Parents may be interested to know that a Parent's Association has
been recently formed in St Clares.
Such associations are commonplace in most schools and it was felt
by a number of parents, with the support of the principal, that such
an Association would be a welcome development.
The Education Act, 1998 sets down the role of the parent Association:
"A parents'association shall promote the interests of the students
in a school in co-operation with the board, principal, teachers and
students". Accordingly, officers and a committee were selected. The
Association has now affiliated to the National Parents Council.
While a Parents Association can have many functions, the committee
felt the most important function of the Association was to act as
advocates for our children and to raise issues which concern parents
in relation to for example, the provision of therapists.
Speech and language, occupational therapists etc are engaged by the
Health Service Executive rather than by the Dept of Education and
we as parents need to highlight the under-provision of these therapists
to our children. We know that this is also of great concern to the
principal, the teachers and the SNAs in St Clares who do an excellent
job.
We will contact parents about our efforts by sending letters home
from time to time with the children and also in the newsletter, a
recent welcome initiative by the dedicated staff of St Clares.
If any parent has suggestions or comments they wish to make, we would
appreciate receiving them. When one forms a Parents Association in
a school, all parents become members automatically!
The officers are:
Tony Boland (Chairperson) Telephone:0657079906, Jim Jones (Treasurer):
Telephone 0656822423 and Mary Pyne (Secretary) Telephone:0656832292.
I Mary Pyne, have an e-mail address
which is: marypyne2@eircom.net
and Tony and Jim will have these available to them in the near future.