We hope that you have all settled back into a routine and that students are settling in well. We understand that for some, returning to school has been a joyous and positive experience, where for other families there may be some difficulties encouraging engagement back to school life. For us, the school is as busy as always and we are happy to see all our new staff reporting such positive things about the students, the school environment and ethos that we have worked hard to maintain.
- Referral System & SEN Coordinator
We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Clonturk’s procedures and contact information for the student support team.
The student support team is a combination of staff that meet on a weekly basis to discuss student referrals or supports required throughout the school. The actions/supports taken are based on our Child Safeguarding Procedures, the Guidance Plan and the Language and Learning needs support policy and will vary based on the referral or supports required. The student support team consists of senior management, guidance counsellors, SEN co-ordinators, Year Heads and a representative from the psychological services in the CDETB.
For your own information, the process of referral and a helpful booklet on managing anxiety at home can be found here: CLICK HERE.
To contact the team please email sst@clonturkcc.cdetb.ie with the anchor (Co-ordinator/Department) in subject line.
- Careers Instagram
The Guidance department would like to invite families to follow the Clonturk careers Instagram page. We will be using this forum to share upcoming careers information along with useful information for families to support their young person. Follow @clonturkguidance
- Parent Teacher Meeting 7th Oct 16.15 to 18.45
Thank you to those families who got in touch to provide feedback for the tutor PTM. Although there were some difficulties, overall we hope that families did get an opportunity to check in with tutors & SNA’s at the beginning of the school year.
Unfortunately, we are still waiting for restrictions to ease to hold face-to-face PTM’s again. As a result, we have been working on school administration for the 2nd Year PTM this Thursday for the last couple of weeks.
The 2nd year Parent/Guardian and Teacher meeting will take place via Zoom on the 7th October. Instructions have been sent to all parents/guardians via email. If you did not get the email please let us know at info@clonturkcc.cdetb.ie.
- Covid Inspection
Last week we received notice of an incidental Covid Inspection by the department of education. The inspectorate reviewed our policies and procedures in place and monitored the school throughout the school day. We are happy to share that the school received an ‘Exemplary’ Review. Thank you to all the staff, students and families for continuing to follow HSE guidelines and ensuring Clonturk Remains a safe place to work and learn.
- PGTA AGM 14th Oct – Zoom
On behalf of the Parents/Guardians & Teachers Association I would like to extend an invitation to our AGM starting at 7.30pm on the 14th of October via Zoom.
Agenda for the evening is as follows:
- Introduction of current committee members & roles
- Election of new committee members
- Presentation by Principal, Wesleigh O’Hagan
- Introduction to the Board of Management & explanation of their role within the school
- Student Council Presentation
- Extra-curricular Activity in Clonturk
- Clonturk Building update & Presentation by Clonturk Building Committee #buildclonturk
The PGTA are always looking for new members and would like to invite any parents who wish to get involved to sign up using the following form: CLICK HERE
Ideally, we are aiming to have two parent representatives for each year group to share information on their behalf.
**Deadline Monday 11th October 2021**
- Bike Safety
Thank you to parental support we are now allocated a safety warden for the school who is placed at the traffic lights from 8am and afterschool. We are now also in a position to station a member of staff to supervise the front gates of the school each morning.
- To support the welfare of the students in Clonturk could we ask that a discussion around bike safety take place at home. All students are asked to step off bikes once on the school grounds.
- We would also like to remind students to lock their bikes throughout the school day.
- School Self Evaluation (SSE)
In 2021/22 Clonturk’s SSE focus will be on Attendance and Participation. You may have noticed that we are now sending communication home when a student is reported as absent from school. This will appear as a notification on your Vsware app. Vsware are having continual difficulty with Vodafone users and apologise if texts are not going through to some families. They are working with Vodafone in correcting this. The beginning of this process requires us to trial a system that will be effective on an ongoing basis.
Attendance Strategies:
- Review of attendance policy
- Procedure on trial:
- Student reports late to school. Student must sign-in at school office before attending class.
- Student presents late to school with note on vsware/journal from home. Stamp in journal noting explained absence. Marked as ‘EL’ Explained Late. Clonturk will monitor student lates, no further action required.
- Student presents late to school with no note. Student’s journal is stamped and they are marked ‘L’ on vsware. Two lates will result in student attending an extended reflection time after school.
- Two extended reflections in one calendar month due to lateness may result in a Saturday Reflection on organisation and participation.
- Procedure on trial:
- Promotion of positive attendance through competitions and feedback.
- Effective communication strategies
- Fostering a healthy, caring and supportive school environment
Participation Strategies:
- Extra-Curricular
- Presentation at PGTA AGM
- Support Staff in setting up of Cultural and Sporting extra-curricular in school
- Host an Extra-curricular sign-up week to promote extra-curricular in the school.
- Send communication home to families on extra-curricular availability and reminders of training etc.
- Approach students class by class or as part of SST to engage with extra-curricular in the school.
- Frequent promotion on social media and on Extra-curricular notice boards.
- Teaching & Learning
- Review of Assessment & Homework Policy.
- Review of Teaching and Learning Strategies throughout the school.
- Use of restorative practice and code of positive behaviour throughout the school on a day-by-day basis.
- Positive merit competitions across year groups.