The Parents Association Committee would like to welcome all the girls and their families back to school!  We look forward to planning lots of events over the coming year.  We were delighted to be able to host our teas and tissues event on the first day of school and to meet some of the junior infants’ parents.  We hope all the girls are settling well into school.
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In 2019, the Parents Association in consultation with the school, agreed to fundraise sufficient funds to resurface the junior yard. We held an Easter Fair in April 2019 and raised an incredible €15,000.  We had planned to raise further funds for the yard in 2020 but unfortunately the pandemic delayed our plans.
We are delighted to announce that we can now continue our efforts to resurface the yard.  We really hope we can raise sufficient funds that would enable the yard to be resurfaced in Summer 2023!
On 30th September, we will be running a School Marathon Relay (http://www.schoolmarathonrelay.ie/) whereby all the girls in the school will participate in a relay and will cover the distance of a marathon by the end of the day.  We hope it will be a fun day for all the girls!
The girls will be bringing home sponsorship cards soon. Sponsorship can be returned to the school as cash or via our GoFundMe page (https://gofund.me/34ca705d)
We would really appreciate your support with this project!
St Brigid’s Parents’ Association Committee

St Brigid’s GNS Parents Association have arranged a training programme by National Parents Council (NPC) on
Supporting parents to support their children’s mental health and wellbeing.
This programme is free for all parents/ guardians in St. Brigid’s GNS as all costs have been covered by the PA.
Date/Time: Tuesday 24th May @ 7.30pm
Duration: 1 – 1.5 Hours
Location: Via Zoom call (registration link below)
Training Programme details:
This Programme, devised by NPC and St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services, supports parents to encourage and promote positive mental health and wellbeing in their children. The Programme also explores how the building of resilience in children helps them to manage and cope with the day to day stresses of life as they occur.
Parents who attend this session will:

• Explore the factors that influence mental health and wellbeing in their child.
• Learn how to build and nurture resilience within their own child.
• Be given tips on how best to support their child’s positive mental health and wellbeing.

If you are interested in attending this Training Programme, please follow link below
 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/StBrigidsGNS-MH-2022
By registering your interest, you are also giving National Parents Council permission to forward you the zoom link to the meeting. 
Registration will be available until 3:30pm on 24th May, the zoom link will go out shortly after that.
We look forward to seeing you!
St. Brigid’s Parents Association Committee
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The Parent's Association organised our first clothes collection of the school year, last Saturday November 13th.  They raised €362. Thanks to the hard-working volunteers from the P.A. who co-ordinated the collection and to all the people who donated the bags of clothes. Well done all!

The Book Fair is in St. Brigid's this week on Thursday & Friday!  The school receives 60% of the amount raised in new books for the school.  Your support is greatly appreciated!

Board of Management Report – October 2018
 

• Parking

There have been a number of complaints from residents in the local area who are unhappy that a number of parents are parking outside their driveways at arrival and collection times, often impeding their ability to leave their homes.  The Board would like to remind all parents of the need to be mindful when parking, particularly if they are leaving cars unattended

• GDPR

The school is working to comply with GDPR and has completed a data audit to identify all the types of information that is being collected, stored and processed. A website privacy statement is now available on www.stbrigid.ie and a CCTV Policy is currently being drafted. 

• Curriculum

As part of the school self-evaluation process this year, staff will draw up a number of maths trails for all classes to focus on maths in the environment.

• Thanks

The BOM would like to thank the Parents Association for their fundraising efforts which supported the new CCTV system, exterior lighting upgrade and purchase of classroom furniture/sports equipment.

• Enrolments

Offers for Junior Infants for 2019/2020 school year will be issued before mid-October. 

• Staffing

A big welcome is extended to Aoife Murphy and Teresa Hagan who have joined the teaching staff and Antoinette Cahill and Kayleigh Bolger who have joined the ancillary staff as SNA’s.
 

 

• Planned Events for Coming Year including Easter Fair – The Chairperson went through all the events which they would be organising this year including, 3 new dates for clothes collections (19th Oct 2018, 25th Jan 2019 and 7th June 2019), a very special visitor on 19thDecember, Easter Fair 14th April 2019, Communion Reception (tbc), Graduation Reception 20th June 2019, 2nd Hand Uniform Sale (tbc).  The Chairperson also asked if there was anything else that parents would like to see in the school.  One parent mentioned a Book Fair.  The Committee agreed to look into it with the hope of trying to arrange for end of Nov/early Dec.
• Prefabs–The Chairperson explained about the prefabs and that one when ready can be used by parents to hold coffee mornings, classes etc.  These will be organised by the parents of the school for the parents of the school.  It was mentioned that if possible the booking system should be something easy to use, with a visible timetable so parents can see when it’s free and a simple click system to book.  The PA agreed to look into this but stressed that it is a great facility to have and encouraged parents to make use of it or the school may find another use for it themselves. 
• AOB – A number of its came up for discussion under AOB including:
  * Uniforms – Parents expressed a concern about the quality of the uniforms being supplied by Lynches at present and asked if the PA could look into this again and possibly look at doing another survey of parents to see if there is a bigger interest in changing suppliers this year.  The PA agreed to do this. 
  * New Payments System – A parent asked for it to be noted that she thought the new online payment system that school introduced was a great addition and help.  The PA would like to encourage all parents to use this new system. 
  *Mental Health – A parent asked if there was any support for children going through a bereavement (eg Rainbow).  Ms Burke said the school were looking into getting teachers trained in this.  The PA said they would look into seeing if there are any talks that could be arranged. 
  *PE in the school – A parent expressed concern about the amount of PE that the children in the school took part in and asked if this could be increased.  Ms Burke took note of the request. 
  *PA Lines of Communication – The Chairperson addressed the issue of contacting the PA with issues and/or concerns and the use of their Facebook page, email and phone.  The Chairperson said that the Facebook page was not a forum for dealing with grievances etc and all these matters should be either emailed or phoned/texted to the PA using the following:
  
  email – stbrigidpa@gmail.com                                  mobile – 086 1967194
  
  The PA’s Facebook page is there only as a way for the PA to reach/remind parents of things that are coming up in the school and/or of things that might be of interest to parents. 

 
The Chairperson ended the evening by thanking everyone for attending and asking that the next time they attend if they could please try and bring at least one more parent with them and to spread the word that the AGM is worth attending so parents can have their say.  ​

Thank you for all your donations to our most recent Clothing Collection.  Over €400 was raised.   Thank you too to all the volunteers who helped to collect and load the bags.  Our next collection will take place in January 2018 so please remember us when sorting your winter wardrobe.