Newsletter
Holy Family National School
Rathmore, Co.
Kerry
Tel. 064/7758492
e-mail hfnsrathmorekerry@gmail.com
http://hfnsrathmorekerry.blogspot.ie/
22nd September
2020
Dear Parents,
We welcome everybody back from their summer holidays and pray that
the children in our care will be happy and that they will grow in knowledge and
understanding during the year ahead. I would like to sincerely thank all the
staff for their efforts to ensure we got the school open safely and on time.
Many parents helped in a variety of ways and offered help in the lead up to
reopening and that is much appreciated also.
In
order to ensure that the school remains open in these difficult circumstances,
it is imperative that parents do not send children to school if they are
showing symptoms of any illness whatsoever. We have
created an isolation room in the school that should only be used in the event
of a pupil developing symptoms. Any child who is sick will have to be sent home
immediately as outlined in Covid 19 Guidelines. In addition, children should
also not attend school if they have been identified by the HSE as a contact for
a person with COVID-19 and to follow the HSE advice on restriction of
movement. Restriction of movement also
applies to children who have been out of the country. Please seek advice from
your GP or ring HSE Helpline at
021-4927601 if you have any queries.
·
It is vital that
parents/guardians are contactable at all times throughout the school day in
case of children becoming ill. If you haven’t already done so Please return the updated emergency contact
form to your child’s class teacher. If
you have mislaid form(s) for your child(ren) please ask your child to get one
from their teacher(s) and return as soon as possible.
·
Please find note on last page of Newsletter to guide you when
writing an absence note for your child. This
wording is to be used when your child returns after any absence.
·
We would ask that children do not bring any additional equipment to
school such as footballs, toys, hand sanitiser, etc. It is the responsibility
of the entire school community to ensure schools remain open and I wish to
thank you for your continued co-operation.
DROP-OFF AND COLLECTION ROUTINES
Children are to
be dropped off in the set down area in the morning where staff will be
available to direct them to the correct entrance.
·
We ask that children are
dropped off between 8.55 a.m. and 9.10 a.m. Children should not be dropped to
the school before these times.
·
The following are the entrance and
exit doors for each class:
o
Junior Infants- Front Door
o
Senior Infants- Staff Door (On
the left of the building near the staff car park)
o
First Class- Back Door (Follow
the footpath beside the staff door to the rear entrance)
o
Second Class- Front Door
o
Third Class- Front Door
o
Fourth Class- Back Door
o
Fifth Class- Back Door
o Sixth Class- Staff Door
·
Parents who wish to accompany
infants to their assigned door should park in the lower car park.
·
Parents are to treat the
roundabout as a drop off area only and should not obstruct traffic by leaving
their vehicles.
·
Parents are asked to maintain a
distance of 2m from other people at all times in the school grounds.
Home time collection:
·
Junior Infants will always be
collected at the front door at 1.50 p.m.
·
Senior Infants are collected at
1.50 pm. Children are brought to the staff entrance where their parents can
collect them.
·
For Junior and Senior Infant
collection time parents are asked to form socially distanced queues using the
queuing system provided.
·
First, fourth and fifth classes
exit via the rear entrance under the supervision of their teachers and proceed
in their class bubble to their transport.
·
Second and third classes exit
via the front entrance under the supervision of their teachers and proceed in their
class bubble to their transport.
·
Sixth class exit via the staff
entrance under the supervision of their teacher and proceed in their class
bubble to their transport.
·
All lines are be supervised by
staff until they reach the lower car park to maintain social distancing.
·
In the interest of health and
safety children should not congregate in the car park.
·
During school hours the road in front of the
school is a one way system.
·
Please note that cars must not park on the bus
route and cars must never be abandoned where
they could obstruct other traffic.
Please ensure the route is clear for the bus which arrives at 2:40 pm
·
We have speed ramps installed to remind
drivers to drive slowly and carefully at all times on the school grounds.
·
We are asking parents of pupils in first and
second classes (where possible) to drive up to the school to collect your
children in an effort to reduce congestion on the main road.
VISITING
THE SCHOOL
All visitors
including parents will have to make a prior appointment before entering the
school premises. This can be arranged by contacting the school office by phone
or email. All adults who enter will have to fill out a contact tracing form
which will be available at the front door. All adults must wear a mask and use
hand sanitiser when entering the school. If you need to drop off any item for
your child such as a forgotten lunch etc. just come to the front porch and it
will be taken by the secretary in the office.
