Dear Parents,
The
final term of the 2019-2020 has proven to be an unusual time for all families
due to the Covid 19 Pandemic that caused the closure of schools on March 12th.
Thankfully the entire school community rallied together to make the best of a
difficult situation. I would like to thank the pupils for their positive and
enthusiastic engagement with distance learning, the parents for their patience
and understanding as we adapted to the needs of the children on very short notice
and the staff of the school whose dedication was clearly evident throughout the
closure minimising the impact on our pupils.
We
carried out a survey in May and the results are available to view on the blog.
We used these responses to guide us throughout May and June and we are very
grateful for the feedback.
You will receive end of year report cards and booklists on the 16th
June.
We
will be reducing the amount of assignments from Monday 8th June as
the pupils have worked hard and earned a reduction in their workload. June is
traditionally a month of school tours, sports days and outdoor learning. While
it is never ideal to miss school, I was delighted to hear of so many pupils
farming, gardening, cooking and helping at home and in the community. That learning and time spent with their
families will benefit them immeasurably.
We
will continue to provide a reduced number of activities to pupils in the hope
they help provide a little structure to the day. Parents can decide the level
of engagement by the children as every household differs.
We
received some very broad guidelines for September but these will be updated in
August and will be in touch with further information about the coming year as
soon as possible. We have attached a provisional calendar for the coming year
but this may be subject to change.
STAFFING
We
welcome back Ms Grace Fitzgerald from maternity leave and thank Miss Julie
O’Mahony for her contribution in SET this year. Miss O’Mahony will cover Ms
Aine O’Donoghue’s maternity leave until the end of June.
SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT
I
am pleased to inform you of a number of upcoming developments that will greatly
add to our school. Firstly, the DES has provided funding to replace the worst
affected parts of our roof and approximately two thirds of the roof will be
replaced over the summer.
We
are also carrying out some improvements to our playground under the Summer
Works Scheme as funding applied for in 2016 by Mr McCarthy has been
approved. This work will also be carried out during the holidays.
Finally
with our increased enrolment we will be eligible for a ninth mainstream teacher
and work will commence on a new classroom in the coming school year.
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK
Parents
and Grandparents were invited to the Grandparents Prayer Service in the school
on Friday 31st January. It was a lovely event
as always and 6th class played music in honour of all our grandparents. After the prayer service we had a cuppa and
many of the grandparents visited the classrooms of their
grandchild/grandchildren.
CHOIR – CONFIRMATION AND
FIRST CONFESSION
A
big thank you to all the boys and girls in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th
classes who participated in the choir for the Confirmation on Tues. Feb. 18th
and on Wed. 11th March for First Confession.
We wish to thank Mrs. Brenda Moynihan who prepared the choir for both
occasions. Their participation added
immensely to the occasions. We also wish
to thank all the staff who helped to prepare the children for both occasions.
CREDIT UNION QUIZ
2
teams represented our school in the Chapter 23 Quiz final on Sunday 1st March
in Tralee. The U-11 Team were Neil
Thompson, Clodagh O’Callaghan, Jack Murphy and Daniel Buckley.The U13 Team were
Eoin Cashman, Grace Murphy, Gearóid Nagle and Conor Moynihan. The U13 team
claimed third place in their category.
All pupils did us proud on the day. We congratulate all involved and
their teacher Anne Marie Murphy.
KWD VISIT
On
Monday March 2nd, a representative from
Killarney Waste Disposal visited the school and spoke to 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th
classes on what can be recycled and the importance of separating waste.
FUTURE FOREST
To
coincide with Science Week, Chris and Therese Barron came to our school and
helped each of the classes’ plant 2 native broadleaf trees – a total of 20
trees – on Mon. 9th March. The theme was
Climate change / Biodiversity - trees
capturing carbon and providing habitats.
We thank Chris and Therese for their help and support.
GREEN FLAG AWARD 2020
We
were delighted to receive an email from An Taisce on May 7th, confirming that
our school was successful in our application for the renewal of our Green Flag.
This is the seventh Green Flag awarded to Holy Family NS. The theme this year
was 'Global Citizenship and Energy'
Sincere
thanks to the hard working Green Schools committee, all pupils, staff and
parents at Holy Family NS, along with the wider community for supporting all
Green Schools initiatives. We thank Mr.
Dineen and Ms. O’Sullivan for co-ordinating this initiative.
COVID HEROES
Well
done to Alex, Neil and Karl Thompson who did wonderful work during the closure
ensuring some vulnerable people in our society were able to contact loved ones
during the lockdown with reconditioned devices.
FAREWELL TO 6TH CLASS
BOYS AND GIRLS
We wish the 11
girls and 17 boys who are moving from 6th class, good health and the Grace of
God in the years ahead.
Boys: Gavin
Breen Girls: Zenefa
Ahmed
Jack
Casey Jennifer
Buckley
Eoin
Cashman Orla
Cronin
David
Darmody Lauren
Horan
Seán
Dineen Ciara
Hughes
Matthew
Kennedy Celine
King
Filip
Kmita Sarah
Mahoney
Seán
McAuliffe Emer
McAuliffe
Farath
Miah Grace
Murphy
Conor
Moynihan Abigail
O’Leary
Gearóid
Nagle CaoimheReddington
Darragh
O’Keeffe
Donnacha
O’Sullivan
Evan
O’Sullivan
Alex
Thompson
Darren
Twomey
Kamil
Zoltek
SIXTH CLASS GRADUATION
Unfortunately
due to the Covid19 closure our Graduation Ceremony is currently postponed. We
hope to have this as soon as HSE regulations permit.
