IMPORTANT NOTES FOR PARENTS REGARDING THE RETURN TO SCHOOL
Parents are asked not to come into the school yard at drop off or pick up time, teachers and SNAs will walk children to the top yard for collection. This is part of our Child Safeguarding. An exception to this is Junior Infant parents and new pupils on the first day only.
All communication with the school will be through the Aladdin system. We remind parents that teachers are unable to answer or might not see notification during teaching time, should you require an urgent response please contact the office.
As per last year we will continue to have Carambola providing a hot meal each day for the children, this will begin on Thursday. Junior Infants will start hot lunches on Monday 8th September. New children will receive a code in the first few days to sign up if they wish.
Should you have any other queries or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the office or myself or Julie.
Important Information – Industrial Action from 28th August
As you may be aware, industrial action by Fórsa union members (school secretaries and caretakers nationwide) will begin on Thursday, 28th August.
Our school secretary, Muirghen, will be affected by this and will be picketing as follows :
Thursday 28th: 8am outside school gates & then from 11am on the national picket in Dublin
Friday 29th: 8am outside school gates then from 11am at a regional base
Monday 1st September: on the picket line outside our school from 8am
Other school staff have been directed to work as normal but will support the picket during breaks. Both INTO (teachers) and Fórsa (SNAs/ANAs) have instructed members not to carry out duties normally done by striking staff.
What this means for parents
Office phone – will not be answered; voicemails will not be checked.
👉 In case of emergency, email principal@johnstowngns.ie. Please mark email URGENT in subject line.
Office email – will not be monitored.
Contacting teachers – use the Aladdin app.
Office access – if you arrive late or collect early, you may need to wait until a staff member notices you outside.
Letters from the office – cannot be requested during the strike.
Aladdin / Carambola queries – please contact those companies directly.
We will explain to the children Thursday and Friday what the strike means. We will tell them, in an age appropriate way, that sometimes people have to strike/stop working to get fair working conditions and that it's aimed at the Department of Education and the government and not them or the school.
Our Position
The Board of Management of Our Lady of Good Counsel GNS fully supports Muirghen in this action. Muirghen plays a vital role in the daily running of our school and deserves parity of conditions with other staff.
We know this action will cause inconvenience, and we appreciate your patience. We encourage parents/guardians to share concerns with local representatives now and urge them to press the Government to engage with Fórsa before disruption to children’s education escalates.
Kind regards,
Lisa, on behalf of the Board of Management
Aladdin communications
Please note communications on Aladdin will only be received by staff between the hours of 8am and 4pm, from Monday to Friday.
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Early morning club:
We take girls and boys from both schools at 8 a.m. They get to play games and settle in before being delivered to their class lines for the start of school.
AFTER SCHOOL CLUB:
To facilitate parents we offer after-school childcare from 1.20 to 2.20. daily. Places are subject to availability and preference will be given to students from our school.
Collection of children during the school day:
Please note the school office will be unattended between 12.35 and 1.05 daily. Consequently, we cannot facilitate children being collected during this 30 minute period.
Welcome all parents and guardians to the Johnstown Girls School community. We welcome your support and participation. If you are in a position to do so we would encourage you to become involved in our Parents Association. All help is greatly appreciated. The PA provide valuable support to the school in many ways including fund-raising; running of school events and celebrations.
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You will find the following information on the pages in this area of our website:
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Our School Newsletters.
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School calendar and opening times.
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Details of After-School Activities.
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School uniform information,
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School Stationery requirements for 2024-25.
We are working towards our first Gaelbhratach / Irish Language Flag this year.
There are student representatives on our coiste (committe) from 3rd to 6th Class. They will help to drive this initiative within our school.
Please see the link below for resources to help encourage the use of Irish at home. (These resources will be updated regularly.)​
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For more information on Gaelbhratach you can access their website on the link below.
The first open meeting of the newly formed School-Community Neurodiversity Committee took place on December 3rd. It was well attended and we are delighted to see such interest.
Following on from this meeting we are sharing a padlet of resources that may be of interest. Click on the button below to access this.
