SCHOOL CALENDAR 2025
We are delighted to launch (on behalf of the PA) a wonderful calendar for 2025 which will be sold to raise funds for the PA. We extend huge thanks to Rebecca Jennings who put so much work into creating this fabulous calendar which would make the perfect Christmas gift!
Payments may be made via paypal but we can accept cash in envelopes in school which we will pass on to the PA. Please mark the envelope clearly indicating the quantity, child’s name and class and amount enclosed if you wish to pay this way.
The Re-turn Scheme
Our PA is running the Re-Turn initiative at our school to raise funds for school activities. The benefits of this are two-fold as it also teaches pupils the value of recycling! We hope you can support us!
PA AGM September 2024
Minutes attached below- thank you all for your support
PA MEETING JUNE 2024
Minutes attached below. Thank you all for your hard work over the year!
Percussion workshop!
We were thrilled to welcome Conor Moore Drumming to our school for a day of percussion! We explored various percussion instruments and musical genres. It was a brilliant day. Many thanks to our PA for their sponsorship of this super treat! Click on the links for video!
GRANDPARENTS DAY 2024!
Just some of the photos we captured today as most were taken on grandparents phones; we would love you to share them with us if you have more!
Thank you to our PA for a fabulous spread and for the lovely presentation of the hospitality area! Thank you to Fr. David for the lovely mass and to all involved in making Grandparents Day so special. It is always lovely to meet the wonderful grandparents in our community.
Minutes of PA meeting February 2024
February Newsletter
Click the link below to view the latest updates from our PA
PANCAKE TUESDAY
The aroma of pancakes and sugary toppings floated through the school today – what a wonderful treat courtesy of our very kind PA volunteers. The addition of marshmallows to the list of options was welcomed greatly!! Thank you all, it was a lovely experience for the pupils…and staff!
January 26th 2024 – we found the ace!
Guess what!? Darragh F’s ticket came out and his big brother Cian found the elusive ace!! Well done boys, we are so thrilled for you on your win of €100 plus the ace total which had amounted to €2,299!! A lovely way to end the week! Many thanks to our PA for all their hard work on this huge fundraising venture!
Revised National Parental Complaints Procedure Dec 2023 – please click the link to view
FESTIVE FRIDAYS!
The PA Festive Friday fundraiser is back and we look forward to having lots of fun! We will have a Christmas disco on yard as part of our Active Flag endeavours!
6th class hoodies!
Huge thanks to the PA and NevPak for their generous coordination and sponsorship. Our 6th class pupils enjoy wearing them throughout the year as it sets them apart as seniors in our school.
Minutes of PA meeting 15/11/2023
A very exciting notice from our PA!
Split the Pot this month will be a BUMPER DRAW!
Any STP ticket sold will also be included in the Halloween Raffle at the disco!
And likewise; each €10 disco ticket sold will also be included in the SPT draw as well as the raffle at the disco.
Hot food at the disco will be chicken goujons or sausages, with chips. Pre-sale tickets will get their food token at entry.
Some of the raffle prizes include,
A family pass for the Santa Train in Amber Springs, Gorey
€100 cash prize sponsored by Richard Ivory
2x €50 Folk Vouchers sponsored by Olan&Son
A Beauty Hamper
Book Station Voucher
Gino’s Ice cream Voucher
And lots more…
PA Newsletter September 2023
Please click the link to view our most recent PA newsletter
BRAND NEW SENSORY SPACE!
Huge thanks to parents Laura Molloy and Shane Fleming for their trojan work in completely revamping our sensory space! We just love it! This space is a wonderful hub for a time out for children with diagnoses or for children who may need a time out. It will get so much use. Enjoy this before/after reel for a glimpse of this super space! (click the link below)
Minutes of Parents’ Association meeting May 2023
Treasurer’s report May 2023
Latest newsletter from our PA! May 2023
NEW SENSORY CORRIDOR!!
We really won the jackpot with our Parents’ Association! They do so much for us to make school the best place it can be! Last night, Laura, Fiona, Danielle and Ronnie were in until half ten putting down our new sensory corridor to be enjoyed by all pupils (and staff!!!!) Stay tuned for videos and pictures. There has been such a buzz of excitement today! Kinaesthetic learning is how some children best learn so we are delighted with this installation. Special thanks to our chairperson Laura who designed the decals and organised the whole project!
* A kinaesthetic-tactile learning style requires that you manipulate or touch material to learn
Click the links above to see our pupils learning in such a fun way!
