We were delighted to be able to bring Jungle Dave back to Esker in June last year for two days of wild animal fun! 

​Dear Parents and Guardians,
As we approach the end of term, we would like to wish everybody a happy, safe and healthy summer. Over the past year Covid has hampered many activities but the PTA persisted, introducing alternative events or adapting existing activities while keeping to the public health guidelines. Thanks to parents and guardians for taking part in our various Zoom activities - meetings, coffee mornings, bingo, and classes. Here are some of our most recent initiatives..

Last Thursday, June 17th, the PTA staged a graduation picnic for the boys and girls of 6th Class Red and 6th Class Green. It was a testament to the school that despite Covid limitations, the graduating classes got a wonderful send off. To complement the official ceremonies, the PTA planned an outdoor picnic to mark the occasion also.

The picnic was held on the benches across from the main door of the school. To keep to social distancing regulations, each class came down in turn. Each student was given a gift of their class photo, a funny photo and a customised red hoodie, all of which were received with great excitement. 

To view the video of the picnic, please click on this link. https://youtu.be/UZ8m_BaTfJw  
The PTA would like to extend our good wishes to the graduates, and wish them every success and happiness as they set off on their new journey to secondary school. We have no doubt that they will achieve great things, and do both the school and their families proud.

​Funny Fashion Day took place on June 4th. Children (and staff!) embraced the idea with great enthusiasm, and created all sorts of weird and wonderful recycled fashion items, or made a bold statement with their whacky hairdos. There was a wonderful atmosphere in the school with lots of excitement, as everyone displayed their amazing creations.
​
Congratulations to our worthy winners - Jamie in Senior Infants, Alans in Junior Infants, Ola in 3rd Class and Julia in 4th Class. Thanks to all the children for taking part in Funny Fashion Day, and making a huge effort to be colourful and creative.  It was a very successful event and lots of fun for everyone. €417.10 was raised by the PTA on Funny Fashion Day.

Janice recently completed the orders for Scholastic books, and there was a tremendous response from families taking advantage of the great savings and wonderful selection of titles. Ordering from Scholastic Books helps to support our school - we receive free books for our classrooms with every order placed. Money raised from this order for the school was €215.60. All children have received their orders at this stage. Happy reading to all!

A big thanks to Linda, our Home/School Liaison for funding the Crafty Clubhouse over the past year. Our classes provided a very important communication link with parents and we also learned many new skills! Some of our classes covered in the past year include cookery, making woolly hats, cross-stitching, yoga, card-making, and quilling. Thanks to Linda and members of the PTA for teaching many of the classes, and a special thanks to parents for supporting the classes via Zoom.

​

As we couldn’t hold our Annual Spring Raffle this year, the PTA decided to hold a Children’s Art Competition in March. We asked the students to create a piece of art to represent Springtime. We got a huge range of entries - drawings, paintings, collages, 3d pieces – even a couple of poems! The standard was very high and the submissions wonderfully colourful and creative. A selection of the artwork went on display in the corridor. We had 12 lovely prizes which we split over two draws.
​
Junior Draw Winners:
Yashika in 1st Green, Victoria in Senior Infants Green, Erik in Junior Infants Red, Cosmin in 2nd Green, Linh Lan in Senior Infants Red, Sara in 1st Red.
 
Senior Draw Winners:
Ola in 6th Green, Agam in 3rd Green, Fabiana in 6th Red, Romane in 4th Green, Isbah in 5th Green, Abagail in 4th Red.
 
Congratulations to our winners and to all the children who summited fabulous art pieces. €395.50 was raised by the PTA. 
​

In early December, the PTA worked with Linda, our Home/School Liaison, and the Student Council to support a very worthwhile cause – the HSE Covid Quarantine Hub. This is a Dublin Quarantine shelter for vulnerable people needing to isolate during the Pandemic. Many of the people using the shelter were homeless or marginalised families, some escaping domestic abuse, most completely destitute.

The PTA and Linda, ably helped by the children from the Student Council, collected and wrapped shoeboxes, filling them with donations from parents. Again, the response was amazing and we put together 93 shoeboxes for the HSE Covid Quarantine Hub. The boxes were collected by HSE staff members, who were absolutely delighted to receive them. Thanks to our parents for supporting such a worthy cause and spreading a little joy among these disadvantaged people at a critical point in their lives.

The PTA held “Silly Hat Day” on Friday December 18th. Children were asked to decorate their own hats, or make one from scratch from any wearable material, to be in with a change of winning one of three Smyths Vouchers. We had an amazing range of creative and colourful hats worn in school that day. There was a palpable air of excitement and anticipation, as children and staff displayed their creations.

Because of the tremendous response to Silly Hat day, a total of €632.47 was raised by the PTA. Thanks to all for taking part and to parents for contributing.

Unfortunately this year, we couldn’t produce class photo for all the classes, because of the requirement to social distance. However, we took head shots of the 6th class students and created a photo montage, so that children had a memento of their final year in school.

