Dear Parent / Guardian / Colleague / Board Member,

Thankfully school has recommenced and all is well at present. We hope you and your families had an enjoyable midterm break. This upcoming half term again will be different to what we have traditionally become accustomed to but collectively, we will endeavour to make the best of it and hope that by the time it ends, we will see a clearer picture of how as a society / school community we are to emerge from such restrictive times.

Attendance: Our attendance has been very good this week at 97%. November last year saw us average out at 93%. Please keep vigilant as regards your child’s health and school attendance, as the south east has seen a hike this week in Covid cases, reversing the favourable national trend under Level 5.

D.P. Our esteemed colleague and D.P. Mrs Ryan spent her last day in our company today. Catherine leaves us after 22 years of service and over 40 years in the profession, the last eight of which were spent here at Ballymacarbry N.S. as Deputy Principal. Mrs Ryan commenced at the school in Nov. 1998 when she took over from Kitty O’Gorman upon her retirement. It is fitting that she also retires in November. In her early days she taught in Rg 3 and Rg 4, and then moved back to Rg 1 and Rg 2. Her last classroom based role was teaching Junior Infants. In 2012 she moved to Special Ed when she took over the role of SEN Co-coordinator along with DP. In her first class at the school, she taught two current members of staff. (Answers on a post card to E91 E426!) We wish her well in her retirement and thank her for her work towards the betterment of our school and towards all the pupils who attended during her tenure. We wish her all that she wishes herself, including long life health and happiness.

Acting D.P. Mrs Claire Byrne has agreed to “act up” as deputy principal in a temporary capacity until such time as Ms. Lorraine Franey is released from her current school. Mrs Byrne is the most senior post holder in the school and has fulfilled the role previously in 2012. This arrangement is expected to last 4-5 weeks.

Congratulations: Congratulations to staff members Michelle McGrath and her husband Seán who celebrated the birth of a baby boy earlier this week. A warm welcome to the world from all Mum and Dad’s colleagues, their pupils and indeed the entire school community. Comhgairdeachas leo.

Phone line down: Our phone lines were down all through Halloween and up until Tuesday evening. Thankfully the service has been fully restored. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. The most efficient way of contacting the school is by phone; please do so in the absence of being allowed to drop in physically. Failing that, please email ballymacns@gmail.com.

Hand Sanitiser: Thankfully again we were not affected by the 2^nd round of product recall over the Midterm break.

PTMs: It is still our intention to hold our annual Parent Teacher Meetings in late November. Obviously this can’t take the traditional format of two after school events in the building. We hope to be creative in how we go about it. More about this in the next week or two as we have just received guidance from the DES yesterday.

Farewell Mrs. Ryan, go raibh míle maith agat as ucht do chuid oibre anseo agus go n-éirí go geal leat sa todhchaí.

Is mise,

Michael J. O’ Ryan – Principal.