On Tuesday, 6th October, three members of Rathmore Tidy Towns visited Rathmore NS to speak to all classes about the wonderful work they do to keep our parish looking beautiful. Every child received a lovely goody bag containing daffodil bulbs and an information leaflet to share with their parents, highlighting the fantastic work of the Tidy Towns team. The staff members weren’t forgotten about, they received their own bag of daffodil bulbs also. We would like to extend a special thank you to Alice Fennelly for linking in with the school and taking the time to organise such a wonderful and informative presentation. We look forward to seeing our daffodils bloom and helping to keep Rathmore beautiful!

Our Green Schools Committee organised a Park and Stride Action Day to encourage everyone in Rathmore NS to travel more sustainably.

Our Green Schools Committee worked really hard making signs and helping the children get started on their walk from the community hall gate. Everyone did a fantastic job getting involved!

As it was Maths Week, we added a fun maths challenge. The older classes had to guess how many metres it was from the community hall to our school garden gate. The class with the closest guess won a prize! It was a great way to practise our estimation skills while learning about sustainable travel.

Our annual witch walk took place on Friday the 23^rd of October. For our Witch Walk in Rathmore NS, the children made a huge effort to create their own costumes and reuse old ones. It was brilliant to see so many creative ideas and costumes being given a new life instead of being thrown away!

As part of our Green Schools Travel theme, we wanted to show everyone that our choices can make a difference to the environment. Well done to all the children and parents for the fabulous effort that went into making and reusing their costumes. Every year the standard gets higher!

Our teachers also got involved and embraced our Travel and Transport theme by dressing up for our Travel Action Day. It was great to see everyone getting involved and having fun while spreading the message about sustainable travel.

Congratulations to all the children who took part in our Go Phone Free “Toys Versus Tech” Art Competition. The standard was outstanding, and to say there was serious debate among the judges in some categories would be a huge understatement! We are delighted with the creativity shown and with how well the Go Phone Free message was embraced by our pupils.

A sincere thank you to our teachers for their support and encouragement throughout the competition, and to our Parents’ Association for sponsoring the prizes. We were especially delighted to welcome Eimear Byrne (Duggan) to the school last week to present the awards on behalf of the Parents’ Association.

Congratulations to all our winners.

Dear Parents and guardians,

The results of the DEY school survey were published on the school website, and parents and the wider school community were invited to provide feedback on the patronage via email. The results were also shared with parents and staff through Aladdin, and all were invited to respond via e-mail. It was discussed at a staff meeting, and members were invited to provide feedback directly to the principal. No written feedback was received.

The principal also sought feedback through meetings with the Parents’ Association, new Junior Infant parents, and at the Parents’ Association AGM. The only feedback received was verbal support for the school’s existing patronage arrangements.

The Board of Management reviewed the outcome of the consultation process and, given the absence of feedback or proposals for change, concluded that there is currently no demonstrated appetite within the school community for a change of patronage.

Thank you to everyone who has engaged with the school survey consultation process. As no requests or proposals for change of School Patronage were submitted and the only feedback received supported the current arrangements, the Board has concluded there is no demonstrated appetite within the school community for a change of patronage at this time.

Kind regards,

Seamus Clare

Chairperson of Board of Management.