A Thuismitheoirí,  I have taken this opportunity to put together a newsletter for all to ensure you are aware what we are up to in the school. This coming Friday our school under the care of the Green Team are being assessed for our 5^th Green Flag Award for Biodiversity. As this has been an ongoing project over the past 2 years we will be very proud to show our huge efforts in this endeavour.

Under the guidance of Sarah, our Green Schools Coordinator the Green Team have been working hard ensuring we have continued to progress the previous 4 topics which we received Green Flag Awards for including, reducing, reusing and recycling, energy renewal, water conservation and transport. This week we hope to continue with the work undertaken already in the school. If you are available to help out please let the office/Sarah know and we would be delighted with your support. We all wish the Green Team the best of luck on Friday with the assessment. Thank you so much to all staff, children and parents and especially Sarah for all their hard work with this project.

Website Don’t forget to check out our www.cetns.ie for updates regularly.

Enrolment – Enrolment offers for 2013/2014 have been taking place over the past few months and we have currently offered all of our places for junior infants next September. We will be offering places throughout the ret of the classes where vacancies arise in May and we if you are interested or know of someone who is please note the need to place the child(ren) on the waiting list. If children are moving abroad or leaving the school, please can you let the office/class teacher know in writing as soon as possible.

New Parents evening There will be a meeting in the school for all new parents coming to CETNS in 2013/2014 on Monday 10^th June at 7:30pm in the school. This meeting is for incoming junior infant parents and also all other parents of children new to the school from senior infants-6^th classes.

Book Sale Bookhaven Book Company will be taking orders for the books required for the 2013/2014 academic year on Tuesday 11^th June in the school and books will be ready for collection on this day in the school hall from 1pm-3pm or at their shop in Roselawn. Also, like last year there will be a code per class so you may purchase the books online if that suits better.

Swimming &Resources monies The term is now underway for swimming in 5^th & 3^rd classes. Many children are forgetting their swimming bags! If you have not already paid, please do so as soon as possible. Contact Andreas in confidence if you have difficulties paying. Reminder letters are being sent out in relation to swimming/resource payments in the next fortnight. Please contact Paula in the office about these reminder letters.

Day of Celebration The date for the Day of Celebration has been agreed as Wednesday 15^th May for 7pm.  The Day of Celebration committee have started working to get things going and another meeting will be held in 3 weeks time. Please check your child’s bag regularly for further information.

Note for 1st class parents: Traditionally parents from 1^st class children volunteer to help on the evening of the Day of Celebration for 2^nd class. In return, when their own children have their Day of Celebration, the next 1^st class will help out. We will be looking for volunteers to help with making tea/coffee etc on the night. If you are able to help your support will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Sport at CETNS – Soccer training is taking place after school on Tuesdays for girls with Sarah in the field and for boys with Jack on Thursdays. Go n-éirí libh J.  Athletics- The field events in Dublin Primary Schools Sports will take place in Morton Stadium, Santry on Monday 27^th & 30^th May, though these dates will need to be confirmed. The children are currently training in the school during lunchtimes with Andreas.  Tennis is also underway with Liz for 6^th classes on Mondays and the children need to remember their white t-shirts.  Basketball There will be a basketball blitz for the senior team next Wednesday in St Benedicts National School, Ongar at 1:30pm. Go n-éirí libhJ.

Cúinne na Leanaí – FairTrade Fortnight took place in the school and the children took part in a variety of projects to acknowledge the need for us to be more conscious of the impact of FairTrade purchases. We had plenty of rice crispie buns made with FairTrade ingredients last week supplied by Karen & Caitrín’s classes to children in the school. Children from 1^st & 2^nd classes went to the Ark Theatre in town for a day filled with fun and dance. I know it was hugely enjoyable for all and I’m sure some of our hugely talented children showed them a thing or two. Marie-Therese’s 6^th class have been involved in a very interesting Art Project called ‘Dreamweavers Storyhoops’ in Draíocht, Blanchardstown. It is a vibrant and colourful exhibition which can be viewed in Draíocht until 5^th March. Drop in and have a look. For those who can’t make it we hope to have them on display in the school at a later date. Well done to 6^th class for their hard work, I know they enjoyed the launch on Friday evening and thank you to Marie-Therese also for her hard work.

