Category: News

Road Safety
Please continue to remind your children to be extra careful when walking or cycling home in the afternoons.

Football News
Jamie Julian, Tyler Noble and Will Duffy will represent Ballylinan u15 at the Féile in Croke Park on Saturday 23rd October. We hope that more of our boys and girls will get a chance to grace the hallowed turf in the coming years!

Tag Rugby Blitz
Our first outing in more than a year and a half took place today when our 5th and 6th Classes travelled to Athy. We asked that pupils wear masks when on the buses. Our activities and procedures remain very restricted but at least it was a start and of course they enjoyed themselves hugely.

Covid Update
We are seeing a lull in cases at the moment and how we all hope that it continues! Again we really appreciate your cooperation in not sending your child to school if they have symptoms. As you may have seen in the national media, schools are affected when the level of cases in the community is high. It’s important to remember that if your child is a close contact in a household setting then they will have to restrict their movements for at least ten days. Please keep this in mind if you are having visitors over Halloween.

Gaeilgeoirí na Seachtaine
Tá na páistí ag déanamh iarracht níos mó Gaeilge a úsáid i rith an lae. Féachaigí!

Donations
From time to time we receive donations from parents. While we thank them in person, they prefer their names not to be mentioned publicly. We thank them again! We have been delighted with your contributions to our Halloween Hike and if you have any cards yet to return please do so tomorrow. Money is lodged as we receive it – we don’t store cash on the premises – and once we have a final total we will let you know. Thank you all for your support.

Halloween Hike
We aim to leave the school tomorrow around 9:45 in the morning. We will walk down to the church and into the village, cross at Centra and again at the church before returning to the school, We will have school staff with each classroom group and helpers at the crossings.

Please note the weather is colder so some layers may be needed. Costumes need to be practical (i.e. survive a walk or a gust of wind). If teachers don’t think it’s safe they may ask for costumes to be ‘modified’ for the duration of the walk.

If you’re coming out to watch please be cautious in relation to road safety and also Covid safety. Any photos taken should be for your personal use only and should not be shared on social media without permission.

Mid Term
Schools are closed next week and will reopen on Monday, 1st November.

Homework
Homework will be resuming next week (starting Monday, 27th September) for all pupils.

Remote Learning
Please note that remote learning provision was in place previously when schools were closed. Now that schools are open, we are not in a position to provide remote learning for children who are absent. To assist pupils and parents, we have been providing an outline of work for children who have been identified as close contacts of a confirmed case. This does not however extend to other forms of absence. Naturally if a child is absent for an extended period we will do our best to keep them in touch with their schoolwork, but this is limited to absences of more than a few days.

Absences
For those who have been forced to stay out of school as an identified close contact, we record the absence as ‘other’ and we note ‘Covid related absence’. Such recorded absences will not mean that you are more likely to hear from Tusla in relation to your child’s attendance. Please remember that you can record the reason for your pupil’s absence through the Aladdin app. If you have a particular reason to ring please do so, but in most cases a brief note on the app will do. Thank you.

Communion & Confirmation
This year’s ceremonies will take place in St. Anne’s Church on Saturday, 2nd and 9th of October. Details of the ceremonies will be communicated to parents by Arles Parish.

Parking
Please remember when parking to the rear of the school at the Athy end to reverse into your space. This ensures you don’t have to reverse out where there could be children walking. Please continue to take care, thank you.

Library Talk for Parents
Laois & Offaly Library Services have put together a series of online Parenting talks. More details.

Uniform etc.
It’s great to see our pupils in school and looking well in their uniforms:

Green jumper/cardigan, white shirt, grey trousers/skirt/pinafore.

School tracksuit is available through the school and is to be worn with a white polo shirt on P.E. days only.  Replacement navy legs (plain only) may be purchased in any shop.  In warm weather, plain navy shorts of an appropriate length may be worn.

We recommend practical footwear, preferably in a dark colour.

The use of hair dye is not permitted during term time and we encourage pupils to tie up their hair. Earrings should be neat (no large loops etc.) and fake nails or nail extensions are not permitted.

Please note that as the classrooms need to be well ventilated and the weather gets colder another layer of clothing might be necessary – we are required to keep windows open more than normal.

Sports Activities
While we are still very restricted in what we can do in school, we are glad that rugby and football coaching have resumed and we plan that all classes will get some sessions during the year. Much to everybody’s disappointment, this year’s Cumann na mBunscol competitions are not taking place, another casualty of the pandemic. We are planning to resume swimming at some stage during the year if circumstances allow.

Covid Update
It may be hard to believe as life moves towards normality, but the life of the school is more disrupted than it has been at any stage in the past eighteen months (apart from when it was closed, of course). To date there have been 12 confirmed cases of Covid amongst our pupils. It is very likely that 9 or 10 of these occurred in the community with 2 or 3 spreading to pupils in close contact in school. The measures in place (adult mask wearing, physical distancing where possible, good ventilation, CO2 monitors, classroom organisation, separation of classes, sanitising, exclusion of children with symptoms etc.) mean that the risk of spread can be reduced but not eliminated.

Please note that unless you hear directly from the school or the HSE, the public health advice is that it is best for your child to be in school. Some of our older pupils are now vaccinated and we encourage the continued uptake of vaccines in the community where possible.

We are very conscious of how disruptive all of this is for our pupils, their parents and their teachers. Since we reopened, we have had more than 50 instances of a pupil being excluded from school for an extended period due to being a close contact. This is the price  to be paid for keeping the school open when case numbers are at current levels. We are doing everything that we can do, in line with public health advice.

Parents of those who have tested positive have been quick to notify us and this has been really helpful in mitigating the effects. We all look forward to a time when these measures can be eased and school life can return to normal. In the meantime we thank you again for your care, your attention, your caution and your support.

Primary Language Curriculum Inservice
Teachers are required to undertake inservice on the revised primary language curriculum. This will take place on Wednesday, 6th October. School will finish for all pupils at 12:30 (12:15 for infants) on that day.