Dear school community, 20th December 2017
School will finish at 12.30 this Friday 22nd December for the holidays.
IMPORTANT ADVANCE NOTICE: School will close on Wednesday 28th February at 12.30 for all pupils for Staff and BOM training.
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 Fran or 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.
Note from Sinead – We have had a very exciting and busy first term of school. All of the pupils have worked exceptionally well and we are all proud of their progress. They were highly commended during our recent whole school evaluation. We were delighted to be able to celebrate the official opening of our new school building in October. Particular praise and thanks to all for our wonderful end of year concert last week. We extend sincere thanks to all staff for their hard work and commitment to the school. And to all parents thank you for your continued support of the school.
Wishing you all a wonderful and restful holiday and look forward to seeing you all on Monday 8th January when school reopens. Sinead.
Important Message To All Who Have Applied For A Place in Junior Infants in Sept 2018 – An email and text was sent recently re ‘confirmation of interest’ in a place to all who have applied for Junior Infants in Sept 2018. If you did not receive it then your child’s name is not on our current intake list and you need to email [email protected] or phone the school office immediately. We would like to remind parents that we do not have a sibling policy here at the school so please ensure you complete a pre- enrolment form as early as possible if required.
Forest School – 4th class have spent each Friday from the end of September to December at forest school in the woodland on Wicklow County Campus. The benefits have been enormous. As well as learning taking place in traditional curriculum areas such as Art, Science, SPHE and English, children learn to take appropriate risks and to work together co-operatively, developing confidence and resilience in themselves. It has been lovely to watch the children grow and to become more aware of the plants and animals in the woodland, particularly through “sit spot”. During “sit spot”, the children sit in silence for ten minutes in the same part of the woodland.
On the 8th December 4th class parents joined us for forest school and enjoyed themselves, even if it was a little chilly! Check out the website for some photos.
We would like to thank Amber Godwin who ran the sessions with Alan and Adele and to thank Vibeke and Martin from Wicklow County Campus for all their help.
We are pleased to say confirm that Brian Daly’s 3rd class will start Forest School on Friday 12th January, finishing on Friday 16th March. Alison Vines 3rd class will start Forest School on Friday 13th April, finishing Friday 15th June. Further information to follow.
Student Council Toy Appeal for The Simon Community – The Student Council would like to say a very big thank you to the entire school community for your very generous response to our Toy Appeal for The Simon Community. The Simon Community works with homeless individuals and families all around the country. The donated toys were collected on Tuesday, December 19th, and will be distributed across the east coast over the coming days. Many thanks again for your wonderful support for a very worthy cause. See photo attached below!
WETNS WOW – Well it’s currently neck & neck between both our 1st classes! Can Caoimhe rally her troops & swipe the Golden Boot Award that’s almost part of the furniture in Louise’s classroom??? Or will Paul’s senior infants blow them both out of the water?? Alison’s 3rd are hot on the heels of Edele’s 6th, there are only a few percentage points between them! You can:
walk 🚶
scoot
cycle 🚲
park the car & stride 🏃
bus 🚌
breakfast club exercise session 💪
carpool 🚗
Winners will be announced in January, so there is still time to score points for your class!
Defibrillator – we are delighted to confirm our defibrillator has arrived and will be installed in the main foyer this week. We have also purchased 3 new cookers for the school to be utilised by the children with their teachers.
Congratulations – Well done to Anton in 3rd class who came 3rd in the recent Credit Union art competition!
ECA UPDATE
Homework Club & Breakfast Club Fees – Reminder that all outstanding Homework Club and Breakfast Club fees must be paid by Friday 22nd December. December breakfast club payment requests will be issued tomorrow morning.
Breakfast Club – We rolled out our Breakfast Club here at the school on 11th of September this year for a 3-month trial period. During the last 3 months it was great to see so many children come to breakfast club and it has also been great to receive such positive feedback from both parents and children about this new service here at the school.
Our Breakfast Club will finish this Thursday 21st December for the Christmas holidays and will reopen on Monday 8th January at 7.30am. Having completed our 3-month trial we have identified that the cost of running Breakfast Club is a lot higher than we had initially expected and as such our daily fee will increase from Monday 8th January as follows:
1 child €7.00 per day (including breakfast)
2 or more children €6.00 per child per day (including breakfast)
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
Extra-Curricular Activities – Term 1 of our extra-curricular activities programme will finish on Thursday 22nd December for all classes.
On Monday 8th January there will be a Science, Guitar and Soccer class and on Tuesday 9th January there will be a playball class to make up for the Monday and Tuesday classes missed on 16th & 17th October.
Our yoga teacher is not available to hold a class on Monday 8th January so instead we will reduce the fees for term 2 by 1 week for anyone from term 1 who registers for term 2.
Full details of term 2 timetable, fees and registration days will be sent out tomorrow.
Homework Club – Homework Club will restart on Monday 8th January for 2nd – 6th class pupils.
Aftercare up to 6pm – Questionnaires were sent out yesterday to all those who recently completed an expression of interest form. If you are interested in aftercare up to 6pm but have not received a questionnaire, please contact [email protected]
Aftercare – Junior & Senior Infants – 1.30pm to 2.30pm – If you would like your child to attend aftercare from 1.30 – 2.30pm please contact Val Whelan directly on 086 177 7244.
PTA UPDATE
Happy Holidays and New Year 2018
The PTA would like to wish all the families of both children and staff in the school a lovely holiday and best wishes for 2018. Thank you to all who supported the PTA Committee at our events and fundraising initiatives in 2017. We’ve had a lot of fun along the way, some of our highlights being Engineers Week where we helped the children to produce hundreds!!! of Doodlebots, Family Active Day where we had a fabulous day in the sun with some of our local clubs including Rugby and Camogie, Maxine Bonus’ Family Yoga (from Granny to Toddler) and the recent Maker’s Fair brought together local talented crafters with a huge crowd of hungry shoppers!!
All standing Committee Members will step down at the AGM in the New Year. Nomination forms for new committee members will be sent out to all parents early in January 2018. We are looking forward to welcoming new committee members in 2018!
Parents Evening Courses
Thank you to all who responded with their top choices for Parent Evening Courses. We will book the courses through the National Parents Council in January and announce dates once they are secured. The two courses that came out on top were:
Supporting parents to support their children’s mental health and wellbeing
Supporting your child to build healthy friendships and relationship
School Calendars
Thank you to all who supported the 2018 School Calendar. Thank you to our generous sponsors who covered the cost of the printing. The amount raised from the sale of the calendars was approximately €2200. Thank you to everyone who also contributed to the bucket collection on the day of the school concert, which raised a very generous €364.50. Early in the new year the school plan to purchase their new PA system with speakers and microphones for the school hall. We’ve also heard from a reliable source that there will be regular open mic talent spots at upcoming assemblies to make the best of the new equipment!!!
PTA Constitution Consultation Phase
The Parent Teacher Association Committee has drafted the WETNS Parent Teacher Association Constitution. This constitution will form the rules by which the PTA Committee engage with the school community, how they are governed, elected and how fundraising and events are structured. Please take the time to review this document and comment by either email to [email protected] or by dropping your comment with your name and phone number into the comment box at the front office. Please submit your comments by 8th January 2018.
The process will then proceed to a review of all written comments by the PTA Committee, the Constitution will then be finalised and lastly it will be ratified by the PTA Committee and come into immediate effect.
Please follow the link below to the Draft Constitution document. Please alternatively request a hard copy at the front desk.
https://wicklowetns.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WETNS-PTA-Constitution-Consultation-Draft.pdf