We finished up another year of school today. For most of us, it was time to say "See you in two months! Have a great summer!" but for a few people, we were saying "Goodbye and best of luck in your new life!"

​We know for sure that we were saying goodbye to seven students today - one leaving Senior Infants, four leaving 1st class and two leaving 2nd class. Thank you all for being a wonderful part of our school community over the last few years. We wish you all the very best in your new lives, both in Ireland and abroad.

​It was also time to say goodbye to a very special teacher who has been working in our school for half of the school's history - two and a half years! Mary McDonnell secured a permanent job in Galway Educate Together NS and will start teaching there in September. Our huge loss is definitely Galway's great gain and we wish Mary a wonderful life in Galway.

​We have five teachers who are leaving this summer for personal leave of various lengths and types, from 4 months to a year. We wish Anita, Ailish, Trina, Aoife C and Jenna all the best in their various adventures and we look forward to seeing you when you return!

​We continue to manage waiting lists for almost every class. If you decide or discover that your child will not be returning to our school for the coming school year, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can re-allocate that school place.

​This year we had another amazing Sports Day! We were so fortunate with the weather again and everyone had a brilliant day. It was a fun filled, busy and active!  It could not have taken place without St. Mary's GAA for allowing us the use their fabulous facilities, the hard work, dedication and organisation of the Sport Day Committee and the many volunteers that ran the different stations and helped out on the day.  Many thanks and much appreciation goes out to all of those involved.  Here are some pictures of the day courtesy of Karolina Frycze (www.facebook.com/karolinafryczephotography https://www.instagram.com/karolinafrycze_photography)

With end-of-year reports arriving in homes early this week, we think it timely to remind parents that the end-of-year progress report is a sensitive document containing information that is private for your child. It is not appropriate to compare scores, grades, marks or comments with others, especially their friends, tempting as it may be to do so. It is certainly not appropriate to photograph the report and share it with non-family members.

The only report(s) any parent needs to see is those of their own child(ren).
If you think a grade is wrong, come and ask us. Otherwise, celebrate a great year, congratulate your child on the positives and discretely help them in areas for improvement. Thank you for your discretion in this regard.

The standardised tests undertaken in our school are as follows:

• 1st, 3rd and 5th classes:
  • Drumcondra Primary Reading Test.
• 2nd, 4th and 6th classes:
  • Micra-T Reading Attainment Test
  • Sigma-T Maths Attainment Test.

The Micra-T focuses on specific vocabulary, whereas the Drumcondra takes a wider view of overall comprehension. It is likely that your child will score differently on the two tests due to their differing focuses. This is normal and to be expected. It is not a cause for concern. Using a mixture of tests allows us to build a fuller picture of your child's strengths and challenges.

With each report card posted this year, we enclosed a copy of the document available from the NCCA to help parents understand standardised test scores. That document is available on their website in a variety of languages.

End-of-year progress reports for children in our school were posted on Friday and should be arriving in homes early this week.

In each area of grading, the marks for teachers to choose from range from 1 to 5. Every grade starts at 3 - 3 is what a child doing just fine is expected to be given. It can be expected that 60% or 6 out of 10 children will score a 3 in any area. 3 is a good score. There is generally no cause for concern for a child scoring at 3.

A child who is finding an area difficult or is performing below average is moved to a grade 2. It can be expected that 15% of children will score a 2 in any area. A child who is experiencing significant difficulty and requiring significant differentiation of work is moved to a grade 1. It can be expected that 5%, or 1 out of 20 children, will score a 1 in any area.

Likewise, children performing above average, experiencing comfort and ease in an area, is moved to a grade of 4 and 15% of children are expected to score a grade of 4. And then a child accessing that area of the curriculum with great ease and requiring differentiation in the direction of more difficult and challenging work to keep them engaged would be moved to a grade 5. 5%, or 1 out of 20 children, can be expected to score a 5 in any area.

