Newsletter 16.12.2025 - Canal Way Educate Together National School, Dublin 8

MESSAGE FROM DERMOT

Wishing you all a lovely break, and a Happy Christmas to those celebrating. We hope everyone gets to spend time with family and friends, and please do your best to make special memories.

Thanks to everyone for attending our fundraiser the other morning – we raised €680 for FOCUS Ireland.

As always in our end-of-year newsletter, we remember members of our community who we lost this year, and we hold in our hearts all those who have experienced their own loss over the last year.

Happy New Year to all, and see ye on January 5th.

Dermot & Staff.

FLU VACCINES CLINICS FOR CHILDREN

Flu is circulating widely, and thanks to families for supporting the school LAIV programme.

For children who missed it, walk-in nasal spray flu vaccine clinics will run:

St Mary’s PCC, Naas (W91 NR29) – Mon 29 Dec, 11 a.m.–3 p.m.
Clondalkin PCC, Block B (D22 V2C2) – Mon 29 Dec, 11 a.m.–3 p.m.

No appointment needed. The vaccine is quick, painless, and free, helping protect children against flu.

We encourage parents to drop in and keep children healthy over the holidays.

THE CANAL WAY COOK TOGETHER BOOK – SEND YOUR RECIPES!

With over 35 different languages registered as part of our diverse school community, this is a fun project to celebrate the cultures, heritage and food traditions from Ireland and all over the globe that are part of Canal Way. You can submit your recipes by 31st January by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/yhX3t4kegaftiREj6

WHAT WE WANT

We want to know about your most loved foods, traditional recipes from different countries and regions, family favourites… sweet or savoury, anything goes.

HOW THE COOKBOOK WILL BE SHARED

The cookbook will be then designed, edited and printed by the PAC, and available to all families in digital format (for free) and in print format (to purchase), hopefully around April/May.

Get cooking!

TUSLA SHORT GUIDE FOR NEWLY ARRIVED PARENTS

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency in Ireland, has developed a short guide for parents who are newly arrived in Ireland to help families settle in and understand how things work here. The guide offers practical information on cultural differences, parenting in Ireland, pre‑school childcare, the Irish schooling system, child supervision, and family support services. tusla.ie+1

You can find a link to this guide on our school website in the Parent Resources section so you can access it easily.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Water Safety – Over the past few weeks all children in our school have attended a water safety workshop facilitated by Water Safety Ireland. The children learnt how to stay safe when near water and learnt some hands on practical safety skills. All children learnt the non-contact safety technique of throwing a safety ring and some got to try on a lifejacket. The key message was to Stay Away From the Edge (SAFE) when near water. Thanks to Water Safety Ireland for the visit.

Chloe’s 6th class celebrated Science Week from the 10th to the 14th of November, exploring topics ranging from polymers to the properties of milk through fun, hands-on investigations. Sixth class also enjoyed helping Junior Infants at the book fair, where they assisted them in finding the perfect book.

Emma’s 5th class have been learning about Magnetism and were challenged to create an interactive magnetic game for a 2nd class child to play. Luckily Ellie’s class were up for trying them out and had a great time working together and giving them feedback!

Educate Together – CWETNS have been working with ET head-office on research around the Students voice.

BOOK FAIR – THANKS

Thank you to everyone who supported the book fair in the school which took place in November – we generated a credit of over €3000 for the school to spend on Books for the school libraries. Also a huge thanks to the parent volunteers who helped to run the fair each day!

Attendance and Punctuality – Reminder

School grounds open at 08:20 AM
Children admitted to school building at 08:30AM
Teaching starts at 8:45 AM

Being ontime, helps children settle, catch key instructions, and connect with their friends. Arriving late can be unsettling. If you are late, please be patient. We will open the door as soon as we can. Holding the buzzer will not speed us up.

All absences must be recorded on Aladdin, even if you have told the school. Children not present by 10AM will be marked absent. If they arrive after 10AM, you can log the reason on Aladdin.

Please Note: It is school policy to contact families of children with unexplained absences or high levels of absenteeism. We are also mandated to report high levels of absenteism to TUSLA, Child Protection Agency.

Please contact the school if you need support attendance or punctuality. We are here to help.

School Books and Active Learning.

With the roll out of the new Language and Maths curricula, which move away from a book-heavy approach, we continue to embrace interactive learning, focusing on practical skills and critical thinking. Our goal is not to fill every page of the children’s workbooks – while books are an important part of our learning, they are just one of the many tools we use in the classroom.

School Closures

School Re-opens January 5th at 08:30am.