Last Friday, we got the disappointing news that we would not be moving to our new school on December 9th as anticipated, but instead we will have to wait a little while longer. While this is certainly frustrating for pupils, staff and parents, the silver lining is that we have some more time to prepare for the move and to say our farewells to our current school. 

The building in which we are currently located has been a wonderful home for us, ever since we opened our doors in September 2012. Although we are so excited to be moving to our permanent school very soon, we are spending some time during these busy weeks saying goodbye to this building. Classes are visiting different areas of the school to reflect on their time here and to discuss some of their favourite memories. 

Check out the photos of children from various classes partaking in some of these lessons. We are so grateful for our time spent here and will take lots of brilliant memories with us as we move on. 

The Department of Education have notified us that they expect that we will begin the move to our new school building on Monday the 9th of December. With a move of this scale, it will be a very busy couple of weeks for all involved. Children will be taking part in some lessons over the next 10 days, which will help to prepare them for the move. 

Parents and guardians have been sent a timetable for the move, which is as follows:

• Monday 9th: Children attend school for a half day, finishing at 11.15am. Moving company will begin moving rooms across to new building.  
• Tuesday 10th & Wednesday 11th: School closed for all pupils. Moving company continue to move rooms, with staff organising classrooms and ensuring health and safety procedures are in place for all.
• Thursday 11th: The day we have all been waiting for - the first school day in our new building! Families will be welcome to visit the school at collection time on this day (details to follow).

As with all building projects, there may be unforeseen delays and these dates may change, but we are very hopeful that this will be our timeline for moving.
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This is such an exciting time for our school community. We will need to work together to make this an enjoyable experience for all. Stay tuned for more updates! 

As we spend the last few weeks in our temporary school building, the excitement for our new school is increasing and increasing! This week, our school crest was spotted on our beautiful new building - check it out in the photo above.
We are so proud to see our fabulous crest up there - if you've forgotten the process behind creating the crest, read about it here. We just cannot wait to get moved in!

New school update
Yesterday, we received an update from the Department of Education that we will not be moving into our new school before the 9th of December. We are still awaiting a definite moving date, but we know that it will not be before the 9th. When we do get the keys, the school will be closed for 2 days to facilitate the move. 

School move preparation
While we wait for the school to be ready for us, we are doing lots of preparatory work:
- Staff met with the moving company, who delivered 920 boxes to our school. Packing and sorting of school resources begins this week. 
- Parents met to discuss a plan for traffic management on our new campus.
- Pupils are being given the opportunity to learn about the new school building, with the school floor plans being passed around to all classes. 
- Our Board of Management are in ongoing discussions with the Department of Education and our neighbouring school CSCNS to ensure a smooth transition to our new building.
- These photos of the school give us a very exciting glimpse of what awaits us!

Value of the month - Caring
This month, we are focused on the value of caring. This enables us to open the discussion on how we can care for one another, care for ourselves, care for our school and home, care for the environment... and so much more! The Golden Book on Friday was full of wonderful examples of children being caring. 
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Learn Together - Belief Systems
As part of our Ethical Education curriculum, pupils are given the opportunity to visit various places of worship to learn about some of the major world religions. During a child's time in our school, it is hoped that they will visit a place of worship to learn about Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity, Hinduism, along with welcoming guest speakers to learn about Humanism and Atheism. 
This month, it was the turn of our 2nd Class pupils. Last Thursday they visited a Hindu Temple to learn more about Hinduism.

Sport in the school
There is lots of sport going on in our school during the month of November:
- GAA training for 5th and 6th classes takes place 4 times per week.
- Basketball training for 4th classes takes place twice a week. 
- Our local GAA coach has returned for another year. He is currently teaching hurling to our 1st class pupils.
- Tag rugby with coach Joey from Leinster Rugby commences on Monday for children in 4th and 5th classes. 
- Our Fundamental Movement Skill for November is running, which we learn about at assembly each week.

