Dear Parent / Guardian, Colleague & Board Member,                                                                             

Covid-19 Update – I include the latest advice for U-13’s here – HSE Isolation Quick Guide U-13’s

This week we have been notified of 3 cases to-date. This is down from 21 a fortnight ago and 12 last week. In total, during Nov & Dec, we have been notified of 47 positive PCR results. 35 of these have returned to school. Therefore as of this evening, we are down to 12 active cases or 6% of the school going population, split as follows;

Mrs Kelly’s Classroom = 1

Ms Dunlea’s Classroom = 3

Mr Earley’s Classroom = 3

Mrs Coffey’s Classroom = 2

Miss Denmead’s Classroom = 0

Mrs McGrath’s Classroom = 2

Mr Brunnock’s Classroom = 0

Staff = 1

The attendance rate for the week has gone from 70% on Monday to 75% on Friday.

Thanks to staff & parents for their support here. Best wishes to all who are recovering or isolating at this time.

Chickenpox – Today we have a confirmed case of chickenpox in Mr Earley’s Rg 1 / Rg 2 combination. An email will issue to those concerned immediately following this.

School Closure – Storm Barra ensured that our school was closed on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week on instruction from the Dept of Education & Skills. Thankfully all was in order on Thursday morning.

PTM’s – 60% of meetings have taken place at this stage. Teachers have been trying to contact some parents so please watch out for private numbers. You may email the teacher concerned to settle on a mutually convenient time, outside of the school day. Rg 6 meetings are expected to start next week.

Dream for Danny – Ms Dunlea, Mrs Behan and Danny’s classmates have organised a raffle with great prizes in a fundraising drive for our pupil, Danny Norris. Tickets are on sale at the school. There is more information on our Facebook page. Please contact the school if you want to be in with a chance of winning a PS5 and Samsung Galaxy tab.

Christmas Carols – Mrs Kelly & our Banna Ceoil will play Carols this weekend at all local churches; following Newcastle mass, Saturday at 5pm, following Fourmilewater mass, Sunday at 9am and following Nire mass at 11am on the same morning. All proceeds again going to “Dream for Danny.”

Photos – Glad to report that our photos have been practically all delivered to families. It was great to see this return again for the first time since 2018. Thanks to Ray & Caroline Power for their expertise and Rose for organising it in-house. This will hopefully occur again in winter 2023.

Ballymacarbry Winter Fire Dance– Our friends at the Ballymacarbry Community Centre have informed us that they are hosting a “Free Open Air” event on the night of Tues 21^st Dec. (Winter Solstice) this is an event for all the family from 7pm featuring live entertainment and a fireworks display at 9pm. Although free of charge, a ticket will have to be attained through Eventbrite before hand. The first tranche of tickets sold out but a second round will be released early next week. https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/ballymacarbry-winter-firedance This is funded by the Department of Tourism and produced by Waterford City & County Council Arts Service.

Is mise,

Michael J. O’ Ryan

Principal