Maynooth Educate Together Newsletter

September/October 2017.

Maynooth Educate Together Newsletter

September/October 2017.

Dear Parents

Welcome back to Maynooth Educate Together National School to

commence yet another school year. The staff and I are looking

forward to teaching your children and working with you in the

course of the year.

As we commence our 10th

year we take pride in how our school has

grown and developed since 2008. Over this school year we will host

many events to celebrate this. These events will embrace the culture

of our school and will be both educational and enjoyable. More

about this later.

On August 31st

, Mr Paul Rowe CEO of Educate Together visited our

school. He visited every classroom, met with all staff and pupils and

enjoyed refreshments with our parent volunteers on the day. He

congratulated us on our 10 year history and achievements and

outlined his vision for Educate Together education in our area in the

future.

Paul Rowe also formally launched our school website which is now

up and running. Local media reported the event and many

photographs were taken to record the event. Some of these are now

posted on our school website.

The children are settled back to work now. Most pupils have all of

their school books and thank you for this. Please inform the class

teacher if your child is missing any class list books.

As pupil numbers continue to grow, I am pleased to welcome two

additional permanent teaching staff Mary Quinn and Catherine

Collins. Due to a variety of employment situations this year I am

also delighted to welcome Andrea Keane and Elma Rafferty to the

school teaching staff and Cristina Onofreiciuc and Pamela Brunton

to our Special Needs Assistant team. I would also like to welcome

Eddie Tobin who has been appointed as a Patron nominee to the

Board of Management.

This school year is an important one for the school. We have

planning permission for a new school building with work expected

to start in early 2018. There will be some inconvenience during the

building phase but it will be worth it.

Please feel free to introduce yourself to your child’s teacher and if

you wish to make an appointment to meet with the teacher please

contact the school at schoolsecretary@maynoothet.ie to arrange a

mutually suitable time.

Marie Hand. School Principal.

2017-2018 : School Staff

Principal: Marie Hand

Deputy Principal: Elaine Phelan

Special Duties Post Holder: Aimee Egan

Class Teachers:

Clare Dooley: Junior Infants

Elaine Phelan: Senior Infants.

Robert Leonard: First Class.

Claire Dixon: Second Class.

Naos Connaughton: Third Class.

Mary Quinn: Fourth Class.

Aimee Egan/Noreen Keane: Fifth Class (shared post)

Noel Carey: Sixth Class

Stephanie Mc Cormac : Junior ASD class

Robert Potter: Senior ASD Class.

Support Teaching team:

Angela Langan/Elma Rafferty (shared post)

Eoin Mac Domhnaill

Catherine Collins

Andrea Keane

Special Needs Assistants:

Pat Cannon/Cristina Onofreiciuc

Alison Monaghan

Joan Eley

Anne Downes

Eileen Neary

Pamela Brunton

Ann Weigel Bus Escort

School Secretary: Hilary Kellett.

School Caretaker: Martin Maher.

Dates to remember:

Maths Week October 16-20

Spooky Sponsored Walk: Thursday October 26.

RSE meeting in school: October 18th at 8pm.

The 2017/2018 school calendar can be found on the school website

www.maynoothet.ie. Just click on the Parents tab on the homepage

and click on school calendar. There are other dates that we would

like to draw to your attention so please see this information attached

to this newsletter.

Our School Website is a communication tool between school and

home and will be updated regularly.

Epayments of school Payments :

As part of the development of our new website we have also set up a

link on our parents page to facilitate online payments to our school.

This is in response to being frequently asked about such a facility

which is common in other schools.

We are delighted to announce that we are rolling out the

Aladdin ePayment system to parents/guardians of children in our

school.

Our school uses the Aladdin software service for administrative

purposes and the ePayment system will give you access from an

internet browser on your computer, phone or tablet to make secure

payments to the school using your credit or debit card. The purpose

of the ePayment system is to facilitate the easier payment of school

money collections for parent/guardians and to reduce the amount of

cash and cheques being sent into our school in line with recent

central bank directives.