Weaving Wellbeing 
Co-teaching commences on Monday - it is where two teachers teach a lesson together. The focus for this learning block is on wellbeing.
Children from 2nd - 6th classes, they will be participating in a programme called 'Weaving Wellbeing', which was rolled out last year to great success. 
Children in Senior Infants will be participating in a similar programme called 'Fun Friends', while children in 1st class participate in 'Zippy's Friends'. 
Each of these programmes focus on social and emotional learning, aim to help to reduce anxiety, increase coping skills, encourage children to recognise and label various emotions and how to deal with them. 

Check it out! We are so excited about this half term, as it means we will soon be moving into our new school building. While we have been so happy in our current temporary accommodation, it will be wonderful to get settled into our own purpose-built school. 

During the week, a few members of our school community were lucky enough to get a tour of the building. They managed to take lots of photos, so here's a sneak peek of what we can expect! 

There was great delight and pride in our school last week as Callie, a student in 1st class, won the Zurich Young Portrait Prize. Callie entered a picture into the competition - a picture she created of her Senior Infants teacher, Sarah C. She went to the National Gallery of Ireland last Tuesday for the grand opening of the exhibition, only to find out that she had won in her age category!

A huge well done to Callie, we are all very proud of this brilliant achievement. The exhibition is on display in the National Gallery until the 12th January 2020 - you can read more about it here.

As October begins, take a look back at a very busy September in Citywest ETNS. Have a read of some of the big events happening in the school!
 
New staff and students 
We welcomed our new students to Junior Infants and to other classrooms throughout the school. We also welcomed new staff members – read all about our staff here.
 
School Strategy Plan 
We published our Strategy Plan for 2019 - 2021, which is an overview of the various projects ongoing throughout the school. It lists various aspects of our school life as being in the Embed phase (part of school culture), Implement phase (have been piloted and just need refining) or Pilot phase (will be tried and tested). The Strategy Plan outlines a shared vision of the school aims for the next 2 years. 

Staff Training 
Teachers had a curriculum training day, which provided information on the implementation of the new Language Curriculum. This curriculum is now in place for all classes. Read more about the new curriculum here. 
ANAs also took part in First Aid training during the month of September. We now have 16 Occupational First Aiders on staff. 

Core value for September
Each month we celebrate one of the core values of the Educate Together curriculum. For September, our value was kindness. We had a record number of children in the Golden Book for showing kindness. 

Fundamental Movement Skill
Each month, we focus on a fundamental movement skill to practice at assembly, on yard, at home. This month, we were learning about kicking. Click here to find out which skill we will be learning about each month. 

Parent Information Evening
On Thursday the 19th September, we held our annual Parent Information Evening, where parents and guardians are invited to classroom talks by their child's teacher. In addition, Caitríona held talks on the School Strategy Plan for the coming two year. There was also an excellent anti-bullying talk, which was facilitated by the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre. 

Strike for Climate
On Friday the 20th September, our school took part in the global Strike for Climate movement. It was incredible to see such a powerful representation from our students, who really made their voices heard. You can read more about it here.  

2nd Level Campaign meeting
Our school hosted an important information night as part of the Educate Together 2nd Level Campaign, who are seeking to ensure that the new secondary school in Citywest will be under the patronage of Educate Together. You can stay up to date with the latest developments here.  

We were in the Echo
Believe it or not, we were featured in the Echo newspaper twice this month! The first article featured our new Junior Infants, while the second article was about our Strike for Climate. 

Sports Training
Sports training has returned this school year, with GAA training now taking place for 5th and 6th classes during various breaks throughout the week. Basketball training has also commenced twice a week for children in 4th class. 

New school song
Our new school song for this term is 'All You Need is Love' by the Beatles. We are looking forward to performing it together at the end of our assemblies.


It has certainly been a busy September. All of this, not to mention all of the learning taking place in classrooms, team teaching commencing, fabulous artwork being created, small group work on handling conflict, new ipads arriving to the school.. it's hard to keep up! Check back to see what is happening in October!

School attendance is very important to us, and as a community, we work hard to maintain high levels of attendance. Last year, we were so delighted that we broke our attendance records in almost every month of the year - it was such a fantastic achievement. The annual average attendance reached an all-time high of 92.3% - the first year this figure was over 92%!

