Dear Parents/Guardians, 17th May 2017
Paper copies of the newsletter are available beside the new noticeboards in the main foyer.
Board of Management – Vacancy for Male Parent Nominee
There are 8 members of the Board of Management (BOM) of a National School. Two are nominees of the Patron body (Educate Together), two are Staff Nominees (the Principal and an elected teacher), two are elected by the parent body to be the Parent Nominees (one male and one female) and two further members are nominated as Community Representatives.
We now require a nominee from the male parents of children enrolled in our school currently and who will continue to be enrolled until June 2019.
Under the Education Act (1998), the Board of Management must undertake to run the school according to the ethos determined by the Patron. Members of the Board of Management participate as volunteers in the school community and generally serve for a four-year term of office.
Boards operate under Dept. of Education & Skills (DES) rules which are clearly laid out in the Governance Manual for Primary Schools 2015-2019.
The BOM acts professionally, collectively and on the basis of consensus i.e. the board acts as one unit in terms of its function in addressing the business of the school. The elected parents and teacher, once elected, do not act as a representative of those who elected them.
Parent/Guardian Nominee Election Process
The BOM is following Option 1 from the DES Governance Manual (Appendix B)
*Please note: Parents who are employees of the school cannot be on the Board of Management. Parent nominees should be from separate families and should bear no relationship to any staff member.
1st June (Thursday) at 7.30pm
Parents are invited to a meeting at 7.30pm to nominate one male parent to the Board. This meeting will be chaired by Caoimhe Doyle (Chair of Parents Association) and Rob Greene (Chair of Board of Management). Those standing do not have to attend but will need to have a proposer and seconder present on the night. If only one person is nominated they will be deemed elected, otherwise a postal election will be held. Ballot papers on which nominees can include a short piece about themselves (if all candidates agree) will be issued to all parents/guardians.
Voting will be on a ‘first past the post basis’ i.e. each person shall have one, non-transferable vote. Posted votes should have envelope clearly marked ‘Parent Elections’. Alternatively, a locked ballot box will be in Fran’s office for hand delivery.
22nd June (Tuesday)
2.30pm: closing date of polling.
There will be an open count of ballots that evening (time tbc) by Caoimhe and Rob.
In the interests of clarity please note that the term “Parent” includes a foster parent, a guardian appointed under the Guardianship of Children Acts, 1964 to 1997, or other person acting in loco parentis who has a child in his or her care subject to any statutory power or order of a court and, in the case of a child who has been adopted under the Adoption Acts, 1952 to 1998 or, where the child has been adopted outside the State, means the adopter or adopters or the surviving adopter.
This is your school so please get involved and if you have questions feel free to call or talk to any member of the Board of Management.
Rob Greene (Chair) 086 167 6270
Koryne Smyth (Parent Nominee) 086 326 3840
Jerry O’Neill (Parent Nominee)
School Reports This year due to the high cost of postage and administration costs we are going to email your child’s report to you. Please ensure that the school has an up to date email address for you. You can check that you are receiving emails as the newsletter (as well as being text linked) is sent by email. Reports will be sent by email towards the end of June, please let us know if you would like reports to be translated (we will help if we can).
Active Month We will be celebrating everything Active in WETNS throughout the month of June. Sports Day will take place on Thursday 15th June-Infants to 2nd class will be at the school, and 3rd-6th class will be at Wicklow Rugby Club-further details will follow shortly. We will again take part in the Bike to School event. There will be many other in- school activities planned as well as school tours. All pupils will be encouraged to keep active and there will be no homework apart from reading homework throughout the month.
Lost Property Please label your child’s belongings as much as is practicable, there is a high volume of unlabelled coats & jackets currently in lost property on display in the Foyer.
Book Rental & Sundry Payments 2017-2018 are now due, please keep as separate payments, online payments option will issue in the coming days. If you are paying in cash at the school office, where possible, please bring exact change. Many thanks
Garda Vetting To date parents wishing to help at the school have volunteered to be garda vetted. To give people plenty of notice please be aware that from September, it will be mandatory for any parent volunteers to be garda vetted in order to help out at the school. The necessary forms are available from the office and those completed by the end of June should be processed in time for the new school year. Please note that garda vetting for our school is processed through Educate Together, and all information and paperwork associated with garda vetting is treated in the strictest confidence.
Positive Behaviour Policy – The new Positive Behaviour Policy is now available on our website. https://wicklowetns.com/our-school/policies/
Open Day for New Junior Infants – Our Open day for new Junior Infants will take place on Wednesday 24th May or Thursday 25th May at 1.45pm. If you haven’t already informed the school which day you would prefer to come in, please contact the school office on 0404 62786
Brendan Memorial Ideas
Brendan O’Connor was a very dear friend of our school community and a man who embraced the spirit of Wicklow Educate Together. We wish to mark his valuable contribution to our school and invite the school community to submit their thoughts/suggestions/ideas around how they would envision that happening. We will have a suggestion box in the school foyer from Monday 15th May and look forward to seeing your suggestions.
