Weather

Hopefully there will be no disruptive weather this year, but as a precaution and because colder weather is forecast, please take time to read the following.
We will make every effort to ensure that school is open for the children, regardless of the severity of the weather. Please assume that school will be open unless you are informed otherwise.
Text messaging will be the main point of contact with parents but please also keep an eye on the school website and listen to local radio. Please make sure that we have an up to date mobile number for you.
It may be necessary to delay the opening time for school - you will be notified by text message as early as possible if this is the case.
Most staff members have long journeys to make in the mornings and may be delayed by the weather too, so please make sure that someone is in school before leaving children at the gate.
I have no input with regard to the school buses. The decision not to drive is made by the drivers themselves and Bus Eireann. McGloin's hope to make contact with myself and Aveen McGuinness if the bus is not running. If you are unable to make the journey safely at your normal time, please let us know. I am keen that every effort will be made to get children to school, albeit later than normal.
Please make sure that the children are bringing warm coats, hats and gloves to school. The playground can be very cold.

Head Lice

We ask that all parents check their children's hair on a weekly basis to ensure that if head lice are present, they are found and treated quickly.  This will minimise the spread in school and help prevent children from repeated infestations.

Please take time to read the following leaflet.

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/child/head-lice/parents-leaflet.pdf

Condolences

Our sincere sympathy to the McGuinness family and the O'Connell families on their recent bereavements.

Get well soon wishes

We send our best wishes to those members of our school community who are unwell. We would like them to know that we are thinking of them and hoping they are soon feeling better.

Welcome back

Christmas Thanks 
Thank you so much to our hardworking members of our P.T.A. who organised the children’s Christmas Party.  A huge amount of work, effort and time went into arranging everything so we thank them very much.

Thank you also to everyone who came along to the Carol Service.  As always thank you to those parents who provided food and sweets for the evening and helped to serve tea and tidy up afterwards.  Copies of the show DVD are available from school for a donation of €5 to school funds.  Our thanks to Ezra and Muriel for their help with recording.

Condolences
We offer our sympathy to the Dinsmore Family on their recent bereavements.

Fundraising - Thank you

Quiz
On behalf of everyone in school, I would like to thank Nan Leslie and the ladies of Hilltown L.O.L. for the hard work they out into organising this year’s Table Quiz.  A total of €1,085 was raised for our school.

Unihoc 
The total raised from our sponsored Unihoc was €922.  Thank you to everyone who supported the event and to Muriel and Ezra for organising it.

Open Day for new Junior Infants

We will be holding our annual Open Day on Tuesday 19th February from 2.00 p.m. until 3.00 p.m. If you know of anyone who may not be aware of this date, will you please let them know.

Peace Proms

The children have a Peace Proms practice in Belfast on Wednesday 13th February.  This will be an exciting day out for us as not only will we have the opportunity to visit Queen’s University in Belfast, but we will also be visiting the Ulster Museum.

The Peace Proms concert itself takes place on Sunday 24th February at 3.00 p.m. in the SSE Arena in Belfast.  If you have purchased tickets for the concert and would like to travel on the bus with us, please ring the school office to book your seats.

Staff Training

School will be closed on Monday 25th February for Staff Training

Book Fair
The Book Fair will be in school from Thursday 7th March to Wednesday 13th March.

P.E.  Uniform

P.E. uniform to be worn on Mondays and Thursdays until further notice.

Dates

Mid-Term: Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd February. 
Staff Training: School will close on Monday 25th February. 
St. Patrick’s Day: School will close on Monday 18th March.
Easter Holidays: School will close on Friday 12th April and will re-open on Monday 29th April.

​Unihoc

We had a very energetic and fun-filled afternoon of Unihoc on Friday! ENORMOUS thanks to Muriel and Ezra for organising this for us...thanks also to those parents who helped and those who were brave enough to compete against 6th Class.

Hallowe'en 

Children may dress in costume or own clothes on Thursday 25th October.  No scary costumes or masks please.

Brownhall/Autumn Walk

Weather permitting, we are hoping to walk to Brownhall on Friday 26th October.  Children will need warm, waterproof clothes and wellingtons/old shoes.  Please also send a change of clothes in case we get wet and muddy.  

Shoeboxes

Filled shoeboxes will be collected in school on Monday 5th November.   


Fundraising Quiz & Sheets

We thank Nan Leslie for organising this year's Quiz Sheets.  We will be sending home a number of sheets for each family to sell.  Completed sheets may be returned to school or directly to Nan.  This year's Quiz will be held on Saturday 10th November.
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Peace Proms

We are delighted to be included in the choir for this year's Peace Proms Concert in the S.S.E. arena in Belfast in February.  4th, 5th and 6th Class will be taking part and will be working exceptionally hard to learn all the songs in time.  

