DEIS Update 17/10/22

A Thuistí,

As you are aware our school was granted Deis Band-2 status just before the summer holidays. We were very lucky that our school was selected as this new status gives our school access to a wide range of helps and supports to help our students and families.

This note is to briefly update you on the supports that our school already accessed under the scheme or that we plan to access in the coming weeks.

Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) – Claire Dempsey is our new HSCL – the position is shared between ourselves and Ardscoil Mhuire. Claire is currently getting to know our students, meeting with staff members and preparing to meet families – home visits are an integral part of the HSCL role.

School Completion Programme (SCP) – We are due to receive our first training session on ‘School Completion’ next Tuesday. School Completion is an extra service that helps with the transition from primary school to Secondary.

Training Courses – As part of the DEIS programme our school receives access to special training courses that aren’t available to schools outside the programme.

Múinteoir Aisling and Múinteoir Áine-Máire have begun Maths Recovery For Schools in Portlaoise

Múinteoir Fíona and Múinteoir Rachel are due to start the ‘Incredible Years Programme’ next week in Athlone Education Centre.

School Lunches – As we are now part of the DEIS Schools Programme our children are eligible to receive free school lunches every day. The Board of Management have selected GLANMORE FOODS as our school lunch provider.       

Glanmore are the largest school meals provider in the country serving approx. 400 schools daily. We plan to start providing school lunches after the Halloween break. Once set up you will receive a “Welcome Email” from Glanmore with instructions on how to select your child’s lunch for the following week using their app. Different food can be selected for each day.

If you wish to make a change to your selection that must be done by 2 p.m. on a Thursday for the change to be effective for the following week.

 

What it means is:

A sandwich/roll/bap can be built with a choice of filling

PLUS a piece of fruit

PLUS a snack

OR

An alternative item can be selected

PLUS a piece of fruit

PLUS a snack

 

So, three edible items each day!

 

Please see the sample menu below.

To this end I will send a test email to every family at 2 pm today. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE THAT EMAIL or you wish to use an alternate email please contact the office at runai@gaelscoil.ie with the email that you would like to use for school lunches.

This school lunch scheme is optional for all parents. We have been told that typically 95-97% of parents engage with it in the long term.

As you can see, there are a lot of positive changes coming from our newly acquired DEIS status. (This note will be sent home in hard copy tomorrow for reference purposes).

Le meas,

Ruairí.

LUNCH DRY 2022 with extra snack DOWNLOAD