Nuacht 25/11/2019

Nuacht 25/11/2019

Dates for your diary

16.12.2019 Draíocht 3^rd & 4^th20.12.2019 School closes at 12:00 for holidays

18.12.2019 Draíocht 1^st & 2^nd 06.01.2020School re-opens at 9am

19.12.2019 Cinema Junior & Senior Infants

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Since our last newsletter the children and staff have been busy working away during Maths and Science Focus Weeks alongside continuing with Green Team and other school work. Our fire drill took place before midterm and some classes have been on nature walks too!

6^th Class Teacher-Artist Partnership

Children in 6^th class are enjoying a Teacher-Artist Partnership programme with Margaret Bergin. When Margaret visits the children work on their shadow puppetry displays.

“We are learning a lot about drama and we are using the story of the Snow Queen and everyone is taking a line from the story. We are creating our own puppets. There’s a board with white cloth on it and we shine a light through it and get the puppets behind the cloth. We make the puppets move and tell the story that way.”

Daniella, Ana’s 6^th class

5^th Classes

We’d like to thank Garda Alexander who came into both classes before midterm to talk about staying safe around Hallowe’en time, we enjoyed his visit and learnt a lot too.

2^nd Class Assembly

2^nd classes hosted a wonderful Learn Together assembly all about caring for our environment. Well done to staff and children for teaching us how to reduce reuse and recycle as many items as we can in our daily lives. We were treated to a mix of song, dance and poetry on the day and the messages of caring for our environment will stay with us as we go through our daily lives. Maith sibh Rang 2, Ruairí, Bláthnaid & Michelle!

5^th & 6^th Class Intel Mini-Scientists

Congratulations to children, parents and staff for all their hard work in preparing for the Intel Mini-Scientists competition last Friday week. We had one of the most enjoyable days in the school where we learnt so much from each other and all children visiting the various project stands got to ask many questions and see many experiments. Well done to everyone involved, the judges were particularly impressed with how well each of the groups presented their information on the day. Congratulations to Scot, Luke & Umer who were placed 2^nd for their project ‘Are you left-sided or right-sided?’ and to Aamna, Mysha, Maheen & Shaheera who placed 1^st with their project ‘Spy Apps, what do parents really know about them?’ The girls will be going to the next round in the Croí Building December 6^th. Go n-éirí libh! See some photos of the event here http://www.cetns.ie/Page/Class-News/1770/Index.html

Parent-Teacher Meetings

Individual parent-teacher meetings took place for Senior Infant - 6^th classes. Junior Infant meetings will take place later in the school year in February. Meetings to be rescheduled for classes where staff were absent on meeting days will be communicated to parents of those classes via Aladdin early next week. If you have not yet attended a parent-teacher meeting this academic year please contact your child(ren)’s teacher to arrange a meeting by putting a brief note in the homework diary or contacting the school office.

Aladdin Connect School’s App

We are pleased so many parents found booking their meeting times online this year helpful and we would continue to encourage all parents to download the Aladdin Connect School’s app. See email sent by Siobhán to all parents 19/09/2019 for further details. The app will also give you regular updates, allow for making online payments and give permission for attending various events throughout the year.

BOM

Since the last newsletter issued the Board of Management met and approved the budget for the school, looked at the whole school development plan, completed the anti-bullying and child protection checklists and looked at reviewing the In-School Management team posts of responsibility duties. The Board wishes to thank all staff, children and parents who dressed up and supported the school’s annual spooky sponsored walk which took place 25 October around Castleknock. We had lots of fun on the day and managed to raise €5,496 which we hope to use for replacing our sound system in the hall and purchase a new library database for the school. http://www.cetns.ie/Page/Class-News/1770/Index.html

The school asks each parent annually to pay the resources monies which covers the costs of art supplies, school programmes and many expenses incurred to provide children with books, instruments, website subscriptions etc to support their learning. Despite repeated requests, some parents have made no attempts to make these payments and therefore costs incurred by the school affect delivery of programmes to all pupils. We would ask all parents who have not yet paid these monies to please contact the school directly to discuss the payment in confidence. The Board wishes to pass on their thanks to staff, children and parents for their work on the Intel Mini-Scientist and violin/orchestra projects and for the continued work in implementing the WSE recommendations. A follow-up visit took place from the Inspectorate and a response will issue soon in relation to this visit. We remind you of the current parent nominee voting which will continue until Friday 29^th and you can return your votes, or send your vote in with your child(ren) to the ballot box in the school office.

Car parking, set-down area & safety

Parking on the set-down area is not permitted at any point during the school day. Neither is it acceptable to park in areas allocated for our buses collecting children with special educational needs or the designated disabled spaces within the school car park. The staff car park is located to the left of the entrance gate of the school and is for staff use only. It is unfortunate the school wasn’t allocated a larger car park at the time of the initial build, however it is the only one we have and with very limited space we are seeking every parent’s co-operation with the system within the car park. The neighbours alongside school grounds complain often about the manner they are treated when they ask people not to block their driveways. We ask all parents to communicate the system for parking at CETNS to those designated to collect your child(ren). We also encourage all children, if they have not been collected after school to wait on the set-down area for 10 minutes and afterwards to come back in to the school office. It is disappointing to note there have been many mornings and afternoons where staff members have been abused when asking parents/minders to move off the set-down area of the car-park or from blocking otherwise designated spaces.

Violin Project/ Orchestra

Violin lessons continue with the violin teacher, Sandra Mason on Mondays for 2^nd classes and 3^rd classes. It is important that all payments are made for these lessons. Sandra has also agreed to undertake working with the school’s orchestra on Mondays so please ensure if your child is interested that s/he brings in the musical instrument required. There are some vacancies in the orchestra so if your child is learning an instrument outside of the school and is interested in joining the CETNS orchestra please let the school office know.

Winter Show Performances 2019

Books Needed!

Isla will be collecting any unwanted children's books/textbooks throughout the year which will be donated to libraries and schools in Zambia. Please ensure that books are in good condition. English books only. Thank you.

Beir bua,

Aedín