14 Sep 2018

Newsletter 1

September 13th 2018

A warm welcome back to everyone. We’d like to especially welcome our 20 new Junior Infants, our 5 new children in the Language Class- Kayla, Alex, Nathan, Lukasz and Damon, Jake and Rebecca who joins First class, Sophie who joins us in Second Class, Ben who joins us in Fourth and Lily who joins 6th.

 

A new staff member this year is Mr. Stephen Cunningham who steps into Ms. Sheahan’s (big) shoes following her retirement. Ms. Aoife Harrington continues in 2nd class and Ms. O’Donovan in Junior Infants.  Ms. Kate O’Callaghan will be part of our Support Team and will be with us on Thursdays. Best of luck in your time in Shanbally NS. 

 

 

Congratulations to Ms. Ní Loingsigh (Mrs. Shanley) on the happy arrival of baby Kate in the last few days.

We all wish herself and Kevin many congratulations and not too many sleepless nights.

Congratulations to Mrs. Gorman (formerly Ms. Moran) who married Eymard in August.

 

Summary of School Calendar 2018/2019 (please check carefully as there are some additions!)

Term 1

School reopened Thursday August 30th 2018

RED DAY Friday September 14th 2018 (see note below)

School Mass Tuesday September 18th at 10 am (no obligation on parents to attend)

Staff Meeting Tuesday September 25th (Juniors + Seniors finish at 12.30 (+siblings) and 12.45 for rest of school)

Open Night Thursday 4th October 2018 for new entrants to the school year 2019+ (6.30 to 8pm)

Mid-Term Break Closing Friday 26th October 2018

Re-opening Monday November 5th 2018

Christmas Holidays Closing early (11.45/12) Friday 21st December 2018

Term 2 Re-opening Monday 7th January 2019

Mid-Term Break Closing Friday February 15th 2019

Re-opening Monday February 25th 2019

For St. Patrick’s Day Closed Monday 18th March

Easter Closing early (11.45/12) Friday April 12th 2019

 

Term 3 Re-opening Monday April 29th 2019

Bank Holiday Closed Monday May 6th 2019

First Holy Communion Saturday May 18th 2019

Bank Holiday Closed Monday June 3rd 2019 AND Tuesday June 4th 2019

Summer Holidays Closing early (11.45/21) Friday June 28th 2019

 

 

NB

RED DAY tomorrow!

 

All children in the school are encouraged to wear red tops tomorrow; Cork/ Munster or other red sports tops will do as well as plain red tops. Children should wear school tracksuit bottoms. As always it is up to the children if they want to wear red. Pease bear in mind that the last thing we want is parents feeling they have to buy red tops. Children not wearing red can wear the full school tracksuit as always. This is to celebrate last week’s Camogie win for the Cork Girls and to wish the Cork Ladies Football team well this weekend in the Final versus Dublin.

NB

 

 

ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICATION

If for any reason your child requires regular administration of prescribed medicine while in school, please contact the school who will give you a copy of our policy. The policy outlines the procedure to be followed by parents who require the administration of medication for their children. This includes in particular children with asthma who may be carrying inhalers in to school. It is important to let the teacher know.

Please note that non-prescription medicines are not permitted to be stored or administered in Shanbally N.S. in any circumstances.

 

 

Our Parents Association have asked us to communicate the following:          

  • Thank you to those parents who were able to attend the Parent Association AGM during the week. It was very informative and they have a full year of activities planned. There is a follow-up meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, September 18th at 7.30 pm. All welcome.
  • We had a lengthy discussion on the night of the importance of organizing a social media safety information night for our parents and we are currently planning this event.
  • Clothes Collection – Tuesday 9th October. A great opportunity to clear your summer clutter! Paired shoes, bags, belts, clothes in saleable condition.
  • Bag packing in Dunne’s Stores Carrigaline on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th Our PA are looking for volunteers and will be in contact themselves in this regard. This was a great fundraiser last year. 
  • Plans are also afoot for our Annual Hallowe’en Cake Sale (Thursday Oct 25th) and Dress up (Friday Oct 26th). Details to follow from the PA.