Aladdin uses state of the art security to safeguard information

entered by you and the school and data is stored and processed in

strict compliance with Irish data protection laws.

Going forward, when money is due for any school activity that is

relevant to your children, you will receive a text/email

message containing your payment access link. This will bring you

to a parent payment page which will contain all payments requested

for all siblings in a family. There is only one link per family

ensuring you have the option to pay all amounts due for all your

children in one transaction. Once you have completed your payment,

you will be issued with a reference number. You will also receive an

email receipt which will contain details of the transaction and

reference number. Please quote this reference number in any queries

you may have as regards this payment with the school.

On the parents page of our website www.maynoothet.ie you will see

an epayments badge. If you click on this badge, you will be directed

through the process.

We hope that you will find the Aladdin ePayments facility useful

and that it is a very successful system for all. Myself or the School

Secretary will welcome any feedback or questions you may have.

Update of parent email addresses and mobile phone

numbers: You should have received a copy of your contact details

as recorded on our Aladdin School Information system. Please

return the information slip, indicating either that the details are

correct or alternatively make the necessary changes. Our epayment

system is dependent on email addresses so it is crucial that our

database contains the current addresses and numbers being used by

you.

Additionally in this school year as part of our environmentally

friendly actions we will discontinue sending home printed school

newsletters and instead we will send it to you by email and it will

also be posted on our school website.

Child Safety/reported incidents: in recent days you have

been notified of incidents of concern re child safety. All such

incidents are taken seriously and are reported to local gardaí. We

have in place procedures to ensure that your children are safe at

school and we constantly review these procedures. Our school gate

is closed each morning at 9.00am and remains closed until 12.45pm.

Children are supervised at playtimes and in recent days pupils have

been instructed to stay off the grass along the roadside perimeter

fence.

Children walking home unaccompanied/ Dangerous

Play: it has been brought to our attention that some of our pupils

are engaging in dangerous play on the way home from school ie

pushing and shoving each other on to the road. All classes have been

spoken to on this issue and all classes agree that this is foolish

behaviour. All children have been encouraged to report any such

behaviour if they witness it. We ask that you reinforce this message

from home.

Pupil Expenses letter: a letter from the Board of Management

requesting payment of €50 pupil expenses has been sent home from

school in the schoolbag today. This letter outlines the expenditure

covered by this payment. An email/text will be sent to you in the

coming days containing your payment access link. Thank you for

your co-operation in advance. Junior Infants do not pay this

expense as the enrolment fee covers payment.

Allianz Pupil Insurance: In recent years we have bulk

purchased pupil insurance at a reduced rate. Your payment of this

insurance is included in the €50 pupil expenses that we request is

paid for each pupil in our school.

Other Important School Information

Nut Allergy Awareness

We currently have children with nut allergies attending our school.

To ensure that children with a nut allergy are protected from an

unintentional exposure to nuts we do not permit nuts or nut products

in lunch boxes ie nutella, peanut butter, nutty bars etc. Thank you in

advance for your co-operation with this very serious issue.

School Attendance (As per our school attendance policy)

Maynooth Educate Together NS recognises the direct link between

school attendance and pupil progress. Therefore we promote good

attendance throughout the school year and request that all absences

from school are explained. Parents are requested to provide the class

teacher with a written explanation for all absences.

Attendance: Annually we report all absences to Tusla, the

Statutory Educational Welfare Services. We also submit a

referral to Tusla where we have a cause for concern over a

students’ attendance. We work closely with families where

there are genuine difficulties re school attendance and we

request that all parents keep us informed of these difficulties.

Absences : All absences must be explained in writing.

Please use the forms attached to explain absences to your

child’s teacher. Otherwise please send in a written note. This

note should be sent to the class teacher on the day the child

returns to school. As these notes are filed and remain in the

school we ask that parents do not write the note in the school

journal. A separate note works best.

