The Board of Management of Kilmacrennan School met in February 2025. The Principal Teacher/Sec Report was presented and included In-School Activities, including reports on matters such as the Enrolment Application process/ approvals, Assistant Principal 11 vacancy, Child Protection Annual Review, Anti Bullying, preparation of Annual Accounts, Health and Safety, Attendance Matters, CPSMA, Policy updates, School Self-Evaluation, a planned celebration to mark the Solas Autism Suite Extension, Communication with parents including the Monthly Newsletters etc.

January Newsletter

School News

The pupils are busy at school this term and we look forward to a number of upcoming events, including Vex Robotics for Sixth Class, Credit Union Quiz, Féis Leitir Ceanainn, Poetry competition, Children of the Eucharist, Sportshall events, among others.

We will once again host a Grandparents’ Day/St Bridget Cross-Making in the School Hall on Friday 31 January 2024 from 10 until 12 noon. All are welcome to attend.

School Enrolment

Please note that we are currently accepting enrolment applications for new pupils for the 2025/26 school year. The closing date for applications is 29th January 2025.

February Bank Holiday

Please note that the school will be closed for pupils on Monday 3rd February (St Bridget’s Bank Holiday).

Hot Meals

A small number of pupils appear not to be availing of our Hot Lunches. To avoid wastage of food and money, please tick the Fresh2Day No Meal box if this is the case (and you may re-join at any time).

Parent’s Association

We wish to thank the PA for organising the Christmas Fair and other events this past year. They recently presented €6,000 to the school and we are most grateful for this.

School Closure Info

In the event of an unforeseen school closure (ice/ snow/ frost/heating/electricity issues etc), please note that we will inform parents of such closures via an Aladdin text in the morning, or the evening before if adverse conditions are known in advance.

Please make your own judgement call regarding attendance and travel on days where the school remains open during such weather.

Yours sincerely,

John Devenney

All pupils are busy at school at the moment and many have been enjoying swimming lessons, football, Science Day, GAA coaching and outings over the past few weeks. We wish to congratulate our school Debating team who recently qualified for Round Two of the Concern Debating Championship, and wish those who are participating in the Irish poetry competition in Downings this Saturday all the best. Please note a change of venue in that the event will be held in the GAA Centre with a 10am start. Our Cumann na mBunscol quiz team were placed third in the recent County Final and have qualified for the Ulster final.

I wish to thank the Parents’ Association for the huge work and input into ensuring the huge success of the recent Christmas Fair. All monies raised will be invested in pupil resources.

We have scheduled our Christmas Shows/Music for the morning of Wednesday 18 December. Tea and biscuits will be available for all. We will inform you of class performance times closer to the day. We will also host a draw for a Christmas Hamper on the day. Santa Claus hopes to call in to see us all on Thursday 19th December.

We will close for the Christmas Holidays on Friday 20th December at 12 noon, and re-open 6th January.

Attendance Note

Please note that our pupil attendance rate has fallen somewhat in recent years, particularly so during Covid times, but recovery rates are a little slower than expected. The Board of Management has an Attendance Strategy and, as we seek to promote good attendance, we respectfully ask that you pay particular attention to planned absences that can impact on schooling, particularly in relation to holidays etc. I attach an information sheet from Tusla in this regard.

————————————————————————————————Dear Parent/Guardian

I am writing to tell you a little about the Education Welfare Act, 2000 (amended by the Child and family Agency Act 2013) and about some of the responsibilities we share under the Act. As you know, a good education gives your child the best possible start in life.  A good education helps young people to obtain secure employment and develop into mature and responsible citizens. The purpose of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 is to encourage regular school attendance and participation in education and training for as long as possible. It is desirable that every child stays in school and completes the Leaving Certificate.

Under the law, every child must attend school regularly up to sixteen years of age or complete at least three years education in a post primary school whichever comes later.

As a parent, you must let the school know if your child is absent and the reason why. It is school policy that reasons must be given in writing.  The school will notify Tusla – Child and Family Agency if a child is absent for 20 days or more or where the absence gives rise to concern.

If your child is sick or is absent for other good reasons, no action will be taken by Tusla – Child and Family Agency.  However, if there is concern about your child’s attendance at school or about the reasons given, you may be visited by an Educational Welfare Officer who will discuss your child’s education with you.  The Officer will work with you and take full account of the circumstances of the child and the family before deciding what further action is necessary to ensure that the child receives his/her entitlement to an education.

Further information concerning the new service and about school attendance matters generally can be obtained from the national Lo-Call Education Helpline – 1890 36 36 66.

Nuacht Litir na Scoile

September Newsletter

Dear Parent,

I wish to welcome you all for the school year.  The children appear to be settling quickly and we are looking forward to the new term.  We welcome all our new pupils, including our 29 new Junior Infants Class pupils, and we are delighted too to have opened our new School Extension. We look forward to giving you all a chance to drop in to see the classrooms etc.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of a few issues:

Please note that we call pupils to class each day at 9.20am. We open our school gates from 9am onwards but cannot accept responsibility for pupils who arrive before this time. We therefore request that you do not leave unsupervised pupils at the school gates, whether they arrive by bus or otherwise.

The pupils receive a hot-dinner at the main break. Food orders are placed online and any changes to an order for subsequent weeks must be done weekly by Thursday at 5pm. Please provide your pupil with a mid-morning snack and a drink for both breaks. Such snacks are generally eaten in the classroom and we encourage the children to take any litter or wrappings home each day. We respectfully request that our Healthy Lunches policy is adhered to. This means that sweets, chocolate, fizzy drinks etc are not part of a lunch. Please note that the school is operating a No Nut policy.

We ask that items such as school jumpers, stationery, lunch boxes (anything that moves!) are labelled and that the name tags are regularly refreshed. We request that the school uniform is worn at all times. Teachers will inform you of the day your child is doing PE classes. Please note that the school permits the wearing of stud earrings only, as hoops etc piercings can lead to greater risk during PE/Yard play.

Please provide us with up to date contact numbers, particularly with reference to mobile numbers. We operate a school text service.  Please inform the school by Monday, 9^th September if you have not received an introductory message.

The school provides text books and copybooks to all pupils but they are to supply their own stationery. We requested a Voluntary Contribution in June of €25 per child or €40 per family to cover costs such as photocopying expenses, Art materials, First Aid supplies and much more.  We thank those who have already paid this amount and encourage any outstanding fees to be paid in the coming days.

We ask that you pay particular attention to road safety issues and request that your child is accompanied to and from the school gates. Parents may park in the carpark near the chapel, or along the Main Road, observing normal parking regulations, paying attention to double yellow lines etc.  The car park at the school is for staff and bus parking only. Extra traffic in this area leads to greater risk for pupil and adult safety and we request that this zone remains free of parent traffic, as there would be long queues and greater risk if we all ignored this. The school has a designated disabled parking spots for blue badge holders. Please relay this information to all adults who drop off or collect your child from school.

We do not allow mobile phones in the school. The school office can relay messages from a parent to a child or from a child to a parent.

The School Photographer is scheduled to call on Monday, 23rd September.

Pupils from First to Sixth classes are presently doing cross-country training with an athletics meet scheduled in Milford on September 17^th.

The Parents’ Association are holding their first meeting on Wednesday, 11^th September at 7.30pm. All are welcome.

We encourage you to contact the school at the earliest opportunity if you have any queries or concerns and we will seek to address any issues at the earliest opportunity. Please note our telephone (0749139295) and e-mail contact details (kilmacrennanschool@eircom.net) or visit the school website at www.kilmacrennanschool.com. Please call the School Office in advance if you wish to arrange an appointment with a teacher. In order to minimise disruption, we often arrange such conversations outside of class teaching hours.

Yours sincerely,

John Devenney.

This note can also be viewed under the School News drop-bar on our website at www.kilmacrennanschool.com

Annual School Report

Kilmacrennan N.S Annual School Report 2023-24

Introduction and Overview of the School.

During the 2023-24 school year, there was a total staff of 16 teachers and 10 SNA’s in Scoil Cholmcille, Kilmacrennan. The teaching staff comprised of an administrative principal, nine class teachers, two ASD teachers and four SET teachers (one shared with a local school).

We have a further allocation of EAL and LS hours on a temporary basis.

There were 239 pupils on our school roll in September 2023.

School Activities

There was a strong emphasis on participation in a diverse range of activities over the course of the school year.  Among the activities/events/competitions that our pupils participated in were

• We received an Amber Flag award
• We have a Digital School of Excellence National Award
• We received a Green Flag award (Sixth flag, Litter & Global Awareness)
• We achieved Active Flag status
• Weekly Class Assemblies were held
• We hosted School Concerts at Christmas and during Seachtain na Gaeilge
• Kilmacrennan’s Got Talent is an annual highlight towards year-end
• We participated in Feis Loreto Leitir Ceanainn (music, song, dance and poetry) and the Guth Ghoill poetry event
• Ghlacamar páirt i scéim Scríobh Leabhair Gaeilge i mbliana
• We operated a School Gardening Club but the new school extension will necessitate the relocation of our School Garden over the summer months
• We placed a strong emphasis on weekly training with the School Athletic club
• Pupils were offered Music tuition and a School Music group performed at several events, including appearing on Highland Radio’s Ruáille Buaille show.
• Science Day was a highlight
• We had an active Student Council in place
• Art competitions are enjoyable and we enjoyed entering numerous school quizzes
• We participated in the County Donegal Debating League
• Swimming lessons were facilitated
• All pupils partook in a gymnastic programme
• We participated in-school activities during Internet Safety Week, Anti-Bullying Week and Friendship programmes
• We took part in Cumann na mBunscol & FAIS soccer competitions
• School Cooking events were held
• While participation is the key motivation, individual and team success is also cherished. Among the notable achievements in school competitions was success in quizzes, including Ulster Cumann na mBunscol; Feis Leitir Ceanainn, Poetry competitions, Green Flag awards, Cross Country champions, Debating successes, individual pupil success in art competitions etc.

Home-School-Community links

We cherish and actively sought to enhance Home-School-Community links.  Kilmacrennan N.S. has an active Parents Association, offering support and direction.

School Community links over the past school year included our Annual 5k event, a Tractor Run, a Family Movie Night, a Silver Circle Draw, Grandparents’ Day/ St. Bridget Cross making/ Valentine Bake day/ table quiz etc.

As part of our fifth Green Flag award, we held an International Cultural Day, showing food, music etc of the nationalities of our pupils

Our school community assist greatly with tea and refreshments on First Communion/ Confirmation and 5K events.  We also enjoyed our involvement with the Young at Heart group.

Our School Music groups performed at religious events in the community.

We also held a ‘Greet and Meet’ day for the new Junior Infant incoming class. New Enrolment packs were provided to all incoming pupils.

Board of Management News

A new Board of Management was formed during the school year.

The BO.M. wishes to acknowledge the commitment of staff, the support of parents and guardians and the enthusiastic co-operation of the pupils who support the work together to promote the ethos of our school. The BOM met five times over the past year and provided an agreed report to the school body via our website.

The BOM has met its obligations in respect of Child Protection and Anti-Bullying Procedures.

The B.O.M. has reviewed Standardised Test Results and Pupil Attendance returns during the course of the year.

The school accounts have been audited in line with DES guidelines.

The BOM liaised with the DES throughout the school year and work on a two classroom ASD main school building extension is ongoing. We are hopeful that this work will be completed for the beginning of the 2024/ 25 school year.

The school will operate the Summer Provision Scheme for our ASD Solas classes this summer.

