Dear Parents Issue: 06 January 18th 2023
The staff and I hope you and your families had a very happy & peaceful Christmas. We wish you health and blessings for this New Year.
Best Attendance:
- Congratulations to Mrs Monson’s 3rd & 4th class on having the Best Attendance for the month of December.
Infections & Illness:
- There has been a large increase in general viral infections among children & young people this winter.
- Please, if your child is unwell, keep them at home.
- The measures that we got used to with Covid-19 are still important. They should be encouraged for everyone. These measures help stop the spread of lots of different infections:
- Cover coughs & sneezes
- Keep hands clean
- Avoid close contact with people who have cold or flu symptoms
Enrolments for September 2023:
- Sincere thanks to all the parents who attended our September 2023 Open Night earlier this week – it has been a number of years since we were able to host such an event and it was a great success!
- Enrolment forms for pupils due to start school in September 2023 are now available from the office. The closing date for receipt of completed forms is Monday February 20th.
- Due to the high interest for places, please ensure any siblings who are due to start in September 2023 have their information in on time. Thank you!
Athenry Boys School:
For parents of 1st class boys:
- If you are enrolling your son in Athenry Boys school for September 2023 (2nd class), please complete the Boys School enrolment form and return it to the Boys school as soon as possible.
Presentation College Athenry:
Information for 6th class girls who have been accepted to Presentation College Athenry for September 2023:
- Transition assessments will be held this Saturday Jan 21st
- The CAT4 assessment will be held on Friday Feb 24th
Author Visit:
- Mrs Monson’s 3rd & 4th class girls had a visit from author Olive Mooney on Monday January 9th.
- Olive read to the girls from one of her novels (The Chronicles of Cadavar College) and also had a Question & Answer session with them.
- She told them about how she became and author. Many of the girls said they felt “inspired” to become an author too as a result of meeting Olive!!!
Annual Book Fair:
- Our annual book fair in partnership with Tara Book company will take place on-line again this year.
- We are booked in for the week of Monday Feb 27th to Sunday Mar 5th.
- You will be sent the link and password closer to the time.
Internet Safety Talk:
- Jeremy Pagden from schoolwebsites.ie held a talk relating to Online Safety for the girls in 5th & 6th classes on January 12th 2023
- He put special emphasis on the downsides of spending too much time on devices. We are noticing that a number of children in the senior classes are coming to school with very low concentration spans
- There was a separate talk for parents that evening which was delivered by webinar.
- The school would strongly recommend that primary school children not be given smartphones
- If your child does have the use of a smartphone, then parental support and supervision in regard to the use of smartphones is very much appreciated
Band:
- Band practice has recommenced this week
- We are now preparing for the St. Patrick’s day parade (Friday March 17th)
- Please remind the girls to practice their tunes as part of their homework!
Confirmation Programme:
- Sean Pokall & Ronan Armstrong (Confirmation co-ordinators for Athenry parish) have commenced the Confirmation programme with the girls in both Miss Murray’s and Mr Kelly’s 6th classes.
- The programme is taking place in the Pastoral centre every Friday morning
Grandparents Day:
- Catholic Schools week is happening from January 22nd to 29th. The theme this year is “Walking Together in Faith and Love”. It will be celebrated in all classes.
- We will celebrate Grandparents’ day on Wednesday February 1st this year.
- We have a long tradition of celebrating Grandparents day in Scoil Chroí Naofa – it has been one of the highlights of the school calendar!
- Grandparents are invited to visit the school on Grandparents’ Day,Wednesday February 1st from 10.45am -12.00pm. (If grandparents are unable to come then a parent is very welcome to come in their stead).
- They will visit their grandchildren’s classrooms and afterwards refreshments will be provided. We want to honour and celebrate grandparents for the important part they play in the community and most significantly in the lives of their grandchildren.
Suaimhneas Sensory room:
- Sincere thanks to all staff for their vision and the trojan efforts they have all put in to create our Sensational Sensory Sanctuary!
