Dear Parents/Guardians, Welcome back A warm welcome to all of our new junior infants and welcome back to all students, parents and staff. The pupils are settling well into the new school year. We have grown this year and we now have over 600 students at St. Luke’s. We also have over 40 staff members including new teachers and SNAs. October 18th was the feast of St. Luke and we celebrated with songs and prayers with Monsignor Eoin Thynne. It was wonderful to have Monsignor Thynne here to share in our special day. The children learned all about St. Luke and we had some beautiful volunteer singers from 4th and 5th classes recite our school anthem “Hurrah for St. Luke’s” which was written as a gift to the school by Father Eugene Mc Carthy. Healthy Lunches/Allergies We encourage the children to have a healthy lunch every day. The children may drink water at all times during the day, but please ensure that the bottle has a sports cap on it to avoid spillages. As we have a number of children in the school with nut allergies, we ask parents to avoid providing nuts or chocolate spread for lunches. So that you are aware of what your child is eating in school, we encourage children to put all rubbish and uneaten food back into their lunchboxes. Please ensure that your children have lunchboxes that they are able to open and close without assistance. Meeting the class teacher Thank you to all parents who attended our Parent “Meet and Greets” in September. We will hold our Parent teacher meetings on November 21st, 22nd and 23rd. Parents will be notified in writing by the class teacher. This will be an ideal time to discuss your child’s progress and raise any concerns you may have with your child’s class teacher. Head Lice In most schools head lice is a recurrent problem. We at St. Luke’s would like to stop the head lice cycle by asking parents to partake in “Bug Busting Fridays” with us. Every Friday night we would ask that you shampoo your child’s hair with a regular shampoo and then condition it. Leave the conditioner in the hair. Then using a special head lice comb we would ask you to check your child’s wet hair for any lice or nit eggs. Rinse the comb to dispose of the lice. Then rinse the hair and check again with the comb to ensure all lice and eggs have been removed from the hair. Please sign your child’s diary to say that you have checked their hair on Friday evening. Together we can combat the head lice problem in our school. GAA We welcome Larry Mc Dermott back as GAA coach to the school this year. The children will know what day they need to wear their tracksuits for training. Our 5th and 6th class girls GAA team is being coached again this year by Ms. Brennan and Ms. Barrett. The team are participating in the Cumann na mBunscol league. The girls are already through to the quarter final! Ms. Brennan and Ms. Barrett would like to say thank you to the parents who come to support the games. It means so much to the children. Our 5th and 6th class boys GAA team is being coached again this year by Mr. Lynch, Mr. Mc Keown and Mr. Molloy. The boys team are participating in the Cumann na mBunscol and Dublin 15 leagues. A big thank you to our team of GAA coaches/teachers. They give up so much time voluntarily and inject huge energy into the sporting life of the school. Please support them in their efforts. Basketball The 4th, 5th and 6th class boys and girls on the St. Luke’s basketball team are doing really well in their tournament this year. Thank you to the team and Ms. Burke, Ms. Walsh and Ms Ni Lorcain for all of their hard work and dedication. English language classes English Language Classes will be starting after school on Tuesday 8th November, and every following Tuesday until Christmas for children who need extra support with their English Language. More information will follow. Homework Club The homework club runs from 2:40pm until 3:40pm from Monday to Thursday each week after school for children from 1st to 6th class. If you would like your child to attend please contact the school for further details. St. Luke’s Green Schools initiative We are working towards our second green flag in Energy Conservation at St. Luke’s. We are trying really hard, with the help of the children, to reduce our overall carbon footprint. We educate the children on saving energy throughout the school day. We ask parents to discuss energy conservation at home too. Together we hope we can earn our second green flag at the end of the 2016/2017 school year. This would mark a tremendous success overall for the school as we have managed to maintain our first green flag at St. Luke’s for our management of waste and recycling. Thank you to Ms. Hardiman and Ms. Doyle who have worked so hard towards our Green Flag initiative with the help of the children. Trip to Botanic Gardens Last week our senior infants went on a trip to the Botanic Gardens. The weather was beautiful and the children had a wonderful time. This week it was the turn of the second class children. Even though the weather was a little colder the children had lots of fun. We would like to thank all of the staff who were involved with both trips and who helped the children to enjoy the day safely. The children were very well behaved and the school were very proud of their conduct whilst on tour. Parents Association (P.A.) Thank you to all of the parents who attended the Parents AGM in September. Sharon Geraghty will be the Chairperson and Louise Scorer will be the Treasurer of the P.A. this year. We would also like to thank all of the parents who came to help with book covering in the school last week. We really appreciate your great work. The P.A. will hold their EGM on Wednesday 26th of October at 7:00 pm in the staffroom. Please support the parents association by giving your time if you can spare some! We would really appreciate your help. Contact details can be obtained in the school office. Halloween Disco Friday 28th November The Parents Association will run a Halloween disco in the school hall this Friday during the school day. All children are invited to the disco along with their class groups. Children may dress up in fancy dress and all children will be given a treat on the day. We would like to thank the Parents Association who give up their time to help with this event which the children love. New School Garden Ms. Demetriou and our caretaker John have undertaken a beautiful garden project at the front of the school for the children. Work on the new school garden will be getting underway in November with the construction of a wattle fence. Senior pupils will have the opportunity to help build the fence. We look forward to having a beautiful garden for all to enjoy. Thank you to Ms. Demetriou and John who have already worked so hard on planning this project and sourcing materials. Attendance We encourage good attendance at all times and we request that, if your child is absent from school, you send a note to the class teacher. If any child is absent for 20 days or more during the school year, we are obliged to report the details to the National Education Welfare Board. Late Arrival We are currently monitoring children who are arriving late for school on a regular basis. Students who arrive late will receive a late stamp in their journal. Please ensure your child gets to school on time every day. Signing Out If you need to collect your child before dismissal time we ask you to come to the office and sign them out. This ensures we have a record of children leaving school early. Lost Property The weather is getting colder and we would ask that every child has a warm jacket, scarf and hat. In order to reduce the amount of items that get lost we ask that you clearly label your child’s jumper, coat, hat, scarf, gloves and any other items they may have with them. Cycle to School If your child is cycling to school please ensure that they bring their own lock so that they can lock the bicycle to the bicycle rail. Unlocked bicycles have been stolen recently and we want to prevent theft occurring again. Car Park Please accept direction from caretaking staff in the carpark as safety is always our main priority. Please do not park on footpaths or block other cars. Please follow the rules of the road within the school grounds. Emergency Contact Details If you have changed your telephone number or moved house please remember to let us know as it is vital that we have emergency contact details for all children. Also, if you are not receiving text messages, please contact Kate, our secretary, to rectify this. Administration of Medication Policy We would like to inform parents that the staff of St. Luke’s have worked together to draw up an Administration of Medication Policy which has recently been approved and signed off by the Board of Management of St. Luke’s. All of our school policies are available from both the website www.stlukesns.ie or from the school office. Dates for your diary Friday 28th October – Halloween Disco in the school hall run by the Parents Association. Children may wear fancy dress. Monday 31st October – Friday 4th November – Midterm break Kind regards Vivienne Bourke Principal |
