Our teachers miss our lovely pupils and have uploaded some messages across our websites for you to enjoy and feel connected. Here are a few of them:

• Caitriona messaging you using Irish Sign Language
• Emer teaching you how to make an origami envelope
  
• Sandra talking about using a positive mindset
  
• Andrea encouraging you to look out for signs of spring
  
• Lisa suggesting that you keep smiling
  

We are really enjoying the messages you are sending us too. Thank you for putting smiles on our faces!

These days, we are all very thankful for the internet. It is providing entertain and updates for adults and children as we negotiate this new way of living. What a wonderful tool!

This wonderful tool can pose danger too, however. It is important that we stay ever-more vigilant as people move to living online more.

As adults, we are stressed and worried and have nowhere to go. It might be easy to take our frustrations out online. Please remember, however, that whoever is at the other end of that communication is also stressed and worried and has nowhere to go. Better to close the laptop, put down the phone, breathe, go for a short walk or play a game with the children. When you have calmed down, try to phrase your communication in a kind way, remembering that everyone is struggling. As we always say, believe the best in other people and assume they are doing their best!

We are worried about our pupils as they interact with their friends face-to-face less and might not be meeting all of their five trusted adults to talk through a worry with or to tell about something that's happening to them.

For that reason, we have prioritised online safety for every child this week. We are asking every family to discuss online safety daily and we have given suggested age-appropriate activities on each class page. 

After this week, we won't be setting that as one of the Core Four each week but we will keep updating our Online Safety page. Please use it.

Reminder: Caitriona and Anita can still intervene in cases of cyber-bullying, even though we are not at school. If you see something that is not right, STOP-BLOCK-TELL and report it to us. Thank you.

We are so excited to launch Citywest ETNS Book Club!

Our teachers are working hard on preparing supports for families learning at home as our time at home extends at least as far as spring break.

One of our new initiatives is Book Club, where we encourage you to discover new reading opportunities and to share your love of reading and your recommendations of books. We hope you like it!

The Board of Management of Citywest ETNS is concerned for families in our community that may be struggling at this time. While we are not in a position to provide food or shelter for these families ourselves, we are fortunate to be in a position to donate 4000 euros to Barnardos, a charity that has supported a number of families in our school over the last few years.

We are fortunate to have this money in reserves, having saved it from monies collected through our after-school activity programme. This money is separate to grant aid from the Department of Education and separate to school expenses paid by families.

We advise any family struggling at this time to contact Barnardos or another local charity for assistance.

Schools remain closed until further notice. We cannot wait to see our pupils and families again and get back to our wonderful school.

In the meantime, we continue to update our website with lots of ideas and activities which may be useful for families. We also continue to celebrate the learning being done at home and try to keep our community connected during this time. 

We are also posting lots of ideas to our Twitter and Facebook pages, for anyone who would like to follow along. 

Many thanks to South Dublin County Sports Partnership who provided us with basketball coaching for the past 6 weeks. Sessions finished up today, much to the disappointment of the classes involved. The children in 4th, 5th and 6th classes thoroughly enjoyed these sessions, improving their basketball skills each week and making the most of our new basketball courts!

We are very excited to announce that we will be opening an early intervention class for children with Autism in September 2020!
This is a class for children who have a diagnosis of Autism AND who would be eligible for the ECCE (free pre-school) programme according to their age i.e. children born in 2016 or 2017.
The class will be taught by Orla Traynor, a very experienced teacher who has been working in our school for the last 5 years. There will be place in the class for 6 children with a full-time teacher and two ANAs to support them. They will have their own designated space in our school - a classroom within the wing for the classes for children with Autism with easy access to the fenced soft play area, sensory garden, central activities space, multi-sensory room, occupational therapy room and life skills room, as well as to their own designated comfort room - in the room currently being used by Stephanie's 5th class. Children in the class will be entitled to free bus transport to and from school each day.
This is a wonderful opportunity for 6 young children with Autism. We expect the class to be heavily over-subscribed due to a lack of such places in the area.
There is no priority given for siblings of children already in the school or for children already pre-enrolled for our school, either for a mainstream class or for the primary-age class for children with Autism. For 2020, enrolment will be based strictly on a first-come-first-served basis. Therefore, we encourage you to pre-enrol immediately if you think this may be a suitable placement for your child.
Our enrolment policy has been amended to include this class.
This is a very exciting development for our school and we look forward to welcoming these children in September and to seeing them flourish under Orla's guidance.

We are so lucky in our new school that we now have a purpose-built running track, all the way around the yard and (soon-to-be!) grass area. We decided that we would love to utilize this fantastic facility and encourage our school community to become more active during the week. 

As a result... the Daily Mile has been set up! This is an initiative which encourages children to run regularly, for short periods of time. Each class level has a timetabled slot during the day, where they can use the running track if they wish. It gives children the opportunity to get outside into the fresh air, run with their friends and become fitter! We cannot wait to hear of the running achievements around our school.