Hello everyone!


Thank you
Phew, what a term! It started with opening our new school building, something we waited 7.5 years for!
Little did we know at the time that that building would be sitting empty by the end of it's first term. What a rollercoaster!
I am so proud of how this community has coped with this rollercoaster term. We all - management, staff, parents and most of all children - had so much to learn. 
First off, learning how to BE in our new building and in our new campus and then learning how to be without it!
I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the team work and solidarity throughout this tumultuous term.


Submitting work today
If you are sending in work to your child's teacher today for the first time this week, please do so as early in the day as possible so that the teacher has time to give feedback.


Assuming we are not reopening on 20th April
Though further closures have not been announced yet, we are assuming that schools will remain closed after the spring break. There will be an announcement by our government some time over the coming fortnight. If the announcement is that we ARE reopening, I will be in touch via email - this is quite unlikely. If the announcement is that schools are staying closed, I will not be sending a further email about that. 
Our teachers have prepared suggested activities for the first week back and the list for the full week will be uploaded to all class websites on Friday 17th April.
For the first week back after spring break, we are staying with the same format as this week and adding in a little bit more video content, including videos created by teachers on staff. 6th class are all set up on Google Classroom and have the option to use it.


Survey
We would like to know how you got on this week with the activities suggested and we would like your thoughts on how to develop school support for children doing schoolwork at home, should the closures go on for months.
Please find the survey here. It should take approx 10 minutes to complete. Please complete it by Friday 17th April.
We will be considering the results of the survey during the week of 20th April.
Any changes we make will be slow to allow everyone get used to them and not feel overwhelmed.


End of term
Two links to share with your children to finish the term:

1. A message from me - scroll down to Friday's video.
2. Our school song "All you need is Love" - let's all sing and sign it today!

Wishing you, your family and most importantly, your children, a peaceful, healthy and happy spring break!
All the best,
Caitriona.

Hello everyone.
I hope you are well. We miss the children and hope they are all doing well. We would love to hear from them.
As I wrote to you last Thursday, we have been developing a new corner of the website to communicate with you during these closures.
We are learning every day and so it is changing daily.
The last two weeks were a chance for everyone to take a breath and get used to being at home. We set some suggested activities for families during those weeks. If you engaged with them, great. If you didn't and took the time to just get used to the new normal, that is fine too.
While school closures have only been announced as far as 19th April, we do expect to be closed for longer. Therefore, we are using the coming week to try out a few things. Later in the week, we will send you a survey to get your feedback on how this works for you and on some ideas we have for developing our approach further.
We will use your responses to help us decide how to organise learning after the spring break.
This is a very stressful time for all and we encourage you not to let schoolwork add to any stress. Only do what fits for your family. If you have other stresses going on for your family, please remember that the absence of stress is more important than getting through academic work. If they read a few pages of a book, are active each day and do one learning activity from the class page, that's fine. Children learn through play and they find emotional regulation in play so simple childsplay is great! 
Suggested tasks for Monday are set out on each class page. The rest of the week will be uploaded tomorrow.
I have left some messages for the children here. The teachers have left messages on the class pages which we hope the children watch and find comfort in.
Wishing you and your children a happy, healthy and stress-free week,
All the best,
Caitriona.

Dear community members,
As expected, it is now confirmed that we will not return to school next week. The earliest we will be back to school is after spring break, 20th April.
Our teachers are working on further plans of work for the children to work on at home. Please bookmark our Home Learning page. This is where we will continue to provide updates to you.
We are trying to keep the number of emails low so as not to cause extra stress to families already under strain.
We miss your children and hope they are doing well. We hope you are doing well too.
Please take care of yourselves so that you can take care of our wonderful children!
Wishing you continued good health,
Caitriona and all the Citywest ETNS team.

URGENT AND IMPORTANT - Please see email just sent!
1. Public meeting 8pm tonight for 2nd level campaign
2. No school tomorrow
3. Info evening this Thurs
Thanks.

Dear parents and guardians,
We have a very busy week ahead!