SURVEY RESULTS
Thank you to all who participated in the survey of parents. Results are depicted in the images below.
NEW PE EQUIPMENT!
What a gorgeous day to be trying out our new sports euipment – many thanks to our PA for funding the purchase of these! The children reallly enjoyed these activities- thank you Mr. Breen !
Investments courtesy of our PA!
I would like to thank the Parents’ Association for all their recent purchases to enhance the quality of learning in our school:
There was a significant puchase of instruments for Ceol Castletown and to and even more have arrived in the new year inlcuding a djembe drum and a keyboard! These will also be used to support the implementation of the music curriculum in our classes
We were also treated to a haul of PE equipment which will get great use.
The PA also responded to our request for an expensive set of decodable readers for our younger pupils. We are thrilled with this investment. Thank you!
Emer Russell
DECEMBER 2022 – A VISIT FROM THE PLANETARIUM!
Huge thanks to our super Parents’ Association for providing this awesome eduational experience for us! All pupils loved the planetarium experience and were socurious to learn more about our universe!
Christmas fun!!!
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We have had the BEST DAY !! Our old friend Cookie Sparkles came to visit and brought all her magic and fun with her! Click the links to see what she got up to!!
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5th and 6th class had a great time decorating Christmas cupcakes and washed them down with hot chocolate whilst watching a movie!
We have such an amazing board of management and Parents’ Association who sponsor experiences and memories such as these!!
6TH CLASS HOODIES!
Don’t 6th class look great in their new hoodies? Many thanks to our super PA for organising and funding these, thanks also to Carmel for sizing. With the senior hoodie comes senior responsibility and we look forward to them standing out as seniors in their hoodies and supporting staff and pupils in a mature manner in any way that they can. Wear them well!
FESTIVE FRIDAYS!
We love this time of year!
This Friday kicks off our annual PA fundraiser ‘Festive Fridays’. Children may wear Christmas/winter jumpers to participate. Please don’t go to expense, the same top can be worn each Friday or your child might even like to decorate an old top with some decorations! Thank you for your support!
Minutes of PA AGM September 2022
Please click on the link below to view. Thanks to all for such a positive meeting. Our school is lucky to have you on board!
AGM Updates 29-09-2022
Please click the link for details!
WELCOME BACK! SEPTEMBER 2022
Welcome back from all on the PA. Here is our newsletter with lots of information about who we are. Date of first meeting, Thursday 29th September at 8.30pm. Click on the link belwo to view the newsletter
Appeal – June 2022
- As per finances, our funds will cover us up to the Sports Day/BBQ this year.
- We need support in order to fund 2 pre agreed costs in September (6th Class hoodies and Music Generation lessons for 3rd and 4th Class)
- We are asking families for €20. This will cover entries to 10 summer draws for Split the Pot (inc 2 bonus draws) and from this we hope to generate 100 entries and cover our upcoming costs
- This will give a guaranteed prize fund of 100€ per week for the winner
- You can enter via PayPal or in cash between now and end of Sports Day
Your support is much appreciated, thank you
Minutes of PA meeting – June 22
MAY 2022 UPDATE
Many thanks to the Kavanagh family for their ongoing support also.
Split the Pot Chase the Ace – Round 2 (1)Download
AODÁN CATCHES THE ACE!!
FRIDAY 06/05/22
After a number of weeks of the ace of spades eluding our Split the Pot winners, Aodán won!! We are so thrilled for him – he won just under €1500 in total! He has lots of holiday plans apparently! Thanks to our wonderful PA for all their hard work! Click on the link to view – the excitement is palpable!!
Paired Reading
Huge thanks to the parents and grandparents who joined us today for our first paired reading session since before Covid. There were some very proud little people! We are delighted to resume this most important feature of our parent-school links.
UPDATE February 2022
Hi All,
Welcome all new parents. Minutes from last PA meeting attached and some follow up actions include:
Walking Bus-WOW (walk on Wednesdays)
**Update-we had good turn out this morning for our first walking bus, thanks to those who turned up. If you’re dropping your child to go on the walking bus please text me in advance so we can confirm we have enough adults-we aim to get rota going once we know numbers. Note next week we will try leave car park at Wednesday 8:50am so please allow time to get sorted, text if you’re coming but running late 0871689821. Great opportunity to meet new parents and connect to the school community. Please note this is a parent run initiative, you are responsible for your kids until they step onto the school yard!