If collecting
someone come to the front door to sign the sign in/out book and the child will
be brought to the appropriate exit door to meet you. If returning your child
after an appointment, please come to the front door to sign the sign in/out
book and then bring your child to the appropriate entrance door. If your child has to leave school for
part of the day, please send in a note informing the class teacher of his/her
absence on the previous day.
Hand Washing and Using Hand
Sanitiser:
Hand washing,
use of hand sanitiser and coughing etiquette are key elements of keeping safe.
It would be beneficial if you could go through the procedures of these with
your children. Please see the HSE links on the school blog for more information
on hand hygiene, hand sanitising and respiratory etiquette.
Children are
asked to use hand sanitiser on entering the school in the morning. There are
hand sanitiser dispensers at all entrance doors. Children also use hand
sanitiser when entering the school after breaks. There are signs in each toilet
in each classroom encouraging hand washing. Paper towels are available outside
the bathrooms. Hand washing and hand sanitising before and after eating are
also be a part of our daily routine.
UNIFORMS
Thank you to
parents for purchasing the proper school uniform including black leather shoes.
Our normal school crested uniform is still required. Some parents were
concerned that uniforms and track suits might have to be washed every day but
Department guidelines do not state this.
However, as our tracksuit legs are worn with our school jumpers, should
you wish to purchase additional generic navy tops (unlabeled, round neck
sweatshirts - available from numerous outlets in the area) these can be worn
with the school crested tracksuit on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to allow
for additional washing if you wish. Please see an example of these on the
school blog. Full crested uniform should be worn on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The
school uniform should be worn to school only and taken off in the evening
immediately after school. Lighter raincoat style jackets that can be stored in
the pupil’s bags should be worn as cloakroom areas are normally very congested.
From time to time children mislay their jumpers, cardigans and jackets during
the school day. To ensure that they find
their own item of clothing please
ensure that jumpers, cardigans and jackets are marked with child’s name.
HEALTHY LUNCHES
We
are encouraging a healthy lunch. Chewing
gum, fizzy drinks, chocolate, sweets and crisps, are forbidden. We also ask that children in Junior Infants
do not bring yogurts or yogurt products in their lunch boxes.
Our aim is to
continue with the good work of the Food Dudes Programme, which began in our
school, to increase and maintain children’s consumption of fruit and
vegetables. We have a number of pupils in
the school with severe nut allergies. It is very important that pupils do not
bring items to school that contain nuts.
We ask parents and children to be vigilant as some products contain
traces of nuts. Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.
Children should
have a separate pencil case for home and school. (lunch boxes and drink bottles
should be washed daily).
ADMINISTRATION
OF MEDICINE
Parents of any child who uses prescribed medication should request
an Administration of Medicine Form from the class teacher. The teachers store all medicine securely and
children should not have any medicine in their bags.
PUPIL PERSONAL ACCIDENT
INSURANCE
Pupil Personal Accident Insurance forms attached for
your child(ren). The cost per child is €6 for school activities only and €9 for
24 hour cover 365 days a year. E-payment requests have been sent by text to all
families. We would appreciate it if you could use your debit/credit card. If you have to use cash for these payments,
please put in an envelope and label it and give to class teacher. If you
are purchasing insurance for your child(ren) you must complete a form for each child and return to the class
teacher People are free to avail of
it if they wish and it has proven to be a very worthwhile investment for
families.
E-PAYMENT SYSTEM
The ePayment system is up and running. This year we would appreciate it if you could use your debit/credit card for
all payments to the school.
Payment requests will be sent by text to your phones. If you have to use cash for these payments,
please put in an envelope and label it and give to class teacher. If you have
any difficulty with payments please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Horan.
CLOTHES
COLLECTION
The Parents Committee will hold a clothes collection and
all bags will be collected on Thursday October 1st. With no Sponsored Walk last June, no Church
Gate Collection and no Bingo taking place this term it may be our main
fundraiser for the First Term. Your support would be much appreciated.
Acceptable items for the clothes collection are: *
Men’s, Women’s and children’s clean clothes *Paired shoes * Handbags * Belts *
Curtains * Bed linen Not acceptable
items include Dirty or wet clothes, duvets, pillows, carpets, rugs.
