Dear Parents, Guardians,
Last week, another bike was taken from our campus bike racks here in school.
Please see attached partial image of the stolen bike and full image of the exact same type (but in a slightly different colour).
Please let us know if you, or your child, become aware of the whereabouts of this bike.
Also, please remind your children to ensure that all bicycles and scooters are locked whilst on campus.
Kind regards,
Pádraig Conaty
Principal
Dear Parents/Guardians,
We hope that this communication finds you well. We are writing to you with regard to some important issues relating to our school.
Permanent Accommodation
We have received great news about our school permanent build. The project has gone to tender and the date for tender return is mid-July. We will update you further after the summer holidays. This is great progress and we are very grateful to all of you who contacted local representatives to highlight the concerns of our school community. In March, our school was mentioned by name in Dail Eireann on five different occasions in parliamentary questions to the Taoiseach, Tanaiste, Minister for Education and Minister for Special Education. There is no doubt that our proactive approach helped to move things along and get us the outcome we need and deserve.
Lunchtime
As a result of ongoing consultation with the student council, over the past few weeks, students have been permitted to remain in their classrooms daily from 12.27pm until 12.40pm in order to eat their lunch. This protocol has worked extremely well since its introduction and we are looking to continue for the rest of the term and into 2023-2024 with the same approach. Our Student Council deserve a huge amount of credit for the level of maturity with which they approached this complex and messy problem. Over several meetings, they explored various options, consulted with staff around what was and was not feasible, found a workable solution and then communicated their expectations to our entire student body. This was a superb example of student voice and student leadership. Well done to all students involved.
Library
Thank you to all parents and guardians who have donated books to our school library. Our student library sub-committee were overwhelmed with your generosity. We are still in the process of cataloguing all books received and we look forward to our library going from strength to strength over the coming months.
PSA Quiz
Thank you to our PSA Committee for all their work in organising our first PSA Table Quiz taking place this Thursday 18th May at 7.45pm in Peggy Kellys. It promises to be a great night in helping parents connect with one another as well as raising much needed funds for our school musical – ‘Let’s Hear It for the 80s’due to take place Autumn 2023.We hope to see you all there. Tables are still available. You can book your ticket now for what should be a really fun night. If you are unable to attend but would like to make a donation, you can do so via same link.
ASD Class
The NCSE have recently sanctioned us to open our second ASD class. We have just started to make offers to students on our waiting list who have a recommendation for a Special Class in a Mainstream School. Opening this class in August 2023 will be another significant milestone for us on our journey to becoming a fully inclusive school community. If you know of any 6th Class parents in our local area looking for a place in an ASD class for 2023-2024, please ask them to contact Alex (office@hcetss.ie) in confidence, as soon as possible.
HXETNS Summer Event
We have been contacted by Harold’s Cross Educate Together National School to see if any of our students would like to help out at their Summer Event. The event is on Sunday 11th June from 1.00pm-4.00pm. However, they would be happy if interested and available students could help out for even just some of the event. There will be cakes, sandwiches and water that they can help themselves to throughout the afternoon! There will be many different 'stations'. For all of these stations, there will be a HXETNS parent nearby overseeing things.
Ideally, the areas where they are looking for student help are:
If your child would like to be involved in this event, please forward their name to Alex in the school office who will liaise with HXETNS.
Staff Appreciation
Finally, as we reach the end of what has been another amazing year for our school, we would like to pay tribute to our amazing staff who work tirelessly to ensure that each of your children experience an inclusive, engaging and caring school environment every single day. To help us with this, we need your help! We are going to create a staff appreciation wall in our staffroom and would like to post on this wall, messages from you, our wonderful parent body. Please see below link
This will only take around three minutes to complete but will really mean the world to our staff. We would be hugely grateful if you could complete this 11.00am on Friday 19thMay. And please don’t tell your child, we want it to be a staff surprise!
Thank you all for your continued support.
It is hugely appreciated.
Kind regards,
Padraig & Mick
Dear parents/guardians,
The Home-Based Summer Programme is available in 2023 for children who meet the eligibility criteria, and for whom no school-based programme is available.
The information on the Home-Based Summer Programme is attached . If you would like to apply, please email your application to nicolamccann@hcetss.ie
Kind regards, School Office
Dear parents/guardians,
We are currently finalising student places for 2023-24.
At the moment, we have waiting lists for all Year Groups.
If for any reason, your child will not be returning to HCETSS in August 2023, could you please let us know as soon as possible?
Kind regards, School Office
Dear parents/guardians,
Our Parents Staff Association's quiz is postponed to Thursday 18th May in Peggy Kelly’s at 7.45 (kick off 8pm). It will not happen this Thursday.
The PSA will be in touch to confirm details by email.
Kind regards, School Office
Dear parents/guardians,
We were asked to publish the survey below survey to the school community.
Connections Arts Centre’s mission is to assist people with disabilities to overcome barriers encountered every day that lead to them being devalued and excluded from their communities. All our programmes are inclusive. They are designed and led based on the needs of the participants and are hosted by experienced facilitators. This makes our programmes accessible to everyone in the community. Everything we do is designed and led based on direct interaction with the disability community. Currently, our services support adults with disabilities within the community and we are now developing our inclusive children's programmes.
Over the next few months, starting on Monday, July 3rd we would like to launch a ‘taster’ children's programme followed by a longer inclusive after-school programme from September and we need your input. By helping us answer a few questions, that take no more than 10 minutes, you will support us to understand what would work best for you/your child/children. This in return will provide a better learning experience for all. Our goal is to gather information to assist parents and guardians and better ensure their children are obtaining the support that they need. Time is precious, so I truly appreciate your taking the time to complete this survey. As always your input will be kept confidential.
Link to Survey:
Thank you for your time,
Connections Arts Centre
Dear parents/guardians,
We would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who were so generous with your time in engaging with our School Self-Evaluation Parent Focus Groups. We are currently working on our School Improvement Plan and School Self-Evaluation Report which will be shared with all stakeholders upon completion and approval by our Board of Management.
In this context, we have brought together some key expectations from a number of current school policies into a one-page student-friendly document. Please see attached. Our goal is to ensure that our wonderful students are engaged and supported in their learning over the rest of this term.
This document is shaped to ensure that our students arrive to school ready to learn and enables them to take ownership of their learning in their school. The document has been distributed this week to all students. We ask that over this weekend, you speak to your child about how they can get the most from the remaining four weeks of term. What steps do they need to commit to, in order to achieve their full potential. We greatly appreciate your support in ensuring that your child arrives to school ready to learn and engages with their learning in each of their lessons.
This document will be reviewed by staff and students in early June and will also be added into student journals which we will introduce to students in August 2023.
As always, thank you for your continued support and all that you do to help make HCETSS the student-centred, engaging and supportive school which we are very proud to be.
Kind regards,
Padraig & Mick
Dear parents/guardians,
Our TY Parent Information talk on Thursday 18th May will now take place at 6.30pm. Tea and coffee available from 6.15pm. This change is to accommodate Third Year Parents who wish to attend our PSA Table Quiz also taking place on Thursday 18th May at 7.45pm in Peggy Kelly's pub.
Kind regards,
TY team
Both boys and girls basketball will be on tomorrow Wed. 17th May 3 - 3:45pm. No girls training on Thursday.
Dear parents/guardians,
Jut a short reminder - our TY Parent Information talk on Thursday 18th May will take place at 6.30pm. Tea and coffee available from 6.15pm. This change is to accommodate Third Year Parents who wish to attend our PSA Table Quiz also taking place on Thursday 18th May at 7.45pm in Peggy Kelly's pub.
Kind regards, TY Team.