​It wasn’t possible to do this for every class unfortunately. Hopefully next year, restrictions will have lifted sufficiently to allow for group shots of the classes to be taken, so normal class photos can be made available.

The PTA Annual General Meeting will be held at the end of September, at which point we'll be looking to elect a new committee. As my daughter is in 6th class and has just graduated, I will be stepping down as Chairperson, having completed 3 years in the role.

Sabaa Katib-Khan will also be stepping down as Vice-Chairperson after 5 years, so this role will also be open for election. Deepa Sivarajan and Janice Koh will go forward for another term as Secretary and Treasurer.
It’s now time for new people to take up the mantle and carry on our PTA initiatives. Our school has a long history of successful PTA committees, all of whom have brought different skillsets and knowledge to the school community. Anybody can put themselves forward for these roles, so I encourage you to think about it over the summer months.
​
I have really enjoyed my term as Chairperson and would certainly recommend it to anybody who’s interested in being involved. It allows you to get to know parents, teachers and children in the school. It’s also great to get an insight into school life and to be able to represent parent’s views.
Linda, our Home/School Liaison works closely with the PTA, and is always on hand to advise or assist. I have made many new friends during my time with the PTA, and found the role rewarding and fulfilling.

If you’re considering going for a role, and would like to chat to me in greater detail about what’s involved, please contact me and I can fill you in. Sabaa and I will also do a handover with the new committee after the AGM, to help them get started.
​
The AGM will be advertised in early September, giving people plenty of notice. Please consider putting your name forward for one of the roles.

We will be also looking for someone to run Gardening Club from September onwards. Many people have volunteered to help out with gardening club over the years - perhaps one of our volunteers might consider putting their names forward to take a more active role in September?

It’s very rewarding work and so wonderful to see how much the children love the fairy garden.
​

Finally, on a personal note, I would like to thank everybody that has supported me during my time on the PTA committee. To people who have helped me with the various activities, you never fail to amaze me with your enthusiasm and generosity of spirit! Thank you for all the emails and good wishes I have received from parents over the past few weeks. Your kindness is very much appreciated.
 
Maureen Kelly-Fox
Chairperson, Esker ETNS PTA
Email address:  [email protected]
​

To keep up to date with PTA activities and events, you can follow us on:

Facebook             eskeretnspta1

Twitter                @Eskeretnspta1

Congratulations to all the boys and girls of 6th Class Red and 6th Class Green on their Graduation last Thursday, June 17th. Despite the Covid restrictions, they got a great send off. With a class  ceremony in the morning and a Zoom graduation in the evening, it was truly a special and moving occasion.

The PTA staged an outdoor picnic for the classes in the morning, and gifted the children a class photo and a customised red hoodie, both of which were received with great excitement. 

The PTA would like to extend our good wishes to the graduates, and wish them every success and happiness as they set off on their next great adventure to secondary school.

We put together a video of the picnic. Click on the below link to view:

https://youtu.be/UZ8m_BaTfJw

Inner City helping Homeless have launched their annual shoebox appeal for the homeless, and we would like to support them. The PTA in conjunction with the Student Council, will put together and wrap the shoeboxes, but to do this we would ask parents to kindly donate items from the list below. 

Please note all items should be brand new. No second hand items please.
​
Hats
Scarves
Gloves
Underwear
Socks
Sweets
Chocolates
Gift Vouchers
Toiletries
(e.g baby wipes, toothbrush, toothpaste, roll on deodorant, soap/body wash)

NO aerosols, perfumes, aftershaves, mouthwash or hand sanitisers.

Empty shoeboxes would also be greatly appreciated.

If you would prefer to wrap your own shoebox, please mark it “Male” or “Female”. Also specify whether it’s for a child or an adult.

If it’s for a child, please also add the age of the child it’s suitable for.

Shoebox lids should be wrapped separately.

If you would like to support the shoebox appeal, please drop your donations into the Servery in the Main Hall, from Thursday, 5th December to Wednesday, 11th December.

We will be wrapping shoeboxes on Wednesday 11th December and would welcome volunteers to help us with this task. Thanks in advance for your support.


 

Thanks to all for supporting our Toy & Treat Sale last Thursday, November 28th. 

A special thank you to our wonderful volunteers for turning up on the day and helping us sell lots of toys, cakes, cookies, sweets etc. We had a fantastic turnout and it was wonderful to see so many new people joining us. We hope you enjoyed the day and will continue to get involved in PTA events.
 
Thanks also to everybody who baked for the sale or sent in bought goodies. We had so many foods we were able to make a donation of leftover treats afterwards to a local lady who organises soup runs for the homeless in the City Centre. She was delighted with our donation – and assured us that her service users would be delighted to receive the treats.

We had lots of toys this year too. Thanks to all those who donated -  parents, guardians and staff.
 
We raised €838.70 from the sale – and we couldn’t have done it with everyone’s involvement.
 
Many thanks for all your support.​