Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well as we begin a new month. Our news this week is as follows

• The A.G.M of the Parents’ Association will take place here in the school on Monday evening at 7.30p.m. If your child is enrolled in the school you are automatically a member of the Parents’ Association. There are only a few meetings in the year. If you would like to find out more information or get involved come along to the AGM. All are welcome.
• Last Monday Seniors and 5^th class went on a nature walk together to spot the signs of Autumn. Seniors had made binoculars in Art to help them spot the colours of the leaves, acorns, seeds and birds. 5^th class were a big help with the Senior Infants and also made lots of observations on the changing season. It is lovely to get outside and learn outdoors once in a while.
• Last Monday Garda Suzanne Clear visited both 1^st classes and both 2^nd classes. She talked to the pupils about the ways Gardai can help and protect them. The pupils got to try on her Garda hat and hi vis vest too! There were lots of great questions from the pupils about the role of the Gardai.
• Next Monday members of Shannon Gardai will visit 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th classes to talk to the pupils about Halloween safety. We are looking forward to this visit.
• Gaelic football training started this week at lunchtimes for boys and girls from 5^th and 6^th classes in preparation for the Cumann na mBunscoil football competition which will commence in the coming weeks. Thank you to the staff involved who are giving up their lunchtimes to train the pupils. Best of luck to all involved in the coming competitions.
• Next Monday staff from St Caimin’s Community School will visit 6^th class to talk about their school and invite our pupils to their Open Night. On 14^th October staff from St. Patrick’s Comprehensive School will visit 6^th class also. Both schools will distribute their prospectus to the pupils in 6^th class ahead of the Open nights.
• On Thursday the 24^th of October, St Tolas infamous Halloween Quiz will make it’s come back.  Tables are €20, 4 people per table with a minimum of one adult.  There will be spot prizes and a tuck shop on the night.  If anyone has spot prizes they would like to donate or wish to book a table please contact Múinteoir Fíona through the office.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

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

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well and enjoying the fine weather this week. Let’s hope it continues for another while. Our news this week is as follows

• Our homework journals finally arrived yesterday and were distributed to classes. We apologise for the delay in getting them but our supplier had issues. Thankfully they have arrived and can be put to good use!
• We had great news this week when we found out that St Tolas has been selected to take part in one of the  Peace Proms 25 concert in the University of Limerick next March. Pupils from 4^th, 5^th and 6^th classes are invited to take part. We will join with schools from all over the Mid West and the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland to perform a number of songs. There will also be world class soloists from all over Ireland performing at the concert. St Tolas has taken part a number of times and it is a unique and special experience for every child who attends. 
• I would like to wish our pupils taking part in the East Clare Cross Country competition in Lee’s Road Ennis all the best next Wednesday 25^th September. Thank you to Múinteoir Lorna, Múinteoir Fiona, Múinteoir Ciara and Múinteoir Maeve for giving up their lunchtimes over the past few weeks to train the pupils. I hope the weather stays fine for the competition on Wednesday.
• We will celebrate the opening of the new school year with a special mass in Mary Immaculate Church next Thursday 26^th September at 11a.m. Parents and grandparents are welcome to join us. We will make alternative arrangements for the pupils who do not attend Mass here in the school.
• Shannon parish published the dates for Communion and Confirmation ceremonies for all schools last weekend. St. Tola’s Confirmation ceremony will take place on Friday 2^nd May at 11a.m. while First Communion will take place on Saturday 17^th May at 11a.m.
• While we have returned to school recently I am afraid to say that headlice have also decided to come back to school. Please check your child’s head regularly. If you find headlice please let us know and we can alert everyone in the class. it is important to treat headlice to get rid of them. If you call into your local pharmacist they can give advice in relation to treatments. If your child has long hair it might be a good idea to keep it tied up and there is less chance of headlice transferring from one head to another.
• Please see flyer attached from Shannon Library in relation to sensory play workshops.
• Please see flyer attached from Fergus Dental here in Shannon who have an offer for child dental examinations – ‘PAY YOUR AGE DENTAL EXAMINATION’ – cost of dental examination will be the same as the age of the child.
• Our Agree to Agree Internet and technology user guide has been sent out recently to all families in the school. Thank you to those who have signed up to this agreement. If you would still like to sign up but do not have the form please contact the office and we can give you a new form. Our agreement is being launched next Wednesday in Clare Education Centre along with a number of other schools in Clare where we will celebrate the work carried out in the past few months.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well this week. Our news is as follows