School text re: unexplained absences: At the end of each

calendar month we will audit the absences. A text will be

sent to parents to provide a written explanation for all

unexplained absences. When class teachers receive this

written explanation, the absence will be recorded as

explained.

Notification of late arrivals: Parents will also be contacted

monthly if children are repeatedly late for school with a

specific request that children be brought to school punctually

each morning. Significant time is lost by pupils arriving late

to school.

Assembly: We will assemble each morning on the school

yard behind the school building. The school signage directs

parents to this yard at the rear of the school building. This

yard is supervised from 8.20am each morning. At 8.30am

children will be collected from these lines and brought to

their classes by their teachers. When the weather is wet,

please enter the school through the main doors. The children

will gather in the main hallway on wet mornings.

Drop and Go: There are now a large number of cars

entering the school grounds in the morning. Can we request

that parents who drive to school to drop off your children

and go, thereby reducing the congestion in the school

grounds.

Roll Call: Each morning, the roll call will be taken at

9.30am. Any child not present at school by 9.30am will be

marked absent.

Dismissal: All classes will line up in the back yard in their

designated line-up areas. Parents may collect their children

from here, at 1.10pm or 2.10pm. We ask that children are

collected promptly. On wet afternoons, teachers will line up

the children, including Junior and Senior Infants, in the front

hallway. Parents may collect children from this front hallway

on wet days at 1.10pm or 2.10pm.

Permission to leave school unaccompanied by

parent/guardian: All pupils who wish to travel home from

school unaccompanied, must provide the class teacher with a

signed permission slip. These permission slips have been

sent home with the children for signing.

Children leaving early or arriving late: Parents are

required to sign out children when collecting them during

school hours and sign them back in if returning to the school

during school hours.

Sick children: if your child is sick, do not send them to

school. Many infections are spread by children coughing and

sneezing in the classrooms ie droplet spread or airborne

spread. Sometimes it is better to keep children home for a

day or two.

School Entrance: Our school reception office is located in

Room 8, adjacent to the entrance hall. Our School Secretary

will deal with all queries from this office. All visitors to the

school are required to sign in at Reception.

Parking: We request your continued co-operation with our

parking arrangements, thus ensuring that our school buses

will be able to access the bus parking areas each morning.

Martin, our School Caretaker, will continue to supervise this

area in the mornings. Parents are asked to be mindful also at

the pedestrian crossing area, to drive slowly and to avoid

parking on the crossing areas. Pupil safety is paramount and

we require the co-operation of everyone to ensure this.

Early arrivals: It has come to our attention that some

children are arriving in the school yard early in the mornings.

The school does not accept responsibility for students before

8.20am.

Child Protection Policy: The Designated Liaison Person is

Marie Hand. The role of DLP is to accept reports of child

protection concerns and to report these concerns to the Heath

Services Executive.

Administration of Medicines: Administration of Medicines

is not permitted without the approval of the Board of

Management. This applies also to children self-

administering eg. inhalers. Students should not carry an

inhaler or medication to school in their schoolbag. Please

familiarise yourself with the procedures set out in our school

policy which may be viewed on the school website.

Homework: Class teachers have informed parents on the

expectations for homework in this school year. Homework

should be completed to a high standard and please keep

teachers informed if homework is creating difficulties for

your child.

School Policies: All school policies, curricular and

organisational are available in hard copy from the school

office.

Parent/Teacher Communication: In the interests of your

child’s education, it is essential that all parents/guardians

establish a good and consistent communication relationship

with the child’s class teacher. If you wish to speak to your

child’s teacher please contact the school to arrange this

meeting. Please inform the teacher of anything that may

affect your child’s schooling. Please do not engage in lengthy

communications with class teachers in the school yard.

Teachers are responsible for their classes on the yard.

Notes to Teachers: Children need to inform the class

teacher of all notes written by parents into the school journal,

as teachers do not routinely check each child’s journal on a

daily basis.

