Parent Newsletter  Monday May 20th

1 Celebration Day

Many thanks to all the parent community for  your presence in our school for the ‘Walkabout’ last  Friday. It appears from the feedback that you all enjoyed the morning. Huge thanks to the members of the Parent Association who put in long hours and very hard work supporting the day logistically with all of their preparation and execution of the children’s goody-bags and  the coffee-dock.   If you would like to become more invlolved in the work of the Parent Association, and to spread the workload of their voluntarism across a greater number of parents in our school community; please come along to their next meeting ( the first Tuesday of each month) on Tuesday  June 4th at 8pm.

2  Dates for your diary:

All parents are welcome to the school’s  Sports  Day on Thursday June 20th in Ardgillan Park (details nearer the time).

All 6th class parents are welcome to their children’s Graduation Ceremony on  Wednesday June 26th (details nearer the time).

3 Pupil Progress  Report cards

The annual summer Progress Report card will be sent home with the children on Friday June 14th.

4  School Lunches finished:

As previously notified  the school have no longer been providing the children with school lunches since Thursday 16th May. All parents are reminded to send a substantial and healthy lunch and drink to school with the children each day. Please see overleaf dor the Board of Management’s guidelines on healthy lunches and please  comply with these.   Parents in Niamh’s Senior Infant class and Breda’s  2nd classes  are reminded that there are children in these classes with severe nut allergies and that no child’s lunch in these classes are to have nuts, nut-products or products with nut-trace  in their lunches. Many thanks for your co-operation on this important issue.

5 Punctuality and Attendance

Parents are reminded that it is the school’s expectation that children attend the school  both on-time and each day ( once  the child is not sick). Parents are reminded, too, that each absence of the child should be explained in writing to the teacher on the child’s return to school  ( either on a separate note, or in the child’s  Journal).   Coming late to school each morning is very disruptive to the child’s own learning, but is also disrutpive to the learning of all other children in the class. School starts at 8.40am sharp and the children may assemble in the school-yard from 8.30am onwards.   All children who miss over twenty days in the school-year are reported to the National Education Welfare Board by the school as statutorily required, and parents are informed that the school are doing so.  Similarly, the school is required to report this to the HSE Social services if there is a care- or child-protection issue involved.

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Balbriggan Educate Together

Healthy Food Policy  ( abridged version)

This policy has been formulated by the Parents’ Association, following a detailed survey of all parents in the school, in close consultation with the school staff and Board of Management.

With this policy we aim to educate our children on the benefits of healthy eating, a few of which are below:

• Increases concentration and reduces disruptive      behaviour in class
• Heightens the awareness of the importance of a      good diet
• Controls body weight
• Helps in reaching full physical potential

A healthy lunch should consist of sandwiches/baps/rolls , pieces of fruit and a non-fizzy drink. At  time of writing all the children in the school are in receipt of a healthy lunch provided by Glanmore Foods who have adhered strictly to our health food policy. Children, however, are allowed to bring in a snack according to the following guidelines. The school also provides a Breakfast Club and snacks at a Homework club according to these guidelines.

Here is a list of foods we would recommend and a list of foods we would encourage and  discourage:

    Yes, Yes, Yes!!!!!!!                                                                       No, No, No!!!!!!

sandwiches /baps /rolls                                                                     chocolate products

containing cheese /chicken /ham /tuna/ salad                                   bars ,sweets, Nutella,

fruit –grapes, apples, oranges, kiwis,melon pieces                           chocolate croissants

strawberries, raisins etc.                                                          popcorn

vegetables – carrot slices, celery sticks, mixed salad                       crisps

cheese                                                                                                biscuits

non fizzy drinks – juices , water                                                       fizzy drinks

yoghurts (messy & rarely

finished )

We are registered in The Green Schools Scheme and are trying to get a Green Flag for recycling and reducing our waste .Children bring home all food packaging and remainders of uneaten food as school policy.

Parent Newsletter Monday 13^th May

Invitation!

