Newsletter
Holy Family National School,
Rathmore, Co. Kerry.
Tel. 064/7758492 Fax 064/7758499
E-mail hfnsrathmore@eircom.net
22nd October 2015
Dear Parents,
GOAL /BRÚ COLUMBANUS NO
UNIFORM DAY
We will have a no uniform day on Friday Oct. 23rd. This year the funds raised
will be split between Goal and Brú Columbanus.
Brú Columbanus provides “home from home” accommodation for the relatives
of seriously ill patients in Cork Hospitals and Hospice, especially relatives
of sick children. Goal works towards
ensuring that the poorest and most vulnerable in our world and those affected
by humanitarian crises have access to the fundamental rights of life including
but not limited to adequate shelter food water and sanitation, healthcare and
education. Children can donate a voluntary contribution on the day.
CHURCH GATE COLLECTION
Please note that the Church
Gate Collection will be held before the 6.00 p.m. and 11.30 a.m. Masses this
weekend 24th/25th
October, 2015. This is another fund raising event for our
school organised by the Parents’ Committee.
Your support will be greatly appreciated. Thank You.
BOARD OF MANAGEMENT
ELECTION
As you may be aware
the current term of the Board of Management will expire on 30th November,
2015 and the new Board of Management takes up office on the 1st
December, 2015. Two parents of children
enrolled in the school (one being a mother and the other a father) must be
elected by the general body of parents enrolled in the school.
A meeting will be held at the school on Tuesday 10th November at 7.30
p.m.
Before the
election takes place we will have a talk for parents on ‘Internet safety’ given by Avril Ronan Avril
is global manager for Internet Security for Trend Micro Systems. Our children
have access to material online at a very young age and it is important that
parents be vigilant and informed in this regard.
1. At the meeting nominations
will be invited for both a mothers' panel and a fathers' panel.
2. Each nominee must be
seconded.
3. If there is only one
nominee for either panel, the nominee(s) shall be deemed to be elected.
4.
If more than one nomination is received for either of the panels, a
secret ballot will be held at the meeting
5. Two tellers shall be appointed.
6. Each person voting shall
have one, non-transferable vote for each panel.
7. The votes shall be counted in public.
8. The election shall be determined on a plurality of votes (i.e.
the first past the post system).
9. In the event of a tied vote between nominees where the ballot
has been conducted at a meeting and where agreed by the majority of voters
present and voting therein, the election of the nominee(s) shall be determined
by a further vote at that meeting. Such a vote shall be confined to the tied
nominees.
10. The result of the ballot shall be notified to the parents and
to the Patron's representative.
11. The voting returns from the ballot may be retained for the
purposes of co-option in order to fill vacancies occurring during the life of
the Board where it is decided, having consulted the parents' association, not
to have a by-election, or further by-election, as appropriate.
PARENTS’ COMMITTEE REPORT 2014/2015
The AGM of the Parents’ Committee took
place on Wed. Oct. 14th
The following
are the Members of the Parents’ Committee for the year 2015 – 2016:
Junior
Infants - Kay
O’Keeffe (Assistant Chairperson)
Senior Infants - Anna Gabryielska (PRO)
First Class
- Evelyn Casey (Assistant Secretary)
Second Class - Pat Cashman
(Treasurer)
Third Class - Bernie Rea
(Assistant Treasurer)
Fourth Class - Anne Marie Leader (Secretary)
Fifth Class - Lorraine Dineen (Assistant PRO)
Sixth Class - Adrian Moriarty (Chairperson)
Parents of
EAL -
Pawel Swies
B.O.M. - Paul Darmody
B.O.M. - Carmel Healy
We thank Anna
Gabryielska, Pat Cashman, Anne Marie Leader, Adrian Moriarty, Paul Swies for
agreeing to serve for the coming year. We
welcome Kay O’Keeffe, Evelyn Casey, Bernie Rea and Lorraine Dineen as new
representatives for Junior Infants, First, Third and Fifth classes for this
year. We also take this opportunity to thank very sincerely Sheila Casey,
Therese Higgins, Kathleen Dennehy and Tim O’Brien for their dedicated service
to Holy Family N.S.
