Dear Parents & Guardians,
I hope you are all keeping well and that you and the children are looking forward to Christmas. Below are a few items for your attention.
Parent Teacher Meetings: It was great to have face to face meetings again. We would like to thank all the parents who attended the meetings & for all the positive feedback that you gave to the teachers. It’s really constructive when the children can see that parents & teachers are working together for their benefit.
School Book Fair: Our annual School Book Fair took place recently. We would like to thank you all for your support. Over a thousand euro was spent on books & thanks to you we were able to retain €294 of this to put towards our Literacy Interventions. Thanks to Ms Keely for organising. Thanks also to Joby & Assumpta for helping to run the Book Fair all week, particularly the two evenings of the Parent-Teacher meetings.
Christmas Concerts: We are delighted to say that we will be having Christmas Concerts this year. The date is Monday 19th of December & we would like to invite you into the school to watch the performances. The Junior/ Senior Infants & First & Second class are doing Nativity plays. The children from 3rd-6th will be performing Dance routines they have been learning with the Dance company Dance It Out. They will also be playing some tunes on the tin whistle accompanied by their Music teacher Yvonne Barrett & singing some Christmas Carols.
The following are the times:

• Infants 11-11:30am
• 1st & 2nd 11:45-12:20pm
• 3rd & 4th 12:30- 1:pm
• 5th & 6th 1:15-1:45pm

Shoeboxes: Thank you again for supporting our shoe box appeal. There was a fantastic response again for this very worthy cause. There were over 100 shoeboxes donated. Thanks to Ms Hayes for co-ordinating & getting our photo in the paper. Thanks also to Ms Kelly for getting the shoeboxes collected.
Clothes Collection: Thanks to you all for donating to the recent clothes collection. Once again there was a great response. €135 was raised as a result of the collection.
County Final Success: Congratulations to the St Thomas’ team & management on their recent County final success. It is a truly remarkable achievement to win 5 county titles in a row. The players & management bring such excitement to the young children of the area & the children are so lucky to have such great role models to look up to. We were delighted to welcome members of the management & the team to the school on Tuesday. We wish them the very best of luck in the All-Ireland semi-final in a few week’s time.
Science Week: As part of this year’s Science week a trip to the Galway Atlanaquarium was organised for children from 3rd to 6th.
Enrolment: The process for new enrolments for September 2023 will begin in the New Year. We have been instructed by the Dept. & Diocese to amend our School Enrolment Admission Policy to comply as with circular 75/22. The following lines have to be inserted into section 3 of our Policy. The policy is to be ratified at the Board meeting next week. These are the lines

• Kilchreest N.S. will cooperate with the NCSE in the performance by the
  Council of its functions under the Education for Persons with Special Educational
  Needs Act 2004 in relation to the provision of education to children with special
  educational needs, including in particular by the provision and operation of a
  special class or classes when requested to do so by the Council.
  Kilchreest N.S. will comply with any direction served on the board or
  the patron under section 37A and 67(4)(b).

If you have questions in relation to any of the above, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Francis O’Connor
Principal.