Newsletter
Holy Family National
School, Rathmore, Co. Kerry.
Tel. 064/7758492 Fax 064/7758499
Dear Parents 13th
May 2015
HYGIENE
We have been
reviewing our hygiene standards in accordance with HSE guidelines. Sharing of hand towels in toilet areas has
been the practice in the school and this is deemed to be unhygienic. In this
regard we have decided that every pupil should have their own hand/face cloth
in a Ziploc bag (or any suitable bag) to
be used each time they wash their hands. Please ensure that your child has a clean
hand/face cloth each week. It has been
pointed out that the best way of promoting good hygiene is by developing good hand
washing practices. Washing hands
properly with soap and warm water is deemed to be the best way of doing
this. To that end we will be looking at
improving availability of warm water in the school.
NATIONAL FINAL OF CREDIT UNION SCHOOLS QUIZ
We are justifiably proud of our school U-13
quiz team who qualified for the National Credit Union finals at the R.D.S. in
Dublin on Sunday April 12th .
This is our second year in a row to get to the National Final. Getting
to the R.D.S. is a huge achievement but to come second was like a dream come
true. Congratulations to team members Ciara
O’Keeffe, Maggie Buckley, Sean Burke O’Donoghue and Paraic Finnegan. We congratulate them and their mentor Ms. Anne
Marie Murphy for preparing the team so well.
The school wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the generous support the
Credit Union have given us for this event.
CREDIT UNION
From 11th to 15th
May is NATIONAL YOUTH SAVINGS WEEK. We
will run this savings promotion from today May 13th to Fri. 29th. The
aim of this is to encourage primary school children to understand the value of
saving and become GR8 SAVERS. To reward
little savers a draw will take place in our school on Fri.. 29th May. Any child who buys saving stamps in our
school up to and including Friday morning and who has bought saving stamps from
13th May will be included in this draw. Prizes sponsored by Rathmore & District
Credit Union.
FIRST HOLY COMMUNION
First Holy
Communion Mass for the 9 boys and 12 girls from second class will take place on
Sat. 23rd May at 11.00 a.m.
The choir is practising at present and we are very grateful to the
children from 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th
classes who have volunteered for the choir.
SCHOOL MEDICAL SERVICES
Please
note that eye care, hearing and dental services are available free of charge to
all primary school children. If you need
any information please contact the school.
PARENTS COMMITTEE UPDATE:
Anti-bullying Talk for
Parents
On June 3rd, (at 7.30 pm) the school will
host a workshop for parents around the subject of Bullying. The session will
deal with definitions of bullying, types of bullying, impacts of bullying. It will also offer advice to parents on what
they can do if their child is a victim of bullying, and if their child displays
bullying behavior. The Dept. of
Education’s policy on Bullying at primary and post-primary will also be
discussed. The workshop will be facilitated by Nogugu Mafu, who is a trainer with
the National Parents Council Primary, responsible for Kerry and parts of Cork.
She has been with NPC for the past 5 years but also works as a part time Family
Support Worker with a Family Resource Centre in Tralee. Nogugu has a background
in Education/Training and Facilitation, Community Development and Human Rights. We advise that the workshop is NOT
suitable for attendance by children, but encourage all parents and guardians to
come along.
Family Fun Day
Following on last year’s successful fun
day we are holding a Family Fun Day in the Holy Family School on Sunday June 21st
from 2 pm to 5pm. Further details will be sent home nearer to the event. Please keep this date for your diary.
We are looking for donations for our Bric
a Brac Stall. The following items would
be much appreciated:
*Games *DVDs *Playstation Games *Nintendo Games *Toys
*Books
*Unwanted gifts
*Football boots *Household items
– No Electric items
Items must be in good condition. Please drop items into school office on
or before Friday June 12th.
If anybody would like to bake for the
Family Day could you please give your name to Maureen in the school office. The
Parents Committee are working hard to make it a wonderful day for everybody.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS FOOTBALL SKILLS COMPETITION
Padraig O’Doherty,
James Darmody and Cian Dineen took part in the East Kerry competition on Monday
and are through to the County Skills
competition. Mary Collins, Alexsandra Has and Madhbh Dennehy will be taking
part in the Girls Divisional Final Girls Skills competition which will take
place on Monday 25th May in Glenflesk.
