Parents’ Area
Happy New Year!
We hope you had an enjoyable Christmas break and are ready for the new school year.
Retirement
Our school caretaker Mr Shardlow retires on Friday 18th February. He has been a brilliant caretaker and we will miss him greatly.
Mr. Burns has been appointed and will be taking over from that date. We wish him well.
You may have heard but now we can confirm that it is official; Mr. Sheedy will be retiring this Summer. His job will be advertised shortly. Don’t worry he is not going away until July.
Religion
Year 3 children will continue to prepare for the Sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Communion.
Our thanks to Fr. Griffin and the parish catechists for all their help and support for the children.
The next meeting is for children on Thursday 21st January at 7pm in the church hall. This will be followed by a Mass on Sunday 31st January at 11.30am at Holy Cross church.
Reminder
The weekend Masses are on Saturday 6.30pm and Sunday :11.30am. At Holy Cross Church and 9am at St. Matthew’s.
Religious Education:
There were no issues following our outstanding RE inspection report of October 2008. However we continue to monitor our provision of the R.E. curriculum to make sure we maintain our high standards.
The National Tests will be from Monday 9th May to Friday 13th May 2010. So please do not book any holidays during or around this period. Your child will only get the one chance.
CARITAS Family Support
We are pleased to announce that Amanda Potticary from CARITAS (previously known as the Catholic Children’s Rescue Society) is working in the school every Tuesday morning. She is a qualified social worker and can provide valuable advice and support for children and families about a wide variety of issues. If you wish to see her about anything please make an appointment for a Tuesday morning other than that just contact any member of the school staff.
The government have introduced a further training day for teachers and a
further bank holiday for the Royal Wedding. We have, therefore had to make one or two alterations to the Holidays 2010-2011.
The alterations are in bold type.
| School Opens | School closes |
| Thursday 2nd September 2010 | Friday 22nd October |
| Wednesday 3rd November | Tuesday 21st December |
| Wednesday 5th January 2011 | Thursday 17th February |
| Tuesday 1st March | Wednesday 20th April |
| Tuesday 3rd May | Friday 27th May (19) |
| Tuesday 14th June | Thursday 21st July |
European Projects
5 staff including Mr. Sheedy had a successful visit to Bratislava where we met our Irish and Slovakian partners. A timetable for exchanges of children’s work with classes being partnered for sharing work.
The next visit will be to our Irish partners in March. In the mean time we are still sending children’s work to each other. We intend to have an end of Project celebration in May when our partners will be visiting our school.
Lledr Hall
The Year 6 and Year 5 residential outdoor pursuits week-end from Friday 11th November to Sunday 14 November was another resounding success. Again the governors received compliments to the school on the exemplary behaviour of the children. Our thanks to the staff for volunteering to take the children and particularly to Miss Euston for organising the whole trip.
Dates for your Diary during Spring Term
Monday 17th Jan. – Y2 SATs meeting 2.45pm- ICT Suite
Tuesday 18th Jan.—Y6 SATs meeting 6pm-Classroom
Thursday 20th January -Children’s meeting for Sacramental Preparation 7pm Church Hall
Sunday 30th January – Sacramental Preparation Mass – Church 11.30am
Thursday 17th February – school closes for half term
Parents’ evening – to be announced
Thursday 24th March - Parents’ and children’s meeting for Sacramental Preparation 7pm Church Hall
Sunday 27th March – Sacramental prep Mass
Friday 15th April – PTFA - Easter Bingo
Sunday 17th April – Palm Sunday Celebration Mass
Monday 18th April – Easter Bonnet Parade (pm)
Tuesday 19th April – Stations of the Cross (am)
Wednesday 20th April– Mass (am) School closes 2pm
Easter Sunday –24th April
School Council
Last term the council were looking at fund raising ideas to help create a peace garden on the school field. They have already drawn up plans—it’s just a question of finding the money to add to the £500 donation from All Saints Priory.
BUDGET
The school remains in deficit. This is a historic deficit going back to 2002/2003 which is gradually being reduced. However as a result of cost cutting we hope to be back to a balanced budget by 2012.
KIDZONE— Our After School club runs from 3.20pm –5.15pm Most nights are pretty well full so contact Ms Lynott or Miss Higgins if you want more details.
Breakfast Club— 7.30am—9am—continues although the numbers are not sustainable at the moment with an average of only 5 children attending per day.
‘Morning Move It’ 8.45-9am Monday and Tuesday for the Juniors, Wednesday Year 1 and 2 and Friday for Reception and Nursery.
Out of School Hours Activities
* Football: Monday 3.15-4pm
- ICT Club : Y4 and Y3 Wednesday 3.15-4pm
- Guitar Club : Y3-Y6—Thursday –12.30pm—library
- Sports Club —Thursday 3.15-4pm
- Science Club to start on Mondays — details later
The Whole School Trip to the Pantomime was enjoyed by everybody making it a special occasion for the school and the children. Our thanks to the volunteers who helped look after the children and particularly to Miss Vernon for organising it all.
The Early Years, Foundation Stage and Infant Christmas Productions of ‘Busy, Busy Bethlehem’ and ‘The Hopeless Camel’ were a great success. The children were a credit and really impressive. They were confident and lively providing lovely and memorable Christmas plays. Our thanks to all the children and staff for all their hard work. And a thank you to parents for their help with costumes. It was a great community celebration.
The Junior Carol Concert on Tuesday 14th November in Holy Cross Church was a delightful occasion. The church was crowded and the singing was the best we have ever heard. We also managed to raise £150 for CARITAS
(Catholic Children’s Rescue Society). Mr. Sheedy presented a cheque to Ms A. Potticary on the morning of Tuesday 21st December.
Year 6 children visited Barton Brook Residential Centre and Cawdor St. Community Centre in December to entertain the residents staff and visitors with a selection of Christmas Carols. The children were congratulated on their singing and presented with soft drinks and festive food on both occasions.
OFSTED
We are making good progress with our Key issues. The effective use of resources is helping to ensure that we encourage more child-initiated learning.
The ‘setting initiative’ in Maths in the Juniors is continuing to raise standards in Mathematics as can be seen from last year’s results but also in children’s progress. The Numeracy links with St. Patrick’s High School are helping to maintain the drive to higher attainment. We are developing our systems for
monitoring progress.
Inventions Week 8th November.
This was a great success with children enjoying themselves inventing robots, jewellery, confectionary and a whole load of other interesting items. The teams of children with the winning inventions were awarded prizes at a presentation ceremony on Tuesday 16th November. Well done to one and all.
P.T.F.A.
The next meeting of the P.T.F.A. will be on Thursday 13th January at 3.15pm in the school library. Everybody is welcome.
The committee are grateful for all your help and support for the events last term, particularly the Christmas Fair which, with Barclay’s Bank £for£
support, raised over £2000. Including the bags for school and children’s disco we raised a total of £2500 last term.
The next event will be the Easter Bingo on Friday 15th April.
Punctuality and Attendance
Please make sure that children are on the yard and in line at the 8.55am bell.
Following advice from the Education Welfare Officer, letters will be sent home informing parents of persistent lateness or poor attendance.
School Uniform—Reminder
No Jewellery (ear rings etc.) is allowed. Children must wear sensible school shoes please; trainers or boots whatever colour are not school uniform.
Please refrain from designer haircuts as they are not appropriate for school.