Our St. Colum’s 85th Anniversary Yearbook is almost ready! Order your copy form THE SHOP on SchoolMoney at a cost of £10 per copy. 

The publication traces the history of the school, featuring articles from past pupils from every decade since the school was opened in 1936. All current St. Colum’s students are featured and an insight into what each class gets up to throughout the year.

This special anniversary publication coincides with a most unusual year in terms of lockdown and remote learning - certainly a year to remember.

With usual PTA fundraising activities limited this year due to the pandemic, the yearbook is our main means of raising funds for the school. We would encourage all parents to consider ordering a copy. 

Many thanks for your continued support.

St. Colum's PTA

Lunch menu for next week, from Monday 7th June - Wednesday 9th June, Thursday and Friday to follow.

Please book online through our SchoolMoney system. School lunches should be booked by 11pm the previous evening. If you have any problems accessing SchoolMoney, please contact the office ☎ 02870833010

Follow the link for our Parents Guide to SchoolMoney...https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/st-colums-primary-school/UploadedDocument/5b9a7461fe0c47a89d5c1cfd4f09acc5/school-money-parent-guide.pdf 

Happy World Environment Day!

World Environment Day is celebrated  on 5th June each year with the aim of encouraging awareness and action for protection of our environment. The theme for World Environment Day 2021 is, Eco-system Restoration - Reimagine, Recreate, Restore.

We cannot turn back time. But we can grow trees, green our towns and cities, rewild our gardens, travel sustainably, change our diets, reduce, reuse, recycle, grow your own food and clean up rivers and coasts. We are the generation that can make peace with nature.

How are you are helping our environment today. Please send us your photos/videos to our Facebook page @stcolums or email to stcolumsoffice186@c2kni.net

CASH FOR CLOBBER COLLECTION

Time for a pre-summer clear-out of old or unwanted textiles?  Our next Cash For Clobber collection is on Wednesday, 16th June.

Remember slightly different arrangements this year... bring your bags of unwanted textiles to school 8:30am - 9:15am on Wednesday and pass 'over the wall' to staff at the front of the school.  Remember to observe social distancing.

What can you put in the bag??

• All types of clothing (even with holes!)
• Bags and shoes (please tie shoes together with laces)
• Hats and belts
• Towels and curtains
• Bed linen (sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers)

** Remember all items must be clean.** 

Please help us recycle and raise funds for our school.

Many thanks for your continued support.

St. Colum’s Eco-school Committee
 

#ecoschools

CHECK YOUR PASSWORD: POST-PRIMARY APPLICATIONS

• Online Notification - If you submitted your application online through the Post-Primary Applications portal you can login from 9am Saturday 12 June 2021 to view your placement Notification. Your login details will be the email address and password you registered with when you applied online. You can check these details now by visiting the Portal using the link below and can reset your password if necessary.
https://admissions.eani.org.uk/postprimary

• Notification Letter - If you applied by post or email a letter will be issued for receipt on Saturday 12 June 2021. If you provided an email address on your form you may also receive a copy of the letter by email

• Post-Primary School – if you have any queries in relation to your child’s placement, please contact the Post-Primary school directly

• Admissions Helpdesk – for help and advice, contact our Admissions Helpline on 028 9598 5595 from 9am on Saturday 12 June or via email on postprimaryadmissions@eani.org.uk

For more information visit https://www.eani.org.uk/parents/admissions

The placement of children for whom EA maintains a statement of special educational needs is a separate process to that outlined above. The majority of parents will have received their child’s amended statement naming their placement for September.

Where places have not been confirmed by 14 June, SEN Link Officers will communicate with parents to update them on their individual consultation process. Parents can contact their SEN Link Officer or SEN Helpline on 028 9598 5960.

Due to unforeseen circumstances tomorrow’s Fun Day must be postponed. This difficult decision, at the eleventh hour, has been taken for health and safety reasons. Tomorrow will continue to be a non-uniform day.

I deeply regret the disappointment this will cause for our children.

Mrs McCullagh

Latest information from Education Authority regarding FreeSchool Meals/Uniform Allowance for 2021/22 school year...

Current Eligible Families and New Applicants

Parents/guardians who are currently in receipt of support for the 2020/21 school year will not be sent a pre-populated form for the 2021/22 school year.

All parents/ guardians (including new applicants) are required to apply on-line from Monday, 7 June 2021 via the EA website https://www.eani.org.uk/financial-help/free-school-meals. It is recommended that parents/ guardians apply during the month of June, or as early as possible, to enable applications to be processed for support to be in place for their children for the new school year.

Parents/ guardians are being advised of the importance of providing valid Bank or Building Society account details in the claimant’s own name. Payments cannot be made into Post Office accounts.

Healthy Me Session

The Menssana team are providing a 1.5 hour webinar via zoom specifically aimed at parents, carers and staff of children of primary age.

This session aims to:

* Start a conversation about mental health

* Raise awareness of signs/symptoms of mental ill-health

* Teach self-care techniques for building resilience and confidence

* Show you how and where to access support and further information

Registration for Parents/Carers...

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/parents-and-carers-mental-health-awareness-session-tickets-156658352349

Registration for staff...

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/primary-school-staff-mental-health-awareness-session-tickets-156510405837

#actionmentalhealth #healthyme

Revised date for notification of the outcome of applications Post Primary Transfer

The Education Authority (EA) has shared the concerns of many parents and school leaders in both the primary and post-primary sectors with regard to the timetabled notification of outcome date of 19 June 2021.

I am pleased to advise that the new system has enabled faster processing of applications by schools. This, coupled with special circumstances claims not requiring to be considered this year as part of admissions criteria by the majority of selective post-primary schools, has made it possible to bring forward the parental notification of outcome of applications to Saturday, 12th June 2021.

Parents who had applied online will be able to login to the EA Post-Primary Application from 9am on Saturday, 12th June 2021 to receive the outcome of their child’s application.

Please note that parents cannot indicate acceptance or refusal of a place offered via the online portal. The EA understands that confirmation of acceptance of a place is not usually requested by post-primary schools. If any post-primary schools do require confirmation, they will contact parents directly with instructions on how they should respond.

On Notification Day

It is expected that a very large volume of parents will be logging in on notification day. While EA has taken all possible steps, in advance, to seek assurances from our digital software provider that the Post-Primary Application Portal can manage this, we know that it may take some time before all parents are able to access their notification.

Parents will be made aware, via an email prior to the notification day that they may be placed in a queue and will be encouraged via our social media post that they may wish to log in at a less busy time.

An Admissions Helpdesk will be operating from 9am to 5pm on Saturday 12th June to assist parents who require support and to answer queries that cannot be clarified via the website information.

Mrs McCullagh on behalf of Education Authority

Please keep our Primary 7 pupils receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation this afternoon in your prayers.

May God's love light their way as they follow the path of His blessings.