General Information
Attendance Under the Education Welfare Act (2000) you must make sure that your child attends school regularly. It is extremely important that all children come to school every day, to give them every opportunity to progress in their education. When your child is absent from school for any reason you must notify the school of the reasons for the absence. When the child returns to school, an absence note must be provided to the class teacher explaining the absence. If your child is absent for more than 3 consecutive days, a doctor's note must be provided. The National Education Welfare Board (NEWB) is responsible for promoting and monitoring school attendance. The school must inform the NEWB when a pupil is absent for more than 20 days in a school year or when a pupil is not attending regularly. In cases of serious non-attendance an Education Welfare Officer will make all reasonable efforts to ensure regular school attendance. The NEWB has produced a leaflet for parents entitled Don't let your child miss out (on a good start in life!). It is available to download from www.newb.ie Healthy Lunches We are delighted to be able to continue to provide free healthy lunches to all of the children in St. Vincent's each day. The children enjoy a variety of healthy options for lunch including chicken or ham sandwiches, buttered rolls and fruit. The children are also encouraged to drink water, which is also provided. Parents are asked to provide their children with healthy break-time snacks such as fruit, bread or cereal bars. Sweets and sugary snacks, as well as crisps and fizzy drinks are not allowed. On Fridays, children may bring one treat for their breaktime snack. Hometime Procedure It is important to ensure the health and safety of all children as they leave the building at the end of school. The Junior and Senior Infants are to be collected from the big yard at 1.40pm. Parents are asked to wait until their child is handed to them by their teacher before leaving. At the senior home time of 2.40pm, all remaining children exit the school through the main door. Parents are asked to stand back from the doors to facilitate the safe exiting of all children. Parents are also asked to make sure to be on time to collect your child every day, as this can be distressing for children if their collector is late on an ongoing basis. In the interests of safety, children who are not collected on time are encouraged to return to the school. Helpful Hints for Parents Please see the link below for some helpful hints on how to prepare your child for Junior Infants. https://www.ncca.ie/media/1406/helping_your_child_in_junior_and_senior_infants.pdf What can I do to help my children to learn before they go to school? Talking and listening talk to your children and encourage them to talk listen to them and respect what they have to say Stories, reading and books read and tell them stories, say nursery rhymes and poems, and encourage them to talk about what they hear encourage them to tell stories and to repeat rhymes and poems make sure there are books in the home (picture books, picture books with captions, simple story books, etc.), and encourage children to handle them, look through them and talk about them Play and activities encourage children in make-believe play and play with them play games that involve physical activity with your children let them play with water, sand and other materials involve them in activities around the house, and encourage them to talk about the activities The environment take them for walks and point out and name flowers, trees and other items that arouse their interest point out and talk about things in the urban environment such as signs, names, types of shops etc Music and art sing to them and with them, and encourage them to sing play music for them, get them to clap and dance to the rhythms, and talk to them about the music encourage them to draw pictures and to talk about them, and display their drawings and pictures in the home. The following items would be very useful in supporting your child's learning at home:
Making life manageable for your child in Junior Infants
Source: www.into.ie INTO TIPS FOR PARENTS |