The function of the Parents Committee is to
support the activities of the school and also to represent the views of parents
and guardians on relevant matters. The
bulk of our activity is fundraising and, to date, the
funds raised have provided weekly music lessons for every child from 1st
through to 6th classes. Also
last year every class had drama classes.
We also subsidised swimming lessons last year. The
fundraising activities and funds raised for the year 2014-2015 are presented
below. We have started with a balance this year of €5517.76. We would like to thank everybody for their
ongoing support of these activities, and also the many sponsors that provide
prizes and assistance.
|
Activity
|
Date
|
Amount
Raised (€)
|
|
Church Gate Collection
|
October 2014
|
945.00
|
|
Christmas Play/DVD’s
|
December 2014
|
400.88
|
|
Christmas Raffle
|
December 2014
|
1008.05
|
|
Quiz
|
March 2015
|
595.50
|
|
John Lonergan Talk
|
March 2015
|
85.00
|
|
Colour Me Beautiful
|
April 2015
|
895.00
|
|
Sponsored Walk
|
May 2014
|
2544.80
|
|
Family Fun Day
|
June 2014
|
1023.46
|
|
Total
|
|
7497.69
|
PRESENTATION
DAY MASS
We will be attending Mass on Fri. 20th November, at 9.30 a.m. in the Church, to mark
Presentation Day. We will be leaving the school at 9.15 a.m. and
if children arrive after this time please bring them to the church. Everybody welcome.
PARENT/TEACHER MEETINGS
Parent-teacher
meetings (Senior Infants to Sixth Class)
are planned for Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th of November.
If you will not be able to attend on either
of these days, please contact the teacher as soon as possible and we
will make an alternative arrangement otherwise you will receive details of times
during the week before the meetings.
Parent – teacher meetings for Junior Infants will take place in January 2016.
ALL-IRELAND
FINAL RAFFLE
The All-Ireland Final Raffle was a tremendous
success and realised €6602 for school funds.
The grand prize winner was Juliet Cronin, Aunaskirtane and the signed
Kerry jersey was won by Maura Breen, Kilflynn, Tralee, Co. Kerry. A big thank you to everybody who helped and
sold tickets.
STUDENT COUNCIL
Last year we set
up our Students Council for the first time. The members selected were 3rd
Laura Phelan and Sean Finnegan 4th Aimee Cremin
5th Ciara O’Keeffe and Darragh Moriarty
6th Noah Moynihan and Madhbh Dennehy. We would like to thank them for their
participation in our first student council.
We will be setting up a new council for this year.
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. Please do your best to
collect the tokens and you can send them to the school office.
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN
(S.I.P.) Report
Our School
Improvement Plans in Numeracy and Literacy are progressing satisfactorily.
In literacy – our
target is to increase the percentage of pupils performing at or above the 50th.
Percentile on standardised reading tests by 2% over the duration of the plan. Comprehension
was identified as an area in which we could improve.
In numeracy - word problem solving was identified as an
area in which we could improve. We aim
to improve the average score in this area of the standardised maths tests by 3%
over the duration of the plan.
Glad to report that
work is progressing well and results are in line with our target objectives.
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 write a note to that effect and include
your email address 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.
CRIME
PREVENTION INFORMATION SEMINAR
Sergeant
John Kelly Crime Prevention Officer will give a Crime Prevention Talk on Tuesday 3rd Nov. at 7.30pm in
the James O’Keeffe Institute, Newmarket. This night will promote crime prevention and
how to reduce the opportunities for criminals to commit crime in your
home. Mr. Diarmuid Cronin, Community
Alert Development Officer will also be available to explain details of the
Community Alert Initiative. Everyone is
welcome to attend. (Please contact Mary Creedon to register for this free event
on 029 60633.
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
DATES TO
REMEMBER
No Uniform Day – Friday
23rd October
Closing for Halloween – Friday 23rd October at 2.50pm
Church Gate Collection Sat. 24th & Sun. 25th October
Halloween Break:
Closed Monday 26th to Friday 30th
October
Reopening: Monday 2nd November
Talk ‘Your Child’s online safety’ & B.O.M.
election Wed 4th Nov @ 7.30pm
Parent/Teacher meetings – Tues. 10th & Wed. 11th Nov.
Presentation Day Mass - Fri.
20th Nov. @ 9.30am in Church
Do This in Memory Mass – Sun. 22nd Nov. @ 11.30am in Church
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