Súgradh le Chéile

We were delighted that all of the children in the Junior Room had the opportunity to play with parents and relatives last Friday morning.  We sincerely hope that the experience was enjoyed as much by the grown ups as it was by the children.   It was particularly nice to see so many Dads...hopefully they enjoyed the visit to school and will visit again soon.

Visitors/Workshops

You might have heard the children talking about or have spotted visitors in school over the past few weeks.

• Mr Barnett has resumed his weekly visits to help with Literacy, Maths and Gaeilge activities.

• Reverend Corrie and Jenny Mahon are helping out with reading on a weekly basis.

• Troy (from the Balor Arts Company) is running music workshops every Wednesday with all children.

• Sarah from Rinka is in school every Friday - her sessions incorporate dance, gymnastics and fitness work.

• Ms Currid has resumed weekly music lessons.

• Brian Donaghy visits every Thursday for Bible readings and activities.

• Canon Russell, Reverend Montgomery and David McAllister visit on Thursday mornings for assembly.

• Mrs Russell is working with the 4th, 5th and 6th Class children in R.E. 

• The Brickz for Kids afterschool club is being held in school on Monday afternoons and during Maths Week all children in school took part in a Lego session.

We thank all these people for helping us provide the children with a wide and engaging range of activities.


Cheerios Morning

Thank you for your support of this.  €150 euro was raised for Childline. 


Library Visits

As part of the Wainfest activities, all children in school visited the local libraries.  The Junior Room saw a puppet show in Bundoran.  The Middle Room had a science display in a pop up planetarium.  The Senior Room had great fun listening to a presentation by children's author, Jonathan Meres.

Co Donegal Schools' Service

5th Class and 6th Class enjoyed their outing to Ramelton Presbyterian Church on Thursday 5th where they joined with over 600 other children from the other 30 schools in Donegal which are under Church of Ireland or Presbyterian management.  We say well done to Andrea Moore for reading a 'Sorry' prayer on behalf of our school.

Parent Teacher Meetings

We hope to hold Parent Teacher Meetings between 12th and 23rd November.  More details to follow soon.

School Closures

School will be closed for the week beginning 29th October. 

Christmas Holidays - Last day of term will be Friday 21st December.

Thank you George and Paul for the logs for the playground.  The children are really enjoying playing with them.   

Thank you 

​Thank you George and Paul for the logs for the playground.  The children are really enjoying playing with them.   
 

We extend our deepest sympathy to Mr McAllister, his wife Priscilla and their family on their recent bereavement. 

Couldn't have asked for better weather this year for the School Tours. Both groups had fun days out last week.

We had such a lovely afternoon at Rossnowlagh beach on Friday.

What a lovely way to remind us all of how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place, how lucky we are to have good friends to spend time with and just how precious life's happy little moments are.
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Hopefully we sent home very tired but happy little folk at the end of the afternoon...the teachers were also a little tired 😉 

Our thanks to everyone for helping with transport arrangements and to Jenny for the ice cream. 

On behalf of everyone in our school community, we would like to extend our sincere sympathy to our former pupil Robert and his partner Shannon and also to Daphne, Winston, Sharon, Amanda, Kyle and the wider family circle.  We are truly sorry for your loss. The loss of a child is heartbreaking. We send you our love and heartfelt prayers that you may find the strength you need to get through the days ahead.

As the weather is so nice and it’s the end of Test Week, we thought the children might like a little picnic on Rossnowlagh beach.  They have been working exceptionally hard on their tests over the past two weeks and have also been very patient (and quiet!) while other classes were working on theirs.

We will be leaving school around 12 noon on Friday 25th May and returning around 2.30 p.m.  If you are able to collect the children from the beach on Friday at 2.15 p.m., it would be much appreciated as we are hoping that the minibus (30 seater) would then only have to make one trip back instead of two.  Children may be picked up in the main car park.
 
As this is the hottest and sunniest part of the day, please make sure the children have adequate hats/sun cream etc.  We are not allowed to apply sun cream but are happy to supervise (and advise) children applying it themselves if you want to send some in.

Children may wear their own clothes – please make sure clothes are appropriate for a couple of hours in the sunshine on the beach.  We don’t want anyone going home with sunburn.
Children MUST have a refillable bottle.   We will fill these from the water cooler in school before we leave.  Please send lunch as usual.

Children may leave their schoolbags at home on Friday – please swap them for buckets and spades.
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As always, if you have any questions or queries, please let me know.  

Green Flag Number 5 was awarded to our school today.
Well done to our Green School Committee and Miss McGinley for their hard work over the past two years. Three of our older children represented our school today at an Award Ceremony in Letterkenny. We thank them for their impeccable behaviour, for stopping for ice-cream for all of us on the way home and for not gloating for too long about their delicious profiteroles.