Board of Management – Lucan East Educate Together

Annual Report 2019/2020

The Board of Management is the school committee charged with the day-to-day management of the school. Under the Education Act of 1998 all schools must have a Board of Management and the functions and responsibilities of the Board are laid out in documents published by the Department of Education and Science.

Our new Board of Management commenced their four year term on 1^st December 2019. The current Board of Management of Lucan East ETNS is as follows:

Patron’s Nominee and Chairperson	Meena Baskarasubramanian
Patron’s Nominee	Gráinne McCormack
School Principal	Gráinne McManus
Teachers’ Nominee	Maria McManus
Parents’ Nominee	Shaista Zeb
Parents’ Nominee	Andrew Carton
Community Representative	Daniela Buda
Community Representative	Peter Coakley

On behalf of the staff, pupils and parents of the school we would sincerely like to thank the members of the previous Board of Management – Donal Bergin, Elaine Harris, Lesley Fahey, Richard Dillon, Aoife Claffey and Simon Moloney – for their support, commitment and efforts.

In total, the Board of Management met on 7 occasions during the 2019/20 school year.

Please note: Many of the face to face events that usually happen in Lucan East ETNS did not occur as a result of the unexpected school closure from 12^th March 2019 – 30^th June 2019.

Policy Reviews

The following policies were reviewed and amended as necessary;

Child Protection Policy
Child Safeguarding Statement and Risk Assessment
Anti-Bullying Policy
Health and Safety Statement
Code of Behaviour
Droichead Policy
DEIS Plan
Job Sharing Policy
Critical Incident Policy
Enrolment Policy for ASD Classes
DEIS Plan
PE School Plan
SSE Plan (STEM)
Plean Scoile – Gaeilge
Maths School Plan

The Fire Safety Assessment Report was issued in October 2018 and works were completed in July and August 2019.

2. School Events

2019/20 was an unusual but relatively busy year in Lucan East ETNS Together N.S and some of the events included;

Health and Wellbeing Week
Peace Proms
Book Day
Friendship Day
Seachtain na Gaeilge
Science Week
Maths Week
STEM Week
Winter Plays
Drumming Workshop
Intercultural Day (Remote)
Grandparents’ Day (Remote)
Active Schools Week (Remote)
Talent Show (Remote)

Parent Teacher Meetings

Parent Teacher Meetings took place in November for all classes from Senior Infants to Sixth Class and in February for Junior Infants.

After-School Clubs

A variety of after school clubs took place in Lucan East ETNS this school year. These included;

Art
Soccer
Chromebooks
Games & Active
Lego & Tech
Glee Club
Scratch
Chess
Puzzles & Games
Gaeilge Club
Hockey
Table Tennis
Science
Gaelic Football

School Achievements

The school year 2019-20 was another very successful one for the students of Lucan East ETNS. Students represented the school with great success in the following areas;

Cumann na mBunscol – Gaelic Football and Hurling/Camogie
Chess Tournament (Esker ETNS & Lucan East ETNS)
Cycle Safety
Garbo Productions Workshop
FAI Futsal Competition
Peace Proms
Suas Reading Programme

Parent Teacher Association

The 2019/20 PTA Committee consisted of;

Chaiperson	Liz Nolan & Evelyn Byrne
Treasurer	Nicola Byrne
Secretary	Colette Darcy
Teachers’ Representative	Sinéad Gunning

The Parent Teacher Association has a section on the school website. The Board of Management would like to extend its thanks to all parents who have helped out with activities organised by the Parent Teacher Association. As well as the fundraising events listed below the PTA also assisted with;

Parents’ Breakfast Morning
Children’s fruit and veg. tasting for health and well-being week
Class reps set up Whats-app groups
Bagging & helping with school books
NPC parent workshop ‘Building an Effective Parents Association’
PTA AGM & monthly PTA meetings
Parents’ walking group
Fundraising

Many events were carried out by the Parent Teacher Association to fundraise for Lucan East ETNS this year. The PTA raised €3751 in 2019/20. €400 of this was donated to Zach’s fund and the rest will be spent on Lego Robotics kits and other coding equipment for the school. The Board wishes to thank the PTA for their fundraising and to all those who contributed to the school. Some of the events organised by the PTA were;

Book Fair (raised €1446 towards books for the school)
Winter Raffle (raised €1212 towards stage equipment – headset mics and fairy-light backdrop)
Food and Clothing Collection for the homeless
Bring a Book, Buy a Book (raised €400)
Sponsored Walk (raised €1,300)

All money raised went towards a stage backdrop, headset microphones, PA system, sensory equipment and the sensory walk.