Healthy Eating Policy: Please ensure that your child has a

healthy lunch each day in accordance with our Health

Promotion Policy. This policy may be viewed on the school

website and is also available in hard copy from school

reception.

Educate Together Journals: Pupils have received their

homework journals from the Educate Together Head Office.

These journals are produced to a very high standard and

contain useful information for parents. Please ensure that

you check that your child is writing down the assigned

homework each day. This journal contains the calendar for

the school year.

Aistear: in this school year we plan to expand the delivery of the Aistear programme in both our infant classes. The national Council for Curriculum Assessment has published: Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework. Aistear is for all children from birth to six years of age. It can be used in the whole range of early childhood settings including in

infant classes in primary schools. Highlighting the fact that children learn many different things at the same time, the Framework uses four interconnected themes to describe the content of childrens learning and development: Well-being, Identity and Belonging, Communicating and Exploring and Thinking. Aistear highlights the critical role of play, relationships and language for young childrens learning, In doing this, it provides a guide to using play, interactions, partnerships with parents, and assessment to help childrens progress in their learning and development. I(n the course of the school year, Elaine and Clare will organize play areas to complement the theme currently being taught in the classroom. A variety of play areas will be used to engage children and to cater for different learning opportunities. A number of resources will be purchased by the school for these play areas, and parents may at times be asked to contribute to our resource bank for a particular theme.

Expansion of School Book Rental Scheme The Board of Management is committed to continue to expand the

School Book Rental Scheme as this provides a significant reduction

in the outlay that parents incur in purchasing school textbooks. A

great number of school books have been taken off the school

booklist e.g Gaeilge books, English readers, History, Geography

and Science books. These books are provided for pupils through our

book rental grant. These books must be well looked after and

students are not permitted to write on them, as they will be used for

a number of years. Books damaged or lost by students must be

replaced by the student. In order to fund the scheme Parents are

requested to pay €10 rental per child for these books. We will send

a text of request for this payment shortly.

Pupil Expenses: Each school year parents/guardians are

asked to contribute to the cost of consumables, registrations

and licences that relate directly to specific expenses and

costs associated with your child/children attending our

school. A letter outlining the proposed expenditur of the €50

pupil contribution, has been sent home to you. You will

receive a text/email message containing your access link.

This payment will be conducted through our Aladdin

epayment system. If you prefer, you may send the payment

to the school office.

School Library: Our school library is located on the ground

floor. This room will be locked at the end of each school

day.

Afterschools sports club: This club is up and running every

Tuesday for 1st

class and 3rd

class and Thursday for 4th

and

6th

classes until the Halloween break

For the attention of parents of 5th and 6th class

pupils:

Relationships and Sexuality Education: As in previous years

Mary Glynn, RSE facilitator, will meet with parents of 5th and 6th

class pupils on Wednesday October 18 in the school at 8pm. She will

outline the RSE programme that she will teach to the 5th and 6th

class pupils. The programme will focus mainly on the Busy Bodies

booklet . On Tuesday October 24th she will teach the puberty

section of the RSE policy to 5th class children. On Thursday

October 26th she will send the day with 6th class teaching them the

puberty, relationships, conception and birth elements of the

programme. It is very important that parents attend this meeting and

also that parents familiarise themselves with the BusBodies booklet

which will be sent home. This programme may be viewed online

also. Please return the Busy Bodies booklets to the school after the

Halloween break.

Gaeilge: Parent Survey: In this school year we are

working specifically on improving the teaching and

learning of the Irish language ie Gaeilge. Your

input will help us gain a wider understanding of

Gaeilge (Irish) throughout the school and

the community. We would appreciate it if

parents could complete a short online survey that is

available through our school website (

www.maynoothet.ie ). The survey is located under

the 'School' tab and in the 'Gaeilge' section.

Alternatively,

visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RLFLYBM .

It should only take 3 - 4 minute.

