for the children under such difficult circumstances. The guidance you are sharing is appreciated by everyone and the fantastic work you do all year in preparing, shaping and developing the children is there for all to see – Thank you.

Best Wishes

Graham Byrne – Chairperson BOM

Coronavirus / Covid 19 – Department of Education and Skills – Information for schools, pre-schools and third level institutions on the Coronavirus. Includes access to supports for schools and teachers engaged in distance learning.  Also includes information on how to contact the Department of Education and Skills during the COVID-19 emergency.  https://www.education.ie/en/The-Department/Announcements/information-for-schools-preschools-and-third-level-institutions-on-the-coronavirus.html#15

Alternative learning activities – as we take a break from the daily schoolwork at home for the next two weeks, we thought it would be useful to share with you an alternative learning activities sheet to give you some ideas of activities to keep the children busy and engaged over the Easter break. Link attached – https://wicklowetns.com/parents/useful-links/

School Transport Applications 2020/2021 – Applications for School Transport for the new school year are currently open and can be accessed online at www.buseireann.ie/schooltransport.   The closing date for applications is Friday 24th April 2020.

Aftercare & extra-curricular refunds – All payments for aftercare bookings from 13th March onwards and extra-curricular classes missed due to the school closure were refunded last week.

Forest school & swimming – We are aware that families from a number of classes have made payment for forest school and swimming, which may now not take place. We will contact those families directly once we have a clear understanding of our return to school date.

Culture Week – From 2nd to 6th of March we celebrated Culture Week in our school. We are really proud of this week in Wicklow Educate Together, as it allows us to all come together to celebrate our rich cultural backgrounds. Some of the highlights of the week included: children with additional languages running language sessions with other classes; Rory’s class teaching us interesting sports from other countries like Takraw and Jianzi; buddy reading between junior/senior classes using bilingual and multicultural stories; watching and taking part in dances from around the world; learning about international artists; wearing traditional outfits; and playing board games from other countries.

Our highlight of the week was our International Fair and we were delighted to have embassy representation from Argentina, Colombia, The Netherlands, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Spain. We were also delighted to be featured on News2Day. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch here: https://twitter.com/news2dayRTE/status/1237431121870192642

Thank you to all our wonderful parents and staff who helped us to make this week one of the highlights on the school calendar.  We’re already planning our outfits for next year!  Alan & Louise :)

Lá Na Gaeilge – Bhí lá iontach againn – we had a wonderful day.  We had a table quizzes, baking, poster making competitions, DEAR in Irish, Irish Dancing Lessons with Claire and prizes for speaking Irish in the classroom, corridors and playground.  Comhghairdeas gach duine – congratulations everyone.  And don’t forget to make every day Lá Na Gaeilge.  ‘Má tá beagainí Gaeilge agat labhair í’ – If you have even a little bit of Irish, speak it.

Credit Union Quiz 4th Class – Congratulations to the children from 4th class (Charlie, Darragh, Sam and Cathal) who won the U10 Credit Union Quiz regional final. It was a fantastic achievement and is only the second time our school have qualified for the national finals. Well done to everyone involved.

FAI Soccer Blitz – Wicklow ET entered 3 teams for the annual FAI 5 a side football tournament in Greystones. Both the Boys and the Girls represented the school brilliantly and can be very proud of their performances. Sadly, we fell just short of qualifying for the next round but a great day was had by all.

Gaelic Football Blitz – Our 6th class boys played two 9 a-side Gaelic Football competitions in Bray against other schools from the county. They won the majority of their games and played with great skill and commitment. Well done to all involved!

Chess Tournament – Our school hosted the first County Wicklow primary school Fichelle chess tournament this year. Many of the children from the chess club were playing a tournament for the first time. Our 5th and 6th class won their age range and our 3rd and 4th class competed commendably in their age range…especially as most of the team were in 2nd class. It was a super day. Keep up the practice everyone!

Awesome Walls Climbing Competition – At the beginning of the month, some of the children from our school, participated in national climbing competition at Awesome Walls in Dublin. There were some super climbs and most of the children were far braver climbing the walls than their teachers would be! It was an extremely high standard and all the children who attended has a wonderful time. Well done to everyone.

PTA UPDATE

Thank you to all that baked for the Valentine’s Bake Sale. We raised €671.10. Thank you also to the people who volunteered on the day to help out with the bake sale. Your help is greatly appreciated.

If any parent would like to join the PTA Committee please contact me at [email protected]

Please note you will need to be Garda Vetted to help out in the school.

Thank you

Niamh

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Please keep up to date with information from Wicklow Educate Together NS which is available through weekly newsletter, texts to parents, school wide notices, notes in bags, homework diaries & school website wicklowetns.com. Wicklow Educate Together N.S. is not on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media. For any queries, questions or feedback please approach your child’s class teacher in the first instance or the school office Lisa (0404 62786) email [email protected] Please contact Sinead school principal for any further clarification or information  on [email protected] Please note that we will only promote school sanctioned events or those that benefit a registered charity in our newsletter. 

Admissions Junior Infants 2024 – Please note the following important information regarding admissions for Junior Infants 2024. Due to planned commencement of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act, 2018, Wicklow Educate Together National School will not accept pre-enrolment application forms for September 2024. A new Admission Policy will be approved with an annual admissions process for this intake group.