Welcome Back!
Term 1 Week 1 August 29th - Sept 1st
Important Information for the new school year
Arrival to school:
The back gate opens at 8:20am allowing access to the yard, children can go straight to their line. There is no access to the play structures at this time. Children are under the supervision of their parents/guardians until teachers enter the yard at 8:30am to collect their line. The front gate (at the car park) will be open and Niall will guide you out the gate to leave the school. We are operating a one-way system in the yard. The back gate will be locked at 8:35am at which time children should enter through the front door where Teresa will give the children a welcome slip with their entry time so the teacher can log their time on Aladdin. This is all part of our attendance and punctuality strategy. Our school is full now and staff must be in their classrooms so we can no longer facilitate late entry through the side gate. We are very grateful for parent/guardian cooperation with this.
Dates for your diary:
15th September: Sponsored Walk
20th September: PTA AGM (in school) Wednesday Evening
6th October: Grandparents Day - 1st Class event
27th October: Close at 1:10/2:10 on Friday 27th October for mid-term break. This will be a dress-up day - "One Day Together", back on Monday 6th November
9th November: Early Closure 12pm on Thursday 9th November to facilitate Term 1 whole Staff Meeting
Our School Booklet can be found on our website: https://www.graceparketns.com/_files/ugd/03174b_4ac3cdf168904588bb4ed0b04e44d717.pdf
The Acquaintance Meeting schedule is also linked. This is a chance to meet you child's teacher as a class group and hear about the plans for the year ahead.
The support team will be in touch about IEP meetings/phonecalls in the next week. These will take place the week of the 11th and 18th of September.
Communication: As outlined in the booklet (linked above) if you need to contact your child's teacher at any time, please use the Aladdin App. You can send a message directly to your child's teacher. Instructions can be found in the booklet. Every Monday, parents/guardians will receive a newsletter with news of the week. Parents/guardians will also receive an update from their child's teacher with a "Five on Friday" review of the week.
School Payment Requests via Aladdin: Links have been sent out on Aladdin for the 78e school payment. This covers school books, stationery, arts and crafts materials. It does not cover school tours/transport or extra curricular activities such as swimming, cycling safety, etc. There is no rush on this and it can be paid in instalments (minimum payment of 5e) over the course of the term/year. 5th class have also received a payment request for Cycling Safety (10e). Thank you!
Junior Infants News
We are so proud of our 50 new Junior Infants and how well they have settled into Grace Park ETNS. Here are some photos from Michelle's class. The children enjoyed free play, aistear, circle time and fine motor stations. We will see Junior infant parents on Wednesday(Michelle) and Thursday (Ciara) at 11:30 for their acquaintance meetings. This is a time to meet your teacher and ask any questions you may have for the year ahead! Junior infants will go home at 12pm this week.
Lunch Bag service
If you avail of the lunch bag, please make sure your child’s name is updated to their new teacher for this year. Sometimes there are over 80 lunches to deliver and we want to make sure they get delivered to the right classes. Thank you!
Extra Curricular Activities
ECAs will be back the week of October 2nd. The ECA team will be in touch soon with the schedule.
Sports in Grace Park ETNS
We are delighted to say we will be entering teams in a range of sporting competitions again this year including GAA, Soccer, Basketball and Athletics.
Depending on the sport and the rules from the competition, this will dictate if there is a certain number that can be brought or age ranges.
All information will be communicated by the leader of whichever sport closer to the time of the competition.
In September we will be entered in the Cumann na mBunscoil GAA (Football) competition beginning around the 14th/15th.
This year we are delighted to announce we have enough numbers for a boys and girls team that will both compete in the Senior Competitions.
There will be a change with travelling to games this year. With the rising costs of private buses it is unsustainable to be paying massive rates to go to away games.
We are hoping for away games if they are outside the zones close to us for Dublin Bus that parents of children involved on the team would carpool and bring players to away games.
We will communicate times and dates as early as possible in the hope that organising transport will be easier.
Child and Family Support Network
Our school is part of the local Child and Family Support Network and it regularly liaises with different organisations that provide all kinds of supports to families. This year, we will endeavour to keep parents and careres up to date with local workshops and classes by posting information in these newsletters. The programmes may be of interest to you and are usually all free of charge.
"At Preparing for Life we are delighted to announce that registration is now open for our Circle of Security Parenting groups taking place in Kilmore Dublin 5 and Baldoyle Dublin 13 this September. Circle of Security Parenting is a reflective yet practical course based on decades of research on how parents and kids thrive together. The 8 weekly sessions will help parents to understand their child’s emotions, understand their own needs as a parent, strengthen their bond with their child and support their child’s behaviour through connection. The groups are free and open to parents in Dublin 3,5,13 and 17. They are ideally suited to those parenting a child aged 0-8 years. Parents can click on the following link to register interest in one of our upcoming groups https://forms.office.com/e/jG1dmqUBCt. For more info or to ask any questions contact Jane at 0872033820 or jane.taylor@nspartnership.ie. Click on the link below to see a video summary of Circle of Security Parenting https://youtu.be/1wpz8m0BFM8"
HSE Vaccination Programme
We have been informed by the schools vaccination team that the schools' vaccination programme will recommence this year after a number of years' break due to Covid.
Further information will be provided to the classes that are scheduled in due course.
A message from the National Parents Council
Dear Parents,
We at National Parents Council (www.npc.ie) hope that you are having a great summer! We are mailing you today to inform you regarding some great news for parents and children alike from the Department of Education! The Primary Curriculum Framework was launched by the Minister on 9 March 2023.
This Framework is for all primary and special schools and will guide teachers and school leaders in their work to enhance learning, teaching and assessment for all children through the new curriculum.
Watch the video regarding this here: https://youtu.be/kK5GvhzngCM
Parents and guardians play a key role in their child’s education. The new curriculum for primary and special schools promotes a partnership approach which will encourage increased communication between schools and parents. This aims to keep parents and guardians informed of their child’s progress in school and the school informed of the child’s learning at home. For more information on the New Primary Curriculum, please visit: https://www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/027ad-primary-curriculum-framework/#
Parents and guardians have already influenced the content of the new curriculum and will continue to do so as more public consultations take place on the areas and subjects of the new curriculum in 2024. These consultations will be widely advertised by the Department of Education and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA)- https://ncca.ie/en/updates-and-events/consultations/
We have attached a leaflet with more information on the framework along with this mail for your reference.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
Warm regards,
National Parents Council