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

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome back to school as we begin a brand new school year. We hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing summer. Our news this week is as follows

• We welcome our new Junior Infant pupils and new pupils who have joined some of our classes up the school. Our new Juniors will be in school from 9a.m. to 12p.m. up to and including Wednesday 11^th September. For all our new pupils we hope that your time in St Tolas will be enjoyable and that you learn lots and make great friends too.
• Our staff allocation is as follows. Please note that the staff have changed the way we are addressed and all teachers are now known as Muinteoir (teacher in Irish) Name

• Thank you to the family of AnneMarie Joyce who made a generous donation to the school in her memory. We sincerely thank them for their generosity at such a difficult time and the donation will be used to benefit the pupils.
• Our hot lunches are back for all classes apart from Junior Infants since yesterday.  A letter and activation code will be sent home today with the Juniors who need to be set up before 12th September. Can we remind you to make sure to send in the lunchbag lunchbox with your child every day so they can bring home any leftover lunch in order for you to check if they have eaten it or not. Please note that lunches cannot be reheated again at home. Your child will still need to bring a drink preferably water) and a healthy snack for breaktime. We are a nut free school due to having a number of pupils with severe allergies. Please check all snacks to ensure they are nut free. We thank you for your co-operation in this matter.
• Can you please make sure that all uniform jumpers/tops are labelled with your child’s name. If the weather is warm many pupils take off the jumpers and they can get mislaid if there are no names on them. Pupils are expected to wear the grey school uniform or hoodie/plain navy tracksuit pants every day.
• Please see health update information for primary pupils sent by the HSE attached to this email for your information.
• Congratulations to Ms Lisa Hackett and her partner Seamus on the safe arrival of their brand new baby daughter yesterday. We wish them every blessing at this special time.

Kind regards, Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, School Principal