Dear parents,
I hope this finds you well! I would like to share some upcoming dates and events with you. Please keep this email so that you can check back on it at a future point.
We will be starting football training with Mr. Driscoll every Friday from midterm to Easter. We had planned to begin this week but the weather has not played ball!! If it is favourable, we will go ahead with it. The plan is that Mr. O'Driscoll will take each classroom individually for 45 mins to teach football skills and play games in the backyard at school.
After Easter we will start hurling/camogie training. Any parents who would be willing to help us on a Thursday or Friday morning, please contact us to chat about it.
From Monday the 9th of May, we will begin gymnastics for Junior infants to 2nd class and Pilates for 3rd - 6th class. This will run for 6 weeks until the 20th of June and we will do it in the soft fall area of school. This will be at a cost of €12/child. You can pay that at any point between now and the 1st of May.
There are some families who have not yet begun to pay the school bills for the year. We understand that the cost of living is increasing at an alarming rate and if you find yourself in financial difficulty, please come and speak to me in the utmost confidence and an arrangement can be made.
We have some good news to share, Miss O Sullivan our job-share SET teacher and Miss Jennings are both getting married in the coming months. We would like to wish them both the very best in their upcoming nuptials.
As you know there is a new bank holiday this year on the 18th of March. In lieu of this, we will close for the day on Friday June 10th to help celebrate Miss. Jennings' wedding.
The department of Education has instructed that every school close for a half day to facilitate an in-service webinar for teachers. We will close at 12.30pm on Wednesday 16th of March for this webinar.
Please note that we will be taking part in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade on Thursday 17th of March in Dunmanway. We have not received official details of this yet but we will forward them to you when we get them.
We will be taking part in Food Dudes this year, being on the 9th of March and running for 16 days. Food Dudes is an award winning curriculum-linked evidence-based healthy eating programme, developed to encourage children to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. It is based on repeated tastings of fresh fruit and vegetables, rewards and positive role models. A new and improved programme is now being rolled out in schools and includes new varieties of fruits and vegetables, additional tasting days, new eco-friendly rewards, and new supporting materials including DVD and bilingual activities. Please encourage your children to taste the fruit and vegetables.
The Parents Association will be running a tractor run in collaboration with Randal Óg GAA on Sunday 27th of March in Ballinacarriga. More details to follow.
The Confirmation is fixed for Wednesday 6th of April at 2pm in Dunmanway and the Communion will be held in Ballinacarriga church on Saturday 21st of May at 11am.
I would like to remind everyone that midterm is Thursday & Friday of next week, the 24th and 25th of February.
Many thanks!
Yours sincerely,
Róisín Hurley
Principal
Dear parents,
A huge and sincere thank you must be paid to all those who helped with the works around the school over the summer, especially the Parents Association. A lot of preparation work needed to be done before the soft fall area could be laid. The following people have given a lot of their time and resources and the staff and Board of Management of Ballinacarriga NS would like to express our appreciation:
· Sinéad & Pat Daly
· Thomas Sutton
· William Shorten
· Peter Hennessey
· Mike Bennett
· Dermot O Riordan
· Jason McSweeney
· Cathal Patterson
· Bobby Patterson
· McSweeney Brothers
· Colman Daly
· Enniskeane Concrete
The school and its community has really benefitted from all this hard work and we will reap the rewards for many years to come. It has created so much more space for children to play and it could not come at a better time as the school sees its largest attendance for years. We currently have 95 children enrolled and we need every inch of space.
An AGM of the Parents Association will be held on Wednesday 22nd of September at 7pm at the school. If weather permits, we will hold it outside, otherwise we will be inside in the 1st & 2nd class room. Please wear a mask.
Many thanks,
Róisín Hurley
Principal
Dear parents,
After the last week of school, the staff of the school and I have reflected on the changes we have made because of Covid-19 and considered the effectiveness of the measures. We hope to make some changes to improve the children’s learning and school environment in line with the easing of Covid restrictions in Ireland.
Following the hard work of the parents and others to improve our school yard, we feel there is enough space for all children to play in separate areas at break and lunch. All children will have their break from 10.45-11 and their lunch from 12.30-1. Each classroom or bubble will have designated areas to play which will rotate on a weekly basis in the interest of fairness. The children will not play with children from other classrooms or bubbles. Having staggered breaks was very disruptive to teaching time in the classrooms.
As of Monday 13th of September, we will also distribute homework journals and children from 1st – 6th will begin to bring some homework home on a daily basis, especially readers/reading books as this is of paramount importance. Maths books will also be used for homework. Where possible the children will only handle their own books and teacher will not collect them up and redistribute.
The infants will continue with a weekly email at for the moment and homework journals will be distributed to them later in the year.
1st & 2nd class will begin station teaching or literacy lift off where they will have a book or part of a book to read each night. When they are returned to school, they will be quarantined for 72 hours before being sent to another home.