After Schools Activities  – Gaeilge for adults Éadaoin (3^rd class teacher) will be running an Irish language course for complete beginners after Easter. This course will commence Wednesday 10^th April (3.30-4.30pm) and will run for 8 consecutive weeks, costing €65 (price reduction available for 2 parents from the same family). Places are limited to 15 adults. If interested, please give your name to Éadaoin (Room 10) before Friday 22^nd March. All ASA classes are currently underway please see ASA page on the website for updates or contact organiser for more information.  CETNS Easter & Summer Camps ’13 – Registration Thursday in Room 1 (JP’s Room) The CETNS Easter & Summer Camps are back again this year. The first camp runs from Monday 25^th – 29^th March.  Registration for the Easter camp will take place on Thursday 7^th March in Room 1 (JP’s room) from 1:50pm until 4pm. The camps will be full of fun and exciting games and activities for children from Junior Infants to 6^th class. Children are grouped according to age and class. Application forms are available from reception. Places are limited and are given out on a first-come-first-served basis.

Secondary school notes – Hansfield Secondary School, one of the first Educate Together Second Level schools recognised by the Minister for Education has published its enrolment policy and can be viewed at www.hansfieldsecondary.ie .This school is due to open its doors in September 2014 and applications will be accepted from students who are in 5^th class in primary school during 2012/13 school year.

Beir bua, Aedín

Welcome back to all, we are now well into the swing of things again and the snow has arrived too! We hope everyone had a good rest and all the cold weather is helping to kill off the germs and illnesses we had before the holidays.

Our Scientists went to the Science Gallery Friday 14th December for the regional final of the Intel Mini-Scientist Competition. Conor Kelly, Cian McNamee & Omar Salem from Romey’s class are runners-up in the competition. It is a great achievement and we look forward to seeing them continue in this field for years to come. Congratulations also to Rameen and Omar who won academic scholarships to private secondary schools in Alexandra College and Sutton Park respectively.

Children from 1st-6th classes went to see Sleeping Beauty in the Victory Theatre on Wednesday 9th January. The children enjoyed the event immensely while learning all about the orchestra. We are all very proud of our teacher Romey who organised the event with the youth orchestra.

3rd classes treated us to a wonderful assembly last Friday all about Martin Luther King. It was also a real treat to hear all the children drumming in unison and it is a credit to the hard work put in by both their teachers. A big thank you also to Alben for making so many drumsticks. Junior Infants will host Friday’s assembly at 9:30am and parents are welcome to come and join us. Both classes are looking forward to telling you all about water conservation, they may even have some ideas about what to do with the snow!

Enrolment offers for Junior Infants 2013 have been taking place since November 2012 and at this point both classes are full. We continue to have children on the waiting list and we urge parents to ensure their children are placed on our list as soon as possible as CETNS does not operate a sibling policy and we do not have any discretionary places available. We have a policy of first-come, first-served.

There are lots of things happening in the school and many after school activities have started back, scroll down to see the list in the post below. There are also a few sign up sheets in the foyer for dance, art & drama classes. Dublin Parks Tennis are taking registrations from 26th January – 1st February. Please contact 01 8338711 or email parkstennis@eircom.net for more details.

Luttrellstown Community College have reminded us their Assessment Day for incoming 1st years will take place on Saturday 2nd February @ 9am in LCC and all students entering their school in September 2013 must complete the assessment. They will also host a Subject Options Information Evening on Thursday February 8th @ 8pm for these children.