We ask you to drop off the bags next week which will
be the week of the collection i.e. from Monday 28th September to
Thursday Morning 1st October.
Please bring them to the staff door which is opposite the teachers car
park. So let’s do our Autumn Clean out
and tell family and neighbours as well.
Thank you.
LEE STRAND
We are very grateful to Lee Strand who have provided free
homework journals to our school for the past 6 years and also this year even
though we hadn’t the required amount of tokens collected. The tokens to be collected are only found
on the 100% renewable Lee Strand 1 litre milk carton. Ten tokens
are required for each homework journal.
It is a whole school effort and we are asking you to start collecting
the tokens from the 1 litre Lee Strand Milk carton so that we can avail of free
homework journals for all pupils next year.
We would also like to collect extra this year so that we can send on
some for the journals we received this year. As you collect the tokens you can
send them in with your child/children.
Thank you.
TEAM TEACHING
Team teaching may involve withdrawal of groups of
pupils from class and we do not ask for permission slips for this whereas if a
child is withdrawn from class for SEN teaching we do require parents to sign a
permission slip. It is important that
parents understand that if a child is being withdrawn for team teaching, it is
not the same as being withdrawn for Special Education. If you have any concerns please contact the
Principal.
PARENTS COMMITTEE
ELECTION
We will be
electing new parent representatives for Junior Infants, First, Third and Fifth
classes. Ballot papers will be issued to
these classes shortly.
The work done
by the Parents Committee at HFNS should never be underestimated. The members of
our Parents Committee require your help from time to time and I would encourage
everyone to help out if at all possible. “Ní neart go cur le Chéile” Unity is
strength, when parents volunteer to help out with the work of the Parents
Committee it is much appreciated. Last year the Parents Committee funded Drama
Lessons, Music Lessons, Gymnastics and subsidised swimming lessons. In the past they have also subsidised the
Book Rental Scheme.
“Alone we can
do so little, together we can do so much”. (Helen Keller)
MUSIC/DRAMA
LESSONS/GYMNASTICS/IRISH DANCING
Our children benefitted from all these lovely
activities last year which were funded by the Parents Committee fundraisers. Unfortunately
they are currently paused and we will return to them when it is safe to do so.
FIRST COMMUNION AND
CONFIRMATION 2020
First Communion for Holy Family N.S. took place on Sunday 13th
September. It was a beautiful day for the boys and girls and I wish to thank
all school staff who put so much effort into making it a very special occasion.
Thanks also to Maura O’Leary for help with the music and Fr. Pat for making it
a very memorable day.
The Communion and Confirmation dates have not been confirmed for the
coming year yet and we will be in touch when the Parish has made arrangements.
LIBRARY
The Mobile Library is not visiting schools currently.
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. This is very important now that we have set up
the e-Payment system. 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.
NATIONAL EDUCATION
WELFARE BOARD
Please remember that schools are
now legally bound to notify the National Education Welfare board if pupils are
absent from school in excess of twenty days.
Please note we require a written note on each
occasion your child is absent explaining the reason for absence. Again,
please include the wording relating to Covid 19 in all absence notes. The note should be written on a separate piece
of paper so that it can be kept in the pupil’s file.
SCHOOL BLOG
On the blog
there is information for parents in the “Parent Zone” e.g. Internet Safety
tips, how to help your children with homework, etc. For the children there are useful links to
websites in the Maths and English section.
Click the “latest posts” for most recent entries on the blog. Pictures of recent class activities will be
posted from time to time.
Also any new
updates on Covid-19 or any review or changes to our procedures will also be
posted on the blog.
This newsletter
will be available under “Current Newsletter” to read on our blog. http://hfnsrathmorekerry.blogspot.ie/
or google holyfamilynsrathmorekerry blog
BOOK RENTAL
Our scheme works very well and significantly reduces the
cost of buying school books for families.
It is important to remember that children are not allowed write on or
mark book rental books.
Please
note that I will be taking two weeks paternity leave from Monday 28th
September and
Mr. Dineen will
assume the role of Principal in my absence. Ms Elaine Murphy will be teaching
sixth class. Paul Horan
Dates to
Remember 2020 – 2021
School
opens Monday 31st August, 2020
Clothes
Collection - Thursday 1st October
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)