Ovens N.S.Parent’s Association Newsletter
Information Update February 2011

AGM

Our AGM took place on Tuesday October 19th 2010 as planned. Following the outlined Agenda elections of officers took place. We are delighted to welcome Katie Creedon as our new treasurer and Barry Whelton has accepted the role of Secretary. Yvonne O Brien, as new committee member. Unfortunately there was no candidate willing to go forward as Chairperson so that vacancy will have to be filled in the near future. Marita will remain as caretaker until a new Chairperson is elected. We wish to thank Anne O Leary and Jerome Desmond for their hard work and diligence over the past three years, without doubt their contribution to the Parents association is immeasurable and both should be proud of projects completed under their care. A decision was also taken on the night to increase our committee to 5 and rotate officers as required to prevent filling of positions in the Future. We wish our new committee well in the term ahead.

  

Christmas 2011
Our annual visit from Santa took place on Sunday December 19th after 11.30am mass. There was a great turn out despite the icy road conditions and Santa was there to greet the children and their families as planned. The accompanying coffee morning and cake sale were a tremendous success raising over 400 euro for our funds on the day. Children from 6th class provided some festive music and we thank them for braving the inclement weather on the day. Santa’s grotto was indeed a magical wonderland and Mrs Claus was on hand to help Santa with his guests. The O’Leary clan provided face painting to the children as they waited. Pauline Murphy & Maria Nagle made animal balloons to the excitement of all. We wish to thank all those who supported the day despite the weather. Big thanks to Kevin Mullins for organising gritting of the approach roads to the school rendering them safe. Big thanks also to helpers old and new who helped in the cake sale and providing refreshments and of course the clean up afterwards! A special thank you to Sandra O

Brien and Norma Holmes for making and decorating Santa’s grotto.

Last but not least thanks to Santa for finding time in his busy schedule to visit us.

We look forward to next year already.

 

Upcoming Events

¨     Confirmation Day.  May 5th 2011. Ovens Church.

¨     First Holy Communion  date Saturday May 21st 2011- Ovens Church

¨     Lenrec clothes recycling Wednesday March 16th 2011.

¨     High Street Books and tracksuit sale day. Thursday June 16th 2011 08.30-14.30 hrs.

 

Confirmation & First Holy Communion 2011

Confirmation day for Ovens NS is Thursday May 5th2011and will take place in St. John the Baptist Church Ovens.

First Holy Communion will take place in Ovens Church on Saturday May 21st 2011.

Mr Roger O’ Sullivan has kindly agreed to video both events and provide photographs as usual. We will contact both classes in due course with further details.

 
FEIS MAITIU 2011

Once again children from Ovens NS will participate in Feis Maitiu in Fr. Mathew Hall, Fr. Matthew Street, Cork. The following list outlines the prosed dates from each classes performance.

Thursday 10th March 4th Class 11:15am
Tuesday 22nd March 5th Class 10:45am
Wednesday 23rd 3rd class March 11:15am
Thursday 24th 1st class March 11:15am
Tuesday 29th March both 6th classes 11:15am (Irish)
Wednesday 30th March both 6th classes 10:45am (English)

Children will wear full school uniform unless otherwise instructed.

 

NATIONAL PARENTS COUNCIL- CORK WEST BRANCH

The Cork West Branch of NPC will provide a series of information nights for the Spring term. These meetings are a great source of information, education and resource for parents regarding issues that pertain to Primary school. Meetings take place at various locations throughout the County on the 1st Tuesday of every month. Meetings are open to all Parents.

Next Meeting

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 15th 2011
MUNSTER ARMS HOTEL – 8PM

Guest Speaker, Eoin Kelly

‘National Learning Network and Special Needs Assistants’

  

The Social & Health Education Project in Ballincollig are running evening courses on the following :

‘Health and Well-being’
‘An Introduction to Personal Development and Family Communication’

  Starting in mid February.

Both come highly recommended, for further information please contact Kerri Fitzgerald on 021 2666180

 

Interactive White Boards

We are proud to announce the completion of the Interactive white board project. 11 boards have been installed overall, and are currently used on a daily basis to the joy of both teachers and children. The addition of individual laptops and visualizers from the Department of Education funding has enhanced greatly the educational function the boards. We wish to thank Mr Lynch and the Board of Management in assisting in purchasing some of the boards. Thanks also to Mrs Marion O Callaghan on her IT knowledge and expertise in advising on purchasing a gold standard system for our school. Well done to all of you in supporting various fundraising events to complete this project quickly.

Congratulations!

 

DOG FOULING

Dog fouling continues to be a major problem within the school grounds and on the approach paths and walkways to the schools. New carpets have been installed in the junior classrooms where children don’t wear slippers and it is imperative for all that we endeavour to keep them clean and free of dog pooh. Discussions took place at our recent meeting and the following recommendations were put forward.

v  Warning signs re dog littering to be placed by school wall.

v  Inform dog warden of dogs roaming freely particularly in school grounds.

v  Report any accompanied/ unaccompanied dogs found on school grounds

 

It is no longer acceptable that people allow their dogs roam freely in the play areas of the school both from a hygienic point of view and common respect for the children that use them.

 

RETIREMENT

Following 31 years of service Mr Declan C. Murphy has decided to retire from teaching. Mr Murphy has long been a favourite of both children and parents at Ovens NS. A ready smile and friendly advice are what we associate with Mr Murphy. Always available when needed, a regular assistant at Cork City Sports and Sciath Na Scoil easily identified with gear bag on hand. A tribute mass was undertaken to mark his retirement on January 20th with the whole school contributing through song, verse and symbols of his career. We wish him every blessing to a long and enjoyable retirement. A Genesis crib was purchased, engraved and presented to Mr Murphy on behalf of the Parents Association to mark his wonderful contribution to enriching the lives of the children of Ovens NS.

 

BAG PACK @ QUISH’S SUPERVALU BALLINCOLLIG

A big thank you to all those who participated in the’ bag pack’ at Supervalu last weekend. It was a tremendous success with approx. €1700 collected on the day. The Parents Association really appreciate the effort taken by those who helped on the day, especially those who returned to our rescue in the evening time. Well done to all.

 

FUNDRAISING 2011

Lenrec clothes recycling will visit the school on Wednesday March 16th 2011 and collect any clothes, paired shoes, blankets, mobile phones and other small items for recycling and take them to Calcutta. The benefit to the parents Association is that we can achieve €4 per 10kg of recycled clothing etc. towards our funds for the year ahead. So your save your Spring cleaning for us and let Lenrec do the rest.

Book Sale Day 2011.

High Street Books provided excellent service once again last year so we have booked ahead for Thursday June 16th 2011. The availability of laser and credit card banking has proved invaluable to our busy parents allowing them to get on quickly with their day .Please support this venture as HSB contribute funds to us from their day. This year they have a saving stamp scheme to help parents budget in the current economic climate. Please contact them for further details at their Wilton or Douglas Court stores

 

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year to all at Ovens NS. 2011 will be a difficult year for all in the current economic climate and in view of the unstable political circus that surrounds us. With this in mind we plan to raise funds through external methods that don’t take from our parents pockets. All we ask is that you support the opportunities that we have sourced and we should manage well for the year ahead. We welcome some new families to our school community. The next Parents Association meeting will take place in March and a text and notification will go out ahead of time. All parents are encouraged and welcome to all meetings your input is important to us.

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve our service please do not hesitate to drop a note into our post box in the school office.  

Regards,

Marita Murphy.
(Chairperson)