February Newsletter

Hello everyone! Happy weekend!
I hope you are all well. Notices of upcoming events:

• General Election and School Closure on Friday 26th February

Our school will be used as a polling station for the election taking place on Friday 26th February. Therefore there will be no school that day.
This is in addition to the school closing for the mid-term break on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th February.

• Pre-enrolments for 2016 and future years

Our enrolment policy is strictly first-come-first-served and we do not have priority listing for siblings already in the school. We already have a long list of pre-enrolments for 2017 and we have pre-enrolments for each year up to 2020. If you have a younger child who is not already pre-enrolled for our school, please complete the pre-enrolment form on our website immediately.

• Car Park - Thanks!

Thank you so much for your safety and care in the car park and in accessing the school. It is up to all parents to maintain safe standards in the car park - if you see something unsafe, please address it yourself. Also, a gentle reminder that the car park guidelines are the same in the afternoons as they are for the mornings - parking inside the Entrance gate only and not in the Staff car park or Drop-Off area. Along the fence in the staff car park are a number of spaces that look like parking spaces but are required as collection points for the children in an emergency evacuation. Please do not park in this area - it is marked with Green squares A to Z. Some of them are missing and we are working to replace them. However, it is clear where they should be.

• Coffee morning on Friday 12th February at 8.45am

Our Parents' Association are hosting a coffee morning for all parents next Friday, 12th February, in our meeting room. You are most welcome to come in after dropping your child(ren) to school. This is a really important part of school life - being in the school and getting to know other parents. We would love to see lots of parents join us for the first coffee morning in the new meeting room!

• Clothes collection in the month of February

Our last clothes collection was so successful, we have decided to run another one. Just bring bags of unwanted clothes into the school. Money raised will be used to buy play resources for our children. Please leave your bags into the GP area in our new wing. The Parents' Association have left lots of black bags in the school office so just drop in and ask Siobhan for the number you need! Bags should be left into the school by Wednesday 24th February.

• Two collection times? You can use our meeting room!

We have noticed that a number of families are collecting children at 1.10 and again at 2.10 - it can be difficult to hang around and pointless to go home only to turn around and come back again! We would like to welcome you to stay in the school for this hour, now that we have additional accommodation and have a comfortable space for you to wait in. You are welcome to wait, with your children, in our new meeting room for this hour. To be clear:

• Your children are your own responsibility during this time. The school is not taking care of them and is not taking responsibility for them.
• You and your child(ren) should stay in the meeting room and not be using other spaces in the school - class is still in progress for our older children and they will be using the PE hall, GP area and other parts of the school.
• If your child needs to use the toilet, you can use the toilet on the corridor but please accompany him/her there and back.
• You should bring your own snacks and activities and bring everything away with you afterwards, including your rubbish.
• You need to tidy up after yourself and leave the meeting room ready and presentable each day - we often have visitors, meeting and interviews in the evenings.

We will give this a try for the month of February. If you have any feedback on it, including suggestions for how to improve it, please let me know.

• Education Together General Election Campaign

Educate Together wishes to make equality in education an election issue - see the web page outlining the campaign: http://www.educatetogetherge16.com/

• Citywest Educate Together Second Level Campaign - first meeting on Tuesday 9th February, 8.30pm in Citywest Hotel

In addition to the national issues outlined by Educate Together, the next target for the Citywest Educate Together start-up group is a second level school for this area, which is sorely lacking.
There will be a 1st meeting for the second level campaign start up group  on Tuesday 9th February at 20:30 in Citywest Hotel. All very welcome. Please check the parents association Facebook page for updates and information. Thank you and see you then. Lisa Breslin, Secretary, Citywest Educate Together Second Level Campaign.
 

• See you this week for Parent-Teacher Meetings!

We look forward to meeting you this week for parent-teacher meetings. This is a great opportunity to talk with your child's teacher about your child's progress. The meetings are for adults only. If you are minding children while someone else attends a meeting, please do so in the GP area of our new wing. Again, the children are your own responsibility, you should bring quiet activities for them and please clean up after yourselves. If you have not already submitted the questionnaire to your child's teacher, please do so on Monday.


Wishing you and your family a wonderful weekend,
Caitriona.