Fri 28th August

It was fantastic to see so many parents attend our information sessions today, we were really encouraged and excited for the year ahead. I firmly believe our school will only be as good as it's parent-teacher partnerships. Always remember that we are on the same side, working together to achieve the best for your children.

We will welcome our new P1's into the school on Monday and look forward to forging links with new families.

Our first newsletter has a lot of information and requests for your support with issues such as uniform, pick-up, punctuality etc. Please do not take these as negatives, but as ways we can make our school run smoothly, safely and fairly for everyone.

Congratulations to our P2 teacher Miss Barr as she got married over the summer. She is now Mrs McClurg.

You will have been given a new data collection sheet at the Information Session today, please make sure that this is returned as soon as possible. If any of your contact details change please send Joy an email so she can update them on our system. Think address, email, mobile number etc. for all the contacts on our data collection sheet.

Please see our uniform list below. Children must be in proper school uniform, please adhere to this, as when one child breaks the rules, lots more follow. We would also ask that no jewellery, toy watches, fancy hairbands etc are worn. These are very distracting for the children, can get easily broken and lost and are also a Health and Safety issue.

If your child has their ears pierced they may wear studs but no dangly earrings. A normal watch may be worn but not a smart watch or anything that can access games/wifi.

No toys to be brought into school. If your child brings anything into school that is not allowed it will be kept safe by the teacher until they are going home.

Attendance at school is statutory and monitored half-termly by our Education Welfare Officer.

When attendance falls below a cut- off mark, parents will be issued with a letter from the school. If attendance does not improve then a referral will be made to the EWO. This is a statutory obligation. The majority of our pupils have had excellent attendance but there has been an increase in the last few years of random days being taken here and there which all add up. There has also been a massive increase in the number of families taking holidays during term time. Our policy for term-time vacations is that we do not provide work for the child. Poor attendance has a profound effect on your child's education.

We fully understand that your child may be unwell throughout the year and there are attendance codes for this. Please keep your child at home if they are unwell, as sending them into school only spreads it around the class, apart from them being miserable in school. If they have a vomiting bug they must not return to school until 48 hrs after the last episode. Please notify your class teacher on Seesaw if your child is ill so it can be recorded under the correct absence code.

Jess, our lovely piano tutor, has 3 spaces available for lessons. These would take place on Thursday during the school day. Your child must be in P4-P7. Contact her directly if you are interested, her details are on the flyer below.

Breakfast Club will start on Mon 1st Sept and is available to book on SchoolMoney. It runs from 7:45 -8:45 each morning and costs £4 per day. This must be booked by midnight the night before. You may park in the staff car park but must walk your child up into the hall. There are a lot of staff and parents arriving and reversing at this time so do not leave your child to cross the car park by themselves.

This is available for all children in P1-P3 and will also start on Mon 1st Sept and is available to book on School Money at a cost of £4.00.

All bookings must be made by midnight the night before. The children will be supervised by a classroom assistant and get a snack. 2-3 pick-up this year will be at the end of the windy path at the far end of the playground. Please come into the playground to collect your child.

This will start on Tues 2nd Sept. Children use cash for this.

Menu for new term attached. Dinners cost £3.10 and are bookable on SchoolMoney. They must be booked by midnight the night before. If your child has any food intolerances/allergies that the dinner hall needs to know about please notify us immediately and we will set up a meeting. The new menu now have a choice each day of main course. Please discuss with your younger children which one they would like the night before as too much choice can sometimes be difficult for them. Menus are now issued on a page per week on a 4 week cycle which is then repeated.

EA catering services have stipulated that unless your child has special dietary requirements or are on Free School Meals they cannot order a sandwich/baguette as they could previously. They will need to take a packed lunch that day.

Children may be dropped off from 8:40 -9:00 in the morning. No children should be left off before this to wait at the gate. All parents should say their goodbyes at the gate, due to safe-guarding, we do not allow parents to walk their child up to their class. Please pull in to the left to drop off your child as stopping in the middle of the road and off-loading is very dangerous for your child and holds up the flow of traffic. The morning period is a very busy time for our teachers as they prep for the day. If you need to pass on a message to the teacher please do this on Seesaw and they will get back to you as soon as they can, if required. An exception is made for P1 in the first week. If you need to pick your child up for an appointment please notify the teacher ahead of time and always come to the office. Joy will then get them for you. Parents must not go to the outside classroom doors directly but through Joy in the office.

P1-3 finish at 2:00 and P4-P7 finish at 3:00. P3 will stay until 3:00 on Mon and Tues in the summer term. School finishes for everyone at 2:00 on a Friday. To ease congestion we will let P1-P3 and their siblings and Nursery pick-ups go at 2:00 and P4-P7 children with no siblings in lower school go at 2:10. Please note the times as they have changed slightly from last year.

At pick-up all parents from P1-P5 must come into the playground or old school house to collect their child. You will be told which area to wait in by your class teacher. Children will be held onto until an adult appears for them. P6 and P7 parents may wait outside the gate, but not across the road please. If your older child is to walk home alone please let their class teacher know.

Please be very careful as you are parking or driving off. Do not park on the yellow double or zigzag lines. There is also a dropped kerb to allow crossing from school to central island to Ballymaglave Road. Do not park in front of any of these. If you are crossing the road with your child please do so at the dropped kerb. Please respect our neighbours when parking and do not park across anyone's drive. Please also be respectful of the church grounds. No children should be running around the Old School House or graveyard.

Please do not allow your children to run around the school at pick-up, collect and go. We understand that your pre-school children like to have a run around while you are waiting but please confine this to the bottom playground only, not up the bank, windy path or steps.

If there is a change of person picking up please let your teacher know or send a message to Joy.

Please be punctual for pick-ups. School runs on a very tight time schedule and teachers are usually going to teach another class or head into a meeting. Persistent lateness is not fair on the children or the school and will be addressed.

Clubs start on Mon 7th Sept. They can all be booked on SchoolMoney. See flyers below for details of each club.

All P1-P3 Clubs run from 2:00 - 2:50 and they will be taken down to the gate for collection from there. P1 parents do not enrol for After Schools until end of September. We will notify you when this opens up.

P4-P7 clubs run from 3:00 - 4:00 and pick-up from the school gate. Except for Cross Country which takes place up at the rugby club and finishes at 3:45. Children have to make their own way there after school and be collected from there.

Mon Actisport - All year groups

Tues Football - All year groups

Wed- Art and Craft-All year groups

Hockey -P5-P7 only

Thurs- Basketball - all year groups

Cross Country - P4-P7 only

This runs on a Thursday 3-4 in the Arnold Hall. Children are collected from the playground and walked up with an adult. There is no cost for this. Starting date to be confirmed.

Our Safeguarding Team is pictured below plus Ashleigh Keatings- Hunter, our Governor for Safe-Guarding. You will have received our short version of our safe-guarding policy at the information session this week. Please note the error regarding our Safe-guarding Governor. It had Ashleigh's email but her name was not changed from Pamela KIrk, our previous Governor. The full version of our policy can be found on our school website.