Educate Together News / Ethos

Educate Together welcomed a new CEO – Emer Nowlan – in February 2020. Lucan East ETNS would like to extend their thanks to Paul Rowe, Educate Together’s Former CEO, for all of his help and support over the years. We wish Paul all the very best in his retirement.

The school continues to teach the Learn Together Curriculum in all classes and will be reviewing our Learn Together School Plan in the 2020/21 school year.

Staffing

Staffing for the school year 2019/20 was as follows;

Principal: Grainne McManus
Acting Deputy Principal: Niamh Byrne
Acting Assistant Principal: Paula McGee
HSCL Teacher: Sinéad Gunning
Secretary: Lesley McGuirk
Support Teachers: Simon Moloney, Fiona Martin, Louise Ledwith, Laura Burrow, Carol

O’Loughlin/Johannah Goulding; Elaine Kennedy; Deirdre Kelly;

Niall O’Laoghog; Niamh McCann; Maria McManus; Hazel Morrin

O’Rourke; Karen Davis.

SNAs: Tracy Byrne; Anita Clarke; Lucy Wong; Pierina Walsh;

Siobhán O’Donoghue; Kavitha Ravi; Nikki McGarry; Yvonne Costello;

Orna Thompson; Debbie Feeney; Sandra McMahon; Siobhan Walsh;

Nicola Lahert.

Outreach Classes: Ryan McKenna and Sarah McHugh
Junior Infants: Melissa Hanney and Eanya Tone
Senior Infants: Ciana Dempsey and Colm Smyth
First Class: Lorraine Naughton and Catríona Coleman
Second Class: Joanna Long and Rebecca Morrissey
Third Class: Sarah Sweeney and Niamh O’Rourke
Fourth Class: Conor Mullally and Paula McGee
Fifth Class: Niamh Byrne and Margaret Leonard
Sixth Class: Tom Finnerty and Niall O’Muineacháin

The Board of Management would like to extend its thanks to all the staff for their continued hard work throughout the year.

Staffing Developments

The school gained two additional SNAs in the school year 2019/20.

9. Curricular Developments/Staff Training

Staff received one more day of training in the Revised Primary Language Curriculum.
All staff completed a Mindfulness workshop and GAA and STEM training in 2019/20.
Staff members completed other training during the year including Distance Learning Tools, Inclusive and Special Educational Teaching, Music, Maths, STEM, Wellbeing, Gaeilge, Assessment, History, PE, Global Citizenship, Education for Sustainable Development, Differentiation, Google Educator Training, Reading Recovery and Droichead training.

10. Parental Involvement Programmes

Our HSCL teacher, Sinéad Gunning, was extremely busy in her role during the 2019/20 school year. Parental involvement activities they organised include:

Parents’ Coffee Mornings for Health and Wellbeing Week
Parents’ Classes e.g. sugar craft, language, parenting, gardening and yoga classes.
Parents’ Walking Group
Parents’ Book Club
Junior Infants Parental Involvement Programme (PIP): CLOVER reading project
Senior Infants PIP: Bedtime reading trolley & Maths for Fun
1^st Class PIP: Maths for Fun activities in class
2^nd Class PIP: Maths Games packs sent home due to school closure
3^rd Class PIP: Lego STEM Workshop
4^th Class PIP: Lego STEM Workshop
5^th Class PIP: Board Games

Improvements to School Building and Infrastructure

Extensive building works were carried out in Lucan East ETNS in the 2019/20 school year as part of the Western Building Systems remediation programme.

In addition to this,

A new Wifi System was installed throughout the school
8 new interactive panels/whiteboards were installed in classrooms
Solar panels were installed for free as part of the schools involvement in the Microsoft Schools Connect Project
One new photocopier was purchased
2 New Storage Sheds were installed
A new toilet was fitted to service the Parent’s Room
A storage room was converted into an office
The roundabout was remediated to facilitate ease of access during drop off & collection times