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Newsletter 1 – September 2016
Dear Parents,
On behalf of all the staff I would like to welcome you all back to school for the 2016/2017 school year. We especially welcome the three new Junior Infants that have started with us; Freya Nash Brett, Lana Sweeney and Aisling Cosgrove . We wish the former sixth class the best of luck as they begin attending secondary school. Thank you to the parents and children of last years sixth class for their gift of new nets for our GAA goals. The staffing arrangements for this school year include; Ms. Gillian O’Connor (Learning Support), Ms. Jennifer Hunt (Resource), Mrs. Elaine Hession (Junior Room), Mrs. Erica Gibbons (Senior Room), Ann Tighe (assistant)
A special thank you to Geraldine and William Rodgers who have the school looking so clean and tidy on our return to school. The school playground has undergone a number of repairs and upgrading over the last few months. Some parts needed replacing and that is now almost completed. All timber areas of the school have also been painted. We have replaced the round wooden table out the back with two new picnic benches. Funds from last year’s fund raising events were put towards these tables. We also intend to purchase some new teaching materials and games for the children with these funds for this school year. Fundraised money is also used to pay the costs of bussing children to matches that are not close by as this can be quiet costly.
Some things to note!
• Please ensure all school uniform jumpers are clearly labelled with your child’s name.
• Swimming every Thursday at a cost of €8 per child each week. This will continue until just before the Halloween Break. We would ask that swimming money be brought to school on the Wednesday, the day before swimming please.
• All children must have a pair of slippers at school to change into in order to keep classrooms clean.
• The children in the Senior Rooms are required to get a 30L size plastic storage box for their books and belongings.
• All Junior Infants are required to have a change of clothes in the school for accidental incidents/spillages etc.. (this doesn’t have to be a uniform!)
• School starts at 9:20am. School finishes at 2pm for the Infants and 3pm for all other children.
School Calendar
School began September 1st
Halloween Break: School will be closed from Monday 31st October to Friday 4th November 2015. Reopens Monday 7th November.
Christmas Holidays: School will be closed from Friday 23rd December 2016 to January 6th 2017. Reopens Monday 9th January 2017
February Mid-
Easter Holidays: School will be closed from Monday April 10th to Friday April 21st 2017.
Friday June 2nd 2017 (Bank Holiday Weekend)
Last day of school: Wednesday 28th June 2017. (this may have to be changed where the school had to close during the year due to unforeseen circumstances)
School/Parent Communication
Text a Parent will be used to briefly inform parents of any relevant extra information that isn’t in newsletters. Keep an eye out on our web page. This will be updated from time to time. www.gortjordanns.com
To assist in the smooth running of the school and to ensure adequate supervision of children we would ask that if you wish to speak about any matter regarding your child that you would phone the teacher in question in advance to arrange a suitable time to meet and discuss such matters. Parent teacher meetings will be held in November over two evenings after school.
Road Safety
Gerry Butler will attend the school for 3 weeks to teach the children from 3rd to 6th classes all about safe cycling. They have completed 2 weeks so far. If children are in a position to take their bike and or helmet to school it would be a big help. Gerry will have a small number of bikes with him. Hopefully we will take part in the safe cycling competition towards the end of the school year.
Aistear
The children from junior infants to first class will be starting the Aistear method of play in the coming weeks. Aistear facilitates active learning through play and hands on experiences which in turn supports oral language development. Aistear is used to explore and develop learning within the classroom in an active and collaborative way. We will take a different theme each month and the activities are based around this theme. Their learning during Aistear will link into English, Maths, Gaeilge, S.E.S.E, S.P.H.E and Art. The school website will feature aspects of Aistear and will be updated every month.
School Book Bills
School book bills will be issued in the coming fortnight. We would be grateful if they could be paid as promptly as possible to allow the school pay our own bills with the book companies in question. There are also a small number of outstanding book bill accounts from last year and these need to be settled with the school.
Mayo and The All-
The school will remain open on the Monday after the All-
School Insurance and Opening and Closing Times.
Our School Insurers Allianz have requested that we issue the following circular to all parents regarding the schools opening and closing times.
CIRCULAR
“The school will open to receive pupils at the hour of 9.10 a.m. No responsibility is accepted for pupils arriving before that time. Classes will commence each day at 9.20 a.m. No pupils should arrive later than 9.15 a.m.
Classes will end each day at 3 p.m.. (2pm for junior classes). Parents who wish to have their children escorted home should make their own arrangements to have them met at the school gate and the person to escort them should be at the school not later than 3pm (2pm for junior classes) as the school cannot accept responsibility for looking after the children after that time.” (Allianz)
Kind Regards
Mrs. Erica Gibbons