June Newsletter – Rathnure National School

General news/Info

Staffing 2019/20-We are delighted that Mr. Wright will be staying at Rathnure NS in a permanent capacity from September 2019. Our SNA allocation of 2.5 posts will remain the same and Mr. Kinsella will also be returning to Rathnure NS in September following his career break. Our whole school enrolment will increase from 187 to 195 next year.
School Calendar-The school calendar for 2019/20 has been published on our school website. School will commence on Thursday 29^th August 2019. A copy of the school calendar will be posted to you with your child’s end of year report in June.
Holidays-If you intend to take your child out of school during June for holidays, please let the class teacher know in advance.
Fresh Today lunches-If you are aware that your child will be out of school for a time, please cancel their lunch by emailing wexford@freshtoday.ie or phoning 0539235994 before 6pm on the Thursday before their absence. Please also cancel or change lunch if your child is not eating it, to avoid waste and extra cost.

School committees

Active Week-active Week takes place from 10^th to 14^th June. We have lots of fun activities planned throughout the week to get us out and active! Fingers crossed for good weather! A big thank you to Ms. Doyle and all of the Active School committee for organising the events.
Celebration Day- Everyone is invited to attend our Celebration Day on Friday 21^st June. The event will begin in the John Kelly hall at 12pm. On this day we will raise our 5^th Green Flag. We are also very hopeful that we will achieve what is required to raise an Active School Flag, a Hurling 365 flag and a GAA 5 star flag. These flags along with our Health Promoting School status, are given in recognition of all of the tireless work carried out during the school year by the relevant committees, our staff and pupils. They represent some of the great initiatives and projects that we value in our school.

Curriculum

Standardised testing-As usual, pupils from 1^st to 6^th class have completed standardised tests in English and maths. This year we have used the brand new Drumcondra Standardised tests. As these are new tests, you might see a difference in the sTen score that you child receives in comparison to last year. This is the case in all schools using the new tests and if your child’s score is lower than last year, it is nothing to be alarmed about. The Educational Research Centre (ERC) who design these tests have published an explanation letter for parents, which is attached to this newsletter. Please familiarise yourself with the detail of the letter as it will help you to understand your child’s results when you see their end of year report. The First Class standardised tests follow a different method of reporting results. Please see an explanation note attached to your child’s report.
End of Year Reports-End of Year Reports will be posted to you during the week beginning 17^th June.

Sport

Celebration Day-We will present Mini 7s medals and celebrate the 3 in a row mini 7s titles during our Celebration Day on Friday 21^st June. Time TBC. We also hope to raise the Hurling 365 and GAA 5 star flags on the day.
Rackard League Camogie-Hard luck to our camogie team who lost out to Kilrush in the Rackard League Semi-Final. It was a massive achievement for the team to reach semi-final stage of both the Rackard League and mini 7s competition and we are very proud of them all! Many thanks to Mrs. Stafford & Jim O’Connell for all of their work with the team. Mrs. Stafford would like to thank all of the parents for getting the girls to and from the matches and for their support.
Rackard league Athletics-We had a lot of pupils competing in the school sports competition on Thursday 23^rd May. All of our athletes did really well and we were proud of them all. A special mention to Sam Mooney and Aoibhinn Byrne who won gold and silver respectively in the high jump! Thanks to Mrs. Byrne for organising and coaching our athletes in the run up and for all her time on the finish line on the day.
Cycling-Please be aware that some pupils might be cycling to and from school now and we ask that all drivers travel slowly and take extra care on the approach roads to the school. Any senior pupils who have permission from their parents to cycle should wear a helmet and a high visibility vest.

The Arts

Parents Association

Social Dance-A Social dance took place in Rathnure Hall on Friday May 24th at 10pm. A huge thank you to the PA for organizing the event. It raised….
Clothes Collection-Thanks to the PA for organizing a clothes collection on Thursday 23^rd May. Thanks to everyone who donated bags of clothes. This raised……
Buses for school tours-Thank you so much to the PA who work very hard during the year to raise funds to pay for the buses going to school tours. This really reduces the price of the tours for families and it is greatly appreciated.

Dates for your diary:

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@RathnureNS for general school news and each teacher for their class news and updates:

@MrsNolanRNS @MrsQuigleyRNS @MrsByrneRNS @MrKinsellaRNS @Mr_WrightRNS @MsHaydenRNS @MrsMurphyRNS @MsDoyleRNS @MsStaffordRNS @MrsKeoghRNS