Dear Parents/Guardians, 22nd March 2017
Paper copies of the newsletter are available beside the new noticeboards in the main Foyer.
IMPORTANT REMINDER: School will close early at 12.30 on Friday 7th April and will remain closed for the Easter holidays up to and including Friday 21st April. All school buses have been informed.
A special thank you to Tara Crawford and Ciaran Cussen for organising the ariel view photo of Brendan’s name. The children were delighted to participate on the day.
Dear Parents/Guardians,
As you know we have been reviewing the Positive Behaviour policy. Thank you very much to all of you who took the time to reply to the questionnaire. This was part of a process in which everyone in the school community was involved. Pupils from Junior Infants to Second class spoke about positive behaviour with their teachers and pupils from 3rd to 6th class completed a questionnaire. Staff also completed a questionnaire and the policy was discussed at staff meetings. Following this consultation, the Board of Management have prepared a draft document which can be accessed here (https://wicklowetns.com/2017/03/29/1021/). If you have any further feedback, please let us know by the 14th of April. The revised policy will be ratified at the next meeting of the Board.
Friendship Fortnight Friendship Fortnight is underway and will run over the next two weeks. This will be a themed fortnight in our school where we will celebrate all that is wonderful about good friends! Classes will be engaged in lessons to explore and enhance friendship and the fortnight will culminate in a themed assembly for children and staff.
Purple Day remains a very important day in the school calendar. It is a day of both celebration and remembrance – an opportunity to remember friends past and present. Children and staff are invited to wear something purple on Friday 7th April and to bring a €2 donation for the Wicklow Hospice Foundation.
Extra-Curricular Activities Term 1 of our extra-curricular activities programme will finish on Thursday 6th April for all classes except Irish Dancing, which will finish today Thursday 30th March. Term 2 will begin on Monday 24th April (the day the school reopens after our Easter holidays) and will run until Thursday 22rd June. All our existing classes will continue for term 2. We are also delighted to confirm that we have added Yoga to the timetable for the new term. Registration for term 2 will open at 9am until 10.00am on Monday 3rd April. Tuesday 4th April and Wednesday 5th April. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me [email protected]
Swimming Next Thursday 6th April swimming lessons will finish for our 3rd and 5th class pupils. Immediately after the Easter holidays both 2nd and 4th classes will begin their swimming term. We continue to walk to the pool and parents are asked to collect their children at 2.40 promptly from the pool. It is very important that every child participates in swimming lessons. There may be children who are unable to swim because of medical difficulties. Parents of these children should contact the Principal immediately. On swimming days please make sure that your child has their swimming togs, hat and towel coming to school and dresses in clothes that are easy to manage. T-shirts, long/denim type shorts are not allowed in the pool. Please remember no hat – no swim!
Swimming for term 3 will be for both 2ND classes on Thursdays from 27th April – 29th June.
4th classes will also swim in Term 3 but on Wednesdays (26 April-28 June) at 11am – during the school day.
Events and Projects We would appeal to all parents to channel suggestions for events and projects through the elected Parent Association Committee or the relevant sub-committee.
Suggestions from pupils are channelled through the Student Council and those from the Staff are communicated during Staff Meetings.
By following these channels of communication and organisation, the Board, the Principal and the relevant Staff efficiently fulfil their responsibility of ensuring that the events selected are safe, insured, not running contrary to any current contracts and enhance either the delivery of the curriculum or the development of the school community.
Every event consumes Board or staff liaison time. Many events take place during curriculum time. For these reasons, there must be a limit to the number of events and projects which can be run during any school year. And there is always the following year.
Please continue to come up with wonderful ideas and please be understanding of the responsibilities and priorities listed above.
Thank you,
PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION PIECE Parent volunteers sought to help out with teas, coffees, guides etc for the New Parents Evening for next year’s Junior Infants 2017/18. If you can help out, please come at 6.15pm on 4th April.
The PA is currently working on updating the parent’s area of the school’s website. If you wish to contact the Parents Association in relation to any issues related to the PA, please use the email address [email protected] Minutes of the PA meetings will be in this area on the website shortly.
“From the Heart” Arts Night
A number of parents from our school are running an Arts Night entitled ‘From the Heart’ and this will take place on Friday April 7th at 8pm in Wicklow Sailing Club. See below from the organisers for further information.
