Dear Pupils, Parents, Staff and members of our Community,
The following is a report on the work of the BOM of Lucan East ETNS for the past year. We will give a brief synopsis of the year’s event and the successes and challenges for the school. Some of the highlights of the year include:
Sept: The school opened its doors to fourteen classes and 22 teachers, 3.5 special needs assistants and 351 children. The Board worked on making revenue for the school through renting out the school premises. Currently the school is rented out on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays which brings in much needed revenue for the school. We worked on the substance misuse policy for the school and we began the process of investigating the opening of our outreach class for children with Autism. The Board also worked on a policy for children with chronic illnesses.
Oct: In October the Board got down to working on the enrolment policy for the outreach class. The Principal and teachers visited many outreach classes in different settings. The school is currently working on a common enrolment policy with other ET schools in the area and the principal and chairperson have represented the school in these discussions. The school started the morning system of lining up where children line up in the infant yard from 8.25am onwards. The Board acknowledged the vast improvement that this had made to morning drop off and agreed that this would continue. The school accounts were certified by an independent accountant as they are every year. The school sent out voluntary contribution letters to the school community. These contributions are vital to the running of the school and pay for ICT maintenance in particular. Money raised by the school and PTA also goes to support staff in training programmes and further study which is very beneficial to all the children and ensures that the best methods and practice at Lucan East ETNS.
Nov: The Board thanked all the parents who had committed to the school’s voluntary contribution scheme. This money pays for upkeep and maintenance of all the ICT equipment in the school. This forms a vital part of the teaching and learning in the school. As the school has grown the amount and nature of all the equipment has increased immensely. There is no point having this equipment if it doesn’t work and our maintenance contract with our ICT company ensures that the children and staff are able to access this equipment every day.
Dec: The school celebrated the winter concert with the rest of the school community and the Board congratulated the staff on a great show. Work was done contacting local representatives about the ownership of the land adjoining the school to see if the school could use it for parking. It was confirmed to us that the new second level school would open in 2014 in time for our first graduating class. Staff and Board members attended the Educate Together Ethos conference. The Board facilitated a anti cyber bullying workshop for fourth and 5th class pupils.
Jan: The school took part in a cross country competition in Adamstown and in Griffeen as well as taking part in Santry sports later in the year. Olympic handball coaching was given to children across the school and a school team was set up and played a number of matches against a number of teams in the Lucan and Leixlip areas. The Board agreed to rent a room to a preschool/afterschool service for another year. It is noted that while the school facilitates this service, it is run as a private enterprise and the school takes no responsibility for anything relating to this venture. The Board received notification that the school would undergo a Whole School Evaluation from the Department of Education and Skills. The preliminary visit took place on January 29th with the actual inspection taking place in the week beginning February 18th. The team of inspectors met with the Board and discussed the development and overall vision for the school as well as how the school is organised currently.
Feb: The school underwent the Whole School Evaluation (WSE). The staff, Board, children and parents were praised for the great progress that the school had made since opening in 2008. The report can be accessed on the Department of Education and Skill’s website. The Board congratulated the staff on all the hard work they had put into the school.
Mar: We celebrated “Seachtain na Gaeilge” We paid a visit to our neighbours in Gaelscoil Eiscir Ríada. The Board heard a report from the traffic subcommittee which had worked on a traffic plan for the school. The committee consisted of the Principal, parent representatives, the school caretaker with input from the local Gardaí. The traffic plan was then discussed and ratified by the Board. It was agreed that special signs with the traffic rules be posted in the yard and that an awareness campaign be set up to inform all car users about the rules in the school. The Board would like to thank all the volunteers for all their hard work during the year and everyone would agree that the school premises are now safer and more orderly than at any time in the schools existence. The Board recognises that only 55 cars can fit in the ball courts at any one time and asks that parents be patient when collecting their children particularly at the 2.20pm drop off.
Apr: The Board thanked the staff for all the work done in preparing the appeal which granted the school an extra teacher for the year. The Board worked on the common enrolment policy for ET schools in the area. A response was drafted to the inspectorate thanking them for all their advice and affirmation during the WSE. The Board investigated an online payment service for parents which they could use for paying for books etc but decided that the systems currently available are not reliable enough and that the school would stick to the current system. The Board supported the SNA’s in the school to attend a course on Autism. The child protection procedures and fire procedures were also reviewed.