Our car park continues to be a safety risk to children in the school and I have asked a group of parents to assist us in operating the car park safely over the next few weeks. If you are available to assist please contact the school office. It is hoped this system will make the school grounds a safer place for the children. The staff car park is on the left as you enter the school and it is not permitted to park in here at any time. The parents’ car park is on the right and it is not permitted to double park in here at any time. Should you arrive in the school car park to find it is full please proceed to the main gate and park outside the school grounds, there are many alternatives one of which includes parking at the 12th lock and walking across the footbridge. There is no room to park on the setdown area as we have school transport collecting large groups of children at arrival & dismissal times. Please assist us in keeping the school car park safe for all children.

The HSE have sent out the forms for the vision and hearing tests for Senior Infants & the vision test forms for 6th classes. Please make sure to return them as soon as possible.

Swimming started this term for Siobhán (5th), David (4th), Liz (5th) & Éadaoin’s (3rd) classes and this term will run from 16th January until 20th March. These details are on the calendar on this website as are details of all upcoming school events.

Obair Bhaile Gaeilge (homework) for parents This week’s frása for infants is, “Ceart go leor,a mhúinteoir.” which means (Okay, teacher) and is pronounced, “Cart guh lower”. This week’s frása for 2nd class to 6^th is,“ An féidir liom cabhrú leat,a mhúinteoir?” which means (May I help you, teacher?) and is pronounced, “On faydir lum cowroo lat,a voontore?”. Go n-éirí libh! (Good luck!)

The ethos subcommittee have been working very hard to prepare the survey for all parents, students, staff and board members of the school. The pupils will be completing  the survey in school next Tuesday 29th. Parents will receive the survey in schoolbags on Tuesday also and we hope parents will take the time to complete the survey online as this will help with collating the data and speed up the process. Paper copies of the survey must be returned by Friday February 1st. Survey night will take place on January 29th.

Educate Together are hosting a Second-Level National Forum in the Hilton Hotel Kilmainham on Saturday 26th January from 10-1:30pm. If you wish to attend please contact secondlevel@educatetogether.ie to reserve a place. As a parent of a child in an Educate Together school you automatically are a member of Educate Together’s national network and these Forum Meetings allow you to have a part in decision making for the organisation. In this forum Second-Level schooling is on the agenda and they will give an update for 3 new second-level schools opening in 2014, one of which will be in Dublin 15. Items on the agenda include values research, school designs, leadership/management structures, curriculum/teaching/learning & 21st learning in Irish classrooms. Registration starts at 9:45am and a light lunch will be served after 1:15pm. All are welcome.

You may be interested in the parent survey on School patronage that ‘went live’ on the Department of Education’s website last week. It may be of particular interest to parents in relation to special schools. For an easy link please log on to http://www.nabmse.org/2013/01/important-parent-survey-on-school-patronage-goes-live-on-des-website/

Christmas Shows Timetable for the school hall. Parents are very welcome to come & join us on the day.

Fri 14/12
@ 10am – Jen’s 4th Class

Wed 19/12
@ 9:30am – J.P/Sarah’s Junior Infants;
@ 11.00am  –  Jennifer’s 1st Class;
@1.50pm Conor/Eadaoin’s 3rd Class

Thurs 20/12
@ 9.20am Ruth/Sarah O’R’s Senior Infants;
@ 10.00am Deirdre’s 1st Class;
@ 11.00am Paula/Yvonne’s 2nd class & David’s 4th class;
@ 11:45am Caitrín/Karen in their classroom;
@ 1.30pm Siobhán/Liz/Romey/Marie-Therese 5th & 6th classes

Vincent De Paul We are holding a collection for a food hamper for Vincent De Paul.  Any dry food goods that you wish to donate may be left in the hamper box/trolley outside the hall. The food will be redistributed to families in need for the holidays and hopefully some children and families will have a warmer and safer time this winter as a result of our donations. The final date for bringing non-perishable food items in is Monday 17th December. Some tinned foods, boxed foods, pastas, jars of food etc would be suitable. Many thanks for your support.

