Newtownmountkennedy
LOCAL NOTES CONTACT
If you have news or an item to be added to the Newtownmountkennedy Notes, please email Ciara Perks at ciaraperks87@ gmail.com or call 087 6380155.
ANNIVERSARY CONGRATULATIONS
Sending our Congratulations to Cannon Smith on celebrating 60 years in the priesthood.
We thank you sincerely for the wonderful service, care and devotion you have given to everyone in Newtownmountkennedy and the surrounding areas and communities.
LITTERING
Please respect our community and the many people, Businesses and groups, who help to keep our town so beautiful and litter-free. Littering and dumping is not acceptable even during a pandemic, so please bring your rubbish, used gloves etc home to your household bin and if you see a case of littering/dumping please report to Wicklow Litter Line on 1890 548837.
COMMUNITY RESPONSE
Your Community is here to help. Ciara Perks is co-ordinating the Newtownmountkennedy Response for Wicklow County Council Covid19 Community Call Helpline. They are there to help in anyway, call them between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.
There is help and support available to everyone no matter what. If you need any help whether you are self isolating, ill or cannot get out for the essentials please call Ciara Perks at 087 6380155 or the Community Call Helpline 1800 868 399 and we will get you the help and support you need. Whether it is groceries, collection of prescriptions, a paper or just a friendly chat please call your community is here for you.
Thank you to the amazing people who have volunteered their time, skills and knowledge, you are making a big positive difference to the people of our community.
WALL OF POSITIVITY
Our Wall of Positivity is located at the Bus Stop beside the Parkview Hotel. The power of positivity is important now more than ever in our everyday life, why not share a thought or wish. Even put up your own picture (with sellotape) to brighten up our spirits and give us a smile.
MEN’S SHED.
It is with much regret that we have not opened our shed yet, but we believe it’s much much better to follow the rules laid down in our own interest. We acknowledge the great work being done by all concerned to keep us safe, and the towering work and care being administered by those brave people at the frontline whom we can never hope to repay, this Men’s Shed extend a wholehearted ‘Thank You’ to all of you. We ask all our current members to keep their chin up and be safe, keep well, and we will all be draining the ol’ kettle in no time.
Our sympathies are extended to any who have been bereved since we started this lockdown, may safer and more prosperous times be ahead for us all.
NEWTOWN JUNIORS FC
The FAI remains in communication with all Government agencies regarding protocols around a pathway for a safe return to football in the underage game and all other strands of football. Current Information is as follows:
Under Phase four of the Government’s roadmap for reopening society and Business, all underage clubs can begin their return to training programmes from July 20 subject to FAI protocols to be agreed with Government agencies.
Under Phase five of the Government’s roadmap for reopening society and Business, all underage clubs can return to full collective training from August 10.
All underage clubs can return to playing from August 28.
Regarding formats of individual Leagues, these L league’s and their clubs will decide if they finish their competitions or start with new ones.
All decisions regarding a return to collective training and and playing matches for all underage football, will be based on the health and safety of all players, coaches, match officials, administrators and club volunteers.
All decisions will be subject to change on the advice of Government agencies, UEFA and the FAI Medical Team led by Dr Alan Byrne.
Newtown Juniors FC respect all these decisions as the welfare of our players, coaches, parents, and supporters are paramount. We will continue to monitor the situation and will make decisions with regards to all football related activities when there is more certainty. Thank you all and keep safe.
We have since this Pandemic began posted numerous football practises that parents can help their children with the minimum of space and equipment required. If parents need equipment to help carry out these practises or would like information on further practises, please contact any club coach/volunteer. The only certainty now during this COVID-19 Pandemic is the uncertainty.
We are always on the lookout for new players for all our age groups, but we also need several Roles filled within the club for volunteers. In the past week we have been busy renewing and reviewing our Club Safety Statement and our Club Risk Assessments. We have also had several volunteers, who did their Safeguarding Refresher one and we await courses both at Safeguarding and at Child Welfare when certain restrictions are lifted. We would like to recruit a couple of MPs (Mandated Person) and DLPs (Designated Liaison Person) to assist those already in these roles. Those already in the roles are also coaches within the club and are on the executive committee but we would like volunteers to solely concentrate on these roles. Full training will be provided. The roles are not very time consuming and may interest someone who would like to volunteer in the club in some capacity.
We have three players from the club celebrating their birthdays in the coming week and they are Conor Shevlin from the under-10s, William Valentine from the under-12s and Bezal Palavila Alex from the under-14s. Happy birthday lads from everyone at Newtown Juniors FC.
Our Last Man Standing competition has stalled on week three. 66 Players were at the starting line in week three in pursuit of the €500 Prize Pot. all Premier League games in England have been suspended till a date yet to be confirmed and all selections that were made for week three are deemed null and void. At the moment and according to the latest reports it looks like the Premier League may start back in June (with a date to be confirmed). We thank all remaining Players for their understanding and patience at this time and we will endeavour to keep everyone updated in the weeks ahead about when the competition can restart. Rules of the competition are on our Facebook and Twitter pages and are also available on request. Thank you everyone for your continued support.
