Newsletter
Holy
Family National School
Rathmore,
Co. Kerry
Tel.
064/7758492
e-mail hfnsrathmorekerry@gmail.com
http://hfnsrathmorekerry.blogspot.ie/
25th October
2017
Dear Parents,
Parents Committee - Fundraiser
BINGO
RATHMORE COMMUNITY CENTRE
SAT. NOV. 18th 2017
at 7.30pm
Fabulous Prizes
All welcome
Children attending Bingo must be accompanied by an adult
Bingo Books €10 each, Double Books €12, Jackpot Sheet €2
We hope that everyone will have an enjoyable night
Bring a biro or marker to mark your numbers – Best of luck
HEALTH
AND SAFETY
Parents have
raised the issue of children’s safety on entering and exiting the school
premises. The Health and Safety Officer
of Kerry County Council visited the school this week. He promised to return as soon as possible
with a Roads Engineer and hopefully we will find a solution to make it safer
for the children. In the meantime please
drive slowly and carefully at all times on the school grounds and be
particularly vigilant at home time when exiting the car park at the entrance as
children are usually on the footpath and great care and attention is needed. Denise, our School Warden, has been
advised not to take children across the road where cars park along by ditch so
it would be best if people were to use the car park rather than parking along
the ditch at the road.
FIRST COMMUNION AND CONFIRMATION – DATES FOR DIARY
Talk for
parents of First Communion children by Sr. Aileen Murphy and Maura O’Leary will
be on Tomorrow Thurs. 26th Oct. at 8pm in Holy Family N.S.
This year
we have a new Diocesan programme for our First Communicants and the First Mass in this programme will be on
Sun. 12th November at 11.30am ‘We celebrate the Saints’
First Confession - Wed. 14th March First
Communion – Sat. 5th May at 11 am
Talk for
Parents of Confirmation children by Fr. Donal O’Connor was postponed due to
weather event and is
re-scheduled for Monday
November 6th at 8pm in Holy Family N.S.
Children
from Confirmation class will have an active part in Masses during the year –
They took an active part in the Harvest Mass on last Saturday 21st
Oct. and did themselves and their school proud.
They will be part of Advent Mass in December and we will let you know of
date nearer the time.
Penitential Service/Pledge: Thurs. Feb 8th in Gneeveguilla at 8pm
Confirmation – Tues Feb.
13th (Shrove Tuesday) at 3.30pm in Rathmore
HALLOWEEN DRESS UP DAY
Friday 27th
October will be our last day at school before Halloween and will be a No
Uniform Day. We are inviting children to dress up in their Halloween costumes or their favourite jersey for
the occasion. This year all proceeds
will be going to Annette Cronin, Knockdurath, a nurse in Bons Secours hospital
Tralee who will be travelling to Sudan as part of a medical team in December. Children can donate a voluntary contribution
on the day. No need to buy costumes for this event.
PARENTS’ COMMITTEE REPORT 2016/2017
The following
are the Members of the Parents’ Committee for the year 2017 – 2018:
Junior
Infants - Eileen
Hartnett
Senior Infants - Arthur Moynihan
First Class
- Tara Healy
Second Class - Antoinette O’Leary
Third Class - Catherine Daly
Fourth Class - Nora McAuliffe
Fifth Class - Sinead Daly
Sixth Class - Joanne Breen
B.O.M. - John Kennedy
B.O.M. - Carmel Healy
We thank Kay
O’Keeffe, Evelyn Casey, Bernie Rea and Lorraine Dineen for their dedicated
service to Holy Family N.S. over the last two years. We thank Arthur Moynihan, Antoinette O’Leary,
Nora McAuliffe and Joanne Breen for agreeing to serve for the coming year. We welcome Eileen Hartnett, Tara Healy,
Catherine Daly and Sinead Daly as new representatives for Junior Infants,
First, Third and Fifth classes for this year.