Ethos Night  A huge thank you to all of you who turned out last Thursday 6th December for the launch of our Ethos Self-Evaluation Process. We held the speeches in the hall due to the weather conditions and then we launched just one lantern due to the blustery and wet weather. Despite the weather, we had a good time and all the children enjoyed a welcome cup of hot chocolate after seeing the movie in the hall! It is lovely to read the nice messages the children have placed on their lanterns. A reminder that the Ethos Survey will be coming soon and we hope everyone will fill out their survey on/before the night. Details to follow soon. We hope to have the survey available on-line that night and there will be paper copies available and a computer will be made available in the school should you wish to complete it online here. Give us your thoughts on our school.

Our Scientists are heading to the Science Gallery in town on Friday morning for the regional final of the Intel Mini-Scientist Competition. We wish Conor Kelly, Cian McNamee & Omar Salem from Romey’s class the very best of luck on Friday.

Obair Bhaile Gaeilge (homework) for parents This week’s frása for infants to first class is, “An maith leat mo phictiúr,a mhúinteoir?” which means (Do you like my picture,teacher?) and is pronounced, “On mah lat muh ficktoore,a voontore?”. This week’s frása for 2nd class to 6th is, “An bhfuil cead agam leabhar a léamh, más é do thoil é?” which  means (May I read a book,please?) and is pronounced, “On will cad agum lowar a lave,maw shay duh hull ay?”. Go n-éirí libh! (Good luck!)

Icy Weather Alben, our school caretaker, has been busy gritting the footpaths to make sure they are safe for all coming into the school during this very cold weather. It is really important if there is ice in the playground in the mornings or afternoons that children do not run around the yard as it is not safe. We would ask parents to ensure children do not run on icy tarmac. It is also important that cars are extra slow and careful in the carpark as this can be quite slippery too.

There have been a couple of burglaries in cars in the school over the past weeks. Two cars have come into our school grounds and stolen items from parked cars. Both thefts happened during the school day and it is important that we are all, as a school community, extra vigilant in reporting anything suspicious to the school office, feel free to take the registration number of cars or a description and report it to the office. Our school is protected by cctv and all incidents have been reported to Gardaí. Please do not leave items visible in your car while you are in the school.

Just to let you know some of our good news for staff members, Aoife had a little baby boy called Zach and Elaine had a baby girl named Ellie recently, we would like to wish them both well. Jen is getting married over the holidays and we hope she will enjoy the big day and lots of happiness to come.

Reminder school is closing at 12:00 on Friday 21st December for the holidays and we will reopen on Monday 7th January at 9am.

Please see link attached for Educate Together School newsletter. See the link below for Castleknock Educate Together School. Enjoy reading about other schools in the network and what they are doing also.

http://www.educatetogether.ie/media/national-news/educate-together-filmmakers-scoop-awards?utm_source=Principals&utm_campaign=7ef1775e09-ETSN+Sep+2012&utm_medium=email

Castleknock Educate Together National School

Ethos:  Self-Evaluation

CETNS is committed to carrying out a Self-Evaluation of its Ethos.

Why Self-Evaluation?

To evaluate how the principles of Educate Together are implemented and experienced by all members of the school community. Educate Together schools have 4 core principles -co-educational, child-centred, multi-denominational and democratically run.

What will it achieve?

• Evaluate the extent to which the Educate Together ethos is lived out in the school
• Consider the perspective of all members of the school community
• Be clear and transparent
• Help the school to identify areas of achievement and for improvement
• Be an ongoing and regular point of reference for the school

The evaluation will cover the taught ethos, or Ethical Education Programme (Learn Together in most cases) and also the lived ethos.

The self-evaluation will relate to the implementation and development of the Educate Together ethos only and not the wider curriculum, management or other policies and practices as they apply in the school, although these may be affected as a result of the process.

What will be the process?

