October newsletter
We are back to school and the feeling of normality is brilliant. Nothing but happy smiling faces delighted to be back in school. I just want to say thank all of the school community for your continued vigilance in monitoring your children for symptoms. We are so fortunate to have such a considerate parent body who takes every care to ensure that covid does not enter our school.
School closed: The school is closed on Monday the 18th of October for an in-service day. The full school calendar can be always found on the website under important information.
Close contact changes:
The HSE has issued information for parents about the changes to contact tracing and testing for children in primary school. I have attached it below.
information for parents around contact tracing
Book Rental: This is due now. It is €45 per child in the school. If you are having difficulties please contact the office.
Sensory garden: A big thank you must go to Jason McDaid’s (Senior infants) family for giving us the lend of machinery to create our sensory garden. Without this kind of help, we would not have been able to create such a space. This previously unused land has been transformed into a space where children can go and enjoy nature at its best. We have received a donation of over €700 worth of wildflower seed from Paddy McDermott (former pupil) of Creative Landscape and more logs from Grace Doherty’s (First class) dad Charlie for our second outdoor classroom. We also have been donated 50 native trees from the bug bees and trees initiative.
Playpark: We have continued to upgrade our playpark facilities and we have a zip line and six swings ordered. They should be complete in the next few weeks. Conor Barron, if you remember, wrote to Councillor Rena Donaghty before the summer asking for funding.
There is a new strip of astroturf running the length of the field. It replaces our running track as it was becoming very worn with all its traffic. Paddy McDermott (a former pupil) was happy to donate this strip of Astroturf to the school. Paddy had fond memories of his time in St. Aengus and was happy to give back to the school. Thank you and all your team for your kind donation.
We are hoping to do a promotional video of the school to showcase our fantastic facilities. If anyone has any expertise or knows of someone who could help us, please contact the school.
After school and morning club: With restrictions hopefully lifting in the next couple of months we hope to restart our morning club and start a homework club. Currently, schools are not allowed to do this. This would be a paid service (fee would depend on the number of children availing of the service and the amount of staff that we need to employ). I have linked a survey below which is just one question so please even if you are not interested please fill out the survey. We will formally ask parents then to commit to the days they wish to use this service so we can forward plan how many people we need to employ. It is envisaged that the morning club would start at 8.30 and the homework club would be finished at 5 pm. We can also look at a 2 pm pick up but all of these are dependent on numbers.
Click on the link below to complete the one question survey
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GZKDY75
Communion: Well done to the boys and girls of third and fourth classes who finally got to receive their First Holy Communion. We are all so proud of the children. Thanks to Fr. Diggan who made it a day not to forget for the children.
Hopefully, we are in the final stages of this global pandemic. We are beginning to see green shoots from the Department of Education relaxing the restrictions in school. We will of course communicate any changes to you as they happen. We would still urge people still to be cautious with regards to social distancing and hygiene etiquette so we don’t have any outbreaks in school.
Stay safe, Séamus