Staff Meetings at Citywest ETNS
Working together, planning together and sharing information is very important to us.
We meet for one hour per month as a full staff, one hour per month for the teaching staff to meet and we also hold various types of shorter and smaller-group meetings each week. Below is an overview of the items discussed at our long meetings.
We meet for one hour per month as a full staff, one hour per month for the teaching staff to meet and we also hold various types of shorter and smaller-group meetings each week. Below is an overview of the items discussed at our long meetings.
October 2018
- Move to G-suite for internal communications for our school will take place this month. This will allow further progression on our digital learning plan.
- Training for staff on G-suite will take place in November.
- Wellness Day for staff coming up later this month, including a wellness workshop off-site, taking place one afternoon after school.
- Examination of the defibrillator and reminders for how to use it - the defibrillator is stored in the corridor outside the PE Hall.
- Further developing of our digital learning plan
- Review of the teaching and learning of English, Irish and Maths at our school, identifying areas for further development
- Sharing of resources for the teaching of fundamental movement skills
- Ciara O'Donoghue, part-time support teacher, starts this week and will work with all mainstream classes over the course of the year
- DES guidelines for teachers' planning and assessment shared
- Focus for children - children are encouraged to use full sentences and to be able to say what they are learning, including during eating times
- Guidelines for recording responses to GDPR permission forms coming in this week
- GAA coaching for children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes will soon begin during lunch breaks; all teachers will provide extra yard supervision in order to release the teachers who will provide this coaching
- Children are not permitted to use personal devices during the school day; children may have devices in their school bag for use before or after school - these devices must be switched off at all times and the school does not accept any responsibility for damage or loss that may occur.
September 2018
- Roles for staff meetings clarified and volunteers sought: Chairperson, Secretary, Time-Keeper, Covering Office for initial few minutes
- Acting Assistant Principal Grade II appointed and areas of responsibility shared with staff - this completes our In-School Coordinating team of 6, which includes Principal, Deputy Principal, Assistant Principal Grade I, two Assistant Principal Grade II and one Acting Assistant Principal Grade II post.
- With new books already delivered and more coming for class libraries, teachers will now remove from class libraries books that are sub-optimal for whatever reason.
- While we appreciated gifts of second-hand books in the early years of the school and those donations were invaluable to us, we can now be quite targeted in the types of books we include in class libraries and will no longer be accepting donations. Class libraries include books in Irish and English, books of different genres and books relating to various areas of the curriculum. Books are graded across class levels.
- Student Support meetings will be held in October.
- School values focused on each month will remain the same as last year:
- September – Kindness
- October - Safety
- November - Caring
- December – Respect
- January - Happiness
- February - Love
- March - Cooperation
- April - Responsibility
- May - Peace
- June - Honesty
- September – Kindness
- Reach for the Stars by S Club 7 will be the school song for this year - 2 verses with a chorus after each
- Staff social committee was appointed
- Procedures regarding applications for leave of absence was clarified
- Reminder that it is no-one's business why a staff member is not in school; these are for approval by Caitriona and the Board of Management only
- Planning our submissions to the Learn Together shared lesson plan database as part of our new digital cluster project
- Reminder of procedure in relation to submitting planning and teaching records to the school principal
- Distribution of Building Bridges of Understanding resources, along with guidelines for how to use it
- Planning template in relation to the new language curriculum made available to all teachers
- Planning for logistics in relation to the mobile library
- Planning for the purchasing of further teaching resources
- Further sports training opportunities considered
- Each classroom to have a timeline on display
- Teachers decided to engage in Droichead as an induction programme for newly-qualified teachers
August 2018
- Staff discussed the ethos of the school, reviewing the four principles that are core to our Educate Together ethos: child-centred, co-educational, equality-based and democratically run.
- Staff members discussed Child Protection, reviewing the Child Protection procedures in our school. New staff members are required to complete the webinar on Child Protection by the end of September.
- We discussed Anti-Bullying procedures, including preventative measures and how to respond to an allegation or suspicion of bullying.
- Emergency evacuation procedures were reviewed.
- General health and safety reminders were issues.
- Reminder about positive communication, restorative practice and following the Code of Behaviour
- Reminder that class bins are for recycling waste only and that children bring home all waste from their lunches
- Renewed focus on supporting children to take pride in their working environment and leaving a presentable classroom at the end of each day
- Planning the logistics for parent classroom visits
- Planning the logistics for parent information evening
- Planning the logistics for daily arrival and dismissal of all children in a safe and orderly manner
- Planning the use of Croke Park hours for teachers and additional hours for ANAs for this school year
- Planning the logistics of yard supervision including
- clarification of roles during these times
- supervision on days we don't go out to yard e.g. due to weather
- Playworx, skipping zone, quiet area, senior yard and integration of Junior Infants over time
- clarification of roles during these times
- Planning the logistics of ensuring supervision and instruction on days when a teacher is absent and either a substitute teacher is not provided by the Department of Education or one cannot be found due to the teacher shortage crisis
- Whole-school curricular planning - teachers reminded to follow the whole-school plans when planning and teaching
- Planning for the creation and changing of displays in general school areas
- Planning themed weeks and other events for the school year - each teacher assigned to one event for planning and organising
- One Day Together food fair in October
- Scholastic Book Fair in November
- Winter concert in December
- STEM Week in January
- Seachtain na Gaeilge in March
- Autism Awareness Week in April
- Active Schools Week, Sports Day and 6th Class Graduation in June
- Buddy system in place for new staff members and for new children to classes other than Junior Infants
- New mentors sought for the Mentoring Programme for teachers in their first year of teaching
- Staff member nominated to work with the Strategy Planning Committee for the Board of Management
- Staff handbook made accessible to all
- Review of teaching and learning resources budget left to be spent for this school year - while most items were ordered before the summer, a portion of the budget was held back for spending during the year
- Union representatives appointed