Dear school community

Important Dates

Wicklow Lions Club Table Quiz in aid of our school on Wednesday 5th February @ 8.30pm in the Brass Fox. Tables of 4 are €40. All welcome.

4th Class Forest School – Friday 7th, Friday 14th and Friday 28th February.

Irish Blood Transfusion Board Clinic in our school hall Tuesday 11th & Wednesday 12th February.

Valentines Bake Sale Friday 14th February –

Culture Week – 2nd to 6th March – Further details to follow.

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.

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

Stay Safe

Class teachers are teaching the personal safety programme called Stay Safe over the course of this term, it is part of the Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum which all primary schools are required to implement.

The aim of the Stay Safe Programme is to teach children personal safety skills so they can look after themselves in situations which could be upsetting or dangerous. It deals initially with common situations which most children will experience at some stage or other, e.g. getting lost or being bullied. The programme also teaches the safety skills necessary to protect themselves from physical or sexual abuse and it emphasises the importance of telling a trusted adult about any problems they have.

Co-operation between parents and teachers is essential to the success of this programme. It is important that parents/guardians are aware of the content of the Stay Safe lessons and are able to discuss the lessons with their children. Your child may bring home worksheets which will inform you on the topics covered in class and how you can reinforce the messages at home.

You can familiarise yourself with the content of the Stay Safe lessons at www.staysafe.ie/teachera/resourses.htm. You may also speak to your child’s teacher if you would like to discuss the programme further.

School Ethos – School Self Evaluation Process

WETNS is one of 20 Educate Together schools nationally who are involved in a pilot programme of Ethos Evaluation facilitated by Dr Shivaun O’Brien of DCU/St Patrick’s College Drumcondra. This forms part of the Dept of Education’s School Self Evaluation process. The area of our ethos we are evaluating is our patron’s programme, Learn Together.

The first part of School Self Evaluation is to gather data to analyse what we are doing well, and what needs to improve. Representatives of the entire school community – staff, parents, children and the Board of Management – were surveyed at the end of 2019 to gather this evidence. Our 3rd and 5th classes – parents, guardians and children – were selected for survey. We are now in the process of collating and interpreting the data which will lead us to identify some key areas we need to improve regarding our teaching, learning and communication of the Learn Together over the next academic year. Thank you to all the staff, and the parents/guardians and children from 3rd and 5th classes who took part and completed the questionnaire. We will continue to keep you all up to date on this process as we progress.Sharon Hogan Teacher

Helping Parents with the Transition to Post Primary School – Thank you to everyone who came along to our Transition meeting for Parents on Thursday 30th January. An online advice booklet is available for parents to help prepare themselves and their children for the move to post-primary education.  The booklet includes advice on several different topics including the practicalities of adapting to a new timetable, screentime etc. The booklet is available to download from www.folens.ie.

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.

Reading in the Senior Infant & 1st Classes – Senior Infant & First classes are currently working to coordinate a plan that will see every child have their reading heard every day.  Needless to say, this will require lots of bodies to help out! 😊 If you have half an hour to spare at drop off each morning, or indeed any morning, and would like to volunteer, please contact Eileen on [email protected].  All volunteers will need Garda clearance prior to commencing reading with the children. Thank you to all the wonderful parents/guardians who are coming in to help. This is a really positive experience for the children and we are seeing a significant improvement in their reading as a result.

Car Parking – Please ensure that you do not park outside the school grounds on the grass verge on both sides of the entrance to the school.  Parking here causes great difficulty to other drivers being able to see oncoming traffic from both sides of the road.

Set Down Volunteers needed – Can you spare 10 minutes a month? If you can volunteer to help at set down for one morning a month, you choose which day suits you, please email: [email protected].

No Smoking – We would like to remind all that there is no smoking or vaping on school grounds.

Bug Hotel – We have had fun making a 6 star bug hotel.  We collected – moss, hay, leaves, sticks, pine cones, wool etc.  We made some exciting tunnels out of clay. The tunnels and material was packed everything very tightly into our hotel.

We will be open for business in the school garden – great deals available especially if you have many legs and even some wings. Stephen, Luke, Leo, Archer, and Charlie.

Extra-Curricular – All remaining places in extra-curricular are now available to book through our Easypayments tool.

Devoted to Cakes Easter Camp 14th to 17th April 2020 – Devoted to Cakes will hold an Easter Camp here at our school. This camp will run from 10am – 1.30pm and is aimed at 8 – 12 years.  Please log on to http://www.devotedtocakes.ie/product/easter-baking-camp-14th-17th-april/ to get further information and book a place in this camp.

Credit Union Quiz – It is that time of the year – Credit Union Quiz was held in St. Pat’s GAA on Friday 31st January.  WETNS had two teams competing.  From 6th class were Oscar, Joe, Sofia and Daniel.  4th class were Darragh, Charlie, Sam and Cathal.  Both teams competed well.  It was a close finish for 6th class and 4th class won and are through to Chapter Level which will be held on 28th February.  The children did the school proud, well done to all concerned.

Aldi Competition – We are asking our school community to keep any of the new Aldi competition tokens for our school to be in a chance of winning €50,000 for our school.

PTA Update

Wicklow Lions Club are holding a Table Quiz in aid of our school on Wednesday 5th February @ 8.30pm in the Brass Fox. Tables of 4 are €40. This is a great opportunity to support our wonderful school. Please spread the word to family, friends and neighbours. These nights are great fun and are a great opportunity to meet new families in the school community.We are also looking for 4 raffle prizes and 2 people to sell raffle tickets on the night. If anyone could help out with this it would be very much appreciated. You can contact me on [email protected]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.