It’s Good To Be Back!
Dear Dads, Mams, Pupils and Staff,
Every year in September, I say ‘Welcome Back’ to our school community but Tuesday 1st September 2020 was a very special day. I know that all the staff members in the school were thrilled to welcome our lovely girls back after almost six months at home. What was even more exciting was seeing how happy the girls were to return to school again.
The girls have been fantastic and have adapted to all the new routines. Some things are different, but lots of things are the same and together, we are managing to find our way through this unusual time.
Thank you very much to all the Mams and Dads who are helping us out by driving through the car park to drop off and to collect the girls. The system is working so please continue to co-operate with us in getting the girls safely in and out of school. This will be especially important as our Junior Infants have now joined the other girls for the morning drop off.
I hope that the 2020-2021 school year will be a little less eventful than the last one. We need to continue keeping ourselves and others safe. Remember to wash those hands, sneeze or cough into your elbow and keep your distance! Check out a great poem on the Sixth Class Blog that says it all.
Yours sincerely,
C. O’Reilly – Principal
Thank you to one of our parents for sharing this beautiful prayer with us.
Pupil Insurance
Many of you take out Personal Pupil Insurance every year. If you wish to do so this year, please contact Tracey by email at secretary.ferrybankgns@gmail.com and she will forward the form to you.
Text-a-Parent
If you have not already done so, please download the free Text a Parent App which we use to communicate important or urgent information. It is available for both Apple and Android devices from https://app.textaparent.ie/get/app . The App will also give you access to a school calendar.
It is especially important at the present time that we have up to date contact details for you so if you change your phone number, please contact the school office on 051 832984.
Book Rental and Other Costs
For this year, and to recognise the fact that some families may be struggling financially, we reduced our charge for the Book Rental scheme to €10 per child. Most of that money was collected over the summer months – thank you. We would like to say a sincere thank you to your Parents’ Association who did a lot of work sorting and preparing the books for the rental scheme.
We also reduced the contribution for Art and Craft, Photocopying and Additional Reading materials by €5 per pupil and that is now payable to the school. To try to avoid handling cash, we have set up a contactless payment system. You can use either a debit or credit card, and you will receive an email receipt.
Please call the school office on 051 832984 as soon as possible to arrange to come in and pay this contribution – €25 Senior Infants, €20 First to Sixth. As always, we are grateful for your support and this year in particular, we hope that everyone will make an effort to contribute.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Sixth Class 2020 who were confirmed by Fr. O’Shea on Saturday 29th August. It was a beautiful, meaningful ceremony and great credit is due to Fr. O’Shea and to everyone on the Parish Pastoral Council who played a big role in preparing for the occasion and in helping on the day. Mrs. Power and Miss O’Reilly were delighted to be present and to see the girls again.
We are now looking forward to First Holy Communion for Third Class on Saturday September 26th.
Autumn Cinquain by Natalia (3rd Class)
Autumn
leaves, coats
falling, blowing, raining,
leaves fall from trees,
change.
Junior Infants
Our Junior infants are settling in well. They went on a nature walk this week around our school grounds. They examined our Horse Chestnut tree and how it is changing during Autumn. Have a look at the Junior Infant class blog for a photo.
Waterford News and Star Project
Jamie Fox is a freelance journalist and is working on a piece for the Waterford News and Star centred around people’s experience with Covid-19. Jamie would like to hear from the people of Waterford and organisers of community groups to tell some stories of their journey through the crisis so far. The interview should not take longer than 15-20 minutes, but any person is welcome to talk for as long as they want.
Jamie’s contact details are fox180592@hotmail.com Mobile no: 0872194087
Homework
We hope that everyone is enjoying our ‘homework free’ September. During this month, all the girls need to bring to school with them is their lunchbox and drink, so leave those schoolbags at home 😊
The staff is currently looking at an online learning platform that we could use to engage with the girls in case we need to go back to Home Learning at any stage, or maybe even for homework. It is called Seesaw.
In order to sign the children up for the platform, we will need your permission so please keep an eye out for a Consent Form.
Active School – Waterford Bike Week 2020
It is great to see so many of the girls walking or scooting to school and we hope that this will continue. If you’d like to get active as a family, why not check out some of the activities that have been organised for Waterford Bike Week? All the information you will need is here https://www.waterfordsportspartnership.ie/waterford-bike-week-2020/
Should I send my child to school if she is unwell?
This is a hard question to answer. At school, we have been using a HSE Isolation Guide for children from 3-13years to help us answer any queries. You can find the guide under the ‘Latest News’ tab on our website. It might be useful for you as parents. If you are in any doubt, please keep your child at home and call the school office.
