May Newsletter 2017

May 2017
Rights Respecting School Award
22-26/05
‘Fit for Life’ Week
22/05
Sports’ Days
30/05
Exceptional Closure Day
September Enrolment
Last month, we posted 52 Nurser y
Enrolment letters and 87 P1 Enrolment
letters to families in our local area. Similarly
t o t h e l a s t f e w y e a r s w e w e r e
oversubscribed this year and some new
families were disappointed. This is testament
to how successful and popular Rathmore
has become in recent years. We want to
thank you all for making Rathmore the
fabulous place it is.
We look forward to the new children joining
our school family in September, to
contribute and shape us further in the
future.
This time last year, we launched our Rights
Respecting School programme here at
Rathmore.
We aim to be a school where every aspect
of a child is focused on and developed,
including their well-being. We have
committed to building a sustainable ‘rights
respecting environment’. Our school will
ef fectively promote the values and
pr inciples of the ‘Uni ted Na t ions
Convention on the Rights of the Child’ and
use it to underpin our vision for school
development.
Raffy’s Thought for the Month:
‘Work Hard - don’t give up when
things are tough’

April News
The P6 and P7 pupils enjoyed their residential
trips last month. Before Easter, the P6 pupils
spent four days at the Ardnabannon Outdoor
Pursuit Centre, outside Castlewellan, where
they explored the outdoors and a number of
activities. These included bouldering, abseiling,
rock climbing and kayaking.
The week after Easter, saw our P7 pupils travel
to Scotland. Over the course of the four days,
the pupils had the opportunity to visit many of
Edinburgh’s attractions. The weather on the
whole was great and everyone had an amazing
and memorable time.
As always, our pupils were exemplary in their
behaviour on both trips, with people remarking
on their excellent manners. We are, as always,
grateful to the large numbers of willing staff
who give up family time to ensure this valuable
opportunity is available for our pupils.
Fit For Life Week
Our Fit For Life Week for this year will take
place from 22-26 May. This is always an exciting
week with our three Sports’ Days, sessions with
external visitors, tasty food testing and our
charity fun run. This year we will split funds
raised between School’s Council’s Charity and
our school’s interactive whiteboard fund. Details
will follow next week.
May Bank Holiday - Mon 29 May
Exceptional Closure Day - Tues 30 May
‘Fit for Life’ Week - 22-26 May
P1-P2 Sports’ Day - Mon 22 May @ 9.30am
P3-P4 Sports’ Day - Mon 22 May @ 11.00pm
P5-P7 Sports’ Day - Mon 22 May @ 1.15pm
Nursery Induction Evening - Mon 05 June
P1 Induction Evening - Tues 06 June
UK Election Closure - Thurs 08 June
PTA
Last week, our PTA had their Brown Money
week. Thanks to your generosity, they are still
counting thousands of copper coins. As soon
as we know totals and the winning classes, we
will let you know. Thank you for all your
support.
Thank you also for your support at our Cash
for Clobber collection and last night’s movie
night.
Quiz Night - Friday 12 May - Tickets available
from the school office at £5.
ETI VISIT
Following our excellent whole school
inspection in 2014, we have been expecting
our 3 year Sustaining Improvement Inspection,
designed to evaluate our capacity to maintain
and extend the positive impact on our
children’s learning.
We have received our 2 day notice and so will
welcome inspectors to Rathmore on 8 & 9
May.
In keeping with current Teaching Union advice,
100% of Rathmore staff will exercise their
right to take ‘action short of strike’ during this
inspection. This means that no classroom
observations will take place, so no child’s
learning will be interrupted.
A l l i n f o r m a t i o n r e g a r d i n g S c h o o l
Development, Strategic Intent, Self-Evaluative
Process, Learning focused Action Plans,
children’s data trends and analysis and a full
evidence base for safeguarding will be
presented to the team.
We hope that you will support our teachers
in this action and we will inform you of the
outcome from the ETI Team in due course.
Post-Primary Placement Letters
On 28 May, our P7 pupils will be receiving
their letters indicating their post-primary
school placements. It is our hope that all our
children will receive the school of their choice
but never theless we are so proud of
ever y thing they ha ve achieved and
contributed to life here at Rathmore.