29th Aug - Email to all families: Back-to-school notices

Good morning and welcome to a new school year!
We are looking forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday for another great school year together!


First day of school:

• School reopens this Wednesday 31st August at 8.30am.
• It is a full day of school. Parents of children starting 1st class should note that their child will finish at 2.10pm each day now.
• The other school on our campus, Citywest and Saggart CNS, is reopening on the same day. Therefore, please leave the campus as early as you can after leaving your child to school - the campus will get extremely busy from 8.40am.
• Unfortunately, due to our neighbours reopening on the same day, we cannot facilitate classroom visits or teacher introductions on the first morning. Please see details below of two events coming up to facilitate this and thank you for your understanding in this matter.
• A reminder that our photography policy allows parents to take photographs, as long as there are no photos of individual children (apart from your own) and no sharing of photos including via social media, unless its a photo of just your child, with no other child visible in the background. 

Important dates for your diary:

• Wednesday 7th September - visit your child's classroom and meet other parents - 12.30pm for Senior Infants and 1.30pm for 1st to 4th class parents
• Monday 12th September - Junior Infants start on a full school day, 8.30am to 1.10pm each day. All parents are asked to be mindful of increased traffic in the car park this week and to leave the car at home if possible.
• Monday 19th September - after-school activities programme commences
• Thursday 22nd September from 7pm - Information Evening for adults only - attend a talk by your child's teacher, in your child's classroom, and meet all staff and other parents
• Monday 26th September - school closed for staff training

Please walk to school:

• Please walk, jog, cycle, scoot or even take the LUAS to school if you can at all. With over 600 families accessing our campus each day, every family that leaves the car at home helps everyone get to school safely.
• Walk on the paths only, never on the road.
• When near cars, adults should walk nearest the cars in case children are not tall enough to be seen by the driver.
• We recommend wearing high-vis jackets when walking. All children were supplied with a free high-vis jacket in Junior Infants. If you missed this or need a new one, please let us know and we will order a new one for your child.

Car Park:

• If you must drive, please car pool if you can so as to reduce the number of cars entering the campus.
• Loop system remains in place - enter via the Entrance gate only and exit via the Exit gate only. One-way driving on the campus only. If you need to go back, you must drive out and back in again.
• Drop-off facility continues 8.30 to 8.40am each day. More volunteers desperately needed. Please reply to this email to volunteer, even if its just for one day that you can help!
• No parking at any time of day in the drop-off zone or by the fence opposite the front of the building. Parking is in designated spots in front of the building or in the large car park to the left of the Entrance gate only.
• There is NO parking for parents after the drop-off zone. Parking in this area is for staff members, buses, creche staff and drivers with a permit pass from either school displayed clearly on their dashboard. We do not have staff members available to monitor this so please obey this guideline. Parking in this area puts you, your child and our most vulnerable children at risk. Please don't do it. This applies to ALL times of day, not just morning time.
• No parking on the road outside the school campus, at any time or for any length of time, even to drop off a child.
• Be considerate to pedestrians and other drivers. Give way. Everyone is under pressure and kindness saves lives.

School start time:

• School doors open at 8.30am each day. The school does not take responsibility for any child before the teachers collect the children after the bell goes at 8.30am. No child should ever be left unsupervised on the school campus. Kidorama Academy provide before-school care in our school building at a very reasonable cost.
• If you arrive before 8.30am, please accompany your child to their line and wait with him/her.
• Children arriving after 8.30am on any day should enter via the main door of the school.
• Children arriving after 8.40am on any day must be accompanied in to the building and signed in.

Where to wait for your teacher on the first morning only:

• Senior Infants - children should line up where they lined up in the mornings last year. 
• 1st class - children should line up at the main door of the school, behind the children starting Senior Infants, Orla's class where Aoife's Senior Infants class lined up last year and Martha's class where Eldon's Senior Infants class lined up last year. This is a change for the children who were in Jenna's Senior Infants class last year.
• 2nd class - Children who will be in Aoife's 2nd class should line up where Orla's 1st class lined up last year and children who will be in Mary's 2nd class should line up where Mary Treasa's 1st class lined up last year.
• 3rd and 4th classes - children should line up where they lined up in the mornings last year.
• Children new to the school - if you are joining us in 1st class, please join the 1st class lines at the main door of the school. If you are joining us in another class, please go into the play yard on the first morning. I hope another child or parent will help you out and show you where to go but if not, don't worry, our support teachers Aisling and Deirdre will be available to point you in the right direction from 8.30am!
• The children will be taught on the first day where to line up on future days.

