Welcome Back!
Welcome back to everyone as we begin another School Year. We especially welcome our new pupils James Doorley, Aoibheann Doyle, Charlie McLoughlin, Catherine Molloy Reddan, Luke Slevin and Darragh Mooney.
School Staffing Arrangements
The current staffing arrangements for 2024 – 2025 are as follows: Jennifer Rigney and Allison Ryan: 3rd, 4th, 5th, & 6th classes, Vanessa Loonam: Junior and Senior Infants, 1st & 2nd classes, Georgia Carroll: Le Chéile 1, Niamh Keenan: Le Chéile 2 and Michelle Egan: SEN Teacher. MS. Egan is currently on Maternity Leave and Eamon Bracken will be teaching in her position until she returns. Our Special Needs Assistants are Sinéad Egan, Linda Kinahan, Rosemary McGarry, Lisa Lyons, Sinéad Dolan, Paula Tierney and Karen Hayes. Our Bus Escorts are Jackie Conneely and Josie Regan. Bernadette Doyle is our school secretary and Elaine Kelly is our cleaner.
Hot Lunches
We will be providing hot lunches again this year for those children who want them. We ask that you complete the menu form as soon as possible each week. We send in the orders for the coming week each Friday, so the form should be completed no later than 1.00 pm each Thursday.
School Opening Times
We remind you that the school opens to receive pupils at 9.10 a.m. in order that pupils will be in class by 9.20 a.m. Classes end each day at 2.00 p.m. for infants and 3.00 p.m. for all other pupils.
Pupils will be brought to the school gate by their teacher in the evenings. You are asked to be punctual when collecting your children as they may fret if they think they are forgotten. Make sure that your child knows who is collecting him/her. If at any time the collection routine has to be changed unexpectedly please ensure the teacher knows this through a phone call to the secretary.
It is important that parents are aware that no arrangements exist for the supervision of children who arrive at the school, whether by school transport or otherwise, before the official opening time or who remain after school hours while awaiting collection.
Home – School Communication
Bernie, our school secretary, will be in school office from 9.30 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. each day. You are asked to ring the school between these times if you have messages for teachers regarding absences etc. This will ensure that teachers do not have to leave their classrooms, unless there is an urgent reason.
We are introducing the DataBiz Eolas School Communication system this year. All communication with parents regarding upcoming events, parent/teacher meeting will be through the app.If you have not downloaded and installed the app, please do so as soon as possible to avoid missing any messages or notices from the school.
Mass for the New School Year
We will have our start of year Mass in the school on Monday, September 23rd at 1.15 pm. All parents, grandparents, friends and relations are more than welcome.
Preparation for Confirmation, First Confession and First Holy Communion
Preparation for the Sacraments begins this month with enrolment Masses for Confirmation, First Confession and First Holy Communion in St. Mary’s Church Cloghan.
The Enrolment Mass for Confirmation will take place at the 8.00 pm Mass in St. Mary’s Church, Cloghan on Saturday, September 21st.
The Enrolment Mass for First Confession and First Holy Communion takes place the following weekend on Saturday, September 28th in St. Mary’s Church at 8.00 pm.
Dates for these Sacraments have yet to be decided but Confirmation will take place in St. Rynagh’s Church in Banagher as the ceremony alternated between to two churches and was held in Cloghan last year.
Health and Safety
We ask that if your child is unwell that you do not send them to school. In the event we need to contact you when your child becomes unwell in school that you have procedures in place to have your child collected from school.
We recommend that you also check your child regularly for head lice which is highly contagious, treat immediately if found and inform the class teacher or the secretary confidentially so that a note may be sent out to other parents.
If your child has an inhaler or indeed medication of any kind, it is school policy that you must contact us in advance of sending this into school so that it can be properly dealt with.
All information regarding your child’s health is treated in the strictest confidence.
Cards & Invitations
School policy on cards and invitations is that we do not allow them in school. Unfortunately we have had experiences where children felt unintentionally excluded and were upset at not being invited to parties or not getting a Christmas card. Please do not ask teachers or SNAs to distribute cards or invitations as refusal to do so may offend. Also, the school cannot share contact details with you under Data Protection and GDPR.
School Fundraiser
The Board of Management will be running a fundraising raffle this year. The main prize is a €1000 voucher for Centre Parc Forest Park in Longford.
Second Prize is being sponsored by Ciaran Grogan Construction & Strawberry Hill Living and is 2 Nights Bed & Breakfast with 1 Evening Meal Based on 2 People Sharing with Original Hotels Ireland.
Third Prize is being sponsored by William Slevin Ballysheil Services and is a €150 Voucher
Tickets can be bought online on a new Lumcloon NS iDonate page. Tickets start at €10 each. Multiple tickets can be purchased at a discount, 3 tickets for €25 or 6 tickets for €45.
https://www.idonate.ie/raffle/LumcloonNS
iDonate offers a 0% Platform Fee model to causes. They rely on your generosity to help to run their platform and provide local support.
