| |
Holy Family National School
Newsletter April 2008 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
Voluntary Contributions |
| |
The Board of Management. Parents
Association and Staff would like to thank parents for their very generous
contributions some of which was included with the book lists in June 2007. The
total to date for the school year 2007-2008 is €6,735.00. As explained in
previous correspondence the money from the Voluntary Contribution goes towards
the day to day running expenses of the school. You may be aware that in the
Programme for Government schools were promised a doubling of the grant for the
running expenses of schools. What was delivered was an increase of about 8% and
a large portion of that was wiped out with the increase in the price of oil and
the introduction of water rates for schools. The good news for us is that
school finances are back on track thanks to the contributions from
parents. |
| |
|
| |
School Development |
| |
There will be three Junior Infant
classes in September 2008 in our school. We have been able to accommodate every
child from within the parish who was looking for a place in Junior Infants.
Unfortunately there were a number of children who could not be enrolled in
other classes in the school due to the classes been full. Unfortunately class
size is still a major issue with us and every other primary school. The average
class size in Ireland is 27 and this was to be reduced by 1 each year for three
years to bring it down to 24. However that is another government promise for
primary schools that has been broken. In our school 6 of the 12 mainstream
classes are above the average 27 with 4 classes in excess of 30 pupils.
To accommodate the new influx of pupils we have been given a grant
from the Department to purchase and put in place two pre-fabricated classrooms
for next September. We also need two Learning Support rooms but to date the
Department has not granted any funding for them. Negotiations are ongoing. We
have a separate application with the Department for four permanent classrooms
and 3 Learning Support rooms for September 2009.
|
| |
|
| |
Sponsored Walk |
| |
The annual sponsored walk organised
by the Parents Association takes place on Sunday 18th May. Sponsorship cards
are being distributed to the children tomorrow. Money raised from the sponsored
walk will be used to pay for buses for school tours and to fund activities in
the school for the next school year. Every cent raised from the sponsored walk
will be used for the benefit of the children. Last year it was a huge success -
let's build on that.
|
| |
|
| |
Golf Classic |
| |
Our annual Golf Classic takes place
this year in Citywest on Friday 13th June. Let's hope we are not tempting fate
with that date! We have already received a great response from local
businesses, school suppliers and friends of the school. Included with this
newsletter is a sheet offering options to support the
Golf Classic. Perhaps some parent works in a
business or has a contact with a business that would be prepared to sponsor a
Tee box or donate a prize. We intend to use the money raised in the Golf
Classic to replace many of the outdated computers in our computer room, some of
which are 10 years old and to refurbish the computer room. We have got off to a
good start in that regard - a business called Xilinx Ireland Ltd. in Citywest
Business Park are donating 10 computers to our school which is very much
appreciated. Money will also be used to kit out the new classrooms in September
with new educational materials and Interactive Whiteboards. |
| |
|
