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Dear Parents,
It is hard to believe that the first month of our school year has almost passed. So much has happened in that month! This letter will outline some of what has been happening in the background.
Preschool
It has been the desire of our Board of Management for the past two years to put a preschool in place. We have explored many avenues during that period. We wanted to provide this service for the parent body that uses the school. We have been all too aware of the need to assist parents who need to be at work early and also those who cannot collect their children at the end of the school day. For the past two years we have offered a service whereby your children can be taken care of in the school both before and after school. Claire Kendrick has assisted the board in the provision of this service. But we still wanted to expand the service to include a preschool. We were delighted when, during the summer, we were able to organise to expand the service to include the preschool. The Board agreed to enter a public private partnership with Claire whereby Claire provided the building, the Board provided the site and services, and so our preschool became a reality. The main school also has the use of the extra building each day from 1pm until 3pm, while we are in the process of building our 8 classroom.
We are delighted to have this facility now available for those who need to use it. Preschool and afterschool care will now happen in this building also.
Those who use the new preschool will have separate access to the building from the new car park, without having to come into the main school.
Our Eighth Classroom
As our school has become an 8-teacher school, we need an extra classroom. Even though the Department of Education is aware of this since September 2008, they didn’t make a decision until May 2009. They gave the Board of Management a grant of 100,000 euro to construct a room. They eventually granted the Board permission to proceed with a classroom in late May 2009. Obviously this took time as we had to get plans drawn up and planning permission organised. We also had to move our septic tank, as it would be too near our new classroom. All of this work was done in June 2009. Planning came through in early September. We also put the building of the classroom out to tender. That took some time but Armbridge Construction, having supplied the lowest tender, has been appointed by the Board to construct our new classroom. The work will also include the extension of our library and the construction of a new store. Work is beginning today on this project. We hope to have the room ready for occupation in the spring.
Dressing rooms
Because of the positioning of the new room, we will need to demolish the shelters at the back of the school. This will mean that we are losing our store and the one dressing room that we have. There will be a new store constructed as part of the new classroom. The Board had hoped to build two new dressing rooms as part of this project. Unfortunately the cost of the new room prohibits this. We will need to look at a fund raising scheme whereby we will be able to include the dressing rooms as part of the project. The Board of Management will meet next week to discuss this issue and I will be in touch after that.
Brennan Insurance
There are still some children who have not paid the contribution for this personal accident insurance. It is really important that all children in the school are included in this scheme. It means that all children are covered for all eventualities no matter where they are. I would ask you to ensure that your child(ren) are included and please send in the 7 euro charge if you have not already done so.
Library
Many thanks to our parents who helped in the library last year. As always, we could not do it without you! Your dedication and commitment are much appreciated. We have been holding off on starting a library rota this year until building plans became more concrete. The library wall will have to be broken through at some stage in the building process to allow for its extension, but we will start a rota in the meantime to allow the children access to the books. As usual, we need volunteers! If you are willing to give an hour a week of your time to help out with the library, please send in your name ASAP to Mrs. Gohery. Thank you.
Dancing
Dancing charges for this term are as follows:
1 child 16 euro
2 children 31 euro
3 children 37 euro
4 or more 44 euro
Please send to your childs teacher at your earliest convenience.
Staff Meeting
Our fist staff meeting will take place next Tuesday October 6. It will begin at 12.30 so the school will close at that time. The school bus will run at 12.30 as normal and all other children need to be collected at 12.30.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Browne,
School Principal