Bishop Ray will celebrate an online Mass for sixth class children on Tues. 16th
June at 7.30pm. It will be
livestreamed from the Cathedral.
https://www.mcnmedia.tv/camera/st-marys-cathedral-killarney
Fr. Pat will celebrate an online mass for all the 6th class children in the
Parish on Wednesday 24th June at 7pm.
https://www.mcnmedia.tv/camera/st-josephs-church-Rathmore
TRANSITION TO SECONDARY
SCHOOL
If
any parent of pupils in sixth class is
anxious to talk to the Deputy Principal of Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra, Maria
Hanrahan regarding the transition of their child from sixth class to first
year, her number is 087 6429993. The number is open until June 19th inclusive
and again from August 10th.
FIRST COMMUNION
Unfortunately
the Sacrament of the First Communion had to be postponed in the parish this
term. It is a very special day for the children in second class and for the
entire community. We look forward to this special day in the coming
months.
MOBILE LIBRARY BOOKS –
Classroom Readers – BOOK RENTAL BOOKS
Drop off Day -
Friday June 12th 1pm – 2.30pm for All Families
Each
child has Book Rental Books which they received in September and may have
Classroom Library books, class reading materials, PM readers, Read Write Inc.
readers etc. They may also have Mobile Library books. Please put all of the school books in one
bag labelled with the child’s name and class and the titles of the books
enclosed on it and in a separate bag please put the Mobile Library books and
return to the school on Friday June 12th. The school will be open from 1pm to 2.30pm to
facilitate this drop off. We
are appealing especially to the Junior classes for all PM readers, Read Write
Inc. readers, class library books to return these very valuable resources to
the school so we can have them for September for the new year groups. We have only a set amount of them and don’t
have any extra copies.
Anyone unable to attend on this date please contact
the school mobile and we will arrange a suitable time.
BOOKLISTS
Booklists will be posted to all families with
Reports Cards on Monday 15th June. 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 2020, 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. We also have the epayments system up and running and will notify you
by text before returning to school at the end of August. In this way you
can pay book rental and Arts/Crafts and Photocopying by visa/credit
card.
LEE STRAND
We are very grateful to Lee Strand who
have provided free homework journals to our school for the past 5 years. And again this year, even though we haven’t
the required amount of tokens collected, we have been in contact with them and
have homework journals ordered for the coming school year.
For each journal, we need 10 Green 100%
renewable cap & Carton Might Mike tokens and only found on the 1 litre Lee
Strand Carton. Last year there was a great response from all
the pupils and we were able to get free homework journals for everyone. Please do your best from now until September
to collect these tokens. When buying
milk for the family please keep in mind the tokens for the homework
journals. Thank You.
PARENTS
COMMITTEE
We would like to thank our Parents’
Committee members for all of their hard work during the past school year.
All of the funds raised by the Parents Committee are spent for the benefit of
children in our school. During the school year the music, dance, drama and
gymnastics lessons were paid for by the Parents. Our Night at the Dogs was
cancelled unfortunately but we have organised a clothing collection in
conjunction with Cookstown Textile Recyclers at the earliest available
opportunity in September to replenish funds for the coming year.Over the summer
holidays you may have an opportunity to do a clear-out of those wardrobes,
drawers, cupboards of unwanted clothes.
Items
suitable for the collection are:*Men’s clothing
*Women’s Clothing *Children’s
Clothing *Household Textiles i.e. Curtains, Towels, Bedsheets *Shoes *Handbags *Belts.
Items
– Not suitable are:*Dirty
or wet clothing * Mats *Carpets *Duvets/Pillows *Books *Laptops or Mobile Phones.
So
Parents get chatting to families, friends and neighbours and bring those bags
in. The clothing collection will take
place in September. Thank You
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. 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.
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. Therefore it is important that if you
change your number to let us know. Thank you
SUMMER
HOLIDAYS
We will be closing for summer holidays on Wednesday
June 24th.
School will re-open on Monday 31st August.
We wish
everybody a happy, sun filled and safe Summer holiday
Paul and
Staff
DATES
TO REMEMBER 2020 - 2021
School opens Monday 31st August, 2020
Closed Monday 26th October to Friday 30th
October
Closed Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th December
Closing Tuesday 22nd December
Closed Wednesday 23rd December to Tuesday day
5th January, 2021
Re-opening Wednesday 6th January, 2021
Closed Thursday 18th and Friday 19th February
(Mid-Term)
Closed Wednesday 17th March (Public Holiday)
Closed Monday 29th March to Friday 9th April
(Easter Holidays)
Re-opening Monday 12th April, 2021
Closed Monday 3rd May (Public Holiday)
Closed Monday 7th June (Public Holiday)
Closing Friday 25th June for Summer Holidays
If during the school year there are any
changes to school closures
we will let you know.