 Hello Everyone,
With September behind us, the children are well and truly settled into their new class groupings with their new teachers. The classes are buzzing with lots of learning. Here are a few things that have taken place in September or may be coming up in the months ahead. PTA The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Friday 8th October at 11.30am by Zoom. We are sadly losing three of our amazing members this year; Maureen (chairperson), Sabaa (vice chair) and Deepa (Secretary). Elections will be held for new members at this meeting. If you are interested in joining and indeed leading this much needed committee, please come and along and put your name forward. All new and existing parents are most welcome. We value our PTA so much and are so grateful for the wonderful work they have done for the school over the years. The children have benefited first hand from the fundraisers and PTA presence within the school. I am sure you will all join me in thanking Maureen, Sabaa, Deepa and Janice for their time, support and hard work over the years. HSCL Events Despite Covid restrictions, Linda is working hard this year in getting parents together and involved this year. Some of the events she has planned so far are:
6th class Children – Second Level Transfer For all our 6th class children – please make sure that you enrol your child into a second level school in October 2021. It is very important that all applications are sent in on time to the school of your choice, in order to secure a school place. If you need help in this area, please contact our HSCL teacher Linda on 0860261061. Enrolments for Junior Infants 2022 If you have a younger child starting in Junior Infants in 2022, please note that you can apply from Wednesday 6th October. You apply online to the LCES system here The window to apply closes on 24th of November – please apply on time. Late applications will be placed on a waiting list and you may not get the school of your choice. Contact the office on 01 6241462 if you have any questions regarding enrolments. SFI Primary Science Award I am absolutely thrilled to inform you that Esker ETNS was awarded the Discovery Primary Science and Maths SFI Plaque! for the 6th year in a row. A special thank you to Katie, Niamh and Karen and to all of the teachers for promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) in the classroom and integrating it throughout the curriculum. Huge work goes into to gathering all the evidence and preparing a website to present to the SFI Committee for assessment. This year, we not only met the criteria to receive this award but exceeded expectations. Please read the committees comments below and join me in congratulating teachers and children for their hard work in 2020 / 21
Hot Lunches Esker was lucky enough to be accepted into the Schools Hot lunch scheme. Hot lunches began this month for the whole school. A huge thank you to Carambola, who are providing two small snacks for little break and a hot lunch for big break. Food waste is composted and recycled. It is very important that we are not increasing the waste in the school. If you wish to change the choice for your child, please do so BEFORE Friday at midnight for the following week. If you send a lunch in with your child, please cancel the hot lunch on www.carambola.ie so there is no food waste. New Active Panels in every classroom This year we replaced all of our old Smart boards that were tired and slow with new and improved Active Panels. A huge thank to you our BOM who supported this big purchase to help improve the teaching and learning in the school. A massive thank you to Carambola who kindly donated a large contribution towards these boards. I know that both teachers and children are delighted to the new additions to the classrooms and they have made a big difference already! Music Generation We are delighted that Music Generation is back with us for the academic year. Music Generation is a group of professional musicians who come and work with our children. Previously we worked on singing with our children. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the musicians are working on percussion skills. They are working with 1st and 2nd class this term. Swimming lessons In line with public health advice we would like to re start our swimming lessons this year for classes 2nd – 5th class. Swimming is on the physical education curriculum and it is an essential life skill for all children to have. I would strongly encourage all children to participate. Lessons will cost €40 for seven lessons – the school will provide the transport to and from the pool. Payments can be made on Aladdin. We hope to start with 5th class in November. Permissions for swimming will be sent on Aladdin tomorrow for 5th class. Please respond as soon as possible. Half day – Wednesday 17th November Due to staff training on the Primary Language Curriculum, the school will close early on Wednesday 17th November 2021. Please ensure that you collect your child on time. Again, I encourage you to use Castle Road to park as it will be very busy.
See Saw / Google Classroom Senior Infants – 5th class use See Saw as a way of accessing their homework. 6th Class use Google classroom. At this point all children have been sent home their log in passwords on a green sheet of paper. Teacher have trained all the children how to log in and how to upload work and use the See Saw tools. Junior Infants will get their codes at a later date, when homework starts. Covid-19 - changes to Public Health From Monday 27th September 2021, the advice from Public Heath changed regarding contact tracing in educational settings. If your child is a close contact to a Covid-19 case in school, they will not have to restrict their movement, UNLESS THEY DISPLAY COVID-19 SYMPTOMS – e.g. cough, sore throat, headaches, severe tiredness, high temperature. See HSE information here: However, please note that if someone in your household has Covid-19 or is sick with Covid-19 like symptoms, your child MUST STAY AT HOME. https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/a04fc-advice-for-students-and-their-families/ While restrictions are relaxing in society, we still have to remain vigilant in school as children are not vaccinated. We all have to work together in order to keep the school safe for all. Please get in touch with me at [email protected] if you have any queries. Traffic management and being courteous to each other I am very worried and concerned about the traffic on the grounds in the morning and at home time. I have noticed more cars on the grounds and some dangerous behaviours. Firstly, the most important thing is the safety of all of the children. Everyone is in the same position, everyone is under a time pressure and everyone would like all children to be safe. If your child is in 3rd – 6th (exception is children with Special educational needs) please drop and collect your child outside of the grounds, we are asking you to NOT drive into the grounds. If you have a junior child (JI – 2nd class) you can drive into the grounds.
Please do not drop children on the school grounds before 9.10am. There is no supervision at this time. Children should arrive after 9.10 – 9.30am. We may review these starting times after 22nd October based on Public Health advice. Again, thank you for all of your help and support this term. It is great to have all of our children back working hard and having fun in school again. Reminding you that half term begins on Friday 22nd of October and we reopen on Monday 1st November. Warmest regards Gemma
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