Please also watch this short video. Thank you.
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More detailed HSE advice.
Newsletter 2nd December
Admissions to Ballylinan N.S.
Please note that applications for the 2022/23 school year will be open from Thursday, 13th January to Friday, 4th February 2022. Further information on how to apply will be issued closer to the time. If you are aware of anyone who may wish to enrol a child for next year, please let them know these dates. Thank you.
Road and Online Safety
Garda Robbie Foran spoke recently to 4th, 5th & 6th Classes about the importance of staying safe when online and also about staying safe on the road. This is particularly important when pupils are cycling or walking home. Now that the evenings are dark, you could also ensure that your child wears a highly visible coat or jacket.
Advent Friends
As in previous years, each child in the school has been allocated an “advent” or “special” friend in the lead up to Christmas. We are asking that children should be particularly kind to the person without letting them know that they have been chosen. No cards or gifts are required; the pupils will make cards in school.
Covid Update
What can we say that hasn’t already been said? We are managing as best we can with quite a high level of pupil and staff absence in the past few weeks, mainly due to disruption from Covid. I would like to again thank the overwhelming majority of our pupils (and their parents) in 3rd-6th classes who have been wearing face coverings as required by the Department of Education. We wear them to help to reduce the transmission of the virus, especially to our elderly or vulnerable families and friends. It’s not so much something we do for ourselves, rather it’s a generous thing that we do for each other. A small but important Christmas gift, if you like. Thank you all.
Ballylinan N.S. Christmas Food Appeal
Every day in Ireland thousands of families struggle to put food on the table. We would like to continue to help in a small way by having a food appeal on Wednesday 8th December.
We ask the children from each class to bring in the following food items listed below. It is entirely up to each family how much they would like to contribute and every item counts.
We would particularly like to see the children themselves contributing towards the appeal. This could be achieved through the use of pocket money or taking part in the choosing and shopping for the item.
This year again, we are working with the charity Heart to Hand. (www.hearttohand.net) Heart to Hand is a non-profit organisation that provides food to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, breakfast centres, homes for distressed families & many more deserving organisations around Ireland. In doing so, those organisations save thousands of Euros from their food bill, which eases the burden of fundraising and enables them to provide other vital services to people in need.
If you or a family you know would benefit from a hamper this year, please contact Ms Goff at maryegoff.ballylinan@gmail.com. Please be advised that any enquiry will be handled discreetly and in the strictest of confidence.
Junior /Senior Infants : Pasta/Noodles/rice
First/Second Class : Biscuits /Teabags/Coffee
Third/Fourth Class : Tins of any food such as beans/peas/soup/
creamed rice/fish
Fifth/Sixth Class : Toiletries – toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap,
shower gel, shampoo etc
Many thanks for your ongoing support.
Face Coverings in Primary Schools
Advent (Week 1)
The pupils from Room 11 (5th & 6th Classes) took part in a short prayer service to mark the first week of Advent. We lit the first candle on our Advent wreath.
Newsletter 17th November
Admissions 2022/23
Please note that applications for the 2022/23 school year will be open from Thursday, 13th January to Friday, 4th February 2022. Further information on how to apply will be issued closer to the time. If you are aware of anyone who may wish to enrol a child for next year, please let them know these dates.
Road Safety
Please continue to remind your children to be extra careful when walking or cycling home in the afternoons. Thank you.
Online Safety Talk
Garda Robbie Foran will give a talk this week to 4th, 5th and 6th Classes on the importance of being safe online.
Parent-Teacher Meetings
These will be happening in the next couple of weeks, in the form of a phone call again this year due to Covid restrictions.
Christmas Food Appeal
We will be organising an appeal again this year. Details to follow.
Covid Update
Though it may not seem like it from the outside, school life is more disrupted than at any stage in the pandemic so far and restrictions continue. We have had 19 confirmed cases since we returned in September. We are very grateful to parents for informing us of positive cases. Quite a number of children aged 12 have been vaccinated, though there isn’t any prospect of vaccines being offered to younger children in the near future. The current situation is that close contacts are not identified in schools and pupils do not need to stay at home providing they have no symptoms. Please continue to be vigilant and keep your child out of school if they are sick. Thank you all very much for your continued cooperation.
(Please note that if one of your household tests positive, members of that household will now be asked to restrict their movements for five days by staying at home. These measures are painful for us all, though they will help us in our efforts to keep classes and schools open.)
Thank You!
On a very positive note, our recent Halloween hike raised €4,864.55. Thank you so much for your generosity! It reminds us of what we will be able to do together once life approaches normality again. It can’t come soon enough.