Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well this week despite the change in weather. Our news is as follows

• We had a lovely Mass today in Mary Immaculate Church to celebrate the start of the current school year. Thank you to all the pupils who did jobs and represented the school so well. Thank you to the choir who enhanced our Mass with their beautiful singing and music and thank you to all the pupils and staff who attended and celebrated together.  I would also like to thank the choir led by Muinteoir Alanna and Múinteoir Kate for giving up their lunchtimes over the past few days to practise for our Mass today.
• Well done to all our pupils, and staff who went to Lee’s Road yesterday for the East Clare Schools Cross Country competition. It must have been one of the worst weather conditions ever but great credit must go to every pupil who went. They did not let the weather affect them and all performed so well. We are very proud of them.
• Last Tuesday we started some rugby coaching for every class with coach Liam from Munster Rugby. The pupils learnt some fun drills and games and played out on the astro turf. This coaching will run for the next few weeks.
• As the weather has taken a turn for the worst this week can we ask that each pupil brings a coat to school. We will go out to play any day that is dry even if it is a little cold. It is good for pupils to get plenty of fresh air if possible during the school day.
• Our school was awarded a participation certificate by Clare Education Centre for our Agree to Agree project last night. 10 schools in County Clare took part in this initiative and a further number of schools have signed up for this year. I would encourage every family to read through our guidance document and to decide what you can do as a family to ensure that your child is safe online on any device. If it makes it any easier for you as a family we have a document to sign called Be Safe. If anyone would like another copy of our guidance document or our form to sign please contact the office and we are happy to give another one to you.
• Today is SNA appreciation day. We are so fortunate in St Tolas to have an amazing group of SNAs who always go above and beyond to support not only the pupils assigned to them but very often lend support to the class as a whole they are working in. We know we are lucky to have an amazing SNA team in our school and today is a day that we say thank you for all that you do.  

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal