We have been working hard over the Summer to get everything ready for September and everything is falling into place and the school will open its doors at 9am sharp on September 1st 2008! This is an exciting time and thanks to all who have put in so much hard work to make this happen.
Premises: the school will be housed in Colgan Court in the centre of Kilcolgan (Kathleen Mannion’s premises - new building beside O’Donoghues Pub). This is a new commercial building and is currently being completed to our specifications and the whole building is to be used as a school for 3 years. There will initially be 2 classrooms on the 1st floor and they are spacious and bright. As well as other rooms in the building, there is also to be a fenced play/P.E area out the back.
The Department of Education have confirmed their acceptance of this premises and the builders are working hard to ensure everything will be ready for the school to open on September 1st.
The original planning application for the other premises had to be posponed due to traffic management complications.
Appointment of Principal and 2nd Mainstream Teacher
The committee is delighted to welcome the new principal and teacher on board. Anna Lochmann is the newly appointed principal and Fionnuala Ni Chaoimh is the 2nd teacher. Both bring a wealth of experience with them and we look forward to working with them.
Classes for 2008
We will open with 2 teachers in 2008 and one will teach junior and senior infants together and the other will teach 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes. Enrolments are still being accepted up to 3rd class and if you have any queries or would just like to find out a bit more, please call the school phone on 086 8186289. Classes in the first year will be small and it is expected that there will be a total of ca. 20-22 children in the school, with 10-11 with each teacher.
Enrolments for subsequent years are very healthy (particularly for 2009) and it is advised that children should be pre-enrolled now as places are offered on a first come first served basis.
On Wednesday 23rd June we held an information evening with the new principal. This was attended by several parents. On the night we had a brief presentation from Jarlath Munnelly, the new schools officer with Educate Together.
This was followed by a presentation from our new principal, Anna Lochmann. Anna spoke about how the Educate Together ethos will work in practice and whilst emphasising the role of the teacher, she welcomed an open door policy on communication with parents and would welcome any ideas from parents. She summarised the Educate Together ethos as being:
A - all faiths and none
B - both genders
C - child centred
D - democratically run
The parents present asked a wide range of questions which are summarised in a document. This along with Anna’s presentation can be E-mailed to parents. (please send a request to southgalwayet@gmail.com)
KILCOLGAN EDUCATE TOGETHER N.S.CALENDAR 2008 – 2009
| Mon 1st of September |
School opens |
From time to time there may be additional closures. Please keep a look out for notification. Parents / Guardians are actively discouraged from taking holidays outside of the above schedule. The school is obliged by law to inform the National Education Welfare Board when a pupil is absent for a total of 20 school days in one school year.It is widely accepted that there is a direct link between school attendance and pupil progress. Your co-operation with maintaining high attendance and punctuality is greatly appreciated. We look forward to a great year together!
A dedicated mobile phone number has been allocated to the school until the land line is installed. This number is 086 8186289. This number can be used for all general queries about the school. The pre-enrolment officer Annette Foy can also be contacted on 087 9888275 re enrolments.
September 1st and first day of school is fast approaching and we thought it might be nice to arrange some get-togethers so the children could meet their new friends before the first day of school. Familiar faces will add to the excitement for the children and help create a familiar and relaxed atmosphere for the children (and maybe even the parents!!) on their first day.
If you know of other parents who are interested in sending their chid(ren) to our school this year but may not have enrolled them yet please let them know they are welcome to come along as well as we can still facilitate additional children from JI to 3rd class for Sept 2008.
We understand that it’s difficult to facilitate everyone with summer holidays and various events on in the coming weeks so we decided to have 2 dates:
The first is Bank Holiday Monday August 4th at Coole Park at 3pm near the autograph tree. Our principal Anna and some of the committee members will be there on this day as well so the children will be able to meet Anna before their first day. If the weather is not great, we will meet instead in the cafe of Coole Park.
The second is Sunday 10th August in Renville Park playground at 3pm. Alot of the committee are on holidays this weekend but as it is more for the children their absence shouldn’t hold things up!
These are informal get togethers for children going to our school in 2008 so we hope to see you there on one or both days if even for a little while. Please feel free to bring a long a small picnic and maybe some balls or other game ideas (kites, boules etc) to get the kids playing together.
And lastly for the 1st September we are suggesting a little treat for the parents after they drop their children to school. First day of school can be just as emotional for parents so how about we all retire to Raftery’s Rest just after 9 for tea/coffee etc to share the excitement of the first day of school yourselves!! School starts at 9 sharp and Junior Infants will finish at 12 for the first week but more information on this will be in the Welcome Pack we’ll be sending to parents.
We would like to invite you to attend an information meeting for all interested parents on Wed. 25th June at 8pm in the conference room of Moran’s on the Weir (upstairs). The committee and a representative from educate together will be there to introduce the new principal. The meeting will primarily give parents an opportunity to meet with the new principal and to find out information and ask questions about the new school. The agenda will include: -
- Overview of ethos of school
- School curriculum and book lists
- ,Practical organisation of the school day and school calendar
- Overview of premises
This meeting is open to all interested parents/guardians and is by no means limited to those who have already pre-enrolled. Enrolments are still being accepted and forms can be filled in on the evening. Anyone who is just interested in finding out more or has not made up their mind yet is most welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served; we look forward to meeting you all.
A principal teacher has been appointed to the school and we are delighted to have her on board. She is busy preparing for the new school year and looks forward to meeting new parents at the information evening on June 25th.
The process is underway to recruit a 2nd mainstream teacher and the closing date is 26/06/08. The advertisement can be viewed on http://www.educationposts.com
If you are interested in enrolling your child for the school for September 2008, please fill in the pre-enolment form (under heading Pre-enrolment) immedicately and send it back to us. Enrolments are still being accepted for all classes, although the final make-up of classes will be decided by the principal. We have full sanction from the Department of Education for the school to go ahead and we expect that the school will commence with relatively small classes.
A successful sanction part was organised in Kilcolgan Caslte on Monday 5th May to celebrate the new school in Kilcolgan and provide parents, children and the community with an opportunity to come together. Thanks to all who came and supported the event and a special thanks to Karen from the castle who helped to sponsor it and even provided pony rides for the children! We had great weather and it even made the front page of the Galway Independent! (http://www.galwayindependent.com/local-news/local-news/school%27s-in/)
We are delighted to announce that sanction has been granted by the Department of Education and Science to open a new Educate Together school in Kilcolgan in September 2008. This means that we have been given the go ahead to open our new school in September.
It will be a busy time between now and then but also an exciting time and we would welcome any help in getting the school ready to open.
Educate Together will be opening 12 new schools this September - the largest expansion ever. They will be organising a national recruitment campaign over the next few days and the post of principal is to be advertised in the national papers. Other teachers will be appointed once the principal is in place.
We will shortly be offering places for Junior Infants to start in September and other places will be offered once the make-up of classes has been decided in conjunction with the principal. We are still taking enrolments and if you are interested, please fill in the pre-enrolment form on this website straight away and post it back to the address on the form.
We are also organising a sanction party on Monday 5th May from 3-5pm in Kilcolgan Castle. Details under “sanction party”.