26 September 2013

News Bulletin

26th September 2013
Assemblies
Assemblies are a very important part of school life in Skerries Educate Together. At assembly we talk about our ‘Theme of the Month’, share news, celebrate birthdays and occasions, encourage participation from the children and we also award our Pupil of the Week certificates. We would love parents to be part of these occasions and would like to invite you to come along to assembly on the first Friday of each month for the rest of the school year. We hold two assemblies – the first one is at 8.45 and is for children in Louise, Dee, Jenny, Joanne and Caroline’s classes. The second one is held at 10.30 and is for Deirdre, Cian, Conor and Sylvia’s classes. Both assemblies last between thirty and forty-five minutes. Please feel free to ‘drop in’ at any of our assemblies. Children and staff will be very happy to see you.
Dates for Assembly:
October 4th November 8th December 6th January 10th
February 7th March 7th April 4th May 2nd

October is Anti-Bullying Month
October is Anti-Bullying month in Skerries Educate Together. During the month children will be learning what bullying is, how to recognise it, how to stand up against it and how to speak out. We want our school to be an anti-bullying zone – a school where children feel safe and where we can all stand up confidently and say ‘no’ to bullying. This month will be the springboard for the year ahead where lessons and assemblies referring to anti-bullying will feature regularly.

Please come and see our Anti-Bullying Resources – Friday 4th October
We have a range of resources, activities and books that we will be using for the year ahead to support this campaign. We would like to invite you to the school to view these resources on Friday 4th October. These resources will be on display after each assembly. You can view them from 9.15 to 9.45 and from 11.00 to 11.30 on this day. If you cannot make it and would like to view the resources please make an appointment with Jean before this date and we will make every effort to meet you and discuss our resources.
Tuesday 5th November – Anti Bullying Ambassador Programme hosted by Skerries Educate Together National School
We are very proud to announce that Skerries Educate Together have been successful in our bid to host a large Anti-Bullying Ambassador Programme. Please check out the following web site to learn more about the programme: http://diana-award.org.uk/anti-bullying. Fifteen children in our school will become anti-bullying ambassadors thereby empowering our children to participate meaningfully in our campaign. These children will be supported by our anti-bullying staff team – Jean, Sylvia, Louise and Jenny. Students from other Educate Together schools, local national schools and secondary schools have all been invited to the event. We also hope to liaise with another anti-bullying initiative that is being run in our community, SABI (Skerries Anti- Bullying Initiative). This initiative gives information, advice and support to parents.
Anti-bullying Policy
Our anti-bullying staff team have worked very hard to review our anti-bullying policy and this pro-active and practical policy is in the process of being discussed with the Parent Association and the Board of Management. Once it is ratified it will be available on our website and in the secretary’s office for view.
We look forward to seeing you on Friday 4th October.
Tomás