The overall process will include:

• Establishment of a Self-Evaluation Committee from the school community
• Surveys of students, parents, board of management and staff
• Follow-up Workshops and/or Focus Groups
• Assessment of results
• Creation of an Action Plan
• Ongoing Reflection and Review

The participation of as many as possible in the self-evaluation process will be key to its success.

What can you do?

Participate fully in the process through surveys, focus groups etc.

Volunteer for membership of the Self-Evaluation Committee or through some other role. If interested – email name and number to info@cetns.ie before Friday November 30^th 2012.

When?

The Self Evaluation Process will be launched at a special evening event on Thursday the 6^th December – to which you are invited.

Just a quick reminder to all parents the parent-teacher meetings will take place in the school Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st from 2:45pm. Children should be collected at 2:25pm and there will be no after school activities on these days. The school playground will be open to facilitate parking on both days also. Punctuality is very important and please knock at your assigned time. Thank you.

Welcome back to all after the midterm break. I hope everyone had a good rest and plenty of fun out and about in the fresh air. I have heard many of the children talking about the interesting places they visited and the even more interesting things they did over the week. As ever we have plenty of things happening at the school, please see below for details.

COMHGHAIRDEACHAS – CONGRATULATIONS to David’s 4th class who won the Best Camera Award at FÍS last Thursday. Basically this is the equivalent of the Best Camera Oscar for film in schools. The children attended the Helix in DCU last Thursday with parents, David, Andreas and Neil Elworthy who was a great help making the movie. It is a great achievement and a credit to the work put in last year in making the movie. Andreas, Neil and the children worked very hard with assistance from other staff in many ways and the movie is well worth seeing. See the videos tab on our website and enjoy their success. I know we have some stars in the making at CETNS and it is nice to see all their hard work paying off. Maith sibh go léir.

Science Week @ CETNS begins today (12th November)  and the children in all classes will be busy with all sorts of activities during this week. It will be great fun visiting the classes and learning all about their activities. The Intel Science Day will take place in the school hall during Thursday from 11am and we encourage parents to come along and see the projects the children have worked on for the past number of weeks. Please remember the children will have to tidy up their projects before heading home so don’t leave it too late or you may miss them. Last year we had an explosion in the hall while the judges were assessing a particular project! Thankfully no-one was hurt as it was a water-based experiment and we all had a good laugh. The very best of luck to the children involved and I know all the classes are looking forward to seeing your projects during the week.

Parent-Teacher Meetings will take place at CETNS on Tuesday 20th & Wednesday 21st from 2:45pm. On both days teachers will release their classes at 2:25pm in order to prepare for the meetings. It is important that all children are collected from 1st-6th classes promptly and we appreciate your co-operation with this arrangement. Could you please indicate if you have difficulty with either Tuesday/Wednesday and if you have a particular time you are unavailable as teachers will not be able to alter times due after arrangements are made.( For example if you are working on Tuesday until 4:30pm please write a note in your child’s homework diary to state you are unavailable for Tuesday until after 5pm and would prefer a Wednesday meeting instead.) Teachers need to be aware of these preferences by Wednesday at the latest as time allocations will be sent home as soon as possible.

The boy’s GAA Team are through to the semi-final of the Cumann na mBunscol League competition and their next match takes place on Tuesday at 3pm in Cherryfield (Ballyboden St Enda’s pitches) against Terenure College Junior National School. Go n-éirí libh a bhuachaillí.

Staffing update As you may be aware we have a few new faces around the building at the moment. I hope you will welcome them to CETNS and say hello. Aoife has started her maternity leave and has been replaced by Susan. We wish Aoife all the best and hope we have some good news very soon. Elaine has also started her maternity leave, a little sooner than planned, and Paul is replacing her. Again we wish her all the best and hope to have some good news soon. Ann Lynch is currently unwell and Jennifer will be with us until her return. Get well soon Ann.

Policy review documents are available on the website under the parents tab – school policies under review. The RSE policy is a final draft document available for comment now. Please check it out.

