Dear Parent / Guardian / Colleague / Board Member,

Attendance:  Week 11 and our attendance is 95.7%, slightly higher at 96.5% for the month of November to date and higher again than the month of November last year which ended up at 93%.

Enrolment: As you may know our “Admissions Window” opened on the 2^nd October last and will remain open for another while. All schools are guided by new Admission Policies nationwide. To that end please contact the school if you have anyone set to enroll in Sept 2020. I would also ask to please pass on this information to your family, friends and neighbours who may not yet be connected to our school community. The admissions form can be downloaded from our website (or Office) under the Enrolment Section and returned to school at your earliest convenience. We will be in touch in due course.

PTM’s:  Parent Teacher Meetings will take place on the Week Commencing Monday 30^th November 2020 and will run for four consecutive evenings. The layout is as follows; Parents will be given a time slot Monday or Tuesday if your child is between Juniors and Rang 2, Wednesday or Thursday if your child is between Rg 3-Rg 6. If you have children throughout the school you will receive a call from each teacher over two different days. We will be in touch with the 10 minute time slots next week. Please make yourself available at the exact time. Please do not arrange times outside of these as the process has been streamlined to suit all pupils, their parents and staff. Parents of pupils in the senior side of the School Rg 3-Rg 6 have the added option of selecting a Zoom meeting at the allocated time. You will be asked to choose next week between zoom and a phone call. If the former, a code will be emailed in advance of the PTM. Hopefully we will be able to revert to our “in person” meetings next year.

Deputy Principal: Our recently appointed Deputy Principal, Ms. Lorraine Franey called to our school on Thursday 19^thNovember. She met with principal and staff and is eagerly looking forward to commencing her role as D.P. and Head of Special Education later in December. Ms Ciara Denmead is substituting in her absence while Mrs Claire Byrne is acting D.P. and Head of Special Education during the interim.

Teaching Practice: Sincere thanks to our two T.P.students, Ms. Corbett and Ms. Sheehan who have been with us these last few weeks. They both finish up today in their roles with Mrs. Kelly and Ms. Dunlea respectively. We have been delighted to have them and to help with their teaching development.  We wish them the very best into the future and thank them for their contribution towards their respective classes and indeed the entire school. We also thank their above mentors for affording them such a good foundation in the profession.

Thanks to all for cooperating thus far, staff, pupils and their parents have collectively been very supportive of our procedures and practices and form the main reason as to why everything is operational and smooth. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

Michael J. O’Ryan

Principal.