Our school community includes so many wonderfully talented musicians, singers, artists, writers, filmmakers, photographers, quilters… you name it, our school has it! To celebrate that talent, we are holding another arts night.
So if you like to sing in the shower, recite along the river, paint in the park, or if you know of new members of our school community who might be interested in performing or showing their work, please spread the word! At our last event, we had performances by singers, musicians, poets, writers, a whole band comprised of parents from the school, and also showed the work of several artists and filmmakers.
As with the first two From the Heart nights, there will be a five euro cover charge at the door, with all funds going to the school; we’ll also hold a raffle again, so if anyone would like to donate any prizes please let us know! We hope that you’ll all join us for a night of art and entertainment, whether as audience members or participants on what is a lovely night out for parents and guardians of the school community. Best wishes,
Oona (086.8366.247) and Vanessa (086.898.255)
Shamwari Arts Easter Arts & Crafts Camp – 4 Day Camp €85.00 & €10.00 discount for 2nd child *Creative crafting *Felting *Printmaking *Sculpture*Mixed Media *Collage *Plus lots more fun activities! Our fun & imaginative arts programme is designed to nurture, inspire & stimulate children’s imagination. At Shamwari Arts we encourage each child to tap into their creative-self in a warm, friendly & stimulating environment.
Date: Mon. 10th – Thurs. 13th April
Time: 10.00am – 2.00pm
Venue: Wicklow Educate Together NS
For bookings contact Siobhan 087 799 1221 or Shanon 087 973 7739
email [email protected] Facebook Shamwari arts www.shamwariarts.com Book now, limited places, Garda Vetted.
Morning Routine – A gentle reminder
8:40: Yard Gates open & supervision is provided in the yard until 9am. Children gather and gradually line up.
(Wet mornings: Pupils come into the yard and then into the hall. They line up immediately as it is not safe for 360 pupils to run around in a confined space, wearing wet shoes.)
8:50: School starts. Teachers collect their classes from the yard. The middle door in the yard stays open and is supervised until 9am. The Reception door opens for people who have business in the school office.
(Wet mornings: School starts. Teachers collect their classes from the hall. The hall door stays open and is supervised until 9am.)
9am: The yard door closes. Any pupils arriving after this time should come in by the Reception door and sign in.
Garda Vetting Any parent who is helping out in the school, and who has not already been Garda Vetted for our school, is invited to apply for this now. The process is quite simple. Please collect a form from Fran at the school office. Please complete the form in blue pen and bring it to the school office with photo ID (Passport or driving licence) and proof of address (a utility bill).
Library Notice Thank you so much to our two new volunteers. Our cataloguing and covering is progressing nicely and we are starting to roll out use of the library system with a pilot group of pupils. We could still do with more help as we would like to have more books for them to choose from and we still have a large volume waiting to be catalogued and covered.
Times to help:
- Mon, Wed from 9am and Fri mornings from 9.40
- Every second Monday from 7.45pm to 9.30pm. Mon 20th March; Mon 3rd April;
If you have already been shown what to do, you can come in at any time that suits you. Please contact Paula in advance if you can come on a Monday evening.
School Transport Applications 2017/2018 Bus Éireann’s on-line application system for school transport is now open for the 2017/2018 school year. The closing date is Friday 28th April 2017. Apply on-line www.buseireann.ie
Zeeko Internet Workshop This workshop will take place in school on Friday 31st March for 2nd -6th class pupils. The workshop will cover cyberbullying, inappropriate content, social media, digital stranger danger and data privacy. In preparation for this workshop each child will complete a short survey in school, which can be viewed here https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DFR7NQ3 The information gathered though the survey will help inform the workshop. Additionally, if there is enough parental interest a parent workshop can be arranged for the summer term. Information gathered through the survey will be fed back to parents at the workshop. Please sign the expression of interest sheet at Fran’s office. Please send in €1 to your child’s class teacher to help cover the cost of the workshop.
July Programme
July programme, an educational programme that provides funding for an extended school year for children with a severe or profound general learning disability or children with autism. The scheme operates in two ways, home based provision and school based provision. This year Wicklow Educate Together is not providing July Provision but the school will remain open to facilitate the teachers who are participating in the home based programme. The application forms will be available from the Department of Education shortly. Please visit http://www.education.ie/en/Parents/Services/July-Provision for more details. Please contact Denise Delaney at [email protected] if you would like help in locating a tutor for this year’s programme.