November Newsletter
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Dates for your Diary:
Wednesday 27th November – Parent-Teacher Meetings from 2:40pm
Friday 29th November – School Closed to facilitate the General Election
Friday 13th December – Christmas Jumper Day
Wed 18th & Thurs 19th December – School Concerts
Friday 20th December - School will close for the Christmas Holidays at 12 noon
Monday 6th January - School re-opens
Staff Update:
Interviews were held recently to fill our vacant positions. Ms. Caitríona McCarthy was appointed to the Fixed Term SET role and will continue to job-share with Ms. O’Sullivan. Ms. Joanne Falvey has joined us as a full-time Special Needs Assistant. Welcome Joanne.
Secretary:
Jean Curtayne is our new school secretary. A warm welcome to Jean as she joins us. Jean’s hours are 9am to 2pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 9am to 12:30pm on Friday. We have set up a new email address office@glounaguillaghns.ie and will begin to slowly move communication to this email address going forward.
Enrolment:
Enrolment is now open for children starting school in September 2025. Our pre-enrolment form is available online by clicking on the following link: https://www.aladdin.ie/i/6261897653387264. Our enrolment window closes on Friday 6th December.
Christmas Concerts:
Christmas Concerts will be held on Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th December. See schedule below.
Wednesday 18th December
Junior Infants – 12 noon
Senior Infants – 1pm
1st & 2nd Class – 1:45pm
Thursday 19th December
2nd & 3rd Class – 12:30pm
4th, 5th & 6th Classes – 1:30pm
Christmas Jumper Day:
Our annual Christmas Jumper Day will take place on Friday 13th December. We are suggesting a small donation of €1 or €2 - all proceeds will go to the fundraising efforts of Down Syndrome Ireland (Kerry).
Election:
The school building has been requisitioned by the Returning Officer for use as a polling booth on Friday 29th November. As a result, the school will be closed to staff and pupils on that day. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. An updated school calendar is attached.
Outstanding Fees:
We have a small number of outstanding dues. We would ask the remaining families to please complete the payment as soon as possible.
Parent-Teacher Meetings:
In-person parent-teacher meetings will take place on Wednesday 27th November from 2:40pm at the school. Your child’s class teacher may have made contact with you separately in regards to their own schedule. If not, you are welcome to queue for your child’s teacher from 2:20pm. Please do not come before that time as classes are still in session.
Safe Routes to School:
We were delighted to receive the news recently that we have been accepted into Round 3 of the Safe Routes to School initiative. The design approach will focus on alerting motorists to the presence of our school and encouraging lower speeds, and more attentive driving. This will be achieved through using recognisable design features, such as pencil shaped bollards, improved road markings and signage, looking to see if access to the school can be improved as well as highlighting the presence of the school and encouraging traffic to slow down.
Astellas Art Competition:
Congratulations to Ellie O'Grady, 3rd Class, on her success in the recent Astellas Art Calendar Competition. Ellie will be presented with her prize at the prize-giving ceremony in Astellas next week. Well done Ellie!
Junior Achievement Ireland:
Seán Casey, Fexco, has completed two sessions with 5th & 6th Class. The children completed the module TecKno. TecKno educates the children on technology and tech careers. Using games, this SFI and Dell supported workshop/programme introduces students to AI, Data Analytics and cyber security. Thanks to Seán and JAI.
Time to Count:
Time to Count will take place in 3rd Class after Christmas. Volunteers have been sourced and Garda Vetting and training will take place over the coming weeks. This is the 10th year of our partnership with Fexco and Business in the Community and we are very grateful to both organisations for continuing to work with us each year.
TeamHope Shoebox Appeal:
Carmel would like to thank all our families who participated in this year's TeamHope Christmas Shoebox Appeal. Well done everyone! Thank you to Carmel for organising the collection.
Confirmation Webinar:
The Diocese of Kerry has organised a webinar for Confirmation parents and guardians on Thursday 28th November at 7:30pm. Here is the link to register for the online talk - https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ExWsQQj8TfazzNNdzFTCEA
Active Schools:
Ms. Quirke and the Active Schools committee have been very busy recently. We had lots of lovely activities for Halloween. This month we are taking part in the Active Breaks challenge.
Acorn Quest:
We are partaking in the Jam Jar Science project pilot in conjunction with Local Roots. Local Roots is a newly established community-based biodiversity project with a native tree nursery in Cromane. The project shows the children how oak trees grow from a single acorn. The group have designed what they call "oaky pods", which sit on a glass jar filled with water. The acorn sits in the pod and the bottom part is suspended in the water. The children are able to see how the roots grow first before the shoot appears to grow upward. As this is a pilot, we will create videos and will offer feedback to the group throughout the year. 2nd & 3rd Class have been supplied with “oaky pods” and are excited to get going.
Parents’ Association:
The Parents' Association are holding their AGM on Monday 25th November at 7pm in the school. All parents/guardians are welcome to attend.
Kind Regards,
Sinéad Pigott
Principal
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