Dear Parents/Guardians,

HCETSS is committed to developing and promoting the literacy skills of our students.  As part of this work, over the coming weeks, we intend to screen all First Years’ literacy skills by looking at their reading, spelling and writing.  We are doing this to help us identify students’ strengths and needs in order to plan our literacy supports.

The screening test we are using is called the Post Primary Assessment & Diagnosis-English (or PPAD-E for short).  The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), working with the Educational Research Centre (ERC), recently designed this test specifically for students in Irish post primary schools.

The PPAD-E has five parts: reading and understanding passages, spelling, written work, reading speed, and word reading. Four of the five parts of the PPAD-E are completed in class groups.  This takes approximately one hour to complete. The final part, a short word reading task, is done individually, with a teacher in the school.  The test is suited to all ability levels, including students who struggle with reading.

There is no need for your child to prepare in advance.  The purpose of the test is to help us know when someone may need extra help with learning, and what kind of help might be best.  As we identify those students who require extra help, we will be able to tailor classroom instruction to meet those needs and give targeted interventions to those who need it.

Following the assessment, the ERC receives an anonymised dataset from the school that contains only school ID and test scores.  The ERC uses this information to know how many tests are being taken, to manage printing and supplies, and also to use as a basis for future development of the PPAD-E test. Your child’s information will not be identifiable because the student names, IDs or any other identifying information, will not be shared by the school with the ERC.

Thank you for your continued support.

 Kind regards,

Padraig Conaty

Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As per school calendar, our First Year parent teacher meetings will take place this Thursday 14th December in person at the school from 4.15pm to 6.45pm.

During the meetings, teachers will be situated in a number of classrooms as per below.

Room 20 (Block 1):  Rhianna Costello, Lorraine Galvin, Claudia Murtagh  

Room 26 (Block 2): Daniel Clark, Leonna Condron, Laura Power

Room 27 (Block 2): Laoise Slattery, Ciara Mealy, Shane Hynes       

Room 28 (Block 2): Niamh Hogan, Amy Kerins, Deirdre McGauran, Caoimhe McHugh

Room 30 (Block 2): Amie Hughes, Aideen Kinsella, Conor Halton, Niamh Small

Room 32 (Block 2): Gráinne McInerney, Ryan McGill, Emily O’Dwyer, Gerard Vickery

Support Centre Room 15: Nicola McCann

Upon arrival you will be greeted by our student council members who will direct you to the classrooms being used. Please note that the majority of the teachers will be in the classrooms in block 2, however one classroom is being used in block 1 (room 20).  All classrooms will have a sign with the room number and there will also be information beside the entrance to the classroom, outlining which teachers are holding meetings in that room. If you cannot find a teacher you are looking for, please ask one of our student council members, they will be wearing high visibility bibs and will be more than happy to help. 

As can be the case with secondary school parent teacher meetings, it will not be possible to speak to all of your child’s teachers on the night and we would encourage you to prioritise the teachers who you particularly wish to speak to. Teachers who appear highlighted in red will be particularly busy and will likely have longer queues as they teach 3 or more classes in this year group (90 students approx).

Each meeting will last for a maximum of 6 minutes and the meetings will finish at 6.45pm sharp. We do expect there to be some queuing therefore the earlier you arrive the more teachers you will have the opportunity to talk to. From our experience, peak times tend to be from 5.30 to 6.45pm.

Before you come to the meeting, it is important that you are aware of who your child’s teachers are. You will be able to find this information by logging in to your Vsware parent account and clicking on ‘timetable’. The winter report which you are due to receive on Tuesday afternoon of this week will also highlight who your child’s teachers are. We would ask that you bring a hard copy or that you can access a soft copy on your device of this report for the meetings. 

