This year, our school is engaging in a self-evaluation process that focuses on Wellbeing. Earlier in the year, we surveyed various stakeholders to figure out whether there were any areas we could improve on. See the results of our research below.
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You may be aware from our 23/24 School Strategy and recent parent information night that this year we are focusing on deepening and broadening the learning experiences for the children through whole school collaborative and cross curricular projects.
When it came to considering how to do this, we reflected on our ethos and inclusivity within our community and our goal of striving to be even more "Educate Together". We have been reflecting as a staff community for quite a few years now on the way we name our classes and how we address them. Placing the teacher's name in the class name suggests a certain ownership of the class which we feel doesn't reflect on the actual practices and sense of community within our classes themselves. With our new building in place, classes set up and established in classrooms in the school, we feel the time is right to begin the project and name our classes officially. The project has been at the planning stage amongst our staff. We are bound to teach the National Curriculum as set out by the Department of Education and the Learn Together curriculum as set out by our patron Educate Together so the class names need to be someway incorporated into these curricula. We want to include the children's and communities' voices in the decision as much as possible so at the moment we are considering the best way to do this. The children will be made aware of the plans to rename the classes later in October (so don't spill the beans until then!) but we want to give you a heads up so that you can engage in the discussion with your child(ren). The children will be given a theme by their class teacher from which they will pick a class name. For example the theme could be sea animals from which the children will be asked to consider what sea animal they would like their class named after (sharks, dolphins, etc). This is not a sneak peak by the way!! We hope that this will prove to be a nice discussion topic for you and your child(ren) and develops further that link between school and homelife. Be sure to check in with your child(ren) over the next few weeks as the project progresses to see where their class is at with it. For now there is nothing for you to do but know that when your child announces that they want their class to be called the Shark class you will have a reference as to what they are talking about! Last Tuesday evening, we invited parents and members of the Board of Management to attend a meeting here in the school, where we would have an opportunity to consider how we can get parents even more involved in school life. The meeting was really well-attended and threw up some exciting and inspiring ideas. It was so encouraging to see the energy and passion that so many of our parents and guardians have.  Above are some bullet points that give an idea of the kinds of discussions that we had.
These ideas will provide plenty of inspiration for the school staff and the Parents' Association members as they plan for the months and years ahead. If you have any other ideas, please don't hesitate to let us know!  Now that we are finally free to have visitors to our school again, we are looking to trial an initiative to inject some extra fun into Maths time!
We are seeking volunteers from our community to help out for a block of six weeks, leading Maths games at stations in classes from Junior Infants up to Fourth Class. At these weekly Maths Games sessions, children will move from table to table, playing age-appropriate games that are tailored to help them improve their mathematical skills. Each parent will lead the playing of one simple game, while the children rotate from game to game. Maths Games will take place 9.00-9.45 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Parents are invited to pop to the staff room after dropping their children to school to have a cuppa and a chat while the kids settle into their morning routine. Parents will then bring the games and resources to the classroom and let the games commence! Ideally, we would love to find volunteers that could do BOTH Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but if you can only do one, please do fill in the form and we'll be back in touch. All volunteers will be Garda Vetted by our patron, Educate Together and a brief training session will be provided in advance for all volunteers. We are hoping to schedule the games as follows: November-December: 1st/2nd Classes January-February: 3rd/4th Classes March-April: Junior Infants/ Senior Infants. Please leave your details on this form if you think you can help. Last Thursday night's talk for parents was a great success! It followed on from a Digital Citizenship day at the senior end of the school, where children from 3rd to 6th classes participated in workshops with John Wills from schoolsupports.com.
Later, it was the turn of a room full of parents. John's comprehensive talk covered the topics listed below and answered parents' questions, too.
Check out John's website; https://www.schoolsupports.com/cyber; for useful links and some of the resources John directed us to during his talk. We are delighted to announce that we will have a guest speaker at the school on January 31st, speaking about the topic of Cyber Safety. John will be speaking to pupils in the Senior Classes (3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th) during the school day, and will then give a talk for parents from 7.00-8.30pm that evening.
We strongly encourage parents, particularly those with children at the Senior end of the school and those parents who engage with social media themselves, to make an effort to attend this talk, as social media has become such a normal part of many children's lives and of our own lives. As well as educating ourselves on the possible dangers of our own behaviour online, it is crucial that parents inform themselves regarding the apps and platforms that their children are engaging with, and to be aware of the steps that can be taken to prevent children exposing themselves to unnecessary risk. The talk will address some of the following issues, all of which are relevant for adults as well as for children:
As you know by now, at Citywest ETNS, we operate a programme of educational experiences designed to increase our children’s understanding of, and appreciation for, a variety of belief systems. It is our hope that, during their time at Citywest ETNS, each child will have the opportunity to meet with a religious leader and/or visit the place of worship of each of the main world religions, as well as some non-theistic belief systems.
So far this year, different classes in our school have had visits to a synagogue, a Buddhist centre and a church, and have been visited by speakers from Atheist Ireland and the Humanist Association. These visits provide a real-life context for the learning that is already taking place at school. Learning about the beliefs and customs of various world religions encourages understanding and mutual respect of diversity in all aspects of life. There is no faith formation element to any of these visits. The focus is on information about the faith. Unfortunately, we have yet to establish a strong relationship with a Hindu temple. While in the past, we have had a visit from a leader of the Hindu community, we would love to make a lasting connection with a temple that we could visit. If you are a member of the Hindu faith, or if you know somebody who is, could you make an introduction for us? We would love to establish a relationship with a leader of the Hindu faith that is based in a local temple. That way, we will be able to arrange yearly visits to the temple for various class levels. So if you do have a connection, please get in touch with Aoife, via the school office! We are delighted to announce that we will have a guest speaker at the school this Wednesday, 22 November, speaking about the topic of Cyber Safety. John will be speaking to pupils in the Senior Classes (3rd, 4th, 5th) during the school day, and will then give a talk for parents from 7.00-8.30pm on Wednesday evening.
The talk will address some of the following issues:
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