Dear Parents,

Our Parents Association AGM will take place in the school on 11th October in the school at 7.30p.m.

We would like to issue a special welcome to the Parents of our Junior Infant class and we hope that you can come along.

The Parents Association is a very important partnership between home and school. The primary function of a Parents Association is to support your children in their school lives.
Being part of the Parents Association is a very rewarding experience, as you get to work so closely with the school and form an important relationship. This is an opportunity for you to become more involved in your child’s education and we would love to see as many parents as possible in attendance.

Your support and interest will be greatly appreciated.

Tea and coffee will be available before the meeting and, you never know, we may even provide cakes!

We look forward to seeing you all there.

Le gach dea ghuí,

Cáit Uí Raghallaigh. Mary Kelleher-Fowler

Principal. Chairperson Parents Assoc

Parents’Association AGM

The AGM will take place in St Joseph’s NS on Tuesday the 11th October @ 7.30pm. Everyone Welcome. Tea/Coffee and maybe cakes!!! Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Updates

Dates for you diary:
Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday 1st October 2014 @ 7.30pm – all parents are very welcome to attend.

Welcome Back to School – September 2014

September 2013 to 2014 & AGM Meeting Outcome

St. Joseph’s Parents’ Association A.G.M. was held in the School on Wednesday 10th September. We had a great turnout and a very big thank you to all who were able to attend. We would like to introduce our incoming Chairperson Mary Kelleher Fowler, Secretary Catherine Gergory Long and Treasurer Kerry McCarthy and thank them all for taking on these positions.

Our annual main fundraiser ‘Pop In – Fun Morning’ will take place again in the Abbeystrewry Hall on Saturday 11th October 2014. We would very much appreciate your support and any contributions for our Cake & Book Sale. We will be sending a note/text with further details and will let parents know when we will be accepting these. A meeting will take place on Wednesday 1st October in the school hall at 7.30p.m. to finalise the arrangements for this event. Please feel welcome to attend.

Other fundraising has yet to be decided. A new whiteboard was purchased by the school and we have been asked to raise €2500 towards the cost of this and the school through its own fundraising will pay for the balance (€2000).

The rest of our work will be very much in a support capacity to the school – assisting & helping out at the various occasions that will arise in the school, from Welcome Morning for preschoolers & their parents to Communion, Graduation ceremonies & so on. Please visit the Parents’ Association page on the school website – http://www.stjosephsskibbereen.ie – for further updates on what we are doing.

It was proposed by the outgoing chairperson that we carry out a survey of the Birthday Party Gift Guideline that we introduced last year and get all parental views on this matter.

Birthday Party Gift Guideline Review 2014-2015

Last year the Parents’ Association recommended a guideline whereby a limit of €5 (either a voucher or cash) be put on birthday presents given by students in the school (particularly in the Junior side of the school).

We felt that parents are under enough pressure and expense. If the school as a whole adopts this guideline it means that every child is treated and valued both fairly and equally. We hope this would promote a healthier attitude amongst our children that its the thought more than the gift that counts.

Parents feedback would be greatly appreciate and enable the majority to either keep or disregard this guideline.

Birthday Party Gift Guideline Survey Result

There was a very definite majority of parents (particularly in the Junior side) wishing to retain the €5 gift guideline. The result of the survey was as follows:

Junior Side

Yes 92%

No 5%

Not ticked 3%

Senior Side

Yes 65%

No 31%

Not ticked 4%

It was felt at a very recent Parent Association meeting that it is entirely up to parents to enforce this guideline. If you are a parent who does please write ‘€5 Limit’ or ‘School P.A. Gift Guideline’ on the party invitation. We hope that by using this limit it will promote a healthier attitude amongst our children that it is the thought more than the gift that counts.

Pedestrian Crossing Warning

Finally, as we are already into our new school term, the safety of all students crossing roads is a very important issue especially as our weather is changing and visibility is more difficult. We are aware that cars should stop at Pedestrian crossings and Red lights. However not all cars do, so please ask your children not to cross until ‘both cars are stopped’.

At the Traffic Lights in Cork Road, some cars stop even-though they have a Green light, while one car may stop the other oncoming car may not – so please ask children to wait until the Green Walking light is on.

Pop In – Fun Morning 2014

‘Pop In – Fun Morning’ 2014

St. Joseph’s Parents’ Association held the ‘Pop In – Fun Morning’ in the Abbeystrewry this past Saturday, 11th October. It was a great success. We would like to thank everyone who contributed books, baking, attended & supported the fundraising event.