- We are calling the room “Suaimhneas” as this is the Irish word for “Peace”.
Road Safety
- During the first week back to school we hosted a meeting in the school between representatives from Galway County Council, “Safe Routes”, Coláiste an Eachreidh, Gael Scoil Riada, Athenry Boys school and ourselves.
- We were given a very generous listening ear by the county council & safe routes teams.
- As a result of this meeting I’d urge parents to put any concerns re: traffic, road safety etc. in a detailed email to the school, so that we can now capitalise on this opportunity.
- Please note that any such correspondence will be shared with the senior county engineer. It has to be in order to increase the chances of us being heard.
- I’m confident that we will now see changes in a short space of time to improve road safety for all road users especially our most vulnerable i.e. our primary school children.
- Sincere thanks to the Transition Year teachers and pupils from Coláiste an Eachreidh who visited the 5 Junior & Senior Infant classes last Friday. The TY pupils led the children in a series of fun games & activities to help to make them more aware of road safety. The pupils loved engaging with the older boys & girls!
- Thanks also to Niamh McNulty from Coffey Construction who held “Play Safe” sessions with Ms McSpadden’s & Ms Feeney’s classes on Tuesday.
Uniforms:
- We will be introducing our new school uniform (Crested Navy Sweatshirt, Light Blue Polo shirt and Navy Track pants / Joggers) from September 2023.
- Geraldine and her team from GM Designwear will be in the hall after school during the week of Monday May 8th to Friday May 12th to offer a measuring service to parents. Uniforms can also be pre-ordered on the day.
- If anyone has any spare items of the current school uniform we would be very grateful if you would donate these to the school. Twelve new pupils have started in the school since January 5th and it would be great if we could assist them with second hand uniforms for the remaining months of this school year.
Pilot Programmes in Scoil Chroí Naofa:
Scoil Chroí Naofa have been very proactive in getting involved in new educational pilot schemes offered by the Department of Education. We are very keen to be part of initiatives which we feel will benefit our pupils and the wider school community. To date:
- Supply Panel scheme – where panel of substitute teachers are shared between a panel of primary schools. We are a base school for this scheme and were one of the first schools in the country involved in the pilot
- Summer Programme – 3 week summer programme run in July
- Languages Connect – we took part in the pilot of this last year and now it has been rolled out to all schools. Mrs Trehy is teaching Irish Sign Language to 4 classes over 8 weeks as part of this scheme.
- In-school Mental Health – this is a new Pupil Counselling Scheme that is due to launch in September 2023. We have volunteered to be part of the pilot & are waiting to hear back whether we have been successful.
Dates for Diary:
- Wednesday February 1st: Grandparents day
- Monday February 6th: St Brigid’s day bank holiday
- Thursday February 16th & Friday February 17th: February Mid-term break
- Tuesday March 22nd: School Photographer
- Thursday Mar 23rd: Staff Webinar Term 2 – all the children will go home at 1.15pm
- Monday April 3rd to Friday April 16th: Easter Holidays (school closes at 11.45am on Fri Mar 31st)
- Monday May 1st to Friday May 5th: May Mid-term break
- Thursday May 18th: Confirmation for 6th class girls
- Saturday May 20th: First Communion for 2nd class girls at 2.30pm
- Friday June 23rd: Graduation for 6th class girls
Community Links:
- Coldwood 4 Mile Run & Walk on Sun Jan 29th. Visit www.eventmaster.ie to register or register on the day at Coldwood National School hall from 9.30am. All are welcome. Junior Run at 10am. Senior Run at 11am.
- Athenry Boys school annual table quiz takes place on Friday February 3rd at 8pm at the Garden at Dowlings. €40 for a table of 4 people. There will also be a raffle on the night.
- Flex Yo style dance classes with Kim – Athenry Community Hall every Tuesday: www.flexyostyle.ie
- Kids Yoga with Laurie – Athenry Community Hall every Thursday: 087 0569552
- Loughrea Kids Cooking – contact Vernice on 087 2125277
Fergal Naughton
Príomhoide
