Report of the Board of Management on the operation of St. Tola’s N.S.  for the 2016/2017 School Year

www.tolasns.com

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As the 2016/2017 school year comes to a close the Board of Management is pleased to publish its annual report on the operation of St. Tolas’s. This report complements the weekly newsletters sent home over the course of the year which are available on www.tolasns.com

The 2016/2017 year has been very busy and a lot has been achieved. The toilets beside the princpal’s office were refurbished last summer. The Board of Management intends to upgrade toilets in some of the classrooms during summer 2017. Our school website www.tolasns.com is a great location to learn about the school and we urge you to visit it for the latest information on what we do.

The Board of Management wishes to thank the Parents’ Association for their wonderful support of the school staff in so many ways. Our gratitude goes to all the teaching staff, Special Needs Assistants, secretary and caretaker for their work over the past school year. It has been a busy year but is is wonderful to see how much the pupils have progressed in that time.  We wish you well for a safe and enjoyable summer holiday and we look forward to the new school year which begins on Wednesday 30th Aug 2017.

Yours sincerely,

P.J. Burke , Chairperson                                                     Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald,

 

Board of Management 2016/2017

Chairperson…………………………………………….. P.J. Burke

Treasurer…………………………………………………. Richard Stapleton

Principal Teacher……………………………………. Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald

TeacherNominee…………………………………….. Edel Halliday

Parent Nominee………………………………………. Dara O’ Callaghan

Parent Nominee………………………………………. Nicole Hennephof

Community Nominee…………………………….. Cathy Colgan

Community Nominee…………………………….. John Quinlivan

 

 

Curriculum Developments

Literacy:  The teachers have been concentrating on Literacy improvement over the course of the year. In the Junior classes we have been using the Literacy Lift Off programme and are very pleased with the progress made by the pupils. From 3rd-6th class the pupils use the Accelerated Reading programme to develop their fluency and comprehension skills in reading and to enhance their ability to read independently. At all class levels comprehension strategies are taught explicitly

Following on from Literacy Lift Off Guided Reading  is used in many classes where pupils receive small group instruction using a variety of texts. The aim with this method is to ensure pupils are reading at their instructional level so that they can experience success with reading.   These literacy approaches will continue for the coming school year.

For writing teachers are ensuring that pupils are taught a variety of written genres throughout the year in each class.

Numeracy:  The focus in terms of Mathematics has been to continue to develop pupils’ ability in all areas of the maths curriculum.  In addition to the general teaching of Mathematics, we have introduced  the team-teaching approach using Mata sa Rang with our  Infants, 1st and 2nd classes where the support  teachers provide intensive, early intervention to the pupils alongside the class teacher.

In 4th, 5th and 6th classes the school has invested in the IZAK-9 kit where pupils work in small groups to develop their problem solving abilities in Mathematics.

Reporting of Attainment Results: The Department of Education and Skills obliges all schools to report on attainment results in English and Maths for all pupils in 2^nd, 4^th and 6^th classes.  St. Tola’s reports the results to parents for all pupils from 1^st to 6^th classes and these will be made available by means of the annual summer reports.

 

 

Attendance: For some pupils attendance levels at school remains a source of some concern.  Most parents and guardians keep the school informed about absences owing to illness and we wish to express our gratitude for this.  However, we urge parents to avoid unnecessary absences as these will result in children missing out on important work.  We will be contacting parents of pupils who have had a large number of absences with a view to improving attendance.

 

School Ethos: We thank all the parents of pupils in 2^nd and 6^th classes who supported the Sacramental preparation this year.  A special word of thanks to parents and relatives who helped make the respective ceremonies such wonderful, reverential occasions.  Thank you to the Parents’ Association and the parents of the pupils in 3rd class who helped organise the Communion breakfast after the First Communion ceremony. Thank you to the many staff members who came along to support the pupils at both First Communion and Confirmation ceremonies.

Our annual Catholic Schools week took place at the end of January. Our Grandparents’ Day was a huge success and it was great to see so many grandparents able to attend this celebration.

School Buildings: As mentioned earlier the Board of Management intends to upgrade the toilets in the senior end of the school over the summer. This will require substantial investment from Board of Management funds.

Safety: The car park remains an area of concern for all in the school community. We urge all parents using the car park to do so with utmost caution and remember that small children can be hard to see. Parents should use the car park spaces if they are accompanying children into the school. The Gardai have informed us that parents may park on the road as long as they do not cause an obstruction if there are no spaces available.

Parents’ Association: The Parents’ Association have provided huge support to the school again this year. They are always available to help out and we urge all parents to support them.  They organised  cake sales, a Christmas raffle and Easter raffle , the Communion breakfast and helped out at the  recent sponsored walk. Once again this year they donated €1500 towards the cost of the buses for school tours which reduced the cost of the school tour for every pupil. We thank them most sincerely for their efforts.

Fundraising : Two fundraising events were held this year. We had a great evening at the Halloween Table Quiz when families came along and dressed up in fancy dress for an evening of fun. We also held a very successful sponsored walk at the end of May which raised over €4000. We sincerely thank all families who supported these events. We also thank the staff members who gave up their time to organise and help out at these events.

Extra-Curricular Activities: Over the course of the school year pupils from various classes took part in training in hurling, camogie, football, basketball and athletics. In addition some pupils attended Rainbows after school and Scratch club which was also run after school. We thank all staff members who gave up their lunchtimes or time after school to organise these activities for our pupils. It is greatly appreciated.

Green Schools : St. Tolas was awarded its 7th Green Flag this year following the successful completion of the programme on Global Citizenship – Energy and Fair Trade. For our assessment every class had chosen a country in the developing world to study and this culminated in a wonderful Cruinniu where every class told the rest of the school what they knew about their country.

ICT in school:  1st-6th classes get to use the laptops weekly. In 3rd and 5th class pupils get an opportunity to use the Lego kits and to develop their coding skills with the Lego.

Choir/Music: Pupils in 4th-6th classes learnt the repertoire for the Peace Proms programme during the first and second terms. This culminated in the choir performing with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland and school choirs from all over the Mid-West in UL in March. This was a wonderful experience for both the pupils and teachers on the night. Thank you to Ms. Halliday for leading the choir and she was ably assisted by Ms. Riordan and Ms. Hehir. Our choir also sang at both the First Communion and Confirmation ceremonies.

Drama : Our annual Christmas concert was a great success again this year. This long standing tradition in St. Tolas sees every class putting on a short play before the Christmas holidays. It was wonderful to see so many parents and family members come along this year to support the pupils. 6th class took part in the Féile Drámaiochta competition this year with their play as Gaeilge An Clann is aclai in Eirinn ( Ireland’s Fittest family) They got to perform in Glór in both the Clare final and the Munster final doing very well in both.

 

 

SCHOOL CALENDAR –   Please see www.tolasns.com for a list of all dates for the school year 2017/18

Best wishes to all pupils, parents and staff for a happy, enjoyable and safe summer break.