Beneficiaries of fundraising events hosted on iDonate receive all proceeds from the event but t hey do ask for voluntary contributions which ensures that they can continue to keep the platform free for those who really need it.Please spread the word of our Fundraiser and encourage as many people to buy tickets as possible.
Arriving Late/Leaving early
Once the children are in school in the morning, the school doors are locked. As per the guidelines only visitors with pre-arranged appointments will be allowed into the school. Pressing the buzzer on the wall beside the front door will alert the secretary or one of the teachers to the fact that someone is outside.
We require that pupils are signed in/out if they arrive to school late or have to leave school early.
Break-times
A reminder that there are two breaks during the day, a shorter one from 11.00 am to 11.10 am and a longer break from 12.30 pm to 1.00 pm. Pupils are given approximately ten to fifteen minutes indoors to eat their lunch before going outside. Our yard is divided into separate play areas for the different classroom groupings. We try to ensure that no child feels lonely or left out, and, to this end we recommend that older brothers, sisters, cousins and friends do not ask to stay with the younger children during playtime which may restrict them in making friends with children of their own age.
Our yard is supervised by a teacher and this is organised on a rota basis within the school. Our SNAs are also on the yard at break-time.
Lumcloon Parents’ Association
Our Parents’ Association Committee are currently planning a date for the first their AGM.
Attendance
Under the Educational Welfare Act, you are obliged to notify us in writing (paper, email or online Eolas form ) if your child is absent from school and provide the reason for the absence. The school must keep a record of this. We are required to notify Tusla when a child is absent for 20 days regardless of the reason for their absence. You will generally receive a reminder from the school when your child is approaching 20 days out of school and another when they have reached the 20-day threshold. Generally, Tusla are concerned about absences which are unexplained, a poor attendance pattern etc. If there is a genuine reason for your child’s absence usually there is no cause for concern. However, we hope you understand that as a school, we are obliged by law under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000 to send you notification of absences as per above.
We have attached a form for you to complete when your child is absent. Copies of absence slips are also available to download on the school website. A written note or email to office@lumcloonns.ie will suffice. If you know that your child is likely to be out of school for a period due to illness, we ask you to contact the school by phone to let us know. Phone calls regarding absences still require follow-up with a note. The roll will be finalised each morning at 11.00 a.m. Pupils arriving to school after this time will be marked absent.
We strongly discourage parents from taking children on holidays during term time and the school will not provide schoolwork for children to complete while on holidays. We encourage parents where possible to help their child catch up with schoolwork that they have missed out on due to absences.
Access to the School
We ask parents to exercise caution when parking their cars both in the morning and afternoon, making it safe for children entering and leaving the school. We also ask parents not to park their cars in the staff parking area either in the morning or afternoon as this makes it difficult for the buses to park and for pupils entering through the side gate. We also remind you to be careful turning your cars outside the school as the bridge makes it very dangerous for cars to see approaching traffic.
Mobile Phones
As per our school policy, mobile phones are strictly forbidden. Any child found with a mobile phone either in the school or on school-related activities will have it confiscated even if it is switched off, and their parents will be contacted and asked to come to the school to collect the phone. We ask for your understanding on this matter.
Cards for All Occasions
We have a range of handmade cards (birthday, baby, wedding etc.) for sale in the school. These cards have been designed and decorated by staff of the school and all proceeds are going towards activities for the pupils in Le Chéile. They can be ordered by calling Bernie in the office.
School Uniform
Please ensure your child wears the full school uniform each day. This is detailed on your child’s booklist. We remind you that black tracksuit bottoms, sweatshirt-type bottoms or bottoms with logos or stripes are not allowed and that all pupils are required to wear the proper uniform as per our school rules.
Hair should be neat and tidy when coming to school. Children are not allowed wear gel or colour in their hair while attending our school and hair should be dry when coming to school
If any parents have old school jumpers which are in good condition and have no siblings left to wear them, we would be delighted to take these and perhaps they could be used by another pupil at some stage.
Please ensure that all clothes likely to be removed i.e. coats, hats, scarves, gloves, jumpers etc. are clearly labelled with your child’s name as many children possess similar items and this can cause confusion and quarrels!
Insurance
While all pupils attending our school are covered by the school’s insurance policy for school-related events, we also offer optional extra cover under an additional 24 hour Personal Accident Insurance Scheme through Allianz. The total cost is €9.00 per child (plus a single 25c processing fee). Details of the cover and the application form are attached. When paying for your child’s insurance we would ask you to please use the Eolas App, however, if you are having difficulty with the App please contact the school for assistance.