All parents are welcome to the school on Friday morning (17^th)  for our Celebration Day Parents are invited to have a ‘Walkabout’ around the school  for around an hour so anytime between the hours of 9.00am and  finishing at 11.30am. On arrival each parent will be greeted in the school foyer and presented with a list of things to see and do over the hour. This list will include an exciting set of ‘stations’ manned by the children themselves exhibiting their  work in a variety of areas. Parents can also ‘drop in’ on a typical set of Friday Assemblies, have a rest and a chat  in the Parent Association’s  pop-up coffee-shop, attend a question/answer session with masterchef  Nic Munier on the topic of fair-trade cookery and much much more .  For this morning ( and this morning only!) cars may park in the Set-Down area if there are no spaces left in the other car-parks.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Can you bake a cake/buns?     In order to assist the Parent Association with their pop-up Coffee Shop could you possibly bake a cake or some buns for Friday. If so, please bring it along with you on Friday morning.

Later on Friday….    For a special treat for the children on Friday we have booked a professional theatre company to perform for them. To this end, parents of Junior Infant children and Senior Infant children please note that this performance will not be over until 2pm, so please hold off on collecting the children ‘til 2pm on this special occasion.

School Lunches  It is with great regret that we must notify you  that Thursday (16th)  will be the last day in this school year when the school can provide lunches for the children. From Friday (17th)  parents will have to send a Healthy Lunch/Snack and Drink with the children each day. We will issue the school guidelines to Healthy Lunches later in the week.

Monies for next year.  Parents are reminded that the 140euro for each child intending to return to us in September for the 2013/14 school year is now due ( on or before Friday May 31^st please) Huge thanks to all  who have already done this.

Attention all drivers……   Following on a number of incidents over the past few months that Board of Management have issued an important statement on the conduct of all drivers when on the school campus. Please find this statement overleaf and read it carefully. Many thanks to the vast majority of our drivers for their continuing and ongoing  co-operation with these protocols and guidelines.

Cocoon   Could any parent whose children use the Cocoon Creche  school transport service please contact the school on 01 6904635 at your convenience.

Balbriggan Educate Together: Message to all campus users.

All users of the Balbriggan Educate Together school campus are reminded that on entering  through the school gates you entering private property. As such you are expected to comply with any regulations and protocols that the school’s Board of Management have put in place.  Specifically, cars/drivers, whether parents or  private taxi/bus-service, are expected to  comply with the regulations set out by the school for parking, setting-down and driving, a summary of which you will find below.

All drivers are reminded that a  school officer, most commonly the school Principal  (Fintan) , is charged with directing and supervising this area in the interests of the Safety of all users, especially the unaccompanied children.  Any  obstructive or dangerous behaviour, repeated non-compliance  or verbal abuse of  the school officer will not be tolerated  by the school’s Board of Management. Any /all such incidents will be brought to the Board of Management’s attention and a set of sanctions up to and including the  identified  person being restricted or barred from this private property. It is also the Board of Management’s prerogative to close the school gates to all cars/drivers  if the situation becomes hazardous for whatever reason.

Summary of expected use of school campus for drivers:

• If you wish to accompany your children to the rear  of the school-building, you must PARK. There are two car-parks in the campus ( the first-left turn) and the immediate right area. There is a further spill-over car-park outside the school campus ( the left-turn immediately before the left-turn to the CastleMill shopping precinct, and this also has a safe pedestrian gate).
• If you are happy to simply drop your children, use the set-down area ( the second left turn). Pull your car into any of the bays, allow your children to alight on the footpath side, where they will have a safe passage to the school building. NEVER allow your children to alight from the car/bus before you have pulled it into a bay. Follow the set-down areas one-way system. NEVER mount the footpath.
• Cars/drivers should not enter the school campus before 8.30am, and parents are reminded that school starts at 8.40am.
• All drivers should be fully licensed  should comply with all  normal Rules of the Road and ensure that their car/bus is taxed, insured and roadworthy. Drivers should not exceed 15kmh. Any dangerous driving may be reported to the Gardai, and it is the prerogative of any road-user to do this, not just the school-officer.
• The school officer, most commonly the Principal has the right to be respected and complied with when bringing any issue to the attention of any driver, and any verbal abuse of him carrying out this duty  will not be tolerated.

Please feel free to leave a comment, or to contact the school’s Board of Management (01 6904635) with any issue arising from this message.

Senior Assembly: SalhaB, GabrielC, PelumiT, ThomasE, JessicaB, MonikaS, TitoO, AaronM, PatrycyjaB, ArianaM and congrats to John’s Orlagh’s and Manman’s classes on reaching their class target.

