Dear Parents/Guardians,               06th February 2017

REMINDER: SCHOOL WILL ALSO BE CLOSED ON MON 27TH FEB  DIRECTLY AFTER THE MID-TERM BREAK (20TH – 24TH FEB)

Parents Association Newsletter Piece                                                                      Thank you to all members of the school community who came to the AGM last week. Minutes to follow.

A). Valentines Bake Sale and Parents’ Coffee Morning will be held on Friday 17th February in the school hall after drop off. Get your mid- term off to a sugar fuelled start!! Volunteers will be needed on the day to help with the bake sale. For those of you looking for rainy day activities we’d gratefully accept your crafty decorations to decorate the hall and will be looking for volunteers on the evening of Thurs 16th February                  For crafty inspiration:      https://www.pinterest.com/explore/valentine-crafts/

B). Engineers Week 4th-10th March, we will be running some classroom engineering projects for all the children. Their construction skills will be put to the test with Doodlebugs, spaghetti towers and paper bridges!!!

C). St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2017, volunteers sought to help plan and organise this year’s WETNS entry to the St Patrick’s Day Parade. Please sign up at Fran’s office.

D). National Parents Council free online sessions currently available in Internet Safety for Parents and Help your Child Build Healthy Friendships and Relationships     http://www.npc.ie/news.aspx

After-School Activities Programme.                                                                                                                   Our after-school activities got off to a great start. With over 150 children now registered in 13 classes, last week was very busy getting sorted so thank you for your patience and understanding. We expect classes to run very smoothly from now on with all the children knowing where they’ve to go and  the instructors are all set up.

If you’re still interested in registering your child for a class, please email [email protected] and Lisa will do her best to accommodate you. Application forms and updated timetables are available at the main office and on the school website. Payment would be greatly appreciated from those who have not yet done so.

Trip To Glencree                                                                                                 Tomorrow, Tues 07th February, Edele’s 6th Class will get the chance to visit the Aurora Centre in Glencree for a Writing Workshop. A note is going home in your child’s school bag tonight.

  1. Sub-Committee                                                                                            One of the core pillars of the Educate Together ethos is that a school is democratically-run. The Board of Management have been reviewing ways in which this happens in practice and is keen that members of the whole school community feel that they have the opportunity to contribute to the continued growth of WETNS. One practical way of ensuring that we are working democratically is to formalise and promote the role of working groups and sub-committees that invite membership and involvement from across the school community.

A working-group or subcommittee may be set up from time-to-time to address a particular issue or to advance the completion of a specific project. The main difference between the two is that a working-group is time-limited: it will usually be set up for a certain period of time and will cease to exist when a project has been completed. A sub-committee may run indefinitely. There are a number of groups such as these operating at the moment in the school to do with grants for arts, the school garden, etc. We are in the process of setting up a new sub-committee which will be called the ‘Mobility sub-committee’. The brief of this group is three-fold:to promote healthy & sustainable modes of transit to school; to review current drop-off/pick-up processes; and to work with and lobby external agencies such as Wicklow County Council to enhance health & safety issues on the public roads and paths in the immediate vicinity of the school.

If anyone would like to be part of the Mobility Sub-committee, please express your interest by email, or in person, to either Janice (Doyle) or Jerry (O’Neill): [email protected] or [email protected].

Personal Request:                                                                                                                               I am looking for someone who can help me with the logistics of getting my 8 year old daughter to and from school, with perhaps some after school minding til 6pm. We live in Newtownmountkennedy. Hopefully starting after the February mid-term break i.e.from Tues 28th February until the end of school year. Contact Deirdre 086 892 8933.

Library – Volunteers needed                                                                                                                Could you give an hour or so during the week? We need help to label & catalogue books for the library. Please come in at one of the following times and we will show you our current system: Monday or Wednesday at 9am or Fri at 9.40am. Thank you.