It is important that all visitors to the school (including parents) check into reception at all times. Should reception be unattended it most likely will be so for a few moments only. Please be patient with us, we won’t be long.

The situation in the car park & the road directly opposite the school is of ongoing concern to us at the school. However, Anne our lollipop lady, has informed me that last Friday was the first day she had a clear view of cars coming up both sides of the avenue this year for her morning duty and that all children & parents came to her to cross the road. Thank you, on behalf of Anne & the school, for your co-operation and hopefully this is a sign the good times are here to stay.

Halloween assemblies were held on the 26th of October and we hope parents enjoyed visiting us for them. There were lots of enjoyable moments on the day and thank you to staff and children for all your hard work in preparing dances, spells, songs, art work, plays and poems. Cruella de Ville CETNS enjoyed them immensely and I met many parents who felt the same. Please view photos below. Friday’s assembly will be hosted by 4th classes and we look forward to parents from these classes joining us. It will begin at 9:30am.

The Parents’ Association AGM will take place on Wednesday 28th November at 7:30pm. Some more information will follow in relation to this but please keep the date free if you can.

Educate Together are hosting a Winter Raffle in order to raise funds for the organisation. As a member of the school community we are aware that Educate Together is a charity and funds raised are put back into providing services for our schools and school communities. Each family will be sent a book of tickets in the next few days and hopefully you can support this campaign to raise funds for the organisation. Please read the letter attached to the tickets and return to the school by November 30th.

Middletown Centre for Autism are hosting 2 more information sessions for parents of children with Autism in the school tomorrow 11am-1pm and next Tuesday. these information sessions have been hugely beneficial for both staff and parents and should you wish to attend please contact www.middletownautism.com to register.

After School Activities – BeActive will resume for 2nd class children on 27th November. Senior Basketball are having a match against Mary Mother of Hope SNS in Ongar at 3pm. Go n-éirí libh. KoruFit classes started for adults in the school hall on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7:30-8:30pm and you can contact John on 087 1326684. Please see our website for the full list of After Schools Activities under the Parents tab.

Educate Together Second Level Project

http://www.educatetogether.ie/sites/default/files/20120906_interimboard_roledescription.pdf

A Parents’ Policy Development Subcommittee has been working on formulating the RSE policy below and it is now in its final draft format. We have reviewed all comments and an open forum may discuss further amendments to the draft policy prior to recommending a final copy to the Board of Management of the school for ratification. To contribute please click into the comment box and let us know what you think. This comment facility is currently for the RSE policy and will be open for comment from Friday 5th – Friday 19th November and we welcome any comments you would like to offer. Policy can be found under the Parents tab – school policies under review

Dear Parents/Guardians,

A number of incidents have occurred in the set-down area and the school car park where cars have double parked blocking the access into and out of the car park. A number of cars have been left in the set-down area for many reasons, however, please note should you park your car and leave it there, you are causing a delay for other cars at the entrance to the school. Gardaí have asked that parents co-operate with the system that is in the car-park in order to ensure traffic flows in and around the school as smoothly as possible as this has a knock on effect on the avenue outside. It is unacceptable to leave your car at any point in the set-down area as this is not a car-parking space. Parents are also reminded that the safety of all users on school premises is most important, in particular the safety of children.