May: The Educate Together AGM took place in May and the Board were represented. Educate Together is the patron body for the school. The Board ratified our enrolment policy for our outreach class and set about recruiting teachers for the next academic year. The school also keeps detailed attendance statistics and the level of good attendance has increase in the school from 86% in 2008 to 94% in the last calendar year.
June: We had a very successful sports day and summer fair which were great days for our community. The Board heard a report on the progress of the literacy and numeracy strategies in the school. We are currently half way through three year plans in literacy and numeracy and we are very pleased with how we are progressing in these areas. The school went through a rigorous recruitment process during the summer months and employed three permanent and three temporary teachers. We also recruited 2 SNA’s.
BOM:The BOM met 9 times from Sept 2012 to June 2013. Representatives of the BOM also attended ET National Forum meetings, the ET AGM and other ET events.
School Committees: The school has many different committees that help in the running of the school, the BOM interact and support all of these committees and are very grateful for all the work people put into these voluntary groups. It is wonderful to see, that even though parents, teachers, staff and pupils are so busy with other aspects of their lives that so many give so freely of their time.
PTA –Some of the achievements of the PTA this year include:
School Photos.
Text a Parent
Sports Day – Members of the PTA help out on these
Fundraising Events
School Calendar.
Summer fun day
Womens mini marathon
Mad hair day
Book covering
Winter fair
Traffic plan
Health and Safety
- New Health and Safety signs erected around the school and its environs.
- The school safety statement was revised by an outside agency and was approved by the Board of management.
- New fencing erected around the basketball court.
- Fire Drill completed twice per term
- Frequent Health and Safety Inspections carried out in school and its environs.
- Emergency evacuation chairs secured for school. Staff trained in the use of these chairs.
Green committee:
A plan was designed for a school garden. This will be developed further this year.
The school received its first green flag and is well on its way to securing a second one which will focus on energy conservation.
Gardening day.
Students Council:
The student council was set up and has regular monthly meetings with the principal. Karen is the teacher with responsibility for the student council. They were very visible throughout the school last year and hope to build on their success next year.
Extra-curricular Activities: The after-school programme is continuing to develop. The classes are organised by teachers and are subsidised by the school. There are a wide range of activities to suit every child and the diverse nature of our school.
Staff Training:
The Professional Development Fund is funded by the BOM and this year the Board helped to fund staff members undertaking Masters Research in Education. Staff were also supported and carried out training in a wide range of areas. The Board hopes to expand this fund in future years.
Other areas:
Communication: We set up a weekly enewsletter which is sent out by email every Friday. This cuts down on paper and means that parents are kept up to date with happenings in the school. There is an increased click rate for the enewsletter which proves its message is getting out there. We hope to build on this for next year. The Board thanked all the staff for all their hard work in updating the school website which is an invaluable tool for keeping all members of the school community informed about what is happening in the school.
English classes for Parents, art classes for parents, teaching your child to read workshop
Maths for fun: parents working on fun maths activities with children. This involved a four week training course followed by six weeks working with the children. We hope to have parental involvement sessions in each class next year ranging from Literacy, Numeracy, play based learning, Chess, Monopoly, 6th class parent/student book club.
Chess with the older classes and tournament: This year our chess team won the All Ireland Community Games title. This was an amazing achievement for the team and the Board congratulated the coach Simon for all his hard work in this venture.
Olympic handball team set up and competed in five blitzes.
Finances
As always the funding we received from the government did not cover all the costs of running the school and we are so grateful to parents and the PTA for all the fundraising efforts that helped us pay all of these costs.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the BOM for all their hard work over the last three years on behalf of all the students and parents in the school.
Emmanuel Bourdin (Chairperson and Patron’s Representative)
Eddie Fox (Principal and Secretary)
Jide Sofoluwe(Treasurer and Community Representative)
Neysa Tormey (Parents’ Representative)
Richard Dillon (Parents’ Representative)
Carol Makim(Teacher’s Representative)
Holly Smith (Community Representative)
Elaine Harris (Patron Representative)