School Garden Design Thank you to everyone who submitted some wonderful designs for the school garden. Remember design templates are available in the school foyer and we invite all interested students/parents/staff to complete one and return to the garden postbox located in the school foyer. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to use all the lovely designs submitted; however, all of the plans will form a folder of ‘Garden Ideas’, which we may use for further development of the garden in the future. The closing date for submissions is May 26th. We look forward to working with all everyone to create an inspiring and educational space that the children will love using. If you have any queries or wish to get in touch with the committee, please email us at [email protected]
Volunteers Required to help with Set-down We are looking for a group of parents to supervise set-down and to help 6th class pupils as they escort younger pupils from their parents’ cars to their line at the back of the school. Volunteers would be required to help on a rotational basis on Monday to Friday mornings, between 8.35am and 8.55am.
Please contact Janice Doyle ([email protected], 0868703827) or Jenny Dunne([email protected], 0863854411) if you can help or if you have any questions.
Graduation 2017 – 6th Class graduation will take place on Thursday 29th June in the school hall at 12 noon.
WETNS Teddy Bears’ Picnic – Our annual Teddy Bears’ Picnic for the Sept 2017 incoming junior infants will take place on Saturday 26th August in Kimacurragh from 2-4pm. All are welcome to join us on the day. Don’t forget your teddy!
School Tours
WICKLOW EDUCATE TOGETHER – SCHOOL TOURS – 2017
| CLASS | LOCATION | Date | Time Leaving School |
Time ReturningTo School |
Cost Per Child |
Kate – Jun Infs |
Kia Ora Farm | Wed
21st June |
9.15am | 1pm | €12.00 |
| Eileen – Jun Infs | Kia Ora Farm | Wed
21st June |
9.15am | 1pm | €12.00 |
| Paul – Sen Infs | Tick Tock
Activity Farm |
Fri
16th June |
9am | 1.15pm | €14.00 |
| Brian & Caoimhe
1st Classes |
Festine Lente | Tue
20th June |
9am | 2.15pm | €21.00 |
Sally & Leanne2nd Classes |
Clara Lara | Fri
23rd June |
9am | 2.15pm | €26.00 |
| Alison x 35
3rd Class |
Squirrel Scramble | Mon
19th June |
9.30am | 2.15pm | €25.00 |
| Adele & Janet
4th Classes |
Fort Lucan | Thu
08th June |
9am | 2.15pm | €26.00 |
| Rory
5th Class |
World of Adventure
Courtown |
Fri
02nd June |
9.30am | 2.20pm | €30.00 |
| Edele & Eamonn
6th Classes |
World of Adventure
Courtown+Archery |
Fri
16th June |
9.30am | 2.20pm | €36.00 |
Playball Summer Camps www.playballkids.com Playball will hold summer camps here at the school on the following dates:
Monday 17th July – Friday 21st July 5 day camp
Tuesday 8th August – Friday 11th August 4 day camp
The 5 day camp is €90.00 and the 4 day camp is €75.00. Sibling discount is €10.00. Camps start at 9.30am and finish at 2.30pm. If you are interested please contact [email protected]
Percent for Art Committee – The Percent for Art Committee has been diligently working on a Brief where artists can make submissions with ideas of their vision for Art that represents the vitality that is WETNS. Christine and Eileen worked with teachers and students to facilitate a mind-mapping exercise whereby posters were created in each class with words that expressed what WETNS meant to students and staff. Additionally, Christine is working on an Art Box to receive submissions from students and the school community with ‘What can you imagine in the school’. Both of these exercises will hopefully provide inspiration to artists for their submissions. We are keeping an archive of all these works. We are hoping to have the Brief ready for roll-out by the end of May.
Parent Request – I am looking for a child-minder from Monday to Thursday from 8.15am. My daughter is 4 (in June) and in playschool from 9.30 – 12.30 and my son is in WETNS. I will collect my son from school every day so looking for someone to do drop offs and mind my daughter for 2 hours. My contact details are 086 348 1548. Many thanks Alex.
PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION PIECE
Family School Events Coming up –
Coffee morning Friday 26th May – Parent Bake sale and Coffee Morning next Friday 26th May. The proceeds from this event will be donated to the Martin Family Trust which has been set up to assist a young family neighbouring the school who have received devastating medical news relating to their children.
The bake sale will be a parent only bake sale and will commence at 9am (not a baking homework event). Please bring cakes, buns, bread, tarts, pies etc to the hall at drop off on Friday morning. These can be purchased by parents to take home or enjoyed in the hall with a tea or coffee on the day. Younger siblings and all the family will be welcome. The school children will not be participating in this bake sale. If you would like to support this event please bring a cake, buy a cake or show up to help on the day! As always this will be a NO NUTS NO STRAWBERRIES bake sale!
Family Active Day June 10th – please save the date! This will be a fun day for all the family and funds raised will go to benefit the school teaching garden. More details and information on how you can get involved will be sent by separate email on Friday.
https://wicklowetns.com/2017/05/16/upcoming-family-events/
To contact the Parents Association please use the email address [email protected] alternatively please use the suggestion box in the main lobby.