Book Week takes place at CETNS next week where an emphasis will be put on literacy activities and we hope to promote and encourage in children a love of books.  We hope you can also encourage your child to read and participate in book activities this week. Celtic Travelling Book Fair will be here at the school during the week and it will run from Tuesday 9^th October to Friday 12^th October 2012.  The 60% commission we get from the fair allows us to buy books for the school and class libraries.  However at the same time, in this current economic climate please don’t feel under any obligation to purchase books. The M.S. Readathon is also beginning during this week on Friday 12^th October and will run until November 12^th 2012.  The school has been successfully involved in the M.S Readathon for over ten years now and it helps to encourage children to read whilst also raising funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland.  Our school can also keep 10% of funds raised to buy books for the school library.  Class teachers will be providing further information and forms to any children wishing to participate. If you would like to be involved in any literacy activity either next week or during the year please let your child’s class teacher know.  Activities could include reading with children, helping out with classes during their library slot, telling children about your own favourite book as a child, reading aloud to children, helping with the school library etc. While I visited Paula’s 2nd class recently they were telling me all about their book review on ‘Cows are Vegetarians’ which they enjoyed immensely. Sharon has been busily organising things for the week and we will have a visit from the author David Donoghue next week for 3rd & 4th classes. The children in Conor’s class went to visit the author Judy Curtin on Tuesday in town and had a very nice time there listening to and asking her questions about her books. They were especially intrigued to learn all about Walter and the Doughnuts and enjoyed their trip.

National Maths week is taking place 13-22nd October and the children at CETNS will be participating in a variety of activities throughout the school during this week. Many of the children have been working with Mangahigh and competing, we already have a number of Mangahigh heroes. Well done especially to Oert, Fergus, Layla, Oliver, Anna, Éadaoin, Max, Norbert, Katie, Rianna, Megan, Piotr, Oisin, Aisling, Katerina and Omar who have contributed to our match.Read all about our heoroes in the post below.

Last week we had two wonderful assemblies hosted by 2nd classes and 6th classes based on the Learn Together Programme and everyone enjoyed their thoughts and poems on Friendship. we are very lucky to have the friendliest children in Ireland in our school and for the past few weeks we have witnessed all sorts of kind and generous acts of frienship throughout the school. Well done to the children on hosting two great assemblies for the school.

On a number of occasions in the past few weeks, children have been greeted in the yard with dog dirt in the mornings. You may have noticed the signs at the entrance to the yard stating dogs are not permitted to enter the school yard/building.

Obair Bhaile Gaeilge (homework) for parents This week’s frása for infants is, “Fáilte ar ais!” which means (Welcome back!) and is pronounced, “Foil teh err ash”. This week’s frása for 2nd class to 6th is, “An bhfuil cead agam mo chóta a fháil, más e do thoil é?” which means (May I get my coat ,please?) and is pronounced, “On will cad a gum muh co tah a oil,maw shay duh hull ay?”. Go n-éirí libh! (Good luck!)

A Parents’ Policy Development Subcommittee has been set up in order to involve parents from the school in a constructive way to help formulate policies which influence school life. This subcommittee would liike to work on behalf of parents and hopefully parents will engage with the school through this committee. We hope to develop a format of putting draft documents up on the website with a time period for all comments and responses to be returned to info@cetns.ie email address. After this deadline all comments will then be reviewed by the committee and an open forum may discuss further amendments to the draft policy prior to recommending a final copy to the Board of Management of the school for ratification. To begin with there will be two policies available shortly at the parent tab of this page under the heading policies for comment. The email address will open for comment from Friday 5th – Friday 19th October and we welcome any comments you would like to offer.

Coolmine Community School are holding an open evening October 4th for parents of students in 6th classes. Registration for 2012/2014 will take place October 15th, 16th & 18th. Contact the school on 01-8214141 or www.coolminecs.ie

There are a number of training sessions taking place at CETNS for parents of children with Autism. These will take place on Tuesdays from 16th October for five weeks. If you are interested in coming along please sign up at www.middletownautism.com and we hope they will be of benefit to you and your child. The sessions will take place in CETNS school hall from 11-1pm on these Tuesdays.

Beir bua,                                                                                                                     Aedín

Hello all,

Safety in school and outside school                                                                   Please, observe there is no parking in the set down area at any point! Please also observe that staff car parking is on the left side of the entrance gate and parents car park is on the right hand side. There are members of staff coming into the school at different times during the day and it is important they can park their cars and come into work. Parents should not park in staff parking area under any circumstances. We need your cooperation with this matter and ask for your patience while in the school car park. We have limited spaces in the school and cannot facilitate 335 family cars at arrival and dismissal times! It is also important to note it is not safe to park outside the school on either side of the road as this obstructs children’s view of traffic. Parents should encourage children to cross the road out by the pedestrian gate where Ann, our lollipop lady is waiting. The Gardaí have asked for your cooperation with this and are monitoring the situation.