Collecting your child at the end of the day:

• Senior Infants - please line up at the outside door directly into your child's classroom. At 1.10pm, the teacher will open the door and dismiss the children one by one. Please do not knock on the classroom window or engage your child's attention before this time. The teacher is trying to teach and needs every child as focussed as possible.
• 1st and 3rd classes - are dismissed into the school yard. 
• 2nd and 4th classes - are dismissed via the front door of the school. 
• Important - from 1st class: Children are not matched to parents in the same way they were in the Infant classes. While the teacher will oversee the children leaving the school, it is the parent's responsibility to have someone at the school on time to collect their child from school. You should also ensure that your child knows what to do if there is no-one there to collect him/her or if they are uncomfortable leaving with the person who says they are to collect them. In the early days of 1st class, we will pay extra attention as the children leave but this does not change the responsibility of each parent to be there on time.

Change of clothes for school:
While we cannot accommodate changing bags for individual children, apart from those with particular care needs, we do maintain a general store of clean clothes for any child who might need them. We always appreciate donations of clean clothes for this store, in particular elasticated-waisted trousers and underwear. These can be left in to the school office at any time.


Staff:
Anyone keeping an eye on our website over the summer will have noticed a number of new appointments to our school. We are delighted to welcome the following staff members to our school:

• Sarah C teaching Senior Infants
• Leonie teaching our mixed Senior Infants and 1st class
• Martha teaching 1st class
• Julie Ann teaching 3rd class
• Aoife H, joining our support teaching team, with particular focus on Junior and Senior Infants
• Sarah OT, also joining our support teaching team, with particular focus on 2nd class
• Izabela, joining John on our cleaning team
• Magdalena, bus escort
• Miriam, who will be temporary school secretary for the first couple of weeks of the school year. 

Building work delays
Unfortunately, the refurbishment of our new classrooms hit a series of delays over the summer and building work has not yet commenced. We are therefore using every available space in the school for teaching and unfortunately will not be able to accommodate parents waiting between drop-off and collection times inside our building for the foreseeable future. We will let you know when our meeting room is available again.
In the meantime, Mary Treasa's Senior Infants class will be learning in the Shared Learning Room in the new wing, Eldon's 4th class will be learning in our GP Hall and library and Kidorama ECCE pre-school and before- and after-school care facility will be using our meeting room and PE Hall.
We are, of course, in regular contact with our landlord and Patron in relation to this work and we hope that progress will be made shortly.


Change of details or circumstance:

• It is most important that you let us know if your contact details change, including, for example, if your phone is out of order. It is vital that we can contact you immediately in case of emergency.
• If you have a change in family circumstance and your child has parents living in different homes, please let us know so that we can ensure both parents receive important notifications.
• If your child will not be returning to our school, please let us know immediately. We have waiting lists for most classes and could reallocate that school place to a child on the waiting list.
• If your child will not be at school on Wednesday 31st August but will be returning in September, please let us know in advance so that we do not reallocate that school place in error.

School Expenses:

• If you have not already paid the full amount of school expenses, please do so this week. A number of parents have contacted me regarding a payment plan and those can proceed as planned. If you wish to organise a payment plan, please contact me in confidence.

Communications from the school:

• Our main communication tool is our school website, www.citywestetns.ie. Please visit regularly, particularly the News page and your child's class page.
• Our second preferred communication tool is email. It is your responsibility to check your emails and to read the emails from us. Please mark the email as "Read" at the bottom of each email.
• When the teachers meet their classes at 8.30am each morning, their focus is on greeting the children and setting them up for a successful day of learning. If you have something to talk with the teacher about that will take more than a few seconds, please make an appointment via the school office.

I am very much looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday morning and to working with you in the care and education of your child(ren) over the coming year.
Kind regards,
Caitriona Hand,
Principal.