Parents Association Meeting March 6th 2025

ENS Parents’ Association Meeting Minutes

 

Date: Thursday, 6th of March, 2025

Time: 7:30pm

Venue: ENS Staff Room

Minutes Taken By: Lorna Ganda

 

Meeting Attended By:                                  Apologies:

Lorna Ganda                                                   Saphina Nandawula

Shayla Hilpert                                                 Claire McCarthy

Brian Troy                                                       Ifeoma Ugwueru

Eileen Tobin                                                    Noelle Carew

Kat O’ Shea                                                    Nileptha Magallage Sergeant

Marcin Grochowski

Mariusz Cwirko

Fiona Eason

 

Agenda:

• Welcome, Apologies & Open Comments
• Review/Feedback – Disco, Flag Day, Book Fair
• Treasurer’s Report
• Subcommittee Updates
• Bingo
• AOB

 

 

Welcome & Apologies / Open Comments:

• A representative of Ennis Community Games contacted the Parents’ Association with regard to entering school teams to certain competitions. After discussing, the PA decided that it is best left to school management and teachers without our involvement (unless needed/requested by school staff) but it is not something we feel we need to be directly involved with.
• A parent suggested black shorts with red stripes down the side from Boru Sports could possibly be brought into the school uniform policy. We checked the policy and it states ‘black shorts’, the shorts are generic and so any black shorts that look presentable are acceptable at school. There is no official shorts or brand in the uniform policy.
• It was suggested that 6th class pupils who will no longer be wearing their uniform half zip jumper could donate them to the second hand uniform sale. The PA will make a post highlighting this on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Review/Feedback – Disco, Flag Day, Book Fair

Disco

• There were 16 volunteers working the disco on the 7th of February.
• We sold out of the LED light sticks again this year, charging €2 each. We agree that we would prefer to have a limited amount and to sell out than to have stock left over.
• We hired a slush puppy machine as a trail which was successful. Both flavours (cola and blue raspberry), blue raspberry was definitely the favourite.
• Some lessons we learned during this years disco;

1. keep children away from behind the tuck shop. It starts off as one or two helping but then friends are coming to join them, they are opening stock and hanging inside the kitchen and it all gets too busy.
2. Strictly one person opening stock boxes – this way seconds of the same item won’t be opened.
3. Less variety, keep it to 2-3 choices of chocolate, sweets and crisps. We ended up having to give stock away that will expire before our next event.
4. Estimated €350 worth of stock stored at the moment, as it was opened it could not be returned.
5. If the event is cancelled, return all stock instead of storing. We stored the stock at the beginning of December when the original disco got cancelled, then the second date also cancelled due to a red warning so we had the stock for 2 whole months before having the opportunity to sell.

• The snow machines need to be higher up for a better effect. One of the machine’s is broken – Marcin has offered to take a look at it.
• It was suggested that the entrance doors to the school be manned on the night as there are children leaving the building without their parent/guardian during the evening. It might be worth asking the DJ on the evening to mention that children must be accompanied by an adult at all times, especially if they are going outside. The astro is rented and the yards are used as car parks so there really is no need to be going in and out.

 

Flag Day

• Income comparable to last year even though we reduced the locations by two places and the hours. We feel it may be because it was in February rather than January (post Christmas).
• Total funds from flag day €3,106.08 which the school and BOM have approved to go towards accessible playground equipment.
• Requests made that the buckets be emptied throughout the day on flag day as the buckets get heavy plus uncomfortable feeling of holding so much cash for a period of time.
• Have the buckets marked with their location. This will help identify what sort of money is being made at what location and can help decide what locations are best to go to and if we should change any of them.
• Suggested that a photo of the person collecting the buckets at the end of the day is presented to volunteers so they know they are handing the buckets over to the right person.
• We posted the QR code for donations to our social media platforms this year and €90 came in donations from said posts so it is definitely worth remembering to post.

 

Book Fair

• Lots of positive comments from children, parents, school staff, onlookers. Comments on social media posts, parents stopping us in the car park to thank us, comments from parents from other schools. A huge success!
• 12 different volunteers took on various shifts to keep the fair open for 5 full days. We also opened for a short period on the Saturday morning as their was interest from parents of children attending classes in the halla.
• We sold €8,103.97 worth of books and stationery which left us with €4,862.38 to spend in rewards with Scholastic.
• There is approx €700 left to spend in rewards after ordering the books requested from the teachers for classrooms. There is 18 months validation on rewards to spend.
• €51.40 worth of books was donated to the preschool for future ENS pupils to enjoy.
• 14% of rewards is being donated to the ARC unit in UHL. 59 books for preschool age children to teens have been selected and will be nicely packaged and presented at UHL on Friday 14th of February by some PA members and ENS pupils.

 

Treasurer’s Report:

• Currently €4892 in the Parents’ Association bank account.
• €3,106.08 is Flag Day money leaving €1,785.92 belonging to the committee.
• There are no outstanding payments to be made; the value centre and Scholastic have been paid in full.
• We have one more event this year to make income which is bingo. Monies will be spent on Communion reception, Fun Day and 6th Class graduation.

 

Subcommittee Updates:

 

Sixth Class Hoodies:

• We went to Boru Sport again this year for the hoodies. Charged €24.00 per jumper. The surplus of money has been sent to the PA account to be used towards sixth class graduation.
• The sixth class pupils received their hoodies today. A total of 93 hoodies were ordered (some children ordered a second hoodie) and distributed.
• The children were delighted and had no complaints. One girl asked if it was possible to downsize but as these jumpers are ordered and made in bulk, it is not possible to get another one or two once the order has been placed. A parent also asked about buying a second one as they liked them so much but again, this is not possible so it is important to stress when organising the hoodies that there is no option to change them/get more after the order is placed.

 

Accessible Playground:

• The BOM and school management have approved the installation of accessible playground equipment in the school yard(s). Starting with the infant yard as this is where it is most needed in the present time.
• The subcommittee working on this project has picked out the equipment they would like to get installed in the yard (play equipment, trolley, games tables, sensory tables etc). They are awaiting measurements. Once measurements are received they will order the equipment for delivery and installation.

 

Vision – Mission – Values

• The subcommittee are working on a survey to send to the parent body, might make the decision to delay sending the survey by a few weeks as to not overload parents as the Agree to Agree survey has just gone out.

Bingo

• Scheduled for the 9th of May
• Machine is booked from a rental company ‘Let’s Play Bingo’.
• We will purchase bingo books from the same company and decide what to charge closer to the time.
• Some committee members have started seeking prizes from local and not so local businesses, a lot more are needed as it stands. Document is on the drive to upload as prizes come in.
• We will want to sell as much of the stored stock in the tuck shop as possible as it will still be in date so the plan is that we don’t buy much more to add to that.

 

AOB:

• March and April mostly behind the scenes work, no major PA events.
• Graduation reception evening confirmed Thursday 26th of June.
• We should book Fun Day activities as soon as possible so that we have options. School prefer obstacle course over bouncy castles as there is no forced exit on the bouncy castles so can be hard to man with so many pupils.
• Champion Castles are Clare based so check them out first, ensuring to remind that we now have astro turf and not grass and so it is very important that they secure the inflatables etc with weights and not pegs.
• Communion Reception team has started to form. It is on Saturday 17th of May. If you’re available to help out on the day please let us know.

 

 

Next Meeting:

The next Parents’ Association meeting will be held on Thursday 3rd of April at the earlier time of 7:00pm.

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