Newsletter October 2011

Tel: 059-9179453 | Mob: 087-3128166 | Twitter: @carlowetns Email: simon@carloweducatetogether.ie Unit 5, Shamrock Bus. Pk, Graiguecullen, Carlow Town

A very quick term

I cant believe its Halloween time already! The first term has flown by and weve had some great fun along the way. Were looking forward to our annual Halloween party and wed love to see as many children, parents and staff dressed up for the big day! The fun starts at 11 oclock with 2 spooky cinemas one for the older children and one for the younger ones. Throughout the day, well be having some other fun events. Children can bring in a board game to celebrate National Board Games Day. You can also help out in our virtual cycle to Dublin. Im going to start cycling in the morning and hopefully youll be able to give me a break throughout the day! Until Friday, good luck voting in the Presidential Elections and if I dont see you on Friday, have a fantastic mid-term break! Good luck, Congratulations, Welcome A big congratulations to Eimear Coady Morrisey is now on maternity leave. We wish her all the best as she and her husband have their first baby. We welcome Emma to our school who will be working in Support classes part time while Eimear is away. We also welcome Mira, Katie and Sharon who are completing work experience around the school. Mira will be with us until February 2012 and Katie and Sharon will be with us until December. Parents' Information Evening Thanks once again to the parents who came along to our Parents Information Evening. A Parents Council has now been officially formed and they will be having their first meeting in early November. If you would like to add an item to their agenda, please speak with Debbie Byrne, Mary Broderick or Ruth Curtis. You can also email items to the school through Simon the email address is simon@carloweducatetogether.ie Adult Classes Classes for adults in Holistic Health have begun. Unfortunately there were not enough numbers for the Christmas Craft classes. If you would like to join in the Holistic Health classes, there are still places available and your support would be appreciated. The VEC is also going to be running some classes on Digital Literacy, Maths for Parents and Reading at Home. These courses have been requested by parents. Sport on Wednesday The VEC has kindly offered us the opportunity to use their sports facilities every Wednesday after the mid term break. The facility includes basketball courts, football pitch and a large hall. This will begin very soon so keep an eye out for notes going home about this. Comenius Our school are involved in a very exciting project with 2 schools in the UK and Germany. Lisa, Siobhn and Simon visited Blackpool last week and learned loads about the

education system over there. The schools will be visiting us in March around St. Patricks Day to learn from us too. We will be having a Christmas Song Video Conference on the 8th December with all 3 schools joining in.

New Boards of Management All primary schools in Ireland will be changing their Boards of Management on December 1st. If you are interested in being on the Board of Management, we will be sending out nomination forms, etc. after mid-term break. We need 2 parents for our Board and it is a wonderful opportunity for any parent to increase their management and leadership skills as well as making a real difference to their childs time in the school. Maths Week Maths Week was a great success and thank to al the parents who came in to join the fun. The week wouldnt have been possible without your support and I hope you enjoyed using all the new resources that were fundraised for. Fashion Show Due to the great success of our Fashion Show last year, were going to try and make it an annual event. Last year we raised almost 7000 for the school and we hope to do the same this year. Were letting parents know earlier this year as we are looking for 20 volunteers to help sell tickets (20 each). If you can help out or join up with someone else to help out, please talk to Sinad (our SNA), Debbie (Board of Management), Simon or Siobhn. Sacraments For parents in 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th class, please make sure to register your child for Communion and Confirmation. Any child making their sacraments must have two years tuition in order to make their Communion and Confirmation. Classes are being held in the school and the Parish centre. Forms have gone out to families. If you havent received a form, please contact us immediately. After School Activities Everyday from 1:30pm, Trish Magee runs a super after school's service for all children. Children can do their homework and take part in lots of fun activities. For more information about the club, please drop up to Trish any day from 1:30pm or call into us and we'll pass on her details. Other clubs running after mid-term include: French Classes, Chess, Speech and Drama and Knitting. More information on chess and knitting will be sent to parents after the mid-term break. Dates for your Diary The school will be closed on the 27th October to host the Presidential Elections. The last day of term will be the 28th October and we will close the following week. Get Social We have over 300 fans on our Facebook page. If you have a Facebook account, please feel free to like us and receive all the latest news directly to your Facebook account. We're also on Twitter (@carlowetns). You're also welcome to join Simon's Google Plus Circle of Educate Together where he updates relevant stuff. If that's not enough, you can always email, phone, text or even write us a letter! All our contact details are on the back page! Blog Highlights

Every month staff and pupils add articles about whats going on in the school. Check out our web site and class blogs for more details. This months highlights included: Visits from the Carlow School of Music, The Architecture Circus and the Karen Yates Dance School. We also blogged about our Childline Breakfast, Divali, the President, National Tree Day and Halloween!