Catholic Schools' Week/Text a parent/Senior Infants/brown envelopes/Parents' association

To mark Catholic schools' week a service will be held in the Church on Monday next February 1st St. Brigid's Day. The theme of the week is "A light for every generation" A number of activities are planned for the week including the making of St. Brigid's crosses, some project work on St Blaise and research around grandparents.

Ms Scannell and Ms Brogan will have to move from their classrooms with senior Infants from next Tuesday morning to the Gym to facilitate the replacement of the roof of their classrooms. Parents might consider adding a layer of clothing to the children as the heating in the hall may not be as effective as in the classrooms.

Text-a-parent: At this stage 95% of parents have provided a family contact number to facilitate better communications with families in the event of there being a need to contact families urgently for some unforeseen reason.

Thanks to the Parents' Association for its work in fund raising before Christmas and for the provision of two white board for our school. If you have not returned the brown envelope with a donation to the school you might do so as soon as possible.

Roof/swine 'flu/ enrolment/Haiti/parking

Thank you to all for your cooperation with our roof replacement arrangements. Classes will be disrupted over the coming days as the work progresses. We hope to keep this disruption to a minimum. The workmen will be here over the weekend in an effort to keep the inconvenience to a minimum. Work will continue during the mid-term break also.The swine flu vaccine programme will be completed today. Any child who has missed out and wishes to have the vaccine must contact their local GP. Thank you to all those who helped out in the coordination of the work.Enrolment will take place on 9th 10th and 11th of February in the school. It is important that each application is accompanied by original birth cert and copy of same, original baptismal cert and copy of same, child's PPS number and two recent utility bills (2 months) with confirmation of the parents'/guardians' address.Congratulations to the children and teachers who undertook the fund raising for Haiti last Friday. Almost €2500 was collected in the cake sale. Thanks to all the parents and teachers and school staff for your wonderful cooking.By now you are aware that the Gardaí are clamping down on illegal parking outside the school in the mornings and evenings. The purpose of this is to ensure the safety of your children and the school supports this initiative. I appreciate that there are many families who have to drive their children to school but I'm sure many others could consider walking the short distance especially on fine mornings. A bit of extra exercise will do only good for the children!

Swine 'Flu Vaccine

Parents,

The swine flue vaccination of children aged 5 to 18 will be available in the school on Monday and Tuesday next 25th and 26th January. Only children whose parents have completed and returned the consent forms will be considered for the vaccine. Please ensure that you have returned a completed consent form to the class teacher. Spare forms are available from the school secretary should you require them.

Please note the following from the letter received by the school from the HSE:
“On the day of vaccinations we recommend that students ensure they have eaten breakfast and any appropriate meals, this lessens the risk of fainting during vaccinations. In addition they should wear loose clothing to facilitate vaccination in the upper arm”.
Due to the volume of work to be achieved it will not be possible for the HSE to actively follow up students who are absent on the day of the vaccination or where vaccination is deferred because the student is unwell. These students should be brought by their parents to the mass vaccination clinics”.

The vaccination will take place in school hall where facilities will be in place for the HSE team. We understand that there will be approx 8 doctors present. From the information we have received the administration of the vaccime will be a very operation. The time-table in latest news section is a rough guide as it is not possible to give exact times for specific classes.

Please note that no child will be vaccinated unless the consent and treatment form is returned fully completed and signed.

Thank you.

Seán Ó Díomasaigh
Príomhoide

Swine 'Flu

Timetable for Vaccination on 25/26th January will be sent home to parents and posted here later today Thursday 21 January.

Please support our Cake Sale Fundraiser for Haiti tomorrow 22nd January.

Swine 'Flu Vaccination

The Swine 'Flu Vaccine will be available in the school hall on Monday 25th January and Tuesday 26th January. If you want your child to avail of this fre service you must have completed the consent form and returned it to the school. Some forms are still available at the school if you have mislaid the one provided by the school two weeks ago.

Thank you for your cooperation with the new temporary arrangements for entering and exiting the school while the new roof work is being put in place.

New Roof/Swine Flu/ Party Food

Work on replacing old roof will commence tomorrow. There will be some disruption and new arrangements for children entering and exiting the school. Details have been sent to parents of children who will be effected by the changes.

We are still awaiting dates for Swine Flu' Vaccination. It has been very difficult to get any information from the HSE but we will let you know as soon as we have dates.

Of late there have been requests from parents to distribute party food for birthdays etc in the school. The school will not accept party food, cakes, presents for distribution to children on health and safety grounds.

New Year

Welcome back to all our children and happy New Year to all. Thank you for your cooperation last week during the very severe weather. We decided to open on Tuesday as the weather improved dramatically on Monday but we realise it was difficult for many of you in the surrounding estates. On balance we think we made the correct decision. Families will have received a letter this week about the text-a-parent initiative we hope to launch shortly. It is important that each family fills out this form including an up to date mobile number for the family and returns it to the school immediately. The parents' association is supporting this venture as a further way of improving communications between school and families.

Confirmation will be on Friday March 12 at 11 a.m.

The swine flu vaccine was due to be beginning on Monday next but with the late opening it has been postponed. We are trying to get a new start up date for this programme and will let you know the details.
Work will commence shortly on the replacement of the old school roof. This will cause some disruption to parents and children. We appeal to all to be vigilant as you enter the school and respect the signs.

School Opening

School will reopen tomorrow 12th January at 8.50 a.m. We look forward to seeing you all back in the morning as the snow has thawed considerably over the last 24 hours. However it will be wet under foot, so be careful and ensure you have suitable footwear and clothing. It is important also that it be emphasised to all children to be careful not to throw snowballs as snow may contain stones or pebbles.

School Closure Update

A very happy New Year to all our Parents and children. You will be aware by now that the Minister for Education and Science has announced that all schools will be closed on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday of next week due to the extreme weather conditions. We are aware that this will create some hardship for families but the safety of children and parents is of paramount importance. Please keep up to date with developments through the school website on which we will post any new information. The Swine Flu' vaccination programme is due to commence on January 18th and hopefully the late opening will not effect these arrangements. Thank you.

School Closure

The school will remain closed on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th January due to the severe weather conditions. Please visit the website for updates over the weekend.