Middle Assembly: imanK, NifemiO, SelinaX, , HughL, JenniferC, DamiolaK, IkramahJ, RebeccaC, JananniK, Neda, JanagiK, AaronM,

Junior Assembly: IzzyMcL, StuartW, NaomiJ, AdamC, KatieN, PraiseI, CillianMcIB, JessicaC, KhalidA, FinnB, AliA, MohammedA, DanielA, RimaA, CharlieG, DannyMcG.

and congrats to our Gril’s Gaelic Football team, and Junior, Middle and Senior Cross Country teams on their successes on the playing fields.

Parent Newsletter  Thursday April 25th

1 Monies for 2013/14 school year now due:

On the reverse side of  this page you will find an ‘invoice’ for the 140 required by the school for each child who is returning to us for the 2013/14 school year.  We ask that you pay this amount in full for each child on or before  Friday May 31st. The school’s Board of Management have worked hard to keep this figure at this level despite escalating costs and  diminishing funding. It represents excellent comparable value when compared to the costs accruing to any other Balbriggan or national primary school. We appreciate that it is not easy for anybody to meet bills etc in these recessionary days, and we thank you sincerely for your co-operation in advance. Please note that all of our school community have in the past fulfilled this obligation and that none of our esteemed parent community shirk their responsibility in this regard. Thank you.

2 ‘A Celebration Day’  Friday May 17th.

Plans are shaping up very well for an exciting Celebration Day in the school on Friday May 17th. The primary feature for parents is the ‘Walkabout’ aspect of the day which will take place from 9.00am to 11.30am. Here,  parents are invited to stroll around the school and meet a great number of ‘stations’ where children will exhibit aspects of their ongoing work in the school. Parents should allow about 1 hour for this walkabout; so please put the date/time in your diary and we look forward to seeing you ( a more detailed ‘flyer’ will be issued closer to the date).

3   School Lunches to end soon………

As previously notified, the school’s fund ( funded by the Dept of Children and Youth Affairs) to provide the daily school lunch for children ends on Friday May 17th for the 2012/13 school year. After that date parents must send a substantial healthy lunch and drink to school each day ( Healthy Lunch guidelines will be distributed nearer the date).

4  Parent Association Bag Packing

The Parent Association are undertaking their annual fund-raising bag-packing In Dunnes Stores ( CastleMill) on Friday (3rd May) and Saturday ( 4th May) Your voluntarism for this task is badly needed. Please sign-up for one hour  (or more) of your time to help raise much needed funds.  Phone Suzanne (parent) on 086 352 7311

The monies raised by the Parent Association are spent on all of the children in the school equally and especially makes our Human Rights Month, Arts Week, Feile na Gaeilge and Get Active Week exciting  learning events for the children. Please play your part in raising the necessary funds for this to continue.

6 The Junior Infant parents will be receiving Vaccination Forms this coming Monday ( 29th April), please complete these  and return them to the class-teacher  or office on or before Thusday ( 2nd May) so that they can be processed by the HSE in advance of the vaccination day in early June.

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Balbriggan Educate Together NS

Please note that this money is now due for each child who is returning to us for the 2013/14 school year.

Why €140? Please note in the event of you deciding at a later date not to take up this place in the school for any reason, this sum is non refundable.

Cost of expendable texts (workbooks)                                                                                                  €40.00

Levy for “loaned” texts (reading books)                                                                                                                €35.00

Supplementary Insurance to cover normal school day plus after school activities                               €12.00

School services (photocopying, correspondence with parents, Affiliation to ET)                 €30.00

Art and Craft resources (expendable art and craft material)                                                         €23.00

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TOTAL                                                                                                                                                                   €140.00

• Please pay directly to the school office where a receipt will be issued.

• If sending the money to the school with your child, please ensure to put it in a sealed envelope with the amount, the child’s name and the child’s teacher’s name marked clearly on the envelope so that we can issue a receipt.

• Please pay on or before Friday May 31st

Looking forward to a 2013/14 school year full of exciting learning opportunities and optimal educational attainment for your children. Our aim is to provide the highest quality education for the children in our school comparable to the very best available  nationally or internationally, public or private.