Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are well as we adjust to our first full week back at school. Our news this week is as follows

• Swimming lessons start today for 5th and 6th classes and will run for eight weeks. The lesson is €4 this year due to increase in costs.
• From next Wednesday Junior Infants will have a full infant day in school and will not go home until 1.40p.m. Juniors will then need two lunches – a small snack for small break and a sandwich/wrap/roll etc for their big lunch. We are delighted with how well all our new Juniors have settled into school and they have learnt so much already!
• Thank you to all parents who have paid for their children’s books. We kindly request that any outstanding monies owed for your child’s books be paid to the school office by this Friday 8th September. It is our policy to issue receipts for all monies received for books.
• Literacy Lift Off will start next week in 2nd class and run for the next six weeks. A team of teachers will work with the class for an hour a day Mon-Thurs to develop reading fluency, word attack skills, writing and comprehension. The teachers involved are Ms. o’ Neill, Ms. Riordan, Ms. Hogan, Ms. Halliday and Ms. Fitzgerald.
• Over the last number of years we have used a team teaching approach in many of our classes throughout the school especially for literacy and numeracy. This means that our support teachers work closely with class teachers to deliver tailored and differentiated support to groups of pupils both in the classroom alongside the class teacher or in the support rooms. In some instances the class teacher works with the groups who need more support and the support teacher works with the rest of the class. We have found this approach to be very effective for many pupils. We will continue to work in this way for the coming year. If you have any query or question in relation to this please contact your child’s class teacher or the
• The East Clare Athletics competition will take place on Thursday next 14th September in Lee’s Road. This does not give us much time to train but already Ms. Burke and Ms. O’ Neill have started to take pupils interested in athletics for training at lunchtimes. We wish all involved the best of luck.
• Our Mass to celebrate the new school year will take place on Thursday 21st Sept at 11a.m. in the school hall. Parents/guardians and family members are welcome to attend. If you do not wish your child to attend please let your child’s class teacher know in writing. ( a note in the journal for older pupils is fine)

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome back to school as we begin another school year. Our news this week is as follows

• I would like to welcome all our new Junior Infant pupils and their parents and guardians to St. Tola’s. I hope that your time here will be happy and fulfilling and we look forward to getting to know our new pupils as they begin their primary education. The Junior Infants will finish at 12p.m. for the first two weeks and will finish at 1.40p.m. from Wednesday 13th September.
• Our staff for the current year is as follows Junior Infants – Ms. Lisa Hackett, Ms. Ciara Cleary, Senior Infants – Ms. Amanda Corry ( covering for Ms. Siobhan Kelleher until end of Oct), 1st Class – Ms. Fiona Burke, 2nd Class – Ms. Lorna O’ Neill, 3rd Class – Ms. Diana Fleming, 4th Class – Ms Maria Hehir, 5th Class – Mr. David Quinn, 6th Class – Ms. Noreen Vaughan SET teachers – Ms. Karen Riordan, Ms. Clare Fitzsimons, Ms. Edel Halliday, Ms. Erin McGuane/Ms. Alicia Nyhan (jobsharing) Ms. Christine Hogan ( covering for Ms. Lorraine Connolly) SNAs – Mary O Shaughnessy/Joanne O’ Sullivan (jobsharing), Sinead Duff.
• Can I remind all parents/guardians to label jumpers/tracksuits/coats as well as lunchbags and lunchboxes. It is much easier to return lost or misplaced items if there is a name on them!
• Thank you to all parents who have paid for their children’s books. We kindly request that any outstanding monies owed for your child’s books be paid to the school office at your earliest convenience or by Friday 8th September. We have sent home a breakdown of the books your child will receive today. It is our policy to issue receipts for all monies received for books.
• We have sent out an updated contact list to all families today also. Please return at your earliest convenience. From next week the weekly newsletter will be emailed to all families and also posted on the school website at www.tolasns.com. To ensure that we have the correct email addresses please let us know on the contacts form. If more than one member of a family would like to receive the newsletter please supply the relevant email addresses. If you do not receive the newsletter from next week via email please let us know via the school office.
• Please find the school calendar attached to today’s newsletter. We expect that there will be some closures for inservice training for the school staff during the school year but we have not been informed of the date by the Department of Education and Skills yet.
• Over the summer holidays the Board of Management organised some upgrades to the school building. The toilets in 2nd-6th classes were completely refurbished. As you can appreciate this was a significant project and we are delighted with the outcome. New carpet was also laid in the Junior Infant classroom and in 3rd class.
• I would like to wish all pupils, staff and parents/guardians the best for the school year ahead and I look forward to sharing school life with you.

 Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, Principal