• On Thursday the 24^th of October St Tolas infamous Halloween Quiz will make it’s come back.  Tables are €20, 4 people per table with a minimum of one adult.  There will be spot prizes and a tuck shop on the night.  If anyone has spot prizes they would like to donate or wish to book a table please contact Múinteoir Fíona through the office.
• A meeting will take place next Tuesday 17^th September here in the school to elect a parent nominee (mother) to the Board of Management. All parents are eligible to nominate and all mothers of pupils currently enrolled in the school are eligible to nominate themselves and stand for election.
• Our Junior Infants are staying for their first full school day today. They will attend from 9a.m. to 1.40p.m. They are very excited about getting their “big lunch” and we are looking forward to having them here for their full day. I am delighted to see how well Juniors are settling into school routines and learning lots of new things. Well done Juniors!
• Some of our pupils are brought to school by bus. Can you please ensure you are not totally blocking the car park in the morning so that the bus can safely enter and leave. The bus has to drop pupils to other schools also and needs to be able to exit the car park easily. Also there are two disabled parking spaces in the car park. These are needed for pupils who are wheelchair users. Please do not park in or block these spaces. If there is no place in the car park the Gardai have told us it is ok to park on the road as long as you do not block a neighbour’s driveway. We would also respectfully ask that you do not park at the back of the houses in Collins Park beside the school. Some of the neighbours have informed us that they have been blocked in and have been unable to get out in time for work. This is unfair.  We thank you for your co-operation in this matter.
• Can you please ensure that your child has a coat in school for the cooler days that are fast approaching. We will be going outside if it is dry every day. Please make sure that your child’s name is on the coat so we can return coats to their rightful owners.
• 5^th and 6^th classes have started swimming lessons this week. Swimming is part of the Physical Education curriculum for primary schools.  Shannon Leisure Centre now bill us for the number of pupils booked irrespective if they attend every lesson or not. We have to ask that parents pay €30 to cover the costs of the six lessons upfront.
• At the start of the school year we remind pupils that the two most important rules in St Tolas are BE KIND  and TRY YOUR BEST.  Be kind means looking out for each other, watching how we speak to each other and if you hurt someone you make it up to them. Try your best means being willing to give things a go even if they are hard. We all make mistakes and that is part of learning too and we try our best to learn from those mistakes and move on.

Kind regards, Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are keeping well as we approach the end of our first full week back at school. Our news is as follows

• Last school year we consulted parents, pupils and staff around benefits and concerns of technology in pupils’ lives. We had fantastic parent engagement on this with many parents completing an online survey and a good turn out at a consultation meeting held here in the school. We have put together a document with advice and guidance on recommended best practise in different areas of technology use along with resources that may be useful to you. The thinking behind this document is that if we all in the school community agree to some ground rules it makes it easier for our pupils. We are sending out a hard copy today in your child’s bag of our Agree to Agree Internet and Technology User Agreement. We have also included a page for parents and child to sign if they wish to try it out and this can be returned to the school. This is an entirely voluntary code. Please take the time to discuss this with your child and as a family and decide what will work best for you in your family situation. I would like to thank all parents, pupils and staff who have contributed to this document. We all want to keep our pupils safe as they navigate the online world. I have attached a letter from the Minister for Education in relation to smartphones that was received by all schools recently.
• If you know your child is going to be absent for a number of days we would ask that you turn off their hot lunch order for those days to avoid waste. Please note we still operate a healthy eating policy and all snacks and drinks must adhere to this policy. We are also a nut free school as a number of pupils have severe nut allergies and we would ask that you check your child’s snack items to ensure they are nut free. we thank you for your co-operation in this matter.
• Our school days starts at 9a.m. sharp each morning. The doors are not open until 8.45a.m. and pupils will be supervised from that time. Some teachers arrive before this time and use this time to organise and prep for the day ahead. We have assigned doors for each class to ensure safe and orderly entrance and egress of the building. Juniors and Seniors use the side gate beside their classrooms, 1^st use the side door at the front of the building, 2^nd use the back gate, 3^rd and 4^th use the door beside the 4^th class room while 5^th and 6^th have their own entrance at the front of the building. Juniors will finish at 12p.m. up to and including Wednesday 11^th September. From Thursday 12^th September Juniors will finish at 1.40p.m.
• Swimming lessons start next week for 5^th and 6^th classes only in Shannon Leisure Centre. 5^th will start on Wed 11^th September and 6^th on Thursday 12^th September.  They will run for 6 weeks and cost €30. We have to ask that you pay for all lessons as the Leisure Centre charges us for the total number of pupils booked. You can make this payment via the Aladdin link or send in the money to the office.

Kind regards,

Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal