Dear parents,
We are closing in on Hallowe’en now there is great excitement and anticipation among the children in the school at the moment as they look forward to the annual dress-up, dress down which takes place on this Friday,22nd October. We are looking forward to a very enjoyable day.
The dress up dress down is also a fundraiser for the Parents Association so children are requested to bring bring €2 per child or a maximum of €5 per family (3 children or more)
Dates for your diary
Hallowe’en Dress up dress down – Friday 22nd October
Mid-term break: School closes on Friday 22nd October and re-opens on Monday1st November.
Health and Safety Reminders
In an attempt to keep fresh air moving through the building, windows and doors are left open as much as possible at the moment but particularly at break times to ventilate the rooms. An extra body warmer might be no harm when we return after the mid-term break. Children also need to bring a coat to school as we want the children to get out for their breaks as much as possible.
Pupil Attendance
Our current enrolment is 209. The attendance for the school year 2020/2021 was 93%. We had 29 pupils with full attendance last year.
Congratulations to them: Finn McCarthy, Ava O Loughlin, Fia Ní Chomhraidhe, Seán Clarke, Louis Finane, Juliette Finane, Cathal Hoey, Jan Hadlaw, Anna McCarthy ,Jamie O’ Loughlin, Seán Hyland, Aoibhinn Murtagh, Cormac O’Keeffe, Jack Bracken, Darragh O’Keeffe, Michael Cosgrove, Sadhbh Ní Chomhraidhe, Robin Mitchell Leavy ,Tomás Clarke, Tommy Murphy, Darragh Hyland, Darragh Donnelly, Aoibhinn Malone, Roisin Clarke, Ava Murphy, Jessica Dwyer.
The attendance for this school year so far has been 93% and there are 57 pupils with full attendance to date.
Confirmation
Confirmation took place recently for the classes from 2020 and 2019. 49 past pupils were confirmed by Fr. Dooley and Fr. Joe in St. Paul’s church on the 7th October.
Child Protection and Anti Bullying
In accordance with the requirements of the Children First Act 2015, the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post Primary Schools 2017 and Tusla Guidance on the preparation of Child Safeguarding Statements, the Board of Management of the school has agreed a Child Safeguarding Statement and Assessment of Risk. This document may be viewed on our website at this link. It is important that parents are aware of the content of this document.
Should you need to report a child protection issue The DLP (Designated Liaison Person) for the school is Cyril Duggan and the deputy DLP is Noel Costelloe.
Parent- Teacher Meetings
The annual Parent/Teacher meetings will be held starting Monday 22nd November. Details will issue after the mid-term on Aladdin with time –slots etc.
Curriculum
New Primary Language Curriculum
Our teachers recently completed in-service on the new Primary Language Curriculum. Further to that Carmel Linehan, PDST advisor will visit the school this week and meet with class teachers to support their work. We are continuing to place an emphasis on reading at home and your continued support is much appreciated.
School Lunches /Healthy Eating
We have a healthy eating policy in our school. We recommend sandwiches, fruit and healthy snacks. Out of fairness to all children we request that parents adhere to this policy. You can view the policy in full on www.emons.ie.
Educational Visits
The children in fourth class enjoyed their Cycle Safety lessons over the last few weeks. Once again we are delighted that this initiative is supported by our Parents Association.
Mr. Slevin’s 6th class visited Emo court recently. John Duffy did a tour of the gardens and the wonderful trees that are there. They enjoyed the morning immensely. Our thanks to John and the team in Emo Court who do such a wonderful job in maintaining this beautiful amenity.
Student Council
Ms. Casey held a meeting of our Student Council recently. They will be busy making suggestions and discussing the important school issues of the day. The Student Council for this year is as follows:
1st Class: Elliott Deffew McKeever
2nd Class: Ross McMahon
3rd Class: Robyn Mitchell-Leavy
4th Class: Darragh Donnelly
5th Class: Róisín Clarke
6th Class: Liam Horgan
Sports
Congrats to the U13 boys and girls team who had a superb day in Limerick recently at the National Community games finals. The Emo U13 girls finished as bronze medal winners and the U13 boys won the All Ireland final. Congrats to their coaches Mr. Michael Slevin and Ms.Aoife Boyle and thanks to the parents who travelled in support .
All children from senior infants to sixth class have had football coaching this term. Our thanks to the parents who helped out with the coaching for senior infants. Thanks also to Donie Brennan, Laois GAA who helped out with the coaching for 5th and 6th classes.
New Parents Association Committee
New Parents Association officers have been elected. I would sincerely like to thank Ciara McMahon, Paula Crowley and Darren Brophy for their sterling work over recent years. They were an excellent support to the pupils and staff of the school. We look forward to working with the new committee and they have already had their first meeting.
Chairperson – John Whyte
Secretary – Peter Donnelly
Treasurer – Brian Fenlon
Club Leabhair; Book Club
You may have seen a book club leaflet in your child’s schoolbag. If a parent wishes to purchase books for their child, they may do so using the following link. Closing date for purchase of books is November 25th.
https://schools.scholastic.ie/emo-n/digital-book-club
If your order is over forty euro you can have it delivered free to your home address. All other books purchased will be delivered to the school for convenience and the school will distribute accordingly. The school also gets credit for books purchased and can subsequently use the credit to purchase books for class libraries.
Kind regards,
Cyril Duggan
Priomhoide