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 620 students at St. Luke’s. We also have over 50 staff members including new teachers and SNAs. October 18th was the feast of St. Luke and we celebrated with songs and prayers. The children learned all about St. Luke and we had some beautiful volunteer singers from 5th classes to sing our school anthem “Hurrah for St. Luke’s” which was written as a gift to the school by Father Eugene McCarthy. Dublin Bus Community Spirit Awards We are proud to announce that we were chosen as one of the winners of the Dublin Bus Community Spirit awards. We would like to thank all of the parents, staff, children and those in the wider community who have helped us with donations of time, money and food towards our breakfast club. There is a fantastic community spirit here in Tyrrelstown which you will find nowhere else. We are delighted to be a part of this wonderful, warm and welcoming community. Richard Bruton Visit, Minister for Education We were honoured to welcome the Minister for Education – Richard Bruton to the school on October the 6th. He met with pupils, staff and the BOM. Thank you to the choir, the green schools committee and the 6th class children who showed him a wonderful St. Luke’s welcome. Thank you to everyone who helped to make the day so special. Minister Bruton wrote to us to say that he enjoyed the visit. Mary McCamley Visit, Mayor of Fingal This Wednesday we will welcome Mary McCamley who is the Mayor of Fingal. We are looking forward to meeting the Mayor. Mary will take a short tour of our school. We will extend a St. Luke’s welcome on the day. Dance Classes We are delighted to report that some of the 3rd and 4th class children have been having fun doing an after school dance club with Ms. Leppard on Thursday afternoons. They have been learning hip hop and jazz dance routines. They are now working together to create their own performance piece in groups for their last class this Thursday! Many thanks to Ms. Leppard for hosting these dance classes. 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. To encourage independence please ask your children to try to make their own lunch. If you show them what healthy foods they can use it may be a job which they can enjoy. 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. St. Luke’s Green Schools initiative We are working towards our third green flag in Water Conservation at St. Luke’s. We are trying really hard, with the help of the children, to reduce our overall water usage. We educate the children on saving water throughout the school day. We ask parents to discuss water conservation at home too. Together we hope we can earn our third green flag at the end of the 2017/2018 school year. This would mark a tremendous success overall for the school as we have managed to maintain our first and second green flags at St. Luke’s for our management of waste and recycling and for our energy conservation. Thank you to Ms. Hardiman and the Green Schools Committee who have worked so hard towards our Green Flag initiative with the help of the pupils. Parents Association (P.A.) Thank you to all of the parents who attended the Parents AGM in September. Sharon Geraghty will be the Chairperson, Louise Scorer will be the Treasurer and Joanne Byrne will be secretary 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 month. We really appreciate your great work. 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 27th October 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. 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 and their late time will be recorded on our electronic records system. 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 strong 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 We would like to thank all parents who have cooperated with the new car park arrangements this year. The car park has become a much safer place. The car park is locked daily from 8:30am until 9:15am and 13:10pm until 14:45pm. Please accept direction from caretaking staff in the car park as safety is always our main priority. Please do not park on footpaths or block other cars. Please follow the rules of the road both, on the approach to, and 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. Dates for your diary Friday 27th October – Halloween Disco in the school hall. Children may wear fancy dress (No wands or weapons). Monday 30th October – Friday 3rd November – Midterm break Tues, Wed, Thur, 21st, 22nd, 23rd November – Parent Teacher Meetings Wednesday 13th December – Christmas Concerts Friday 22nd December 12pm – Closing for Chistmas Holidays. Junior & Senior infant classes will go home at 11:50am Kind regards Vivienne Bourke Principal |
