Newsletter
Holy Family National School
Rathmore, Co. Kerry
Tel. 064/7758492 Fax. 064/7758499
e-mail hfnsrathmore@eircom.net
http://hfnsrathmorekerry.blogspot.ie/
10th 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 9th Sept.
Please note all tickets are to be returned to
the school by Wed. 16th 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 14th 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 14th
September at 7.30pm.
Beginning of Year School Mass
The beginning of
year school mass will be celebrated on Tuesday 22nd 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
23rd September at 7.30 pm.
Confirmation will be held in St. Joseph’s church Rathmore
on Tuesday 16th February 2016 at 2pm. First Communion will be held on Saturday May
21st 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 17th and Friday 18th
September. These lessons are being given
by Henry Cronin (Thursdays 1st, 2nd & 3rd
classes) and Pádraig Moynihan (Fridays 4th,
5th & 6th classes) and are funded by the Parents
Committee. Every boy and girl from 1st
to 6th 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 90th 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 1st September,
2015
Halloween
Break:
Closed Monday
26th to Friday 30th October
Reopening:
Monday 2nd November
Closed
Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th December
Christmas
Holidays:
Closing for
Christmas holidays on Tuesday 22nd December
Closed
Wednesday 23rd December to Wednesday 6th January, 2016
Term 2: Reopening Thursday 7th
January, 2016
Closed Thursday 18th and Friday
19th February
Easter Holidays:
Closing Wednesday 16th March
Closed
from Thursday 17th March to Friday 1st April
Term 3: Reopening
Monday 4th April
Closed
Monday 2nd May
Closed
Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th June
Closing
Thursday 30th June, 2016
If during the school year there are any changes to school closure dates
we will let you know.
Please note all
Newsletters will be given to oldest child in family
Le gach dea ghuí,
Diarmuid McCarthy,
Principal.
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