This week, we have been celebrating Active Schools Week in Citywest ETNS. The focus of the week is to encourage our school community to get active and to identify ways to maintain an active lifestyle, bearing in mind that it is recommended for children to be active for 60 minutes each day.

Every class has been doing a lot of physical activity throughout the week, from doing a 'Wake Up Shake Up' in the morning, to running laps in our yard, to playing sport and even doing Active Home Learning. Pupils in 1st - 4th classes also went swimming on Monday.

Today, we held an Active Assembly in the school hall. We celebrated all of the physical activity that many children are participating in, outside of school. Every class was also presented with a certificate for all of the laps they have been running. In total, the pupils of Citywest ETNS have run 125km since January! How amazing - well done to everyone on this fantastic achievement!

Active Schools Week finishes tomorrow with Sports Day - it's sure to be a great day!

Following communication from some parents in June 2016, the Board of Management decided to undertake a review of the school expenses list during the 2016/17 school year. There were two parts to this review - the monies paid by parents to the school and the books used by the children in their learning.

​In relation to the monies paid by parents to the school, we monitored various expenses quite carefully throughout the year, doing our best to correctly allocate expenses into either teaching- and learning-related expenses such as those outlined in the school expenses documents or general school running costs such as utility bills, staff wages and cleaning and office supplies.

​It was very clear that every euro paid by parents and guardians for school-related expenses were being spent on those teaching-related expenses. The general  running costs of the school are being funded by Department of Education grants and rental income from after-school classes and evening activities. To reduce the amount being charged to parents each year would be counter-productive as we would then need to seriously increase the amount of fundraising activity being undertaken by the school. Fundraising activities involve a considerable amount of work for an amount of income that is not equivalent to that work. It is also uncertain income - we can't be sure of the amount that will come in for any given fundraiser. Finally, and quite importantly, families who are supported by charities in paying the annual school expenses are not supported in the same way for school fundraisers and so moving the emphasis onto fundraisers for such regular costs would put these already-disadvantaged families at a further disadvantage, which would be unfair.

​Following this review, the Board of Management decided that there was no logical reason for changing the amount requested from parents, that, in fact, we are already charging the appropriate amount.

​The other section of the school expenses document is the list of books and resources bought, some directly by parents and some via the school. The Board of Management of Citywest ETNS respects the professional role of the teachers in knowing the resources they need to teach the curriculum to the children. Our teachers undertook further review of the books and schemes used in the school, including reviewing practices in other schools. We learned that in many schools where workbooks are abolished, the amount of photocopying undertaken multiplies to an unwieldy level. On balance, some workbooks are necessary. We are proceeding with the use of Maths and Irish workbooks for the 2017/18 school year. We are not adding any further workbooks to the list for any class this year. We do continue to review the publications and schemes available each year and to choose those we consider most useful for our context.

​As the school grows, the scope of our book rental and shared resources scheme increases and we are adding text books, reading books and other resources to our Resource library every term.

​We thank all parents and guardians for their support of the book list and school expenses. We endeavour to keep costs as low as possible but we do need every family to pay their fair portion. Payment plans can be established for families who request them.

Active Schools Week 6th - 9th June 2017
 
Did you know that only one in five Irish children currently meet the World Health  Organisation’s (WHO) recommended daily guidelines of 60 minutes of activity per day?
 
Let’s work together to change this statistic!
 
You can do your bit by encouraging your child to participate in
“Active Home Learning”.
 
Why not try some of the following:
(you might even enjoy the activities yourself......go on...have a go!)
 

• Go on a family walk of 20 mins duration. Raining? No problem...wear a coat with a

hood.

• Take a family bike ride to the park and have a picnic. Don’t forget to wear your

helmet!
- Wash the car and have your child help you! Lots of active water fun!
-Take the stairs in shopping centres instead of the escalator.
- Play hide and seek or musical chairs
-Create a dance to a piece of music that is at least 3mins long.
- Create a new team game that involves physical movement.
- Visit the playground or a play centre with climbing frames.
- Teach your child about the importance of exercise – check out this powerpoint presentation: