A Family of Families
Dear Mams, Dads, Pupils and Staff,
In August 2018, the World Meeting of Families will take place in Dublin. It is hoped that Pope Francis will be there. As a Catholic school, we have been asked to think about families – they come in all shapes and sizes and they teach us how to love and care for each other. We have been asked to take four different ‘moments’ during the school year and think about our school as a ‘Family of Families’. The four moments are:

November Families of Hope
January Families of Faith
March Families of Love
May Families of Joy

On Monday last, one of the girls drew my attention to the School Creed in her Homework Journal. She said that she really liked the last few lines:
Let us remember
That, as many hands build a house,
So many hearts make a school.
Those lines seem very appropriate for us at this time as our school is called to be a ‘Family of Families’. Tomorrow, we will pray for all of our school families at a special Assembly. We will share our hopes and dreams for our own families and for families throughout the world.

Yours sincerely,
C. O’Reilly – Principal

Reminder
Thank you to everyone who has helped to reduce our school costs by downloading the new TextaParent App. It is free, it is available for Apple and Android devices and you can find it at https://app.textaparent.ie/get/app

Slán Miss Aga
Miss Aga will finish her work placement with us on December 1st. She has been such a great help to all of us over the last year and we will miss her. Thank you Miss Aga and the very best of luck.

Substitute Teachers
On November 7th, ‘Nationwide’ aired a programme about the substitute teacher shortage that is affecting schools and pupils all over Ireland. In a survey taken by 800 primary school principals, it was revealed that since September 2017, they were unable to find a substitute teacher for 25% of teacher absences.
In this school, we try very hard to make sure that we have a qualified substitute teacher for every absence. At the moment, this is becoming more and more difficult. To give you an example, last week, we contacted 30 substitutes on a particular day and none of them was available for work.
The Department of Education and Skills has said that the shortage is due to an increase in the number of teaching posts, and this is wonderful news for newly qualified teachers who are looking for work. Unfortunately, it also means that schools are finding themselves in a position of having no substitute cover. If you are talking with your local representatives, it might be worthwhile bringing this issue to their attention. It is a nationwide problem and it needs urgent attention.