Firhouse ETNS

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We are thrilled to share the wonderful start we’ve had to our 2025/2026 school year!

Our new Junior Infants have settled in well, and we are also delighted to welcome many new children throughout the school. Each morning, it’s a joy to see so many happy, smiling faces coming through the doors.

There’s a real buzz of learning and discovery in the classrooms. Our pupils are enjoying new maths resources, including the arrival of Beebots, which are already sparking lots of curiosity and excitement.

This week, our 5th Class pupils will begin their Cycle Safety Programme, developing important skills that will help keep them safe and confident on the road.

We are also so proud of our 6th Class students, who have shown wonderful leadership by helping out around the school and setting a fantastic example for younger children.

Meanwhile, children in our Autism classes have an exciting calendar of fun adventures planned for the coming weeks, and we can’t wait to share more about these special experiences.

It’s shaping up to be a year filled with learning, growth, and joy. Thank you for your continued support in making our school community such a positive and welcoming place.

As you are aware, Fórsa has been pursuing pension parity for school secretaries and caretakers. Strike action, which began last week, has now been postponed while talks take place. We remain hopeful that a fair and positive outcome will be reached soon.

We are delighted that Lisa and Brendan are back this week!

Each week we will focus on a rule and calm focus throughout the school. Our school rules are:

Be respectful

Be responsible

Be ready

Communication in classroom/with peers - manners, hands up, turn taking, saying hello/good morning, please and thank you.

Chat to your child about what this looks like in school and at home.

Deep breaths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiMb2Bw4Ae8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIbBI-BT9c4

Reminder for Parents of 6th Class Students 🌟

If your child is in 6th Class, it’s nearly time to start thinking about secondary school admissions. Applications usually open in October.

Each school has its own admissions policy and deadlines, which you’ll find on their websites.

👉 What you need to do:

• Take a look at the schools you’re interested in and check their admissions process.

• Make sure to apply to any schools you’d like your child to be considered for, as places can be limited and aren’t always guaranteed.

Just a gentle reminder — it’s up to parents/guardians to apply for secondary school places for their child.

Unfortunately, I do not have positive news to share at the moment. Our appeal of the review has been rejected, and I am now awaiting further guidance from our solicitor and barrister regarding the next steps.

I am currently working through the documentation received under the FOI request. The volume of material is significant and will take a number of weeks to review in detail. Already, I have identified several errors on the part of the SENO.

At present, the school is facing a very challenging situation. We have 15 children who require 1:1 support throughout the school day, not including those who need regular movement and regulation breaks. With only 8 SNAs available, our capacity is far exceeded, placing considerable strain on our ability to provide the level of support required.

That said, we are doing our very best and being as inventive as possible in managing resources. Older children who require movement breaks are taking on additional responsibilities, such as helping with jobs around the school and delivering messages to staff members. Our SET team are also supporting in every way they can, and class teachers are incorporating regular movement breaks throughout the day, which benefit the whole class as well as those who need them most. This combined effort is helping us to keep things running as smoothly as possible under the circumstances.

We are delighted to say that we will run the Roots of Empathy programme again this and we would like to do it with two classes if possible. To do so we need two Mums/Dads who will have babies aged between 2 and 4 months in the first week of October 2025.

If you are interested please let me know as soon as possible so as we can let you know more about the programme and have a chat about the details we need to have in place.

Our ANAs Geraldine and Nadia co-ordinate this programme in our school and it is wonderful to see the classes engage with the babies and develop their empathy.

Parking on the school grounds is extremely limited. Please ensure that vehicles are only parked in the designated set-down areas.

The triangle area at the top of the roundabout and the roads immediately surrounding the roundabout are strictly off-limits for parking.

The staff car park is not available to parents or guardians unless prior arrangements have been made with the school.

We have also received several complaints regarding parking in the council car park at the top of the steps and in neighbouring estates. Please be mindful and considerate when parking: do not block footpaths, driveways, or entrance/exit routes.

Thank you for your cooperation in keeping our school community safe and accessible for everyone.

The Department of Education only released the updated procurement documents for schools in late August, which has unfortunately delayed the introduction of hot school meals in our school.

We have now begun the procurement process, and while the Department’s procedures are understandably thorough and take time, we expect that hot school meals will be available from around January 2026. We are very excited for this and look forward to sharing more details with you as the process progresses.

Welcome back! We hope you had a relaxing summer and are ready for a great year ahead. A special welcome to our new Junior Infants and their families — we’re delighted to have you join our school community!

The PTGA is made up of parent/guardian reps from each class. We work with the school to support wider school matters and help build a strong, connected community.

Our Mission

· Fundraising for the school

· Serving as a consultation group between the school and the parents/guardians before engaging the broader parent community

· Fostering a sense of community for the benefit of the school

What We Do

• Organise events that raise funds and build school spirit
• Meet every 4–6 weeks with a teacher representative (hybrid, 1-hour meetings)
• Share feedback and ideas with school leadership

Join the PTGA

Interested in becoming a class rep for 2025/2026?
We’d love to have more parents and guardians involved! Each class has one or two representatives, and we encourage you to discuss amongst your class who might be interested in representing your class for the 2025/2026 school year.

To officially join, please attend our Annual General Meeting (AGM) — date and location to be confirmed. The AGM is open to the entire school community, and is a great opportunity to learn more, ask questions, and offer your name as a class representative.

Other Ways to Get Involved

Join our Gardening Group or Library Group — open to all parents/guardians.
Email the PTGA to sign up and we will connect you to the right team. pgta@firhouseetns.ie

How You Can Help

Your support is vital! Volunteers will be needed throughout the year to help organise and run events. Whether it’s a little or a lot — it all helps!

Date for the Diary

Get ready for our first big event of the year — the Self-Expression Disco returns for 2025/2026!

October 23rd, school hall

• Junior Disco: 6:00pm – 7:15pm
• Senior Disco: 7:30pm – 9:00pm

Tickets go on sale October 10th at 10:00am
More details to follow — stay tuned!

Support the School

If you’d like to make a general donation to support school initiatives, you can do so via our fundraising page:

Firhouse Educate Together National School Donation Page

Every contribution, big or small, helps us continue to create a vibrant and supportive school environment.

Looking forward to a fantastic year ahead!

Warm regards,
Catherine & Andra
Co-Chairs of the PTGA

Costumes for Change

In advance of the Self-Expression Disco and in support of the school’s Green Initiative, the PGTA is excited to host a costume donation and sale!

We’re inviting families to donate gently used costumes — clean, complete, and grouped with any (unbroken) accessories — between Costume Donation & Sale October 1st and 4th.

Then, on October 9th and 10th, children will have the chance to purchase new-to-them costumes at school. (Details to follow!)

All proceeds will go to UNICEF, a charity supporting children, so every costume helps make a real difference.

Let’s turn dress-up into a powerful act of kindness.

Homework Club will resume at the end of September and will run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Details on how to sign up will be included in the next newsletter.

We are setting up a STEAM after school club from 2:05 to 3:05pm on Thursdays for 2nd to 6th class.

Starting 25th of September for 5 weeks at a cost of 45euro per child.

Please sign up by email - firhousesteamclub25@gmail.com

We would be so delighted to give some of our wonderful kids an outlet to be creative after school in the areas of science, technology, engineering, art and maths!

Kind regards

Jayne (senior infants) and Rachel (6th)