To all students who with the help of their teachers created the most beautiful pieces of artwork, that were displayed in the hall and much admired – go raibh míle maith agaibh.

Well done to all who entered the colouring competition and congratulations to all the winners. We were delighted with the very kind donation of copies of the beautifully illustrated and written book ‘Puffer the Tug Boat’ by Barry St. John Ryan. These were kindly presented by Steve Rayner to our very deserving prizewinners.

We have to give a special mention to all our helpers on the day, not forgetting some of the younger students of the school as well as some of the 5th and 6th class girls. Giving of your time to help with the event was very much appreciated.

St. Joseph’s Parent’s Association – September 2013/June 2014

Firstly we would like to thank most sincerely all parents, businesses and friends of St. Josephs who gave their time and generous support to our fundraising efforts, as well as helping the school out in other ways to benefit all our children and parents of the school in some way. We are always looking for more help and hope we can encourage more people to join our association. The following outlines what the committee achieved from September to now.

We held our main fundraiser ‘Pop In – Fun Morning’ in the Abbeystrewry Hall on Saturday 12th October 2013. It consisted of a coffee morning, cake and book sale, raffle, a student Art Gallery, childrens corner and music. Thanks to all who attended and supported the fundraising event.

We co-hosted two training courses for parents – an ‘Anti-Bullying Parent Training Programme’ (10th December) & an ‘Internet Safety for Parents’ (26th February) – with other local schools, in the Abbeystrewry Hall. Both programmes were given by a trainer from the National Parents Council – Primary. It was a pleasure working with the other schools and thanks to all who were able to attend.

Of course Christmas would never be the same without Santa’s annual visit to the school. As always he had a little something for everyone.

On Friday 7th March we had our first non uniform day celebrating ‘World Book Day’. As a result many book characters came to life as all the students dressed up for the day. Another non uniform day held by the school took place to celebrate St. Patricks day. For the parade the pupils had a choice of themes and looked great on the day.

We invited new pupils and parents to our ‘Welcome Morning’ in the hall on Monday 10th February, the start of the school enrollment week. This provided an excellent opportunity for preschool parents to view our school, meet and chat with some of the parents and teachers.

We had our Easter Raffle again this year. There were lots of children going home with eggs and chocolate bunny lollipops on the day. Our annual joint church gate collection with St. Patricks BNS on the 29th & 30th of March. Many thanks to those who helped out & supported the collection.

Throughout the year we provided help and served refreshments for all the children & parents on different occasions – parent teacher meetings, communion mass hosted by St. Joseph’s at Myross Wood, the ‘Welcome Morning, the Open day for the new Junior Infants and the Graduation ceremony. At the end of the year our annual uniform exchange organised by the association took place again. Contributions from Parent Association funds were given this past school year to help with the purchase of school diaries for the school, swimming lessons for 2nd, 3rd and 4th classes, treats and refreshments provided at all the aforementioned events.

Finally the parents association would like to wish pupils,school staff & all the families of the school a great summer break. See you in September.

‘Pop In – Fun Morning’ – 2013

Anti-Bullying Training Programme & Internet Safety Programme & Online Training Support provided by the National Parents Council

An Anti-Bullying Training workshop took place in the Abbeystrewry Hall on Tuesday 10th December as part of the National Parents Council Primary & Post Primary Anti-Bullying Programme. The session enabled parents to support their children regarding issues of bullying and also informed parents about the new Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post Primary.

The Internet Safety Programme took place also in the Abbeystrewry Hall on Wednesday, 26th February 2014. The course addressed ‘Is Your Child Safe on the Internet?’. It also introduced parents to strategies to help their children be responsible, effective and safter Internet users.

We would like to thank all those who attended both courses, Noreen (Course tutor – for both programmes) and to the other schools who co-hosted these events with us.

The National Parents Coucil Primary has launched its first Online Training Support; ” Parenting: Supporting your child to build healthy friendships and relationships” available at http://www.npc.ie.

This is an interactive online session which enables parents to support and further develop their relationship with their child and their childs relationship with others. Some of the topics covered in the session are:

Active listening skills
Children sharing their views on talking to parents
Parents listening experiences
Relationships and Sexuality education at Primary school
Relationships and Sexuality education – how it is taught to children with special educational needs.

You can access this session by going to New online support for Parents.