General Information
Clothes
We have a school uniform of Navy Skirt/Trousers, Navy V-neck Jumper and a red poloT-shirt. Please ensure that all clothes likely to be removed such as coats, jumpers, hats and scarves are clearly labelled with your child’s name. This avoids confusion with children’s belongings. . Please ensure that your child has a coat every day at school during the cold months of the year. School Half Zip is worn on P.E. Days with a plain navy tracksuit bottoms.
School Time
All children start school at 9.20am. If you are working outside the home and wish to drop your child at 9am please let us know. All other children are to be dropped from 9.10am Break time is from 10.50—11.00 and lunchtime is from 12.30 – 1.00.
Home Time
Junior Infant children will finish school at 12.30pm for the first weeks of September as a settling in period. Thereafter, all Junior and Senior infants go home at 2.00pm while class continues for the other classes until 3.00pm. If there are special collection arrangements for your child on a particular day, please let us know by note. We are operating a traffic management queuing system since December 2016.
Traffic System
The school bell will ring at 2.50pm and 3.00pm, at which time Vincent’s bus pulls up at the school gate and children using this service get on the bus. A queuing
system will operate on the far side of the road (not school side) facing the N63 – Newbridge to Ballygar road. In other words, cars fill and move off in rotation, no car
skips a queue.
Each parent assumes responsibility for getting their child safely to the car. There will be no parking for cars on the school side of the road at any time. There
will be no turning at Fitzmaurice’s gate for any cars except people coming from Cloonlyon, Creggs, Glinsk, St. Brendans direction. These cars will turn at Fitzmaurice’s Gate and park outside Fitzmaurice’s house on left hand side, and their children will walk up to them.
If you are travelling from Newbridge or Ballygar direction at 2 or 3, go down to the first turn on the left after the school to turn (known locally as Bothar Buí), come
back up and queue. The exact same system will operate at 2pm In the mornings when dropping your child off, pull at the school gate or further
up towards Fitzmaurice’s (not the N63 side of the school gate) drop your child and proceed to turn at Bothar Buí. Only cars travelling from Creggs direction to turn at
Fitzmaurice’s gate and allow children to walk down. No car should do a U-turn on the main N63 road or outside the school, (If you have someone else picking up your child at any time, please tell them about the system).
School Bus Service
If your child will be availing of this service, please download application form and relevant information from Bus Eireann website. There is also a private bus service run by Duggan Bus mobile number 0868613324
Food
Our pupils now avail of the government free Hot Lunches Scheme.
Book Scheme
Our pupils now avail of the Government Free Book Scheme
Home - School Communication
For general information the school usually issues a Text Message or E-mail to parents through the Aladdin App (information on how parents register for Aladdin Connect enclosed).
The school holds a parent-teacher meeting in November each year. It is important that you attend these to keep in touch with your child’s progress.
If your child is experiencing a particular problem it is essential that you communicate this to the teacher. Letting teachers know of any upset will allow them to help your child to cope and to make allowance for that distress. Make an appointment with the teacher as this allows for the supervision of the class and enables the teacher to give you her full attention. We have set up a text-a-parent system also for home school communication.
Health & Hygiene
Your child is sharing a room daily with a large number of other children. Close contact with other children is unavoidable, so particular attention should be paid to health and hygiene.
You should check your child’s hair regularly for head lice. Inform the teacher or principal immediately if these are seen on your child.
Children who are sick should not be sent to school. It is school policy to contact parents if a child becomes unwell at school. You must consider the other children in the class.
Ensure that hands and nails are kept clean and tidy.
Preparation for School
Children should be able to: Put on and take off coats and hang them up, use the toilet and flush it properly, wash their hands and tidy up their crayons and colouring books. Play ‘pretend school’ with your child. Help to practice putting things in and out of their school bag and to open and close their lunchbox. Teach them to use a handkerchief or tissue, share toys and take turns.
Safety
Your child should know his/her home address. You should also provide the school with the name and telephone number of a person to be contacted if you are not at home. Explain this arrangement to your child.
Attendance
Once your child is enrolled in a school he or she must attend school every day. It is your responsibility that you inform the school of your child’s absence because of illness or other exceptional circumstances. A text through Aladdin Connect App should explain the reason for your child’s absence or the reason for late arrival or early departure.
School Books
All schools books and copies are now provided free of charge. We would greatly appreciate that any books your child receives are covered if not done already.
Homework
Set aside a quiet regular time.
The child should be sitting comfortably at a table.
Homework time should include time for oral as well as written work. Oral work, particularly in the early stages of schooling, can consolidate that which is learned through both Irish and English.
Encourage your child to keep books and copies clean and tidy.
If your child is working independently be available to help and show an interest in what is being done. Praise your child’s efforts at every opportunity.
If working with your child you feel yourself becoming impatient you should stop. Don’t bully or threaten as this will only have a negative effect.
If your child is persistently having problems with homework contact the teacher and discuss the difficulties.
Items to be sent into school
Each child needs a tripod pencil / eraser / parer /and a packet of crayons / twistables / 2 glue sticks and scissors
1 Plastic Folder for homework and 2 small A5 zip folders for sounds and words
1 A4 document wallet (cardboard folder) for work sheets
1 scrapbook
An old T-shirt to be used as an Art Smock. This will cover the uniform during Art time protecting the clothes from stains or spillages. Please label this.
Copies, Notebooks etc will be provided by the class teacher.
School Notes of Information
Please check your child’s schoolbag and homework folder as they may sometimes contain important notes for Parents.
School Office
The school office is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Our secretary collects any money due on these days, and issues a receipt to your child. If you need to see your child’s Teacher or the Principal, please arrange an appointment.
Maths
In order to complement the mathematical programme in school, it is useful to draw your child’s attention to mathematical concepts and number in everyday life. This includes counting when farming/shopping etc…. as well as enabling your child to use money in paying and getting change. Concepts such as: biggest/smallest/shortest/ tallest/over/under/beside/on/
Writing
Junior Infants will be learning to write lower case letters initially followed by upper cases letters, It is very important that your child holds the pencil correctly at home also. If the hold starts incorrectly it is very difficult to get it right later on. The pencil rests between the thumb and the first/index finger, the next finger prevents the pencil falling down and the last two fingers are tucked away. The hand rests on the table and the movement of the pencil is through the thumb and first finger.
Reading
Books for you to read with your child will be sent home on a regular basis . Our reading programme in infants is designed to foster a desire to read and a love of books in your child. The greatest support that you can give your child this year is reading with your child on a regular basis. In class we use a combination of approaches. Our core phonics scheme is the ‘Jolly Phonics’ learning the letter names and sounds.
The Following Are Some Tips To Encourage The Young Reader
- Read stories to children on a regular basis. Books are a significant part of language development as they encourage the child to understand what reading is.
- Recite nursery rhymes with your child on a regular basis as they develop a child’s auditory perception and vocabulary development.
- When reading to a child move your hand in constant motion under the words. You could incidentally indicate the start and end of a line, developing the concept of left to right orientation of words in a sentence.
- Discuss the pictures as they provide very good clues to the story content and further enhance your child’s oral language capacity.
- Discuss the language of books themselves, using words such as title, index, author, illustrator etc....
- During car journeys help your child to recognize familiar advertising and road signs such as ‘Stop’, ‘Children’, ‘Crossing’ etc....
- Finding matching letters - in newspaper headlines, this is a ‘C’ can you find me another letter like it? This helps to develop the concept of visual discrimination of word forms.
- Visit the local library with your child and check out the books that you can read together at home. This helps in cultivating an interest in books.