Holy Family N.S. Rathmore Co.Kerry P51 N290: September 2015

Visit by Mr. Jerh O'Donoghue

Mr. O'Donoghue gave a most interesting talk to pupils in 3rd./4th. and 5th./6th. classes today on 1916. We look forward to being presented with our National Flag tomorrow by representatives from the Defence Forces

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Sr Nuala from Franciscan Missionary Sisters

Sr Nuala speaks to 3rd. 4th. 5th and 6th. Class children about her work as a Missionary Sister.

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Communion 2015/2016

Communion Programme 2015-2016

Talk for parents/guardians:

Late October/Early November - Date to be finalised

Do This in Memory of Me Dates

1: Sunday Nov 22nd: Rathmore Church 11:30am

2: Sunday Dec 13th: Rathmore Church 11:30am

3: Sunday Jan 24th: Rathmore Church 11:30am

4: Sunday Feb 21st: Rathmore Church 11:30am

5: Sunday Mar 20th: Rathmore Church 11:30am

6: Sunday April 10th: Rathmore Chuch 11:30am

First Holy Communion

Saturday May 21st 2016

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Jersey Day 2015

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Jersey Day 2015

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Fourth Class Art

Can you guess who we are.....?

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Thanks to Donal Murphy for doing the draw.

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All Ireland ticket Raffle

Congratulations to Juliet Cronin Aunaskirtane who won Holy Family NS draw tonight , two all Ireland Football Final Tickets, two Nights B&B at Mespil Hotel and two return train tickets Rathmore to Dublin. Second prize, signed Kerry Jersey, won by Maura Breen Kilflynn. Well done to all and thanks to everyone for your support.

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Grand Raffle Results

Congratulations to Juliette Cronin from Aunaskirtane who won the Grand Prize for the All Ireland Weekend.

Congratulations also to Maura Breen who won a signed Kerry Jersey.

Thanks to everyone who supported our school fundraiser.

Míle Buíochas

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Current News Letter

Newsletter

Holy Family National School

Rathmore, Co. Kerry

Tel. 064/7758492 Fax. 064/7758499

e-mail hfnsrathmore@eircom.net

http://hfnsrathmorekerry.blogspot.ie/

10^th September 2015

Dear Parents,

We welcome everybody back from their Summer holidays and pray that the children in our care will be happy and that they will grow in knowledge and understanding during the year ahead.

All-Ireland Final Raffle

We are organising a raffle for school funds to help us purchase I.T. equipment for the classrooms. The first prize is 2 All Ireland Stand Tickets and 2 return train tickets from Rathmore to Dublin and 2 nights B&B in Mespil Hotel, Dublin. Second prize – a signed Kerry jersey. Tickets have been given to each family on Wednesday 9^th Sept.

Please note all tickets are to be returned to the school by Wed. 16^th September as draw will take place on Thursday night. Tickets will be available right up to the draw at 9.30pm in Cahill’s Bar but we just want to be sure that all tickets sold will be included in the raffle. While we ask parents to do their best to sell as many tickets as possible, there is no obligation on anyone to sell all or any tickets, but it will be for the benefit of the children in our school.

Junior Infants

Junior Infants go home at 12.00 noon for the first two weeks of school. From Monday 14^th September they will go home at 1.50p.m. There will be a meeting in the school for parents of Junior infants on Monday night 14^th September at 7.30pm.

Beginning of Year School Mass

The beginning of year school mass will be celebrated on Tuesday 22^nd September in the church at 9.30 a.m. We will be leaving the school at 9.15 a.m. and if children arrive after this time please bring them to the church. Children who do not wish to attend the Mass may come to school at 10.30 am on the day but are also welcome to join us in church. Everybody welcome.

First Communion and Confirmation Enrolment

Enrolment Ceremony for First Communion and Confirmation children will take place in St. Joseph’s Church Rathmore on Wednesday 23^rd September at 7.30 pm.

Confirmation will be held in St. Joseph’s church Rathmore on Tuesday 16^th February 2016 at 2pm. First Communion will be held on Saturday May 21^st at 11 am.

Pupil Personal Accident Insurance

Anybody who intends to avail of the personal accident insurance should return the completed forms together with payment as specified on the form, as soon as possible or before the end of September. People are free to avail of it if they wish. Details are on the application forms which have been issued to all pupils. I would like to draw your attention to the schedule of benefits on the application form.

Parents Committee Election

We will be electing new parent representatives for Junior Infants, First, Third and Fifth classes. Ballot papers will be issued to these classes shortly. This year we will also electing 2 parents representatives for the Board of Management. Further information later re B.O.M. election.

Music/Drama lessons

Music lessons re-commence on Thursday 17^th and Friday 18^th September. These lessons are being given by Henry Cronin (Thursdays 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd classes) and Pádraig Moynihan (Fridays 4^th, 5^th & 6^th classes) and are funded by the Parents Committee. Every boy and girl from 1^st to 6^th classes are encouraged to learn to play a musical instrument. Generation “D” tin whistles are available from the school @ €8 each. If you wish your child to learn accordion or fiddle you would need to provide these instruments yourselves. All children are provided with a music book when they commence lessons in first class. If they lose or misplace the music book it will cost €2 to replace it.

We also hope to organise Drama lessons for all the children in the school and this will also be sponsored by the Parents Committee.

Library

The mobile Library visits our school fortnightly on Thursday afternoons. Children from First to Sixth classes avail of this service and parents are encouraged to go to the library with younger children. Visiting the library will help in encouraging your children to read.