Tin Whistle and Flute lessons: after Halloween Eoin

will start advanced Tin whistle and beginner flute lessons.

The school has received a grant from Kildare County

Council to purchase six new flutes. So there will be initially

six places available in the flute class. There will also be six

places available initially for the tin whistle classes. However,

this may be increased if there is sufficient demand. Lessons

will take place each Wednesday after school. A letter with

more details will be sent home shortly.

School Basketball League: On Tuesday children from

fifth and sixth classes began a lunchtime basketball league.

This league will continue until October mid-term break.

These children are getting the opportunity to learn and to

practice new skills and most importantly, they are getting

exercise and having fun. The competition is tough and the

matches are closely contested. Already the teams have made

great progress and we greatly look forward to seeing this

progress continue over the next 4 weeks. Very sincere thanks

to Mary, 4th class teacher, for running this competition.

Green Schools: Congratulations to all the boys and girls

who helped out with the Green Schools Committee over the

last two years. A ceremony to raise our new green flag will

be held on Wednesday 22 November, to co-incide with the

Intel Science Fair. . We have recently received the latest

Green Schools handbook and we have commenced work on

the theme of water. A new Green Schools committee has

been formed consisting of boys and girls from first class up

to sixth class and they are very enthusiastic about beginning

the work of earning our third flag. The ‘leaky detectives’

have begun checking for any dripping taps as part of our

environmental review.

Junior Infants Photos: on Thursday 26 October, County

Photos will visit our school to take the school photographs of

the Junior Infants.

Parent Volunteers: The Board of Management

encourages parents to volunteer in the school in a number of

areas e.g. school library, school outings and trips, paired

reading, in-class support in curricular areas, school events

etc. We look forward to further expanding this volunteering

in this school year. If you are interested in volunteering,

please contact Marie, School Principal, or your child’s class

teacher.

All parents volunteering must be Garda Vetted by the National

Vetting Bureau. Please contact Marie, Principal, for the Garda

Vetting forms. Please note that when Parents or other want to

volunteer in the school they must specifically indicate the area of

activity in which they want to volunteer and may not commence

volunteering until they have their Garda vetting status

confirmed by the School Principal.

We encourage all parents to come to the school to share

aspects of culture, food, crafts, traditions, language etc. with

our pupils. Children learn so much from these visits and it

brings their book learning to life.

School Accident Insurance

The Board of Management has approved the purchase of a school

Pupil Personal Accident Insurance policy from Allianz, which

provides 24 hr accident cover. This reduces the price for each pupil

by 33% making it more affordable for families. This cover can prove

very beneficial as a relatively cheap cover from which to claim back

medical expenses. You need to pay the €6 premium to avail of this

insurance cover. The premium is included in the school expenses

fee of €50.

Parents Association: The AGM of the Parents

Association will take place in the school on Tuesday October

17 at 7.30pm. At that meeting a vote will be taken on

becoming a Parent Teacher Association. All parents are

welcome to attend.

Parent concerns: If you have any concerns regarding

your childs education, I encourage you to contact me or your

child’s teacher as soon as possible. Issues brought to our

attention at an early stage are very often sorted quickly and

satisfactorily. Good and constant communication is very

important as we work as partners in the education of the

children in our students. Contact School Principal:

principal@maynoothet.ie.

Advance notice of School Events

Event Date

Maths Week 16

th

– 20th

October 2017

AGM of PTA Tuesday17th October

Annual Spooky Walk 26

th

October 2017

Parent/Teacher Meetings 14

th

/15th

November 2017

4th Class Intel Science Fair Wednesday Nov 22nd

Science Week 12th to 19th November

Book Fair 20-22 November

Winter Concert 15

th

December 2017

Internet Safety Week 22-26 January

Teacher Professional

Development on the New

Language Curriculum

Multi-Cultural School Day

Chinese New Year( Rooster)

