NEWSLETTER 01.02.2024 - Canal Way Educate Together National School, Dublin 8

MESSAGE FROM DERMOT

We hope you are looking forward to the long weekend, and to the festivities of Imbolc/Brigid’s Day. It is a lovely time of the year with bright spring days ahead. February is also a time for romance, and our core value is Love this month. We will be singing ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart’ at assembly. Get ready for that earworm to enter your lives!

Our tumble bars have been installed in the garden and have been signed off as safe just hours ago. There is great excitement around the school about these. Looking forward to enjoyable times for the children with this activity. Feel free to have a spin yourself if you fancy it!

No school on Monday – We hope you enjoy the long weekend,

Dermot

TEACHER SHORTAGE

The teacher shortage is significantly impacting our ability to secure substitute teachers to cover absences and leave. To prevent the closure of classes, we have had to reassign our Special Education Teachers (SET) to fill in. As a consequence, there has and will continue to be frequent interruptions to their regular timetables. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we navigate through these challenging times for schools.

On a larger scale, the teacher shortage is impacting every major city in Ireland both at primary and secondary level, the worst area being Dublin. It is extremely difficult for teachers to secure accommodation and to survive in our expensive city. The teacher shortage is being downplayed in media, as a result of schools avoiding negative publicity and the government’s inability to address the issue. We encourage you to bring this up when political representatives visit and discuss it with your local representatives at clinics or through email.

ANTIBULLYING WEEK & INTERNET SAFETY

Children have been learning about friendships & bullying over the last two weeks. Next Tuesday is Inter-net Safety Day, and we will be concentrating on safety online. Information for parents can be found at

www.webwise.ie/parents/

www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/

SCHOOL CLOSURES

School closures – please take note

Monday 5th February – Bank Holiday – school closed
Friday 9th February – Half Day – school closes at 12pm to facilitate ongoing staff training
Thursday 15th & Friday 16th February – Mid Term break – school closed.
Monday 18th March – Bank Holiday
The school calendar can be found at the bottom of the home page of the school website – www.canalwayetns.org

PARENTS ASSOCIATION COMITTEE

Fundraising Target – €14,000

Raised so far – €4,957.22

For anyone who’d like to donate to the school to help reach our fundraising target for 2023/24 we have a Donation link on the school website.

Upcoming Events

Junior Infants Coffee morning 1st March
Parents Table Quiz (subject to approval) IN Lowe’s, Cork Street – 14th March @ 20:00 (tbc)
Sponsored Walk (subject to approval) in Iveagh Grounds, Crumlin Road – Date in April to be confirmed

TIME KEEPING

Reminder of the importance of getting your children to school on time. Our gates open at 8:30am, and teaching starts at 8:45 sharp. The first 15 minutes are a great chance for children to catch up with their friends and start the day well on a nice calm note. Being consistently five minutes late might not seem like much, but it quickly adds up. It means missing nearly half an hour a week of teaching time, which is two hours of learning time every month. Your help in making sure your child is on time is much appreciated.

HANDWRITING

As part of our school Self Evaluation we are concentrating on Well Being, Spelling & Handwriting. Children are making great efforts and we are seeing great improvement in handwriting in our school. Check out our assembly pics of our Fabulous Hand Writers.

BOOKFAIR:

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of the Bookfair this year. With your support we raised over €6,000 which gave us €3,700 credit to buy books for our school. We have been busy spending some of the money and have ordered class novels such as The Wolf Wilder and Under The Hawthorn Tree for the senior end, Bunny vs Monkey and Dinosaur Bites for class libraries in the middle of the school, and decodable books for our junior classes. Happy Reading !

24/7 ACCIDENT INSURANCE COVER

A reminder that the school has arranged 24/7 accident insurance for your child. While we hope you won’t need it, if any accident-related costs arise, you’re covered. Contact the office for application support. Though claims are few, this coverage is invaluable when needed. Please keep this in mind.

BOOK CLUB INCHICORE LIBRARY.

Junior Book Club – 7-9 yrs old.

3rd Tuesday of every month.

01 222 8444 or email [email protected].

F2 : Parents Group of Children with Additional Needs

This group will be held each Wednesday, in the F2 centre in Rialto. This group aims to offer peer support and information to families as they navigate assessments, therapeutic supports and dealing with the ever changing world of having a child who needs additional supports. The weekly group is an informal, drop in service for parents to share information, get further training and at times have external input from a variety of professionals from Speech & Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, SENO, managers from CDNT’s.

Should you need any further information or clarification regarding the service or group, please feel free to contact Johanna or Angela.

Joanna Morgan Ph: 087 6002028

Angela Buckley Ph: 087 0562402

St Kevins GAA

New players welcome for 2024! teams catering for ages and field two adult teams last year!

CLICK FOR INFO