Holy Family NS Twitter Account
rss

Very best wishes to Andrew Moynihan who will represent Holy Family N.S. in the Primary Game at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney on Sunday next.

Having come to the end of another school year I want to thank the pupils and their families, the teachers and staff at Holy Family N.S. for helping to make it a very successful school year. It has been a very busy year here at Holy Family and many events have been suitably recorded on our school blog.

Without naming any individual teachers, whether it pertains to sport, quiz, active school, digital school and primary science and maths, I would like to thank the staff for such a wonderful years work, great credit is due to all. In our school our motto is Ní neart go cur le Chéile and the level of cooperation among all staff at Holy Family is second to none.

End of year brings a certain excitement also as children look forward to a long summer holiday.  All of our pupils look forward to moving into a new class next September, but for the boys and girls in sixth class this is a huge milestone and we wish them well as they move to Secondary School. 

I also wish to thank our Board of Management and our Parents Committee for their help and support during the year.  The Board and Committee Members give of their time on a voluntary basis and their work is very much appreciated by the school community.

We wish you all a happy, fun filled Summer holiday.

Diarmuid Mc Carthy
Principal








Newsletter
Holy Family National School, Rathmore, Co. Kerry
Tel. 064/7758492  Fax 064/7758499
hfnsrathmorekerry blog
27th June, 2016

BOOK RENTAL
If you haven’t already done so, please ensure that your children return all books and other school property which children may have taken home e.g school scissors etc. to their class teacher before Thursday 30th June.

PARENTS COMMITTEE
We would like to thank our parents’ committee members for all of their hard work during the past school year
It was unfortunate that our Family Fun day was cancelled last week due to the weather but it will take place in September all going well.  We brought Sand Art for the Fun Day and decided to let the children avail of it and they really enjoyed it.   All of the funds raised by the Parents Committee are spent for the benefit of children in our school. During the last school year the music and drama lessons were paid for by the Parents Committee and they also gave the school €740 towards the swimming lessons.

SCHOOL UNIFORM
The whole school uniform, i.e. Crested jumper, grey polo shirt, grey pants/skirt/pinafore, navy crested track suit bottom is available from Nora O’Connor “The Washbasket” Rathmore.  As usual it is also available from O’Keeffe’s Drapery Ballydesmond. Black shoes must be worn with uniform.  Runners to be worn for P.E.  White socks or grey tights to be worn by girls as part of their uniform.  It is absolutely necessary that children’s names are put on all uniform jumpers and cardigans otherwise we cannot be responsible for missing garments.

OLD SCHOOL UNIFORMS
If you have old school uniforms and they are in reasonable condition, we would be delighted if you could bring them to the school. 
BOOKLISTS
Booklists will be distributed to children during the week.  We are asking for €30 per child for the coming year for Arts/Crafts and Photocopying. This may be paid in 2 instalments, one in September and one in January 2016, or you may prefer to pay in full in September.  There is a maximum charge of €50 per family.   The oldest member of each family should pay this to their class teacher. Lee Strand Dairies will be supplying homework journals to the whole school in September.  There is no need to buy a homework journal for your child/children.  

SPONSORED WALK
To date the sponsored walk has realised €2,210.  Thank you for your generous contribution and the great effort that everybody made to realise the above sum.

LIBRARY
If you haven’t already done so, please return all school library books to the school before Thursday June 30th. 
The summer timetable for Rathmore mobile library service will be at Rathmore P.O.
11.45 a.m. – 1.00 p.m., Rathmore Church 2.00 p.m. to 2.45 p.m., St. Joseph’s Day Centre 3.00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m. on Thursdays on the following dates –July 7th and 21st and August 18th.

CREDIT UNION SAVINGS STAMPS
If possible all children should try and complete their savings books so that they can take them to the Credit Union for lodgement or cash.  They will not be able to buy €1 stamps at the Credit Union as their machine only sells €2 stamps.  Children are not allowed mix €1 and €2 stamps. 
Remember if a child loses a book with a few stamps in it during the summer holidays, they will effectively have lost that much money.   Either keep the book in a safe place until September or complete the book and cash it in at the Credit Union.
GARDA PRIMARY 7-A-SIDE TOURNAMENT
This tournament took place in Fitzgerald Stadium on Thursday 16th June.    Holy Family N.S. were narrowly defeated in the quarter final by Boherbue who went on to win the tournament. Well done to Holy Family Team.

GIRLS FOOTBALL – COUNTY FINAL
Congratulations and well done to our girls team who played Lixnaw at the Austin Stacks park in Tralee.  This game went to extra time and still finished a draw.  The replay was fixed for Wed June 8th  and after a hard fought game we were defeated by just 1 point.
AWARDS
Paul Murphy will raise our Active Schools Flag tomorrow Tuesday at 12 noon.  We have also received our Digital Schools of Distinction Award and we hope to have this flag formally raised in September.  For the second year in a row we have received our Discover Primary Science and Maths Award.  A thank you to all who worked towards achieving these awards.
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.  Therefore it is important that if you change your number to let us know.  Thank you

EAL (English as an Additional Language)
The Department has sanctioned the appointment of one temporary EAL (English as an Additional Language) teaching post for 2016-2017 school year.  This is conditional on the school achieving projected enrolment figures for pupils that require language support.  These numbers have to be confirmed to the Department on the 30th September 2016.
Farewell to 6th Class Boys and Girls
We wish the 14 boys and 8 girls who are moving from 6th class, good health and
the Grace of God in the years ahead.



Boys:              William Casey
Kacper Domalik
Páraic Finnegan
Tadhg Kiely
Dennis Mahoney
Dara Moriarty
Andrew Moynihan
Daniel Moynihan
Fahad Miah
Ethan O’Brien
Alan Reen
Ornob Shahin
Stanislaw Swies
Krystian Zajda





Girls:                  Maggie Buckley
Nicole Cronin
Caoimhe Dineen
Aoife Nagle
Lily O’Brien
Ciara O’Keeffe
Katie O’Sullivan
Maria Rogacka




SUMMER HOLIDAYS
We will be closing for Summer holidays on Thursday June 30th at 12 noon.  School will re-open on Thursday 1st September.   Parents please do not allow the children to cycle to school on day of holidays, as it can be very dangerous.

We wish everybody a happy, sun filled and safe summer holiday.
Diarmuid and Staff


Dates to Remember for next School  Year  2016-2017
Term 1:                      School opens:  Thursday 1st September, 2016
                                    Halloween Break:
                                    Closed Monday 31st October to Friday 4th November                          
                                    Reopening: Monday 7th November
                                    Closed Thursday 8th and Friday 9th December
                                    Christmas Holidays:
                                    Closing for Christmas holidays on Thursday 22nd December
                                    Closed Friday 23rd  December to Friday 6th  January 2017

Term 2:                      Reopening - Monday 9th  January 2017
Closed Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th February
Closed Friday 17th  March
Easter Holidays:
Closing Friday 7th April
                                                Closed from Monday 10th  April to Friday 21st  April      

Term 3:                      Reopening Monday 24th April                    
                                    Closed Monday 1st  May
                                    Closed Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th June
                                    Closing Friday 30th June, 2017
              

      If during the year there are any changes to school closure dates we will  let you know.

On Tuesday 28th of June our local Kerry footballer Paul Murphy came to the school to raise our Active Flag. It was a great day for the school after our very active year. We are very grateful to Paul for raising the flag and to all those who supported us on our active journey. 














On Thursday the 23rd of June 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th classes went on our sponsored walk. We then had a football blitz between the classes. Thank You to Mr. Cooper and all involved. Also a special thank you to all who contributed making it a great success again this year.