Engineers Week

Wednesday 7th

February

2018. School Closed

Friday 9th February

February 16th

February 26 – March 2

School “March Hare Run” Friday 2

nd

March 2018

Public “March Hare Run” Sunday 4

th

March 2018

Seachtain na Gaeilge 5-16 March

School Céilí/Lá Gaeilge March 16th

St Patrick's day Parade March 17th

Autism Awareness day April 11th

World Book Day April 23rd

School Tours in May Dates TBD

Sports Week 14-18 May

Multinational Food Picnic May 18th

New Parents Evening May 20th

Standard Testing 21

st

May -1st

June 2018

New Junior Infants school visit June 6th

School Reports June 15th

6th class Graduation 21/06/17

School Events: A more complete schedule of events will be conmunicated to parents in the coming weeks.

Parent-Teacher Association News: And so it begins…. the PTA got off to a running start by serving the tea/coffee, cakes and sandwiches for the event the Board of Management arranged with Paul Rowe, CEO of Educate Together. We even managed to run in and hear some of his wonderful speech. We hope to have a copy of it available for the parents soon.

While we didn’t get to enjoy the visit by the Ice Cream Van on the

2nd day of school we have it on good authority that the children had

a great time and thoroughly appreciated their mid afternoon treat.

We are looking forward to seeing the photos from the Board of

Management in the coming weeks.

The Teachers very helpfully gave each pupil in the school their

lovely sports bag from the PTA as a little gift to kick off our year of

celebrations. Lots more pupil and family orientated celebrating to

come.

Our first meeting of the year took place on September 19th and we

were delighted to get to meet some new parents; some new to the

school, some here a bit longer but only getting the chance to come

along to a meeting now… it’s always a pleasure to have the ‘old

reliables’ there too!

We have managed to get Library up and runing this week. Thank

you to our volunteers. There are still spaces available for anyone

who might like to help out, with library or shared reading. Just let us

know.

Our AGM takes place on Tuesday 17th October at 8pm in the

school. As always everyone is welcome and we will be looking for

new blood for our PTA committee!

If you can only make one meeting this year, we recommend you

come to this one.

The Spooky Walk takes place on Thursday 26th October on the

South Campus of Maynooth University and will be followed up with

a spooky party!!! More details to follow closer to the time.

Welcome back everyone, we’re looking forward to seeing you all,

looks like we have a busy year ahead of us!

We can be contacted at maynootheducatetogetherpa@gmail.com

Board of Management Community report.

From September 2017 meeting of the BOM:

School Website: The school website has been formally opened by the CEO of Educate Together. The Board formally thanks Robert Leonard for his work with the school website. Staff Training: Board approves the funding of PECS course for 2 Special Needs Assistants in recognition of the benefit that will accrue to the staff as a whole and to the pupils. Swimming:Board approves the funding of swimming

sessions for our ASD classes.

Annual checklist Updates:Board completes the

annual Anti-Bullying and Child Protection checklist

thus ensuring that the school is in compliance with

Department of Education and Skills circulars.

Supervision Policy: Board approves the change of

Supervision Policy re morning supervision: from

Principal to Principal/Teacher will supervise the yard

from 8.20am each morning.

€50 contribution: Board agrees that parents be

requested to pay a €50 school contribution as this

contribution is central to the funding of our school.

10th Anniversary Committee to present draft of

events to the October Board meeting.

2017 School Year Report publication: Report to be submitted for ratification at the October BOM meeting. WSE recommendations: The Board of Management met with staff to approve the school plan to address the recommendations of the Whole School Evaluation School Website: Staff training to be organised. Pupil Insurance/Book rental fees: Letter to be sent to parents re payment as soon as online payment facility is available. Health and Safety: The damaged flooring in the front hallway of the school has been replaced. Return to work: the Board of Management welcomes Hilary, school secretary back to work.

Presentation/Dinner evening for Fr Liam Rigney: Board acknowledges that Fr Liam Rigneyhas been very supportive of our ethos and of our Learn Together programme. He has been a very positive community figure and has engaged very positively with the school.