Wednesday 19th February 2020
Dear school community
Important Dates
Thursday 20th & 21st February – school closed for mid-term break. School will re-open at 8.50am on Monday 24th February.
Culture Week – 2nd to 6th March – We’d still like to hear from volunteers, either for the Country Stalls on our International Fair on Thursday 5th March or to help out with language/ cultural lessons on Monday 2nd March. The following embassies are sending ambassadors or representatives (so far) Colombia, Argentina, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia. News2Day, RTE’s children’s news programme will be reporting from our school during Culture Week.
School Photos – Thursday 19th March – County Photos will be at the school on Thursday 19th March to take the children’s school photographs.
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.
July Education Programme 2020 Important Advance Notice
The scheme provides funding for an extended school year for children with a severe or profound general learning disability or children with autism. The extended year is more commonly known as July Provision or the July Education Programme. Where school-based provision is not feasible, home-based provision may be granted. It is expected that more detailed information on the arrangements for 2020 will issue soon on DES website www.education.ie
To date home based provision has been provided by teachers and the school has facilitated the use of the building by these teachers. Due to prohibitive insurance requirements the school will no longer be in a position to facilitate this arrangement. For this year’s July Education Programme, we are planning school-based provision, and as this will be an extension of the school year, it will be covered by our existing insurance arrangements.
It is important to note the following in relation to school-based provision
- Priority for school-based provision is given to children currently enrolled in Joe, Denise and Cathy’s classes.
- The maximum number of children catered for will be 16-18 children.
- If there are any remaining places these will be available to children meeting diagnosis criteria in the younger classes first.
- It will be staffed by WETNS teachers and SNAs
- It will run within the first 2 weeks of July in the school
It is important to note the following in relation to home-based provision
- If your child meets diagnosis criteria and is in a mainstream class you are advised to proceed with your Home-Based Programme Application as normal
- 40 hours home-based provision may be grant aided with this application
- The onus is on parents to source home-based tutors themselves
If you have any queries in relation to the July Education Programme please address them to [email protected] and we will respond to you as best we can.
Many thanks
Sinéad
Caretaker – We are delighted to welcome Gary Murphy as our new school caretaker. Gary will join us next Monday 24th February.
Bangs or Bumps to the Head – Change to procedure – From now on, all bangs or bumps to any part of the head or face will trigger a prompt phone call to parents/guardians. This is to ensure that parents are informed and can be part of the decision regarding what, if any further action should be taken. A cool pack will usually be applied immediately following the bump.
School Tours – We are currently finalising our school tours for this school year, which will be communicated out shortly after the mid-term break. We would like to remind parents/guardians that any outstanding forest school, swimming and sundries must be paid in full prior to paying for your child’s school tour.
Homework Club – We have seen a significant increase in the number of children being picked up early from homework club. We would ask that if your child is booked in to homework club that you please collect at 3.30pm. Early collections are very disruptive both to the teacher running homework club and to all the other children attending on that day.
Easypayments Billing – If you have a balance outstanding on Easypayments for aftercare please ensure it is paid in full before Monday 24th February in advance of any aftercare bookings for next week. Any outstanding extra-curricular fees must be paid on Easypayments prior to attending extra-curricular next week.
Book Rental Simplification Project – Help please Do you have two hours to give, to help organise the Book Rental books? Are you Garda Vetted to volunteer in our school? This is a big ‘once-off’ task and we could really do with some help. We need at least 2 volunteer hours, for each class in the school. We will be working on some of the following Wednesdays and Fridays and the dates will be confirmed based on your availability – 26th, 28th Feb – 11th, 13th Mar – 25th, 27th Mar – 22nd, 24th April, – 6th, 8th May, – 20th , 22nd May. Please email Paula, if you can help. [email protected]
Fruit Trees – 19 Fruit Trees were purchased, one to represent each class in the school. There are 7 cherry trees, 4 apple trees, 4 pear trees and 4 plum trees. They have been planted in the garden corner and along the boundary wall. We are running a competition to design wooden plaques to name each tree. The children are very excited that they will be able to watch their trees grow. It will be a few years before we can pick baskets of fruit! They are getting very well-watered in by the rain – Sally Teacher.
An Taisce – Annie Byrne from An Taisce visited 3rd class to discuss environmental awareness with them. The Green School Committee members also attended. The classes found out a lot about how marine life is affected by pollution and also how much we can all do to help to protect marine life now and, in the future, – Sally Teacher.
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.
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.
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.
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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.