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 eleven classes and 18 teachers, 3 special needs assistants and 297 children. Our wonderful new extension was opened. Tom Costello, our Home school community liaison teacher worked on a maths for fun initative in first class which meant parents had an active role in the learning and teaching of maths in these classes. The school also completed a time capsule which was planted with our new sculpture and it was agreed to host an arts launch day as a way of celebrating our new extension and the achievements of the school in its first four years in existence. Our after school activities got up and running and we also continued work on our school garden. The board also agreed how important it was for parking for infants to be given priority and that older children should just be dropped without parking. The board asked the principal to investigate the idea of setting up a scheme which would encourage families to come to school in an environmentally safe way.
Oct: We said goodbye to our board of management. This board had played a very important role in ensuring that the school grew and flourished in its infancy. Particular thanks is due to Our first Chairperson, Fionnuala Ward who worked in a voluntary capacity for the school and ensured that the Educate Together ethos was given a strong foundation within the school. The board would also like to thanks Margaret Callan Bergin, Olayinka Egbesekin and Jenny Byrne for all their work on behalf of the school. A policy on hiring out of the school hall was worked on and this has given the school a vital source of funding. The board also agreed to the morning plan of supervision in the yard. This means that the lining up yard is supervised from 8.25am onwards to facilitate parents dropping children from 1st class upwards and reduces the amount of traffic in the yard at any given time.
Nov: The new board of management took up office on November 1st. Margaret Faherty and Gráinne Mc Manus were commended by the board for their masters work on literacy and numeracy. Jenny Byrne is training as a reading recovery tutor in the school and the board thanked her for talking up this role. The board passed the school safety statement and PE policy. It was agreed to make sure there was padding on the basketball hoops in the yard to avoid accident and injury. The treasurer, school secretary and principal were entrusted to prepare a budget for the school for the year ahead. The principal reported to the board on the setting up of a special class for children with specific speech and language difficulties. The board thanked all the teachers and SNA’S for the work being carried out after school both inside and outside of the croke park agreement. The parent’s room was set up by the PTA as a way of encouraging parents to take a more active part in the school.
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. The school accounts were audited and certified by an independent accounting company.
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. 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 at the board that the school should invest in the lift off to Literacy programme.
Feb: The teachers started to work extra hours outside of school under the Croke Park agreement which is the agreement between public sector unions and the government to encourage more savings and efficiencies in the public sector.. The board agreed to extend the book rental scheme and this has been done especially in the older classes. Work began on our new building.
Mar: We celebrate “Seachtain na Gaeilge” We paid a visit to our neighbours in Gaelscoil Eiscir Ríada. The PTA held a very successful shamrock fundraiser. The parents association were congratulated by the board for all their work in including all parents in the school. The board agreed to rent out the school to a pre-school/after school club for the next academic year. It was also agreed to appoint a play therapist to the school. The play therapist works with different children in the school and is a great support to our behaviour plan. Representatives of the board attended the Educate Together AGM and worked with other ET schools on planning for the future. Currently there are 65 Educate Together Primary schools with over 15,000 children attending them..
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 thanked all involved for their hard work during the incidental visit by the Department inspector which was very positive and affirming of all the work taking place in the school. The board looked at the budget for the upcoming year and prepared some amendments. It was agreed to increase the caretaker hours for the coming year to take account of the increase in student numbers and school size.
May: The school facilitated a photographer to come to the school. This service was availed of by many Junior Infant parents. The school agreed to host a numeracy and literacy course for teachers during the summer holidays. The staff finalised work on the three year literacy and numeracy plan for the school. It was agreed to employ contract cleaners in the school. Following a tendering process Noonan’s cleaning company was engaged. All staff both teachers and SNA’s are fulfilling the terms of the croke park agreement by taking part in extra planning meetings after school and the school no longer closes early on the first Friday of each month. The results of this planning process has included our three year plan for literacy and numeracy as well as whole school planning on a range of subjects across the curriculum. The school also keeps detailed attendance statistics and the level of good attendance has increase in the school from 86% in 2008 to 93% 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 of management recognised the need to use our new special needs outreach area. The board agreed that a class for children with specific speech and language difficulty would be very beneficial to the area as the closest other class is over in Tallaght. The board will also look into other options like a class for children with physical disabilities or a class for children with Autism. Elaine Harris former chairperson of Griffeen Valley ETNS has agreed to join the BOM as patron representative. Caretaker interviews were held and Billy Sines was appointed as the new caretaker. The board were in correspondence with local representatives about the site for the new secondary school and sought and received assurances that it would be open in 2014.
BOM: The BOM met 9 times from Sept 2011 to June 2012 . The following are the members of the Board of Management: Emmanuel Bourdin (Chairperson and Patron Nominee), Eddie Fox (Principal), Margaret Faherty (Teachers’ Representative), Richard Dillon (Parents’ Representative) Neysa Tormey (Parents’ Representative), Holly Smith (Community Representative) and Jide Sofoluwe (Community Representative).
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
Shamrock Sale
School Calendar.
Summer fun day
Womens mini marathon
Mad hair day
Book covering
Winter fair
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.
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
Extra-curricular Activities: The after-school programme is continuing to develop. Currently we have:
- Drama
- Art x 2 days
- music
- Homework Club x 3 days
- Sport x 2 days
- Music
- Science
We also have Irish dancing for the infant classes organised by teachers outside of the school. The classes are organised by teachers and are subsidised by the 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 special needs and literacy. 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.
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.
Chess with the older classes and tournament
Olympic handball team set up
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. There will be a new BOM which will sit for the next four years starting in November
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)
Margaret Faherty(Teacher’s Representative)
Richard Dillon (Community Representative