Dear Parents/Guardians, 09th February 2017
REMINDER: SCHOOL WILL ALSO BE CLOSED ON MON 27TH FEBRUARY DIRECTLY AFTER THE MID-TERM BREAK (20TH – 24TH FEB)
Parents Association Newsletter Piece
Valentines Bake Sale and Parents Coffee Morning will be held on Friday 17th February in the school hall. Volunteers will be needed on the day to help with the bake sale. Children will attend the bake sale throughout the day. Maximum spend per child €2. Please ensure baking contains NO NUTS OR STRAWBERRIES and if you make something allergy-tolerant please mark it accordingly. Your baked goods should be brought to the hall on the morning of the sale, please hang around if you can to join us for a cuppa and a chat. If you want your container back please mark with name and mobile number.
We are hoping to make a big Valentine impact for all the children in the hall on Friday morning so 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 Thursday 16th to help display them. For crafty inspiration: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/valentine-crafts/
We will be collecting decorations from the yard on Thurs 16th Feb morning weather permitting. The proceeds from the bake sale will be used to fund Parent Association National Parents Council membership, PA insurance and will fund PA events for the school year.
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 by Monday 13th.
Extra-Curricular Activities Programme Thank you to everyone for your support over the last two weeks during the rollout of our new extra-curricular activities programme. The list of children attending each activity is distributed to all classes each morning and our noticeboards downstairs & upstairs are also updated daily to ensure everyone is aware what classes are on each day and where those classes are taking place.
Science, athletics, chess, playball (junior & senior infants) and guitar are now full for term 1. If you wish to join the waiting list for any of these classes, please complete a registration form.
We have a small number of places available in playball (2.30 class), soccer and Irish Dancing (1.30 class). If you would like to register for any of these classes forms are available at Fran’s office.
We are delighted to confirm that Amber will be able to expand her arts and crafts class for junior and senior infants (1.30 class) from next week. I will be contacting parents/guardians already on this waiting list today to confirm places for next week.
We have also moved the 2.30 Arts & Crafts class from Wednesdays to Thursdays starting from today. If you would like to register for this class forms are available at Fran’s office.
We would like to advise parents/guardians that places in our extracurricular activities programme are only available to children who are pupils of Wicklow Educate Together NS.
We would ask that anyone who has not already paid the registration fees for term 1, please do so as soon as possible. Payment can be made by cheque or cash. Please drop envelopes for my attention into Fran’s office including child’s name and activity. You can also pay directly into our bank account specifically for Extra Curricular Activities Payments…
AIB – Abbey Street, Wicklow IBAN – IE34AIBK93361905417550 AIB – AIBKIE2D
Please ensure when making payment that you use your family name as the payment reference. Full details of our ECA programme can be found on our school website.
Many thanks Lisa [email protected]
Internet Safety Week/Stay Safe Many of the classes in school have been learning about internet safety and a workshop for all pupils from 2nd -6th class will take place in school on Friday 31 March. This workshop is provided by Zeeko and will cover cyberbullying, inappropriate content, social media, digital stranger danger and data privacy, for further information please visit the website at zeeko.ie
Additionally we have been made aware that some of these issues may be effecting some of our pupils. If there is a particular area that you feel an expert could cover please let us know at [email protected], and we can make that request on your behalf.
Zeeko also run parent workshops if you would be interested in attending please let us know by email or there is a sign up sheet at Fran’s office. If we get enough interest we will book a workshop for parents in the summer term.
Code of Behaviour Behaviour policy-many thanks to all parents who completed the survey on our behaviour policy, this survey will close tomorrow, Friday 10 February, if you haven’t had a chance to do so please click here to complete the short survey https://goo.gl/forms/NIS4lE4J8i7cPrQC2
| Code of behaviour
goo.gl We are currently reviewing the school’s code of behaviour and would really appreciate if you could take a few minutes to complete this questionnaire |
Healthy Eating Please be reminded that the school encourages health lunches. Please do not give your child crisps, high/sugar fizzy drinks, sweets or chocolate. Friday is treat day and children are invited to bring in a small treat if they wish. Also, please remember that due to a number of children with allergies in our school we are not in a position to allow strawberries or nuts, including extracts.
1st Year School Bus Transport Possibilities For North Wicklow Secondary Educate Together School If you’re considering sending your child to the North Wicklow Secondary Educate Together School next year, you might be interested in joining a group who is trying to co-ordinate organising a school bus run from the Wicklow Area.
Siobhán Dunne (a sixth class parent) has already been in touch with Bus Eireann with regard to this and wants to pass on the following details to anyone concerned.
a). There must be at least 10 children requesting this service before Bus Eireann will even consider it. b). Individual applications need to be made by parents directly by email to Bus Eireann by tomorrow, Friday – Deposit €150.
Siobhan has offered to be a contact point for this group. So, if you are interested and want full details, please contact Siobhán directly on 086-0781912 as soon as possible.
Sundries Reminder to anyone who has yet to pay for their children’s sundries for this school year. Please pay as soon as possible. Individual reminders will issue shortly to those who are still outstanding.
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].
Credit Union Quiz The credit union quiz took place on the 27th of January in St. Patrick’s GAA club. Our school sent two teams to the quiz, one from 4th class and one team from 6th class. Leading up to the quiz both teams put great time and effort into preparing for the quiz with the help of Eamonn. The night of the quiz arrived and there was great excitement in the club. There was the quiz area set up and all the schools from the town were represented and a spectator’s area for parents/guardians and teachers.
As a school, we are so proud of our students for answering some very tricky questions and finishing joint 3rd and joint 6th respectively. We were even prouder of the way the students conducted themselves during the quiz, they represented themselves and the school superbly. So, a massive well done to Aoife, Luke, Michael and Odhrán from 6th class and to Odhrán, Sonny, Holly and Caelin from 4th class. Well done guys.
Finally, we would like to thank Wicklow Credit union for a brilliantly organised and fun filled evening.
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.