Receipts

Just to let you know that again this year we are issuing receipts for all monies received. Please place money in an envelope with amount and child’s name on same. Children will be issued a receipt from their class teacher when they bring in money.

Change of address, tel. no

If any of your child/childrens’ details have changed e.g. address, contact details, illness, etc. please contact the school as soon as possible. Thank You.

Mobile Phone Numbers

We have a facility for texting parents. If you have not received any text message from Holy Family N.S. please let us know. The text automatically goes to the mother’s mobile phone unless we have been instructed otherwise. Thank you.

Attendance

School begins at 9.10 a.m. and ends at 2.50 p.m. The school authority will not be responsible for children on the school grounds outside of these hours. If your child has to leave school for part of the day, please send in a note informing the class teacher of his/her absence. Children must be signed out by whoever is collecting them if they leave for part of the day. Again if the child is returning to school, they must be signed in by whoever is returning them. There is a copy for this purpose near the main door. This has been introduced for the safety of your children.

Parking/Traffic Control – Speed Ramps

Please note that cars must not park on the bus route and cars must never be abandoned where they could obstruct other traffic. If you need to leave your car so that you can come in to visit the school, then please park in the car park on the site of the old Boys’ School down near the road. We feel that children in first and second class may be too young to walk down to the car park or main gate on their own when school finishes. In the interest of children’s safety it would be best if younger children were collected at main door.

Speed ramps have been installed to remind drivers to drive slowly and carefully at all times particularly on the school grounds.

Visiting The School

If you need to meet a teacher at any time, please make an appointment by ringing the school before hand.

Uniforms

From time to time children mislay their jumpers, cardigans and jackets during the school day. To ensure that they find their own item of clothing Please ensure that jumpers, cardigans and jackets are marked with child’s name.

Healthy Lunches

We are encouraging a healthy lunch. To that end we discourage chocolate or sweets and chewing gum, fizzy drinks, and crisps, are forbidden. Also, as there is carpet in all the classrooms, we are banning yogurts and all yogurt products in Junior Classes.

Our aim this year is to continue with the good work of the Food Dudes programme, which began in our school in 2013/2014, to increase and maintain children’s consumption of fruit and vegetables. Fruit and vegetables are no longer provided to the school and the focus shifts to encouraging parents to provide children with fruit and vegetables in their lunchboxes.

National Education Welfare Board

Please remember that schools are now legally bound to notify the National Education Welfare board if pupils are absent from school in excess of twenty days.

Please note we require a written note on each occasion your child is absent explaining the reason for absence. The note should be written on a separate piece of paper so that it can be kept in the pupil’s file.

Danu Afterschool Service

If your child will be attending Danu Afterschool Service please send in a note to that effect so that we can put same on file. If anyone wants to avail of this service please contact

Anne Marie at 064/7758700.

Encouraging Children to develop the habit of saving

As part of learning for life, children should be encouraged to develop the habit of saving.

Rathmore and District Credit Union have installed the Vending Machine just inside the front door in the school.

Children who are interested in using this facility should join the Rathmore and District Credit Union if they are not already members. Members of the Credit Union can purchase €1 savings stamps. They put them on a card which, when full, will realise €20. They take this to the Credit Union and exchange it for cash or add it to their savings.

Children who are Members of the Rathmore and District Credit Union who wish to use the machine will be given a savings card.

§ The card takes €20

§ Stamps can be purchased at €1 each

§ Cards must be kept carefully by the children

§ We cannot take responsibility for cards lost or mislaid

Young People With Exceptional Academic Ability

If your child/children are performing in the 90^th percentile or above in the standardized school tests, you may wish to assess them with the Irish Centre for Talented Youth. Application forms are available in the school. Assessment takes place in University College Cork, Limerick Institute of Technology and Tralee Institute of Technology and other centres across the country.

Clothes Recycling Bin

As you are aware our school had a clothes recycling bin. This will be replaced shortly. Please donate all your unwanted clothes, bedlinen, towels and textiles including shoes, bags, belts and soft toys (any condition once they are clean)

No household Bric-a-Brac.

The school will receive €4.50 for each 10kg.

This benefits the whole community.

Thank you for your support.

We also collect used batteries and old mobile phones.

Lee Strand

We are very grateful to Lee Strand who have provided free homework journals to our school for the past 3 years. In order to provide us with free homework journals next year they have asked us to collect Mighty Mike tokens from Lee Strand milk cartons and bottles. They will also accept the bar code from Dawn Dairies cartons and bottles. As you collect the tokens you can send them to the school office.

School Blog Reminder

This newsletter will be available to read on our blog. In order to reduce the cost of printing we would be happy to email newsletters to your email address. If you would be happy to receive future school newsletters via email please sign slip at end of page and return to school in next few days. http://hfnsrathmorekerry.blogspot.ie/ or google holyfamilynsrathmorekerry blog

Please log on to blog where you will find very valuable links to tips and advice for parents on Internet Safety.

Dates to Remember

School Year 2015-2016

Term 1: School opens: Tuesday 1^st September, 2015

Halloween Break:

Closed Monday 26^th to Friday 30^th October

Reopening: Monday 2^nd November

Closed Monday 7^th and Tuesday 8^th December

Christmas Holidays:

Closing for Christmas holidays on Tuesday 22^nd December

Closed Wednesday 23rd December to Wednesday 6^th January, 2016

Term 2: Reopening Thursday 7^th January, 2016