The BOM successfully appealed and received a further NCSE LS allocation

With our school having 239 pupils on our roll on September 30th last, we anticipate the appointment of a tenth mainstream teacher this summer.

The school introduced the Free School Book Scheme.

A Hot Meals progamme/ School Dinners was introduced for all pupils.

School Self-Evaluation/School Improvement Plan

The school engaged wholeheartedly in departmental led initiatives during the school year, most notably School Self-Evaluation (SSE) and updating Anti-Bullying procedures.

As part of this process of evaluation, we continue to identify many of our school strengths and areas for improvement. With regard to SSE, we are proceeding with our Literacy and Numeracy initiatives.  The staff ascertained what we feel is working well and identified our strengths as

• annual testing of our pupils compares favourably with national averages in both English and Mathematics.
• the school has a print rich environment in relation to Literacy and Numeracy.
• pupils and teachers are positive when engaging in their approach and attitudes towards initiatives
• the school engages in a range of In-School activities that support good literacy practice, including DEAR, Reading for other classes, Shared Reading (with parental involvement), Paired reading, INTO Handwriting activities, a co-ordinated approach to handwriting etc.
• Croke Park hours were used to allow staff discussions on topics such as Wellbeing, School Digital Strategy, Numeracy etc.
• With regard to a School Improvement Plan, focusing initially upon Literacy, we identified Oral Language as an area that we would like to target.  Teachers provide for discrete oral language times on their timetables and engage in a range of initiatives to promote good Oral Language targets.
• Following discussions regarding Oral Language at previous staff planning days/ Staff Meetings, we have over the years introduced a range of specific in-school initiatives in this regard, including 8 week Assembly Blocks where pupils from different year strands perform weekly (music, drama, poetry, improvisation, dance etc)/We have introduced class debates/power point presentations etc in Senior Classes.
• We introduced a School Self-Evaluation notice board to our staffroom. This allows all staff to clearly see termly and yearly targets etc

Legislative and Regulatory Obligations.

The school is compliant with legislative and regulatory obligations, as identified in ‘School Self-Evaluation- Guidelines for Primary Schools, 2012’.  These aare

• Time in school as per Circular 11/95/ Arrangements for parent/ teacher and staff meetings as per Circular 14/04/ Implementation of Croke Park agreement regarding additional time requirement as per circular 08/2011/ Standardisation of school year as per circular/ Valid enrolment of pupils as per/ Section 9(1), 15 (2) and 23 education act 1988/ Sections 20 and 21 Education (Welfare) Act 2000/ Rules 55, 64, 108 and 123 rules for national schools/ Staffing schedule for current school year and Retention of pupils as per most recent circulars, including, but not exclusively, Development of school plan as per Section 21, Education Act 1998/ Appointments to posts of responsibility as per circular / Exemption from Irish circular/ Implementation of child protection procedures /Implementation of complaints procedure as appropriate/ Complaints procedures, Education Act/ Primary Boards of Management Information Manual / Refusal to enrol/ Section 29 Education Act 1998/ Garda Vetting circular requirements

Early Intervention/ Testing of Pupils

Our school undertakes testing of pupils at various stages of their schooling.  Infants are generally screened through the BPVT Test and MIST. A new version of the Drumcondra tests was introduced nationally this year and our school has introduced this for pupils from First to Sixth Class. We also conduct testing of pupils in Gaeilge in Second, Fourth and Sixth classes.

Strategies are in place for pupils who require help at this stage.  We also undertake annual testing of pupils of in English, Irish and Mathematics and IQ tests.  We compare pupils performance in the standardised English and Mathematics tests with their measured ability and make provisions for those who are under-performing.  The results of tests conducted on pupils in second, fourth and sixth classes are submitted annually to the DES.  School staff monitor and track individual and class-testing results, and can compare them to national trends.

Resources

We updated and purchased two new interactive smartboards/ Special Education resources etc.

We used part of our Digital Grant to purchase a laptop charging portal, laptops etc

We purchased a range of LS materials