 

NB

I would like to remind everyone that Shanbally NS is a nut free school and that our Allergies Policy is now in place and available to see on our website www.shanballyns.ie

 

 

A reminder of our SCHOOL UNIFORM policy which we will be really focusing on this term.

 

  • Boys:                                                                           Girls:
  • Wine Official School Jumper with School Crest        Wine Official School Jumper with School Crest
  • Grey Trousers                                                              Grey Pinafore, Grey slacks
  • Grey Shirt                                                                   Grey Shirt
  • Wine Tie                                                                      Wine Tie

 

  • School Tracksuit and grey polo-shirt.
  • School Shorts are available during  warm weather
  • Shoes to be worn with the School Uniform.
  • Runners to be worn with School Tracksuit/ School Shorts

 

  • Official School Jumper and School Tracksuit are available from Buckleys/ Lauras Schoolwear, Douglas, Unit C1, Dosco Business Park, South Douglas Road, Cork. 021-4368210

 

  • Junior and Senior Infants: Uniform is worn on Monday and Tuesday. Tracksuit is worn on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

 

  • 1st to 6th Class: Uniform is worn on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tracksuit is worn on Thursday and Friday. (Unless in pre-arranged circumstances e.g. training)

 

 

 

Allianz Pupil Personal Accident Insurance: In Shanbally NS, all pupils are signed up for 24 hour, 365 day protection. This cost is included in the back to school costs as requested on book lists. It covers children for medical and dental expenses which are incurred following an accident and which cannot be claimed from another source. See https://www.allianz.ie/schools/pupil-personal-accident/policy-benefits/ for details of policy benefits and exclusions. For full details please consult their website. Of note is that the company will not pay any benefits in respect of accidental bodily damage arising from an insured person taking part in for example

  1. Quadbike riding or racing
  2. Motorbike riding
  3. Snow boarding
  4. Boxing, mixed martial arts or any martial art involving combat with an opponent unless it is in connection with school activities.

Aladdin School App: 
Our school rolled out the Aladdin Schools Connect to parents/guardians of children in our classes last year. We use the Aladdin Schools software service www.aladdin.ie for administrative purposes and Connect will give you secure access to messages from the school and to details of your child’s attendance, test results, reports cards etc.  via secure login from your internet browser or Aladdin Connect App
We strongly encourage all parents who haven’t yet signed up to do so as it seems to have been broadly welcomed as convenient for parents and school staff alike and it also saves the school money.
 
If you haven’t been able to successfully join up please let Ruth in the office know and she will try to sort it for you. We launched our on-line payment portal recently also and it seems to be working well.  If you have had any issues using it please let us know and we will try to address any concerns raised. 

We are assured that Aladdin Schools uses state-of-the-art security to safeguard information entered by the school and data is stored and processed in strict compliance with Irish and European data protection laws.
 

 
Car Parking: 
Sincere thank you to all for the much improved car-parking so far this term. As ever our main priority needs to be the safety of our children and all in the school community. I would urge all to observe the safety of others at all times especially now that our Junior Infants are finishing at 1.30 pm from next week

 

Kids Inc

A big welcome to Niamh Kinsell and her team from Kids Inc who have opened their after school club. We have previously forwarded to you comprehensive details. Please note that it is not too late to join. Likewise, there is an opportunity for anyone who wishes to use the service after their children finish some of our other in-house activities such as homework club, art and tennis.

 

Credit Union

Douglas Credit Union are providing the option of a saving scheme for all students from Junior Infants to 6th class. The savings scheme will start on Friday September 21st. Please see letter already sent home this week.

 

Open Night

We are holding an open night on Thursday October 4th at 6.30 to 8pm. This is for parents (new to the school) who wish to enrol for next year and subsequent years. If you know of anyone who is interested you might let them know.

 

Thank you and best wishes to everyone for the coming school year.

David Nolan

Principal