Please note that there is no parking on site and the vehicle gates will be locked.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

Kind Regards,

Pádraig Conaty, Principal 

Mick Heffernan, Deputy Principal                                                                         

Dear parents/guardians,

On behalf on ADHD Ireland we would like to invite all interested parties to the Parent ADHD Information Event today, on Tuesday 5/12 at 7pm. Please see below the link to a Zoom meeting:

ADHD Ireland is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Parent information session

Time: Dec 5, 2023 07:00 PM Dublin

Join Zoom Meeting

us06web.zoom.us/j/85418983453?pwd=VWxIR3Y1N25PK0ozYmR4ZFl2OTFtUT09

Meeting ID: 854 1898 3453

Passcode: 861459

Kind regards, 

School Office

Dear parents/guardians,

We are running College Awareness Week at HCETSS, from the 11th to the 15th of December. As part of this, we are looking for guest speakers to talk to the students about their own experiences at school, college/university/apprenticeship, and working life from 8:45-12:00 on Friday 15th December. The session with the different year groups are only 30 minutes long so even if you are only available for one session that is ok too.  

If you are interested in taking part in this activity or have a link to anyone else who you may think would be interested, please contact Lorraine at lorrainegalvin@hcetss.ie for all the details.

Thank you,  Lorraine

Dear parents/guardians, 

Ger Vickery is absent today, so he will not be able to meet you at the Parent Teacher Meeting.

Kind regards, School Office

Basketball will not take place today Tues 5/12 or tomorrow Wed 6/12. 

Dear parents/guardians,

There will be online safety seminars set up for parents on Thursday 30th November at 7 pm and the school would like to encourage as many parents as possible to attend these.

As parents and carers, we know that Internet Safety is so important in terms of keeping our children safe online and it’s good to get reminders of what we should be doing to ensure this.

HCETSS has partnered with Zeeko Education to provide bespoke Internet Safety Seminars to the school’s Junior Cycle students, all staff and all parents.

On Thursday 30th November, Zeeko Education will visit the school, facilitate student seminars and a staff workshop during the school day.

Later that evening, they will present an online seminar to parents at 7.00pm. The parent seminar will cover:

1) Understanding of the issues and opportunities facing children online

2) Actionable Insights for you and your family

 The below issues are addressed as per the above points:

1) Cyber-bullying

2) Inappropriate Content

3) Stranger Danger

4) Digital Footprint

5) Social Media / Excessive Internet Usage

 Please note the registration link below.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0uceGuqTkjG9Y0M_y7EPgR_IzcJKodOXYD 

 If you have questions before the seminar please send these to office@hcetss.ie before Tuesday 28th then these can be raised with Zeeko and dealt with on the workshop.

Kind regards, 

School Office

Dear parents/guardians,

 Please note that as per our calendar, the school will be closed on Monday 4th December.

 Kind regards, School Office

Dear parents/guardians,

Our musical “Let's Hear It For The 80's” will be taking place from the 23rd - 25th of November in the Assumption Junior National School, Walkinstown.

Doors open at 7 pm, curtain’s up at 7.45pm. Tickets purchased via the app will be distributed  to the students today. If you purchase additional tickets today and/or tomorrow, you collect them at the box office on the night.

The Parent Staff Association (PSA) have organised a raffle to raise funds for the school.

The raffle will take place each night during the School Musical on Thursday 23rd , Friday 24th  and Saturday 25th November.

 Tickets for the raffle can be purchased at the musical each night, look out for our PSA team (hint: near the tuck shop) at the venue by cash only.

 We are very thankful for the generosity of our parent and local business communities that have provided amazing raffle gifts such as 3 X 1 month free gym membership at Smart Fit Harolds Cross, Dinner for 2 at Brother Hubbards in Ranelagh, 4 X €25 voucher for Indian Tiffins on Rathgar Avenue, Pharmacy hampers from 3 local Pharmacies , vouchers to our local Siopa Linn for all your hardware needs and several other fantastic gifts!

 We hope to see some of you there. Your support is greatly appreciated.

 Kind regards,

Leonna, Amy and The Parent Staff Association