Claregalway NS Parents Association 2013 Round-Up of Activities

Hi Parents,

It’s been two years since this present Parent Association committee set out to achieve a few new goals with regard to the parents association. The first hurdle was to find a channel of communication between the Parent Association committee and the parents. Understanding that previous Committee’s had tried really hard, and found it at times difficult, we knew we had to be creative.

In the last two years, we have set up the Cyril the Squirrel Saving scheme, where we sent out a permission/information slip to every parent asking for an email address or phone number in order to be signed up to the scheme. Thanks to co-operation from the teachers, we managed to get a large volume of contact details from parents. This gave us a huge platform to make contact and inform parents about who we were and what we hoped to achieve. We received some huge feedback and suggestions from parents, which proved invaluable. The Cyril the Squirrel Saving Scheme has been a huge success, with the total sale of stamps sold of over 10,000. That means that over the last two years your children have collectively saved over €10,000. This would not have been achieved with out you the parents giving your kids this money, to create a habit of saving. Of course to the parents who volunteered their time to sell the stamps on a Friday. Fair play to all. We as a committee would really like if this scheme can be kept going.

We have had huge involvement from parents and we have achieved some great things.

Cyril the Squirrel Saving Scheme

Over 10,000 stamps now sold.

‘This is Your Life’ Book

This was the book presented to Margaret Mannion on reaching her 100th birthday, she has since past away and the kids involved in the book all signed a sympathy card to her family. The event was covered both in the Nuacht Chláir, the Galway Advertiser and the Tuam Herald. The family donated €1,000 to the school in gratitude for the lovely gift to their mother. RIP Margaret.

Green Day

This is in celebration of Patricks Day, every child got to come in to school all decked out in green and pay €1 for the privilege. Each year we have collected approximately €250.

Facebook

We have set up a facebook account to keep people informed and have some fun with it too. Please check it out and like and share!

Sixth class After-Mass party/ Holy Communion parties

We have organised, as have all previous parents associations the after party for the kids doing their holy communion and the sixth class mass party

Sports Funday

This is our biggest event of the year and the most fun. The kids just love it. We really proved to the kids that yes you can have great fun playing some simple fun games like the sack race, three legged race, pizza box race and dodge ball and the truth be told the parents have a great time too. To have such a big event like this one we really needed a lot of parents to help out and that they did in great numbers, which really proves, yet again when enough people get involved, we can achieve great things. Well done to all involved for the last two years. We raised almost a €1,000 each year from this day alone. Pictures from this day are placed on the wall in the school hall.

Church-Gate Collection

For the last two years we have a church gate collection, we have raised just close to €1,200. Thanks to the parents who stood at the church for the collections at each mass schedule.

Uniform Drop Off

This is where we had a box left in the school for parents to drop off uniforms no good to them anymore and then we donated them to the Day Care Centre Charity Shop to sell for a nominal fee.

Traffic DVD

Due to the deep concern we had over the traffic situation outside the school, we had a DVD made to highlight the daily dangers faced by parents and children produced by Simon Kavanagh (a fellow concerned parent). The DVD was then presented to all five TDs to make them aware of our campaign.

We followed up with lots of emails from the committee and from parents in the school until they finally listened to us. Alas, what they have done now is safer. However the issue has not gone away but merely brought the bottleneck closer to the school, which means a follow up campaign needs to organised again. Pressure needs to be continually applied to get anything done. Check out the DVD on YouTube.

Cyber-bullying Night

This is a night we organised in the Claregalway Hotel, where a parent in the school organised for a colleague to come out to give us a lecture on the dangers and implications of Cyber-Bullying. It was both informative and scary as to how out of control internet bullying can get. Hopefully this night can be arranged again in the future.

Movie night

While we try to fundraise as much as we can, some events are not for fundraising but more of a treat for the kids and a chance for parents to mingle and meet, that is the sole purpose of the Movie Nights. This is where we put on a suitable movie for each class on Friday evening in the school hall, give the kids a little goodie bag and let them chill out with their friends to watch a movie, while parents have a coffee/tea and chat also. It is a lovely fun evening and so simple to do. We charge €3 just to cover goodie bags, coffee/tea and biscuits.

Scratch Program

This is a start-up computer course for young kids run by Marc Mellotte in the school on a Friday over ten weeks. It would give the kids the basic knowledge of computers while having some fun creating programs. Thanks Marc.

Annual Calendars

Last Xmas we introduced our school calendar, which was made up of pictures drawn by all the children in the school, all children had a part in the creativity of the calendar. The end product was fantastic and a credit to the teachers and the kids. Hughes Supervalu kindly sponsored the calendars and we sold all 300 that we had printed. This year it would be nice to sell more.

Bingo Night

Late last year we had a bingo night, where both parents and the kids had a great time shouting out their numbers when they had a full line. It was held in the Claregalway Hotel, who kindly let us have the room. There was Easter Eggs given out as spot prizes kindly sponsored by Hughes Supervalu. Bingo night is a whole lot of fun for all the family and a great fundraiser. €500 was raised from this night.

Parents Survey

Last year we sent out a survey to all parents to get their feedback on how they think we are doing and more importantly what they think we should be doing or do they even know we exist. We got a massive response which is a credit to all parents who took the time to fill it out. All the responses were very informative and while there was a lot that we seemed to be doing right there was a few things we needed to try harder at. All feedback was looked at and we gave back a summary to all parents via email. Once again thanks for the feedback.

Nuacht Chláir Editorial

We have submitted a written editorial on a monthly basis to Nuacht Chláir, though I do confess this has not been done so far this year.

Fire Safety demonstration

This year we have had the Fire Brigade call out to the school to give a display with a fire engine and a give the kids a talk on fire safety. Well worth while event to raise awareness of the dangers of fire.

All of the above events have been organised by the Parents Association Committee. There has been a huge amount of work, time and effort done by both the committee and the parents to make these events a success. It was hard work, but all parents have the same goal in mind, that we are doing something to benefit all the children within the school.

Our aim with the funds we have raised, is to improve the play area for the kids. Play structures for the smaller kids, and play improvement for the bigger kids with something as simple as benches for them to sit and chill out over their break or to add basketball hoops. The play area is our main objective for now and we have made a start on that by handing over €4,000 the Principal Burns last June to kick start the playground initiative (pictured above). These funds we hope will be added to over the coming months and years. We will need to continue fundraising if we are going to get the play area the kids deserve! The events we choose to run each year are events that can be run every year, so long may they continue…

To all our sponsors over this two year period a big Thank You.

Finally, we would like to take this chance to thank all parents who have giving up so much of their personal time to help throughout the two years. You have been fantastic! Some parents basically ran various events themselves from behind the scenes! You all know who you are thank you very much. Special thanks also to the Committee members Ciara Fenton, William Ahern and Anna Cormican.

Kind Regards,
Clement Shevlin
Chairperson of the Parents Association