Dear Parents & Guardians,
Welcome back to school. I hope you all had a lovely summer. We look forward to the year ahead which we hope will be a safe, successful and enjoyable one.
Special welcome to the Junior Infants and their parents to our school. We are confident that you will be made feel part of our school community very quickly and we urge you to become involved in school activities. We look forward to working with you during this school year.
Staff: We welcome all staff members back to the school. We are delighted to have Ms. Hayes back following the birth of her daughter. We are also glad to announce that Mr. Corry has withdrawn his application for early retirement and will be remaining with us this year. Assumpta Hession joins our school staff as a Special Needs Assistant and we welcome Assumpta to our staff.
Past Pupil, Rebecca Finnerty, will be with us for the next 10 weeks completing her final year’s teaching practice. Rebecca will be teaching 3rd and 4th class and Junior and Senior Infants in the coming weeks. We wish her well.
Congratulations to past pupil, Aoife Brennan, on winning an all-Ireland u-16 title with Galway, Fintan Burke, for captaining Galway to the Leinster u21 title and David Burke for captaining Galway to the Leinster Senior title. We are very proud of all our past pupil’s achievements.
Lenrec Clothing Collection: Our annual clothes collection is on Wednesday 26th September. This normally raises about €150 for school funds. The school receives €6 per 10kg bag of clothes and €2 for a mobile phone. We would appreciate any support you can give.
County Photos: County photos are coming to the school on Friday 14th September to take the school photos. Please ensure your children have the correct uniform on.
Staff Meeting: The children will be going home at 12.30 on Wednesday 19th September to facilitate a staff meeting. The buses will run as normal.

Tin whistle: Lessons with Yvonne Barret will recommence for 1st – 6th class children next Tuesday 11th September. In line with School Policy on Child protection and for musical reasons, tin whistle lessons will be compulsory for all children from 1st – 4th class this year. In the coming years it will be compulsory for all children from 1st – 6th class to attend tin whistle lessons. The cost per term is €20 for 1 child; €35 for 2 and €45 for 3. We thank you for your support on this matter.
First Confessions: First Holy Communion, Confirmation and Graduation Mass dates will be communicated to parents as soon as they become available to the school.
School Closure: The school will be used as a polling station in the upcoming Presidential Election on Friday 26th October and we will be closed as a result.
Healthy Eating: We would like to take this opportunity to remind parents of our school’s Healthy Eating Policy. Children are asked to bring healthy lunches each day. A small treat is permitted on Friday only.
Text-a-Parent: We would remind parents to inform the school as soon as possible if the number you provided to the school for the text-a-parent service has changed.
Friendship Week: Next week is friendship week in the school and the 6th class children will be organising activities to promote friendship in the school.
If you have any queries in relation to any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above number.

Yours sincerely,
Francis O’Connor
Principal.