Parents’ Association Meeting June 25th 2024
ENS Parents Association Minutes
Date: Tuesday, 25/06/2024
Time: 07:30pm
Venue: ENS Staff Room
Minutes taken by: Nileptha Magallage Sergeant
Meeting Attended By:
Lorna Ganda
Eileen Tobin
Marcin Grochowski
Mariusz Cwiryo
Nileptha Magallage Sergeant
Kat O’Shea
Brian Troy
Fiona Eason
Apologies:
Shayla Hilpert
Saphina Nandawula
Agenda:
● Welcome & Apologies
● 10 Minute General Q&A
● Fun Day Feedback
● Subcommittee Updates
● 6th Class Graduation
● Year 24/25 plans/goals
● AOB
10 Minute General Q&A:
● Nothing in general was mentioned at this evening’s meeting.
Fun Day Feedback:
● Great, positive feedback overall regarding Fun Day.
● We had a fantastic amount of volunteers, the majority who had a full 4 hours to give
which meant nobody was stretched beyond enjoying themselves.
● We organised refreshments from Kavanagh’s Spar, Lifford Road. We wanted to give
custom to them as they were very generous to donate the 6th class grad cake.
● School management also provided scones which were very much enjoyed at the
morning break by all
● The mini golf received positive feedback from children, school staff and parents as
something different for Fun Day. It was nice to have this as an alternative, even
though it was not one of the original activities planned, more so forced from the
change of date.
● The inflatables were delivered with posts and not weights. It was communicated to
the company (more than once) that we now have astro turf and not grass and that we
would not be able to pin anything into the astro turf ground but the mix up happened
and therefore the inflatables had to be put up on the middle yard grass area. This led
to a rapid change of scheduling having to move activities around. Thank you to Ms
Eimear Martin for sorting the new schedule out so promptly, everything still ran very
smoothly once the confusion was sorted.
Subcommittee Updates:
Welcome Package
● The whole package is with the printer, Copy Stop Ennis, and will be printed
during the Summer.
● The physical package will be ready for distribution to families at the back to
school reception on the 28th of August.
● A group of PA members will get together before then to assemble the
packages, Shayla will be in contact regarding this closer to the time.
● The subcommittee decided to get the PDF (online version) of the package
translated into as many languages as possible so that families who join the
school will little understanding of the English language can receive the
information within the package in their own language. Polish, Portuguese and
Arabic are the languages being worked on at the moment by Mariusz, Marcin,
Lorna and Noelle’s friend Anis, thank you to you all, we realise this takes time
and effort.
Pavement Markings
● Topline (company doing the markings) are scheduled to come to the school in
mid August to do the pavement markings. We are to keep in contact with
them regarding dates as their work is weather dependent.
6th Class Graduation
● The 6th class graduation is in 2 days time.
● PA are trying out the concept of making our own sandwiches as a change from
buying. We want to get an idea of cost of making our own compared to ordering
elsewhere.
● Survival kits got finished tonight. The plan is to have Eileen at the stage handing
them out as the pupils receive their cert from Mr McInerney.
Year 24/25 Plans/Goals:
● Creative Schools: A meeting is scheduled with the Creative Schools team on
Thursday during school hours to go over areas of collaboration for the coming school
year. We will update the rest of the committee after the meeting.
● Playground Equipment: A request has been made from the infant teachers that the
Parents Association may consider looking for playground equipment that would
provide entertainment for an incoming pupil that is a wheelchair user.
● Constitution: up for review the first term of the coming school year. If all PA
members could reread the constitution before our first meeting in September and
make note of any changed they might like to see changed. A vote will be made at the
AGM in October.
● Fundraising Ideas: Soccer Tournament (Parents Vs Teachers), Book Fair, ‘Guess
The Number Of….’ , Read-a-Thon, ‘The Big Clean Up’, Family Fun Run, Exercise
Bike Race (buy tickets, like a betting slip) were some of the ideas mentioned and
brought up by PA members & school management.
AOB:
Role of Secretary:
● Saphina is stepping down from the role of Secretary on the Parents Association
Committee due to changes in availability but will remain on the committee as a
member. Lorna was her back up all year and has agreed to take the official title for
the next 2 years. Nominate & second?
● Kat nominated Lorna, Nileptha second
PA Social Meetings:
● It was suggested that PA might have their own social gathering, such as a Christmas
get together.
Committee 24/25
● The committee will have mostly the same members for the coming school year.
● We have a member that has been on the committee since 2019 and therefore would
need to be renominated back in if they intend to continue on the committee.
● Any available positions will be announced at the AGM in October 2024.
Thank you
● Brian expressed his gratitude and thanks to the Parents Association for all our work
during this school year. He made it very clear that the events such as bingo,
graduation, Communion reception, Fun Day, Graduation etc wouldn’t be what they
are without the PA’s input, he and the school staff are very grateful to the PA.
● Shayla also thanks everybody that has been involved with the PA this school year.
She mentioned the brilliant teamwork and joint efforts from everyone to pull each and
every event and subcommittee together. Shayla acknowledges that many members
this year were new to the PA so there was a lot of figuring out to be done but we did it
and had a very successful year.
Next Meeting:
We have not yet set a date for the next meeting. It will be in September 2024. Date will be
set closer to the time and communicated via email, WhatsApp groups & social media
networks.