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 fifteen classes and 25 teachers, 3.5 special needs assistants and 416 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 opened our class for children with Autism and the Outreach class as it has become known has been an amazing addition to the school.
The board continued to work on maintenance issues in the school and approved new maintenance contracts for electrical, heating and fire safety.
A member of the board agreed to join the interim BOM of Kishoge Community College which was due to open in 2014.
Oct: In October the board got down to working on the anti bullying policy in the school. This involved a whole school approach which involved staff, students and parents. The Student Council took part in an anti bullying workshop which raised awareness of bullying across the school community.
Members of the BOM attended training given by Educate Together on legal issues for primary schools.
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 equipment 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, Utilities and safety companies ensures that the children and staff have the best educational experience 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. This land has since returned to the council we are awaiting a decision as to what will happen to it.
It was confirmed to us that the new second level school would open in 2014 in time for our first graduating class.
The school accounts were audited and certified by an independent accounting company.
Staff and board members attended the Educate Together Ethos conference.
Funding for school lunches was approved and the board was delighted that this funding was available to parents.
Jan: The board spent the entire year working on an updated enrolment policy. New guidelines and legislation have been released by the department and the school is working with other Educate Together schools to formulate a joint enrolment policy for our schools in the area.
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. We have also set up Gaelic teams and continue to offer a broad and balanced range of extracurricular activities.
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. It was agreed by the board that this was the last year that the board would be able rent this room as the school will be at capacity for 2015/2016.
The board agreed that it would open a second outreach class in 2015. A days training on Autism was accessed by staff and the board facilitated the closure of the school for one day. This was really beneficial for the staff.
Feb: The board updated the financial software package that the school uses. Plans were made to facilitate payment for parents online. This cuts out on paperwork and other administration and will free the school office up to do other important work.
Members of the staff and board attended training for the use of the defribillator. The board also attended training for BOM treasurers.
The board thanked the PTA for all it had done during the year to date.
Mar: We celebrated “Seachtain na Gaeilge” We hosted our neighbours from Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada in what has become an annual event between the two schools.
The board reviewed the traffic plan for the school. 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 collection. The board would like to thank parents for the marked improvement in the numbers walking and cycling to school.
The school engages the services of a school mentor, speech and language therapist and occupational therapist. These services are funding partly by parents and school rental. It has been hugely beneficial to the school community to have these services at our disposal. We do not receive any funding from the department for these services and can only continue to offer them as long as funding allows.
Apr: No board meeting was held in April.
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 draft enrolment policy 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 celebrated its first graduating class with a wonderful graduation ceremony. We held a joint meeting with all the committees for our final BOM meeting of the year and the student council attended.
The school went through a rigorous recruitment process during the summer months and employed two permanent and three temporary teachers. We also recruited 2 SNA’s.
BOM:The BOM met 9 times from Sept 2013 to June 2014 . 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 – The board thanked the PTA for all their work on behalf of the school during the year.
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 this year the board helped to fund staff members undertaking Masters research in Education as well as other post graduate work. 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. The school also set up a twitter feed and a vimeo account. Next year we hope to update all parent email addresses and use this method of communication more.
English 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.
Chess with the older classes and tournament: Last 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.
Literacy in Junior Infants
Aistear play based learning in Senior Infants
PE stations in 2nd class
Chess Rang 3
Garden Rang 4
Monopoly – Rang 5
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 year on behalf of all the students and parents in the school.
Emmanuel Bourdin (Chairperson and Patron’s Representative)
Eddie Fox (Principal and Secretary)
Daniella Buda(Treasurer and Community Representative)
Neysa Di Giorgi(Parents’ Representative)
Richard Dillon (Parents’ Representative)
Carol Makim/Margaret Leonard(Teacher’s Representative)
Holly Smith (Community Representative)
Elaine Harris (Patron Representative)
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