Scoil Charthaigh Naofa

December 2020 Parents' Bulletin from Scoil Charthaigh Naofa 2020

School is buzzing with activity and preparations are well underway for some fun activities for Christmas. Classes are busy writing their own Christmas stories, entertaining us on the intercom with Christmas jokes, singing songs, involved inscavenger hunts, reciting their own Christmas poetry etc. As you know, we cannot host parents for in-person shows but we are hoping to be able to record them and post on our twitter page so that you can enjoy them at home with your children.

We understand that families have different traditions and beliefs; it is important that all families respect others' beliefs regarding Santa and don't spoil the magic of Christmas for children

Covid-19 is still with us

Thank you to everyone in the school community for working hard to keep the children and our staff safe and healthy. Please continue to encourage your children to be Covid-aware, wash their hands, cover their mouth when coughing and keep a safe distance from others as much as possible.

We appreciate that many parents are now wearing masks when collecting the children from school. Anywhere a large group gathers the risk from Covid increases; masks help to reduce that risk.

Please keep it up as we head into the winter.

Please make sure your child has tissues in his/her jacket or school bag. If your child is wearing a mask, please make sure they know how to put it on/take it off and store it, thank you!

For anyone travelling during the Christmas period, please remember public health guidelines regarding quarantining, testing etc upon your return. For up to date information on this changing situation, please refer to https://www.gov.uk/foreigntravel-advice/ireland, which also has a link to the government website with any changes announced.

Coming up to Christmas, the children often exchange cards with each other in school. We can't do that this year to minimise the risk of Covid-19 transferring from home to home via school. Please explain this to your children.

Wellbeing for Parents and Children

Now more than ever, families, schools and communities need to focus on wellbeing. There are many aspects to wellbeing, including physical health and positive emotions. It is difficult for the children who are missing their after-school activities, their clubs and sports, their swimming, their book clubs etc. They need social interaction, fun and activity but some of the children are doing that online which does not bring them happiness and indeed can make them feel even worse.

Please try to limit online activity, especially if it is unsupervised. For some ideas to assist with children's wellbeing, please copy and paste link here below; not all of the suggested activities can be done now but you might and some ideas that will work for you: https://bit.ly/367RfgM

This link: https://bit.ly/2KEbNFb will bring you to a great collection of relaxation and self-regulation tools for children. Some of these are already familiar to the children as they are used in school.

Science Week....thank you!

We had great fun during Science Week! Many thanks to all the children and teachers who posted photos and videos of experiments on twitter. It was lovely to see Science in action in our school! 4^th class, with the help of other classes, recently planted some new trees at the front of the school

Traffic, parking etc

All parents have a duty and responsibility to keep the area safe for the children. If at all possible, please walk/ cycle to school and leave the car at home. Thank you to the parents who have changed their drop-off and collection routine to help support our revised drop off/ pick up times. This is really helpful and makes the area safer for the children. Please do not park in front of residents' gateways.

Christmas Closure

We will be closing for your Christmas Holidays on Tuesday 22^nd of December 2020. Buses will run as normal. Please note pick up times below, we ask parents to be punctual on this date to allow traffic to flow and avoid congestion:

11.50 : Mainstream bus, Junior and Senior Infants

12 noon: 1^st and 2^nd class

12.05 p.m. : 3^rd and 4^th class

12.10 p.m. : 5^th and 6^th class

12.20 p.m. : Mochuda buses