1. Public meeting this evening for the 2nd level campaign - we have now reached the critical time for this process and it is so important that everyone gets involved. Come to the meeting and bring your neighbours, your friends, anyone who might have a vote and anyone who might influence someone who has a vote. We welcome people who have already decided which patron to vote for and those who are not yet sure. Children are welcome to come along. 8pm in our PE Hall. See you there.
2. No school tomorrow, Tuesday 17th September, due to staff training.
3. Information evening for all parents this Thursday 20th September, 6.30pm to 9.10pm. We are delighted to have secured Helena Murphy, a doctoral researcher with The National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in DCU, to give a talk to parents about bullying, preventing bullying and dealing with bullying. We are a community and we need everyone working together to ensure that our community is free from bullying. Each classroom teacher will also give a presentation about life in their class and I will talk about our new strategic plan and the work of our Board of Management. We have a full evening planned for you and we hope that you come for the full evening, 6.30pm to 9.10pm. This event is for adults only; children will not be allowed in to the school building.

Looking forward to seeing you this evening and on Thursday evening and I wish you a great week,
Caitriona.

Dear families,
A pupil in our school, along with the child's family, have now been homeless for 15 months. This family of two adults and two children are currently living in one room in a hotel, which is very difficult.
They are desperate to find a place to live. As their child is so happy and connected in our school, they would love a place to live within travel distance to our school - they are currently commuting from Lucan to get here each day. They would love to live in Tallaght, Citywest, Rathcoole, Saggart or nearby areas.
The family is entitled to Homeless HAP and can pay rent up to 2100 euros.
If you know of any place available for them to rent, please pass the details - or your details - to Nicola in the school office, who will pass them on to the family.
We are a community and we look after one another. This family has been through enough. If we can find them a place to live, that would be wonderful!
Wishing you all a happy, restful weekend,
Caitriona.

​Dear families,
It is with disappointment that we are writing to you to let you know that we are reluctantly removing our school teams from the GAA league due to lack of parental involvement. In the early years of the school, we heard from a lot of parents who wished for our school to have sports teams. We put work into this over the last few years with a view to getting fully involved in the league this year including lunchtime training sessions, fundraising for jerseys, making connections with GAA clubs and other schools. We were very encouraged by the attendance at the meeting before the summer.
 
Each game takes time to organise - booking a pitch, arranging a referee, liaising with other schools, organising cover within the school for a teacher to accompany the team, etc. Having to call each of those people on the morning of a match to cancel is very difficult - the other team have already booked and paid for a bus, the referee has taken time off work, the GAA Club have arranged for their caretaker to have everything ready for us.
 
We understand that parents have work and other commitments. However, this is a venture that cannot proceed without parental support and involvement. 
 
Therefore, we have withdrawn our team from the league. We will continue with the lunchtime training sessions and we hope that we will be able to work together on this in future years.
 
Yours sincerely,
Caitriona Hand, Principal, and Shane Smith, Teacher and Coach.

It's time!! Let's get voting, your community needs you to #VoteEducateTogether
✅ Get your child/children’s PPS numbers and your eircode to hand.
✅ Go to: http://bit.ly/VoteETCitywestSaggart
✅Follow the instructions and make sure Vote No.1 Educate Together
The vote is open to all children in the defined geographic area of the Tallaght and Rathcoole/Newcastle School Districts, between 2nd to 6th Class, with parents getting one vote per child, voting will take place from 9th September to 4th October 2019. This is a unique, historical opportunity for you to shape the future of our wonderfully diverse and vibrant community.
Thank you for your time and most importantly for making the choice for real equality based education for the whole community!
#VoteEducateTogether
We also want to let you know that we will be holding a public meeting this Monday 16 September in Citywest Educate Together National School at 8pm. We need you and your family to be there.
We have a number of speakers joining us to share their experiences, and insights on education and the Educate Together model.
These include:
Claire Matthews (Principal) and students from Firhouse Educate Together Secondary School
Paul Murphy TD
John Lahart TD
Caitriona Hand - Principal of Citywest Educate Together NS
Parents Association Chairperson from Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School
Jennifer Buttner - Educate Together Regional Development Officer
Dave Murphy - Chairperson Citywest Educate Together Second Level Campaign
This a child friendly event, please bring your children to the meeting. Remember school is closed on Tuesday, 17th September 2019.
This is a great opportunity to find out more about Educate Together, what an Educate Together secondary school can offer your child and how our unique Ethical Education curriculum is used during the school day.

We hope to see you there!
Remember, you can #VoteEducateTogether at this link before Friday 4 October. Every vote counts so please share this email with friends and family who live in the catchment area and have a child starting secondary school between 2020 and 2024!
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to vote for the patronage of a second level school for your children and the whole community. #VoteEducateTogether

Kind regards,
Dave Murphy
Chairperson
Citywest Saggart Educate Together Second Level Campaign

#VoteEducateTogether - http://bit.ly/VoteETCitywestSaggart ​