Attendance is called each morning in all classrooms, before 9.30am. You can read more about the obligations of the school regarding attendance here. Parents and guardians can notify us of a child's absence through this form. 

With 3 school days left in September, we look set to beat our previous September record of 94.5%. At present, our September attendance for 2019 sits at 94.7%. What a brilliant start to the year!

WOW!!! What an incredibly inspiring and motivational day we had today, as the children in our school (assisted by our staff) went on strike for climate change. Over the past week, we have been engaging in lessons about climate change, global warming, recycling and identifying how we can make a difference in our world today. Children are the future of this world, and the children of Citywest ETNS made a very powerful statement today! 

The strike took place at 10.45am and was in solidarity with millions of other school children from all around the world, who are demanding more from their governments. Our students are demanding change. Today, they used their voice to show their concern for the climate crisis. Well done to all involved, we are so incredibly proud of our school today!

We have a wonderful line-up for you this Thursday!


1. Anti-bullying talk for parents
Earlier this year, our pupils and staff had anti-bullying training provided by Liam Challenor, a doctoral researcher with the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in DCU.
We are absolutely delighted that Liam's colleague Helena Murphy, also a doctoral researcher with the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in DCU, is coming to our school this Thursday to provide an anti-bullying talk for parents.
Most of the bullying relationships we discover in our school started outside of school. By the time they happen in the school, patterns between the children are well established and so are much harder for us to discover and to eliminate. In discovering and eliminating bullying, the most important person is the bystander. And every person will be a bystander at some stage of their life.
This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn about bullying and to learn how to prevent bullying and how to help your child to be a bystander who acts for good rather than either joining in or doing nothing. 
We are very grateful to our Board of Management for paying for this. Pupils and staff learned a lot from Liam's visit and we really hope that you will take this valuable opportunity to learn about bullying. It is only when we are all educated and working together that we can build a strong community where bullying does not go unnoticed. This is not something school staff can do on our own.


2. What happens in your child's classroom
Each class teacher will give a presentation on the priorities for their class for the coming year. This is a great chance to find out what systems will be in place for your child this year so that you can support them and we can work together all year with a shared understanding.


3. Strategy Plan for our school and new Board members needed
I will talk about the new Strategy Plan for our school and what it means, including opportunities for parents to get involved in the daily life of the school. As we approach the appointments of new Board of Management members, I will talk about what is involved in being on the Board of Management. 


4. Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee while chatting with other parents and staff members
School staff will serve tea, coffee and biscuits throughout the evening and will be available to chat. This is a rare opportunity for us to talk adult-to-adult.


Schedule for the evening - all parents and guardians are asked to arrive promptly for 6.35pm and to stay until 9.10pm:
6.35pm Doors open - Note: This is an adult-only event. Children will not be permitted on the school premises.
6.40pm

• Parents of children in Junior Infants and Senior Infants are welcome to have a cup of tea or coffee with school staff in the GP Hall
• For parents of children in 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th classes: Caitriona will present our Strategy Plan and information about the Board of Management in Shane's classroom
• 3rd class teachers give presentation in their own classrooms
• 4th class teachers give presentation in their own classrooms

7.00pm

• Junior Infant teachers give presentation in their own classroom
• Senior Infant teachers give presentation in their own classroom
• Parents of children in 3rd and 4th classes are welcome to have a cup of tea or coffee with school staff in the GP Hall

7.20pm

• For parents of children in Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 3rd and 4th classes: Caitriona will present our Strategy Plan and information about the Board of Management in Trisha's classroom
• Parents of children in 1st and 2nd classes are welcome to have a cup of tea or coffee with school staff in the GP Hall
• 5th class teachers give presentation in their own classrooms
• 6th class teacher gives presentation in his own classroom

7.40pm

• 1st class teachers give presentation in their own classrooms
• 2nd class teachers give presentation in their own classrooms
• Parents of children in 5th and 6th classes are welcome to have a cup of tea or coffee with school staff in the GP Hall

8.10pm

• All parents attend anti-bullying talk in Laura's Junior Infants classroom

As you can see, we have put a lot of work into planning an evening worthy of organising a babysitter! Please come along and make the most of the evening!
See you then!
Caitriona.