Good evening all and welcome back to the new year 2026!
We are settling in well after the Christmas holidays, despite the cold snap.
Firstly a big thanks to all of you who contributed to our Christmas food collection. The parcels were most graciously received by families in our community. The LCA students did a great job in ensuring that students brought the items into school. Fifteen families received bags of festive foods and we received more donations this year than last. Rising food costs and soaring rents stretch incomes to snapping point.
Student wellbeing and school attendance are big issues these days with the poor parents/guardians floundering under their childs reluctance to attend school. We find that following midterms some students more than others struggle to get out to school. At the school assemblies on Monday, Ms Howard pointed out to students that there is a mere 29 days to midterm break and that they need to understand how doable that is and how prohibative not coming in can be for an individuals development. I received a resource from NEART before Christmas, which will be of interest to anyone who has struggled with these issues. Neart – the national programme of mental health and wellbeing supports and resources for post-primary schools – is a collaboration between Jigsaw and NEPS (National Educational Psychological Service) /Department of Education and Youth. Parents and Teachers will be able to get monthly updates of their newletters which contains advice and analysis of issues pertaining to young people. Please follow the link to see what they have to offer.
The parents club will continue on Wednesdays. Last term we did candle-making, christmas crafts and we had a wellbeing mindfulness workshop for parents. We will do more craft and mindfulness for parents this term. I will do at least one mindfulness session per month, and some of our teachers would like to teach a small slice of their subject to parents. Ms McGlinchy would like to do an introduction to Gaeilige, Mr Ozalp – artificial intelligence (AI) and Mr Hyland would like to do some crafts. Please watch this space. I would also invite parents/grantparents /guardians, if they have a passion for knitting, sewing etc and wouldn’t mind sharing their skills. Please get in touch at 086 1857703. I would love to hear from you, don’t be shy.