HURLING
Well done to our
hurlers who won the Division 1 South Kerry Cumann na mBunscol competition. They go on to play in the County Division 2
competition. Team members are P.J.
McAuliffe, James Darmody, Alan Dineen, Ian O’Connor, Cathal Ryan, Darragh O’Brien,
Sean Burke O’Donoghue, Paraic Finnegan, William Casey and Dennis Mahoney.
GIRLS FOOTBALL
Our girls
football team played their first game in the East Kerry Cumann na mBunscol
competition against Currow recently and they play Cullina in the next round.
BASKETBALL
It has been a
busy term for our basketballers. Our
Girls team have gone through to Plate Final and they will play Athea at Convent
Gym in Killarney tonight at 7.30pm. The team members are Laura Cronin, Hannah
Reen, Madhbh Dennehy, Lily Sheehan, Aoife Nagle, Mary Collins, Maggie Buckley
and Caoimhe Dineen. Thanks to Miriam
Moynihan and Helen Dillane who look after and coach the team.
Our boys’ team
play in the Cup final on Monday night next, same venue, time to be confirmed. The team members are Alan Dineen, James
Darmody, Ian O’Connor, P.J. McAuliffe, Cathal Ryan, Daniel Herlihy and Sean
Burke O’Donoghue. Thanks to Jamieson
Hughes and Stephen Lehane from Rathmore Ravens and to Áine O’Donoghue who
looked after the team.
Glad to report
that we now have provided new facilities for playing basketball in the upper
yard and GP room.
SCHOOL BLOG
We are currently
using a Blog to display class activities, policies, enrolment, booklists. It
also contains an interactive calendar showing school closure dates and
important dates to remember.
Please feel free
to search for blog under hfnsrathmorekerry
blog (all lower case and space between y and b). www.oxfordowl.co.uk
This website is free and a great one to support your children’s reading at
home. Helpful tips and activities to
support reading also. Log on and create
an account. It takes only a few minutes.
One account will do whole family – give it a try. Majority of books are free.
GREEN FLAG
We have been
awarded our 5th Green Flag and the theme was Biodiversity. Ms. Bernie O’Sullivan and Diarmuid McCarthy
along with 2 members of the Green Schools Committee, will attend the award
ceremony in the Silver Springs Hotel, Cork on Tuesday 26th May. Congratulations and well done to the Green
Schools Committee and their co-ordinators Mr. Paudie Dineen and Ms. Bernie
O’Sullivan. We would like to thank all
parents for their support throughout the Biodiversity theme and especially
Chris & Therese Barron for all their help.
IRD DUHALLOW RECORDING AND MAPPING PROJECT
Two
representatives from IRD Duhallow made a presentation on wildlife on the Allow
river to children from 4th & 5th classes. The DVD is
available from the school on loan. The children in these classes are doing a
recording and mapping project in their own townlands.
SCHOOL TOURS
The school tours timetable is as
follows: 1st and 2nd
classes school tour to Muckross, Killarney will take place on Friday 5th
June. School tour for Junior &
Senior Infants classes will take place on Tuesday June 9th to Ivy
Leaf Theatre in Castleisland to see ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ performed by the
Talisman Theatre Group and afterwards to Crag Caves. 5th and 6th
class tour to Killarney will take place on Tuesday 16th June. Third and Fourth Classes will be going to Tralee
on Tuesday 23rd June. Letters will be going out shortly to each
class re timetable and cost. We hope that all pupils will enjoy their days.
CLOTHES BANK
The clothes
bank will be back in place again shortly.
It was
taken away in error by the company recently.
DATES TO REMEMBER
First
Holy Communion – Sat 23rd May at 11am
Closed
Fri May 22nd -
Referendum
Presentation
Award of Green Flag – Tue 26th May
Closed
Monday
1st and Tuesday 2nd June
Anti-bullyying
talk for parents –
Wed June
3rd at 7.30pm
Family
Fun Day –
Sunday
June 21st from 2pm to 5pm
Closing Friday 26th June, 2015
Please see school blog for
next year’s calendar.
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