Newsletter
Holy Family School,
Rathmore, Co. Kerry.
Tel. 064/7758492 Fax. 064/7758499
e-mail hfnsrathmorekerry@gmail.com
School
Blog: hfnsrathmorekerry blog
6th
December 2017
Dear Parents
LOCAL ST. VINCENT de PAUL
FOOD APPEAL
To help the
Christmas appeal of the local organisation of St. Vincent de Paul we have
placeda large box in the entrance hall so that non perishable items can be put
into them. The boxes will be collected from the school on Monday 11th December.
The following
is a list of acceptable items:
Any tinned or
dried food, soup, sugar, cereal, porridge, tea, drinking chocolate, pasta, jam,
ketchup/sauces, biscuits, cakes, sweets, chocolates, jelly, custard, cornflour,
bisto, kitchen paper, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.
This appeal has been very successful in the past in our school and
parents have been very generous. The local SVP organisation does great work in
our community and give hampers to families who are in need over the Christmas
period. Their annual Church Gate Collection will be taken up on next weekend 9th/10th
December at all Churches in the parish. It is their only fundraiser during the
year. Thank You.
TESCO COMMUNITY FUND
Tesco donate €1 million annually to local good causes with
Tesco Community Fund Initiative. Every eight weeks, the number of tokens is counted and up to €1,000 is distributed
proportionally between three local good causes. The more tokens a local good cause gets the
larger share of the donation they will receive. Presently, Holy Family N.S. is one of the nominated
groups in the Killarney Store. If you or
extended family shops at Tesco Killarney please donate blue tokens to
HFNS. Encourage friends and neighbours
to do the same. Spread the word.
PARENTS COMMITTEE
CHRISTMAS RAFFLE
The Parents Committee will be organising a Christmas Raffle. Tickets
will be available to pupils during the week commencing Dec. 11th. Thanks to our parents committee for
organising prizes.
BINGO
A big thank you to all who supported our Bingo night. Thanks to all who turned up on the night, to
the Parents Committee for their hard work in organising the event and getting
so much sponsorship and finally we wish to thank our sponsors. A list of all our sponsors was distributed on
the night.
O’DONOGHUE CUP
CHAMPIONS AND MUNSTER JUNIOR CLUB CHAMPIONS
There was great
excitement at Holy Family N.S. on Mon. December 4th as we had a visit from two
wonderful football teams. (Three of our past pupils played with Knocknagree on
Sunday). We were delighted to welcome
them back and offer them our congratulations.
They timed their visit perfectly and as Knocknagree team were leaving
the Rathmore team provided a guard of honour for Knocknagree and it was an
historic event which HFNS were delighted to be part of. The Rathmore team have the distinction of
winning the O’Donoghue Cup for the fourth year in a row, 2014, 2015, 2016, and
2017 and the club had previously won the much coveted cup in 1963, 1978, 1984
and 2005. The pupils and staff congratulate both teams and wish Knocknagree
even more success as they progress to All-Ireland Semi-Final against a Donegal
team on Sun. Jan. 21st 2018.
HALLOWEEN
DRESS UP DAY
On Friday 27th
October we had a dress up / jersey day in aid of Annette Cronin, Knockdurath, a
nurse in Bons Secours hospital Tralee who will be travelling to Sudan as part
of a medical team in December. The
total collected was €375.50. We have
given this to Annette and best wishes to her and the team. Thank you for your
generosity. The costumes were fabulous
and we put some pictures up on the blog.
GREEN SCHOOLS
Green Flag No. 6 Global Citizenship and a
revision of litter and Waste (Green Flag No 1)
The Green Schools Committee together with their coordinators Mr. Dineen
amd Ms Bernie O’Sullivan are working on this.
This is their 2nd year.
A Green Schools Newsletter will issue before Christmas to keep you up
todate.
CHRISTMAS LEAGUE
Teams have
been selected for the boys and girls Christmas League and games are well
under way.
JUNIOR INFANTS PARENT /
TEACHER MEETINGS
Parents of Junior Infants will receive
appointments for end of January start of February, to meet with Ms. Dillane.
LEE
STRAND
Lee
Strand ‘Cash 4 Schools’ €500 draw. Our school could win €500. The draws take place in October, November,
December and January. To enter we post
10 Mighty Mike Milk mascots to Lee Strand and there is no limit to the number
of entries we can send. Winners will be
selected at noon on the last Friday of each month. As you are aware we are
already collecting for free homework journals (10 mascots as well for a free
homework journal) We need at least 2000 tokens in order to be eligible for free
homework journals for next year and if we want to send some entries for ‘Cash 4
Schools’ draw for December and January we will need more tokens. There are lots of tokens being brought in by
children. We thank you and keep up the
good work.
CHRISTMAS GIFTS
We wish to
advise parents that the staff of our school do not expect presents from
children. Therefore, we would ask you
not to be buying presents for members of staff as we feel that families have
more than enough to deal with at these times.
CHRISTMAS CARDS
While we know that children enjoy giving Christmas cards we feel
that these are also an unnecessary expense.
If they still want to give Christmas cards they could make their own at
home. They are much nicer.
MISSIONARY MAGAZINES
Thank you to all the boys and girls who help to distribute and
collect the subscription for the Far East and Messenger magazines during the
year. Orders are being renewed presently
for Messenger (€21) and Far East (€10).
We are asking the boys and girls who distribute the magazines to bring
back the renewal subscription envelopes as soon as possible. Thank you.
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. Savings
Stamps are available.
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
ALLIANZ CUMANN NA
MBUNSCOL FOOTBALL
Our school’s
football team claimed two county titles over the past few weeks. On Thursday Nov. 9th, Holy Family
N.S. defeated Duagh N.S. under lights in Austin Stacks Park, Tralee, to win the
6/8 teacher competition. This win placed
the school into the Division One section of the competition. A super win in the Division 1 Semi-final over
St. Oliver’s Ballycasheen in Rathbeg was followed up on Wed. Nov. 15th
with another great performance to claim the Division 1 title against a strong
Ardfert team on a scoreline of 8-06 to 2-08!
This is the fourth time in Holy Family’s history that we have won the
Division One competition. Our previous
wins were in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Great
credit is due to all the players involved and a big thank you to parents and
staff for all their support and to Mr. Dineen for training the team.
MOBILE LIBRARY
Just a reminder
that the mobile library will visit our school tomorrow Thursday Dec. 7th. Remind the children to bring their library
books as this is the mobile library’s last visit before Christmas.
MULTI SENSORY ROOM
We are in the
process of developing a multi sensory room and we expect to have it ready early
in 2018. We hope that all children get
to visit this room from time to time.
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
Closed Friday 8th December
Christmas Holidays:
Closing for Christmas holidays on Friday 22nd
December at 12 noon
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