Holy Family Junior School

Newsletter – October 2017

Dear Parent / Guardian,

Open Day:

  • We apologise for the delay in having an ‘Open Day’ for parents and the wider community to come and visit our newschool. The builders inform us that they have just a few weeks work remaining in order to finish the shared PE hall and complete some of the site landscaping, lighting etc. We will have the ‘Open-Day’ at the first opportunity after this.

School Sport:

  • We are very grateful to Portlaoise GAA (and Pat Critchley in particular) for helping with some in-school Gaelic football coaching for the children in Senior Infants and Second Class. This will be running over the next number of weeks (half the children in Senior Infants will have this coaching before the mid-term break and the other half after the break).

Tree Week:

  • The children in Second Class visited Emo Court last week as part of National Tree Week, where they explored some of the flora and fauna around the estate.

Active School Flag:

  • The school is currently working towards earning an ‘Active School Flag’. The flag is an award to schools which strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community. We will have more details on this over the course of the year and there will be an ‘Active School Flag’ section on our website (

‘Drop and Go’:

  • The school yard is supervised from 8.30 to 8.50 each morning, so parents can ‘Drop and Go’ during these times. We would ask that (when school has started at 8.50) parents bring children who are late to school to the main door of the school (i.e. at the secretary’s office).

Enrolment:

  • Enrolment for Junior Infants for the school year 2018-2019 has begun. If you have siblings to enrol for next year please contact the school for an application form before the 1st of December.

School Concert:

  • Portlaoise Parish are hosting a concert in Portlaoise Parish Church on the 26th of October. Red Hurley will be supported by Fr. Paddy Byrne and the choir of the Holy Family Senior School. Tickets are €20 and are available from the schools and from the Parish Centre. Proceeds are in aid of the Holy Family Schools Campus.

Healthy Eating Policy:

  • Just a reminder that the school operates a healthy eating policy where we ask parents to provide healthy lunches during the week (with the option of one, small ‘treat’ on Fridays). We would like to thank the vast majority of parents who support this policy.
  • Also, for Health and Safety reasons (due mainly to issues around food allergies), we ask parents not to send treats to school for other children at birthdays etc.

Parents’ Council AGM:

  • The AGM of the Parents’ Council will be held shortly. As outlined above, we expect the builders to be finished with the schools very shortly.

Readathon:

  • The children in First Class will shortly be participating in the MS Readathon. This encourages children to read for pleasure, both at home and in school.

School Closures:

Just a reminder of the closures for the remainder of the school year:

  • Oct 30th - Nov 3rd (incl.);
  • Dec 25th - Jan 5th (incl.);
  • Feb 12th - 16th(incl.);
  • March 19th;
  • March 26th -April 6th (incl.);
  • May 7th and 8th;
  • June 4th.
  • School closing on Friday,June 29th.

Traffic:

  • We have been asked to inform you that, as of Friday, the traffic wardens will be issuing tickets to cars which park on / pull-up on the footpaths and roundabouts outside the school.

Contact Details:

  • Please inform the school if your contact details have changed recently (address, phone, etc). If you have not received an email or text from the school over the past few weeks it would suggest that these details need to be updated. The new contact details for the school are below:
  • Phone: 057 868824
  • Email:
  • Website:

Arts & Crafts / Book Rental etc

  • Thank you to all those who have forwarded the above monies to the school so promptly. We would appreciate if those who haven’t yet done so would do this as soon as possible.

Irish Girl Guides, Portlaoise

  • Portlaoise Girl Guides have asked us to inform parents that they currently have places for girls between 7 and 10 years of age. Meetings are on Mondays from 5.30pm to 6.30pm in the Bantile, Sacred Heart School, Portlaoise (although they hope to be moving shortly to the Holy Family Junior School). For more information and registration forms please contact 0876608620 or see poster on the notice board in the school yard.