For further information on all matters Newtown Juniors FC please contact the secretary at 087 6987653 or by email to hughienolan@gmail.com and you can also follow the club on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWS
I hope you are continuing to keep safe and well. Mr Hugh McDaid, the chairperson of our board of management, would like to thank you all for your ongoing support and for your efforts to maintain links with our school during this difficult time.
HOME LEARNING ACTIVITIES; We hope that our home learning activities have been of benefit to you and your child. However, I know it can be difficult to motivate and engage some children in these activities, particularly at this time of the year. I am also conscious that your children are missing out on many of the lovely activities we have in the last term of the school year such as school tours, sports day, etc. We will take all of this into account as we prepare our home learning activities for June. Please remember that the health and well-being of you and your family must always be the top priority. Contact us if you are finding it hard and we will try our best to support you and your child.
Teachers can be contacted via their newtownprimary email address – you will find this information on the class blog page on the school website. Our Special Education Teachers are also available to support parents and children.
All of our teachers are aware that different children will be able to complete different amounts of work during this period of school closure. As a school, we take a child-centred approach to teaching and learning. We will adapt and differentiate all our lessons when schools reopen to take into account where your child is at with regard to his or her learning.
Classes for children with ASD: Teachers in our classes for children with autism are also available to support the children in their classes. We would like to thank the SNAs in our school who are continuing to work under the direction of class teachers to support the children they work with.
Dr Geraldine Leader, our ABA Consultant, is also available to support parents who have a child with autism. Please contact your child’s class teacher to arrange a telephone meeting with Dr Leader.
SCHOOL WEBSITE; Thanks to those of you who have already sent in photographs of your child’s work. If your child would like to contribute to the art gallery or the ‘Our work’ page, please email their work to c19parentsupport@newtownprimary.ie. We have received some lovely photographs of children engaging in home learning activities. We can only publish these photographs on our website with your permission. Please indicate in your email if we have permission to put photographs of your child on our website. Please do not feel under any pressure to do this if it does not suit you. It is not a requirement of home learning activities.
SCHOOL LUNCHES: Carambola will be delivering food packs for June in the coming days. We are very grateful to Carambola for delivering food packs to our families during the Covid-19 school closure period.
HSCL: Ronan Keddy, our HSCL co-ordinator, is available to chat to parents during school hours. You can contact Ronan at 086 2434741 or email him at hscl@newtownprimary.ie. Ronan has kindly organised art packs for families who do not have these resources at home. If you need one of these packs, please contact Ronan by phone or email.
SCHOOL REPORTS: Teachers are currently writing school reports and these will be available to parents in June.
STAFF CHANGES: We welcome Mrs Gillick back from maternity leave. Mrs Gillick will return to third class from Monday, June 1. We would like to thank Mr O’Leary for his work with third class while Mrs Gillick was on maternity leave.
We also welcome Ms McGillycuddy back from maternity leave on June 1. Ms Darcy will continue to work in senior infants for the remainder of the school year. Ms McGillycuddy will work with Ms Ní Laocha’s class for the next few weeks. We wish Ms Ní Laocha well as she recovers from illness. We also wish Ms Áine Kavanagh well as she recovers from illness.
6TH CLASS – CLASS OF 2020: I know that our sixth class students are very disappointed to be missing out on many special sixth class activities this term. As we are still following HSE guidelines, our sixth class graduation will be online this year. This ceremony will take place on Friday, June 19 (time to be confirmed). Our sixth class teachers have asked the students to begin working on their memory books and we are looking forward to reading all about their memories of Newtownmountkennedy Primary School. We hope to have a ceremony in our school for our class of 2020 in the first term of the new school year.
We will be having ‘Student of the Year’ awards for sixth class this year – a boy and a girl for each sixth class. These awards will be announced at our online graduation.
Sixth class hoodies have been ordered and should be delivered to us in early June. We will organise distribution of these hoodies when we receive them.
SCHOOL YEAR 2020-2021: We will issue you with a school calendar for the new school year in June. We will also inform classes of their teacher for the 20202021 school year in June. We will follow HSE and DES guidelines regarding the reopening of schools and we will inform you of this as soon as we receive this guidance from the relevant authorities.
We would like to send our congratulations to Fr Smith as he celebrates 60-year of priesthood this week. We would like to thank Fr Smith for his continued support of our school.
Once again we would like to thank all members of our school community who work in frontline and essential services. We very much appreciate all your efforts in keeping our community safe. I hope you all continue to stay safe and healthy. Tabhair aire agus fan slán, Deirdre Lennon, school principal.
NEWTOWN GAA
During this extended period of in-activity on the playing fields the GAA development sub-committee have been working away behind the scenes.
We have secured planning permission to develop an additional playing pitch which lies alongside our main pitch in ballinahinch. A lot of hurdles have been successfully crossed and development should start later this year.
BRING A BOOK – TAKE A BOOK
A bring a book – take a book initiative is now located in Newtownmountkennedy post office. A large variety of titles are available for you. If you have books to add to the collection feel free to drop them in. Thanks to the Nolan’s as always for offering the space to the community.