April 2025 - School News
Click the link below to view and listen to the principal's message to parents / guardians at the start of summer term 2025.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n14_ab0p67g
The text of the message is printed here ------
Start of Summer Term 2025
I hope that you and your families had an enjoyable Easter break and we’re delighted to welcome our pupils back to school this week for the start of the summer term. Believe it or not, we have only 8 and a half weeks left before the end of the school year and it’s really going to be a very busy term with lots going on..
Before I mention a number of upcoming events, I’d like to highlight one or two other bits of news from earlier this month.
Fundraising Fridays
You may remember that the children in the senior classes put a lot of effort into their Fundraising Fridays in March & April and almost €2000 was raised for charities selected by our pupils. As well as the busking session in the village in aid of Focus Ireland, we also had a bun and cake sale, a games day, a movie and popcorn day and an Easter Egg raffle……… There was lots of fun on the day of the raffle as we also had the annual Easter Bonnets parade on that morning. There were so many amazing creations on display and it’s great to see all of the happy and smiling faces of the children on this special day --- Many thanks to all parents for helping get the Easter bonnets ready and also your generous support for the Fundraising Fridays organised by the children.
Attendance
At our end of term assembly, I was delighted to award certificates and prizes to the pupils with the best attendance records in January & February this year. Since we started to focus on school attendance, we have seen a dramatic improvement over the last two years with our average daily attendance rising from 92% to 96%.
The importance of good attendance at school cannot be overstated and I’m looking forward to presenting more certificates and prizes at our next school assembly.
New Class Teacher
Due to an increase in the number of pupils attending our school, we will now qualify for an additional class teacher for 2025/26 and Ms Eva Cotter will be joining our permanent teaching staff after the summer break. Because we will now have an extra class teacher, we will be able to reduce the number of pupils in our larger class groups and this will mean that some of the classes will be reorganised - we are currently working on this.
As we now require an extra classroom for the new teacher and her class, we will only be in a position to offer our one remaining spare classroom to Perwinkles for use as a playschool and for before school and after school childcare. For the last few years we have worked closely with Perwinkles and the arrangement we’ve had in place has been beneficial to our whole school community. It is regrettable that we cannot offer two classrooms to Perwinlkes next year and I realise that this will almost certainly cause inconvenience for some families but as we now need one additional room for a class, we are left with no option.
Uniform Update
I’d like to give you a quick update on what the school policy is going to be for school uniforms in 2025/26.
As you may know, we now have a new quarter zip tracksuit top which will be available for the new school year. Parents have the option of buying the existing tracksuit or the new tracksuit which will be available from the normal suppliers – Bestwear in Shop Street, Rock House Designs in Greenhills and the Uniform Shop in Mell. Parents also have the option of purchasing the traditional school uniform of jumper, shirt, tie, trousers or pinafore, if they wish, but there will be no compulsion to wear this formal uniform at school every day.
Free Schoolbooks Scheme
The government will once again be providing the school with a grant to enable us to provide free schoolbooks, workbooks and copies for all pupils for the new school year. This grant does not cover some additional stationery items and each class teacher will provide you with a list of these items which you may be able to pick up over the summer holidays.
Calendar 2025/26
The academic calendar for the new school year is now uploaded onto the school website and I’ll also email this calendar to each family.
Chess
Many of you may know that we have a very popular chess club in the school with about 40 pupils playing chess after school each week.
Our school chess team has competed in a number of competitions over the last few months and we have also held chess championships for 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th class pupils --- Trophies will be awarded to the class champions at the end of year assembly. I will also be organising a special Chess for Girls Day in May and will invite chess players from other local schools to play chess games against the girls from our chess club. Apart from that, the chess season is now at an end but I hope that our young chess players keeping playing chess over the summer months.
Sport
Sport is going to be a big feature in our school life over the next few weeks with lots of games organised for our school teams.
Our school hurling and gaelic football teams have already been in action earlier this month and I know that we have a basketball blitz and pitch & putt sessions penciled in over the coming weeks. We will also be organising our annual active week in June which is always really enjoyable.
New Solar Panels
You’ll be glad to hear that we will be getting some relief from our very expensive electricity bills from now on following the installation of 34 solar panels on the south facing school roof.
Finally..............
Two of the highlights next month are the sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion.
The Confirmation ceremony will take place at 2pm on Sunday, May 18th and the pupils will receive their First Holy Communion on the following Saturday, May 24th at 2pm.
Volunteers are always needed to assist with the gatherings in the school after these ceremonies so I hope that some of the parents of pupils in 5th and 1st classes will be available to support the work of the Parents Association on those afternoons.
Please keep any eye on your Seesaw messages and the school website for more updates from the school over the coming weeks.
Thank you.
Bryan Collins
Principal