Our aim is to improve the teaching and learning for the children after 2 disruptive years and we hope these measures will help this.
Many thanks,
Yours sincerely,
Róisín Hurley
Principal
Dear Parents,
I would like to welcome you all back to the new school term. We look forward to a successful year and hope that we will remain safe in our school setting all year. A huge welcome to our 10 new junior infants, they are settling in very well! I would like to thank all parents and children also for co-operating with the procedures we have put in place.
School bills for book rental, tin whistle and school activities will be sent to you in the coming weeks.
The children can wear their PE uniforms on Thursdays and Fridays for the year. For the next few weeks, the children can wear an older school hoodie (if it fits) or any other jumper/hoodie with a grey polo t-shirt and black tracksuit pants. Shorts are permitted for the month of September.
Tomorrow, Daniel Lehane has offered to take drone pictures of the school for us and we hope to have the children standing outside for this. Please ensure all children are wearing their school uniform tomorrow for this reason.
In consultation with parents and the Parents Association, we are considering changing the PE hoodies to a wine/maroon colour in line with the uniform and for ease of cleaning. We will forward details of the hoodies as soon as we can.
We would like to add a little colour to the walkway at the pitch by painting stones to find around the walk. If you have access to flat stones, please send them in over the next week or 2.
We will again be encouraging online payments of bills going forward.
When making a payment, please write your name in the personal note/description on the online payment. It is important that you email the school at info@ballinacarriga-ns.ie to notify us of the payment and what the payment is for. If this type of payment does not suit you, you can pay by cash or cheque. Please provide correct cash as change cannot be given.
Ger Wolfe will be teaching the ukulele to 1st to 6th class and the xylophone to the infants again this year. He will start this on Tuesday 8th September.
We have a new Facebook page for sharing details of our work and communicating with the wider community. Please find us @ballinacarrigans and like and share if you wish.
Yours sincerely,
Róisín Hurley
Principal
Dear parents,
We are looking forward to welcoming all the children back on Monday 30th of August. The school will run similarly to last year as regards Covid 19 procedures - I will outline some points here.
Children can be dropped from 8.50am and school commences at 9.10am. Please do not drop children to school any earlier than this! Children will be asked to go directly to their classroom in the morning and stay at their tables. Each class will have one morning per week to play outside before school starts.
Infants will be collected at 1.50pm and 1st – 6th class will have staggered collection times. Your collection time will be emailed to you separately. Children will wash their hands on entering the school and sanitise and wash hands throughout the day before and after break times and eating. The children will be arranged in groups called pods (4-6 children per pod). Each class will be known as a bubble. Children will play will only their bubble at break times. Rooms will be ventilated and schools are being sent CO2 monitors to detect whether classrooms are sufficiently ventilated. Each bubble will share a bathroom, rather than being gender based. There are hand sanitising stations inside each door and we encourage the children to use them as needed.
We would ask you not to send your child(ren) to school if they are displaying any Covid symptoms or if they are a close contact with a confirmed case.
The Parents Association and others have been working tirelessly to improve our school yard, by levelling the grass area and preparing it for soft fall playground surfacing and replacing the railings. The new surface will be laid in the coming weeks and we look forward to enjoying this new space. A huge thank you must be extended to everyone who is involved. We will share more details shortly.
We ask that parents do not enter the school premises unannounced and if you need to call up to the school, you can phone the school on 023-8845944 to talk to the teacher or make an appointment to meet with a teacher or you can email your teacher on the following emails:
Infants: ailish@ballinacarriga-ns.ie
1st & 2nd: roisin@ballinacarriga-ns.ie
3rd & 4th: eleanor@ballinacarriga-ns.ie
5th & 6th: barry@ballinacarriga-ns.ie
Special Education teachers: claire@ballinacarriga-ns.ie
A contact tracing log will need to be filled out on entry to the school.
We have a new Facebook page for sharing details of our work and communicating with the wider community. Please find us @ballinacarrigans and like and share if you wish.
There will be a half day on Wednesday 6th October to facilitate a webinar for staff. The school will close at 12pm and we will send details of collection times closer the date.
If any families have old toy tractors, trailers or machinery for the children to play with outdoors, please send them in as we are hoping to buy some Bruder machinery toys and set up an outdoor “farming area” for the children to play with at lunch break.
There are information posters and videos for both parents and children which we will email to you separately. We encourage you to watch these with your children to reduce anxiety about the return to school.
We encourage parents to park at the opposite side of the road to the school and walk across the road to collect their child as to reduce the risk of accidents.
Yours sincerely,
Róisín Hurley
Principal
Just a reminder that children cannot be dropped to school until 8.50am. The children are not insured to be on the school property before this time and on a more practical level, the teachers use this time to prepare for the day and we would really appreciate if you could respect this.
Parents, please find information and support that you may need to ensure your child makes the most of their time online and stays safe when interacting with others online. Also, it shows you how to set up parental control over your children's devices.
https://www.webwise.ie/parents/