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. Last
year every class had drama and gymnastics classes. We also subsidised swimming lessons. The fundraising activities and funds raised
for the year 2016-2017 are presented below. *All of the figures are net
profit which is the figure realised after all the expenses have been paid. We have
an opening balance of €7,186.61. This year we hope to develop a Sensory Room in
the school. This will be a welcome
resource for the children in our school. 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
|
* Net amount
raised (€)
|
|
Bingo
|
October 2016
|
3155.00
|
|
Church Gate Collection
|
October 2016
|
792.00
|
|
Christmas Raffle
|
December 2016
|
1070.20
|
|
Sale of Christmas DVD
|
December 2016
|
285.00
|
|
Quiz
|
March 2017
|
744.00
|
|
Bag Packing
|
May 2017
|
802.26
|
|
Sponsored Walk
|
June 2017
|
2902.21
|
|
End of Year Disco
|
June 2017
|
372.50
|
|
Total
Fundraising 2017
|
|
10,123.17
|
PARENT/TEACHER MEETINGS
Parent-Teacher
meetings (Senior Infants to Sixth Class) are planned for Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd November Pupils
from 1st to 6th classes will go home at 2.30 pm on
Tuesday November 21st and at 2.50 pm on Wednesday.
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 2018.
CHURCH GATE COLLECTION
The Church Gate Collection was
held on the weekend of 14th/15th October and realised
€530. We thank all who helped out and supported us.
PRESENTATION DAY MASS
We will be attending
Mass on Tuesday 21st Nov.
at 9.30am in the Church to mark Presentation
Day.
PUPIL PERSONAL ACCIDENT INSURANCE
Reminder: if you wish to avail of the
personal accident insurance for your child/children please return the completed
forms together with payment as specified on the form this week as we need to
process this before the Halloween break. People are free to avail of it if they
wish.
VISIT OF CIARÁN BLACK
On Friday October
6th, Ciarán Black a retired primary school teacher who now teaches
in the Gambia, visited our school.
Children were delighted to hear all about life in The Gambia and he
spent the afternoon talking and answering questions from the children. We held a Cake Sale earlier this year and a
No Uniform day and we were able to present Ciarán with a cheque for €1000. We know that this will be put to good use for
children in need in The Gambia. You can
log onto our blog where we have posted pictures of the occasion.
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
and milk in Junior Infants.
Our aim is to increase and maintain
children’s consumption of fruit and vegetables. We would encourage parents to provide children with
fruit and vegetables in their lunchboxes.
LEE STRAND
Again this year
we received homework journals for all pupils in our school from Lee
Strand. We are very grateful to all
students who brought in Mighty Mike tokens from Lee Strand Milk milk cartons
and bottles and bar codes from Dawn Dairies and Ashgrove cartons and bottles
during the year. In order to provide
free homework journals next year for all pupils we are asking for your help
again this year to collect the tokens and you can send them to the school
office. A huge thank you to all the
children who have already brought in tokens since September.
SCHOOL
BLOG REMINDER
This newsletter
will be available to read on our blog. 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.
CUMANN NA mBUNSCOL
FOOTBALL COUNTY FINALISTS
Our
school Football team are through to the Co. Final of Allianz Cumann na mBunscol
6/8 teacher schools. On Friday October 6th
our team had a great wins over Kilcummin N.S. and Faha N.S.
This means we are Allianz Cumann na mBunscol East Kerry Champions again
this year having relinquished the title last year. On Monday November 23rd we
defeated Cullina N.S. in the Co. Semi Final. We now play in the Co. Final.
Before this takes place the North Kerry leg of the competition must be
finalised – Ó Bréaanain N.S. v The Spa N.S. Tralee is being played today Wed.
25th October. The winners of
this game will meet Duagh N.S. and we will play the winners of that game in the
County Final which will probably be played on Thursday 9th November.
We thank their
trainer Paudie Dineen for his work with the team.
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
PRIMARY LANGUAGE CURRICULUM DAY
Please note school will be closed on Wed. Jan.
10th 2018 to enable staff to attend training on new Primary Language
Curriculum.
DATES TO REMEMBER
Talk for
First Communion Parents – Thursday 26th
October at 8pm in School
Halloween
Dress up Day – Fri. 27th
October
Halloween Break:
Closed Monday 30th October to
Friday 3rd November
Reopening: Monday 6th November
Talk for Parents of Confirmation children - Mon. 6th
November in Holy Family N.S. 8pm
First ‘New Diocesan Programme Mass’ - Sunday 12th November at 11.30am in the church
Parents Committee
Bingo
- Sat. Nov. 18th 2017
at 7.30pm
Presentation Day Mass - Tues.
21st November
Parent Teacher meetings - Tues. 21st
and Wed. 22nd November
Closed Friday 8th December
Christmas Holidays:
Closing for Christmas holidays on Friday 22nd
December
Closed Monday 25th December to
Friday 5th January 2018
Re-opening Monday January 8th
2018
School closed Wed. Jan. 10th
2018 – Inservice for Primary Language Curriculum