We will trial a walking bus this coming Wednesday 9th Feb from the Anchor Car Park at 8:50am. All welcome and please wear hi vis if you have it –there will be spares too. Parents and children will walk from the Car park to the school. This suggestion comes from parent Marie Kinsella and if successful we aim to walk every Wednesday (and maybe more) -get involved if you can! Any questions text Caroline on 0871689821.
Uniform End of Stock Sale
** Update Eilis added sale proces below. As agreed at the PA meeting, uniforms sales will be moving online only this year. There is limited remaining stock in the school that will be sold off on sale at 25% off cost price listed below. Stock includes tops, bottoms, and shorts .
Sale will be Thursday 7th April-limited stock in all sizes so it’s on first come basis.
Fundraising Committee forming
Feedback from parents suggested the need to set long term fundraising projects to develop the school and focus funds raised. Next steps include forming a Fundraising committee with representatives from the school, Board of Management, and parents. The plan will be to set some long-, medium- and short-term fundraising goals/projects. This will give a target and focus for fundraising. There have already been some great ideas from parents -and this committee will provide a great framework for the school to really benefit from.
If you can contribute in any way to this please click this link https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiq17LaxjyXIbWi5wmCYfTIC19ddluCQjRViQsiQ2v7PVuDw/viewform or contact the office on 0402 37596 and it would be great if any parents have building, finance, planning, project management, tendering, grant application experience as all this would be so valuable to supporting fundraising efforts.
Tree planting
The school have loads more trees to plant so if any parents or grandparents have capacity, please get in touch with the office. Many hands make light work!
Development
Just to acknowledge the new developments at the school and how lucky we are, if you havent seen, we now have a climbing wall and target practice wall. And from talking with Emer, lots of exciting ideas in the pipeline.
That’s all for this month, hope to see a few parents out on Wednesday and we will be circulating a schedule of some upcoming events like pancake day, a grandparent event and hopefully the Croaghan walk too, to name a few. If you have any ideas please get in touch Let us know if you know of any parents not getting mails who might like to.
The PA Team
Please click on the link to view the minutes for the December 2021 meeting
Please click on the link to view the November Newsletter from our PA!
We have a fantastic PA who run great fundraisers and support our school in its everyday life. They provide reception and refreshments at various events over the year, support us in providing extras for our students (such as sponsoring visitors to the school, workshops, dance classes etc.) We are delighted to work with them as valued partners in education.
What is a Parent’s Association?
The Parent’s Association forms an integral part of our school community and a dedicated committee works hard throughout the year on tasks including:
• Organising welcome events for new pupils (and parents) to the school
• Arranging talks on topics of interest to parents, e.g. guest speaker on parenting/health etc
• Providing support/organisational input to major school events, e.g. Sports Day/Active Week/First Holy Communion/ Confirmation, etc
• Contributing to school newsletter
• Helping to organise and supervise extracurricular activities
• Organising Fundraising Events for the school
Each parent of a child enrolled in the school is automatically a member of the Parents’ Association and the active participation of a large number of parents is necessary to maintain the level of parental support our school so desperately needs.
Minutes of last PA meeting :
April 2021
A lovely surprise on non uniform day – a gift of Bodibro hoodies and half zips from our super Parents’ Association! Wear them well, 6th class! #graduation
A message from the Parents’ Association 27/11/2020
As you all know, we were unable to run our Halloween Disco event this year due to Covid 19, so the PA are looking to run “Christmas Themed Dress Up Fridays” throughout December for the children. So essentially, no school uniforms on Fridays (win win all round for both kids and parents!)….. This will start on Friday 4th December 2020. We are looking for donations of €10 euro per family, however, no pressure to donate and we would be glad of any contributions large or small. Donations will not be sought until the second week of the dress up. With our parent support, we will continue to fund fun based activities for our children during the school year. This year we are looking to fund some very special Christmas treats – more to be revealed shortly. In addition, we will continue to support Ukulele lessons which were so popular last year – so hopefully we will be able to continue with this activity again after Christmas.
So – what to wear on Fridays….it can be a jumper, headgear, crazy socks, earnings or even a hat – but it must have a Christmas Theme.
The donations can be given to the Teachers.
Thanks to all of our Parents, Teachers and School staff for your continued support.
Parents Association Committee
Here are the minutes of the last Parents’ Association meeting:
PA – Minutes of Meeting – 29.01.2020 ER
Castletown National School Parents Association Committee – AGM 03.10.2018 Minutes (1)