8^th September 2016

Dear Parents and Guardians / A Thuismitheoirí agus a Chaomhnóirí

Fáilte ar ais arís.   It has been a wonderfully warm and calm start to the new school year. We are delighted to welcome our two new Junior Infant classes and Ethan to the ALC, all of whom are settling in really well to our school community. It’s great to have a new bunch of parents, some who have been busy already, contributing to decisions in relation to the new school.

Staff Changes

Sadly we have had to say goodbye to Ríona and Evelyn and we are very grateful for the wonderful work they did here. We wish them all the very best and congratulations on their new jobs.

We are delighted to welcome Lisa as the first class teacher and Mary as the second class teacher. Fortunately we have been successful in the application to the Department for an additional mainstream class teacher, as we now have a developing school status again.  We will be introducing another new staff member soon.

We are very grateful for a generous donation from one family last week, enabling us to purchase some new PE equipment at an excellent rate.

Our value for the month is Peace and we will celebrate friendship week from 19^th – 23^rd September and World Day of Peace on 21^st September.

New Building

The progress with the new school is very promising. We are at the stage of making decisions on the colour of the outside walls, floors, carpets, furniture and ICT. Thanks to the landscaping team led by Josh, much thought has gone into the use of the outside space.

School Books

Some years ago, as part of on-going review and evaluation of teaching and learning, the Staff at GETNS made the decision to reduce dependency on workbooks, with a view to incorporating active learning, led by comprehensive school plans, based on the National Curriculum. Since then, we have readily embraced new complementary government initiatives, such as Aistear, SSE, the New Language Curriculum and the Book Rental Scheme. Such a dramatic change to teaching methodology, takes time and includes building up a bank of text books at each class level to supplement the teaching and learning. Therefore, booklists typically include homework books (written in and used by your child only) and, where necessary, one workbook for the classroom and school bank of books, for use in school on an ongoing basis rather than one year only. At the end of the year, donations of novels studied are also much appreciated. Overall this enhances the quality of learning, widening the range of texts used for children’s learning, reduces your costs and supports our sustainable green ethos. Thank you for your support and contribution with this.

Junior Infants Vaccinations and Vision & Hearing

Consent forms have been sent home today for both 4 in 1 and MMR vaccines and Health Screening Vision & Hearing for Junior Infants. Please return the completed forms to the class teacher before Wednesday 14^th September. Vaccination and screening dates will follow.

Thank you for the voluntary contributions received to date. Please remember to complete the CHY4 Certificate for tax relief for donations. If you pay €250 for the year (January 2016 – December 2016) for your child/children as a voluntary contribution, the school can claim the tax on this money, and get almost €400 for this €250.

Contact details

Parents please ensure we have up to date contact details and email addresses. Please advise if you would like to receive the Thursday letter in hard copy format.

Educate Together Letter

A letter is being sent home today to each family relating to ETs Second-level Schools Campaign.

St Aidan’s CBS Secondary School (Collins Avenue Extension beside DCU) Open Evening Thursday 15^th September 2016 6.30pm-8.30pm

CoderDojo@DCU and CoderDojoGirls starts back on the 24th September. Tickets will be available from the 19th September. Please see attached flyer for information.

CoderDojo is a global volunteer-led community of free programming clubs for young people between 7 and 17. Some of the benefits of learning to code is kids learn about problem solving, design in DCU the kids can learn about IOT and Engineering.

RAKA

The following children were awarded Random Act of Kindness Awards this week: Caoimhe and Harry Junior Infants, Lola Senior Infants, Rosa 4^th, Lilas 5^th and Devyn ALC.

RARA

The following children were awarded Random Act of Respect Awards this week: Teyana Junior Infants, Caitríona Senior Infants, Katie 4^th, and Martha 5^th.

Frása na Seachtaine:  “Feicfidh mé amárach thú”– I’ll see you tomorrow!

Le meas,

_______________________________

Róisín Conlon,

Principal