Staff and children had our first assembly of the year last Friday and we raised the issue of reducing our rubbish amongst other things. We are trying to reduce the amount of waste we produce daily and were very surprised to discover with the 5 binbags we had in each classroom and around the school we were using on average 100 binbags every day! So now we are trying to use only 1 binbag per classroom. Please see the post below to explain how this will work out.

It is extremely important that parents are aware there is a need to ensure children do not have any nuts/nut spreads in school as part of their lunches. Though we appreciate that nuts are a healthy food, there are children in our school who have severe nut allergies and even the oil residue on a door handle somewhere can pose a serious risk to them. Please help us to keep all our children safe by observing this request.

As part of the Learn Together Programme which is our core curriculum programme in the school in line with our ethos development, we will be hosting assemblies in school to which parents of those classes will be invited.  Friendship Week will take place in the school next week and children will be learning all about friendships and especially being a good friend. The first of these assemblies – Friendship Assemblies – will be hosted by 2nd classes and 6th classes and assembly time on this day is for 2nd class @ 9.30am and 6th class at 10am. Every other Learn Together assembly will be held at 9:30am from then on and a text will be sent to parents a week before to remind the parents of children in those classes about the assembly. We hope you can join us.

Curricular class meetings have been held over the past two weeks and the staff hope you found them both informative and useful. Individual parent-teacher meetings will take place later on in November.

After Schools Activities                                                                                    Beechpark Catholic Religion Committee – After school Catholic classes commencing on Monday 24th September 3-4pm weekly. Fee €140 for classes Sept-May.  These classes are run as a 2 year programme for 1st-2nd class children and for 5th-6th class children. Parental supervision is required before each class. Rota details and information will be available soon on our new website www.beechparkrc.webs.com or you can contact us on 085 7253922.

Basketball training will start for 5th & 6th classes with Liz after school on Wednesdays. Parents need to collect children at 3:40pm. As this is reliant on the weather if it is raining the children should be collected at 2:40pm as usual. Michelle will begin basketball training for 3rd & 4th classes on Tuesdays from 2:40-3:40pm. As both are volunteering their time it is important that children are picked up on time.

Boys GAA Training will take place on Tuesdays and matches are scheduled for Thursdays. As this is a team effort for the school it is important that all team members commit to training and attend both training sessions and matches. Training will take place in the field on Tuesdays from 2:45-3:45pm and boys should remember to bring in their gear on these days. Best of luck today to the boys as they play Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada in Lucan Sarsfield’s GAA club today.

BeActive starts after school for 2nd class children next Tuesday from 2:40-3:40pm. It will take place on Tuesdays except for the following 5 dates 16th, 23rd October and 6th, 13th & 20th November as the hall will be in use on these dates.

Open Day – Blanchardstown Garda Station.  The Gardaí at Blanchardstown invite everyone to an open day this Saturday 22nd September from 2.00pm-5.00pm at the station.  All are welcome – most especially the children from all Dublin 15 schools.  The Garda band, tours of the station, face painting and Coolmine Farmers Market wlll all feature on the day.

Westmanstown Rugby Club  – Special Needs Tag Rugby A new initiative has just been launched by the rugby club in association with Fingal Community Rugby Officers.  Special Needs Tag Rugby will allow children aged 5 upwards to learn the skills of Tag rugby in a safe environment. Training and matches will take place every Sunday form  11.30am-1.00pm at Westmanstown Rugby Club.  Please contact Jorge Zulkouski on 087 2842584 or jorgezulkouski@yahoo.co.uk for more details.

Beir bua,                                                                                                                      Aedín