Actions from October PTP Meeting

Dear Parents/Guardians,
Thanks to everyone who logged onto our first PTP Zoom meeting of the school year recently. All PTP meetings will be now conducted over Zoom for the foreseeable future to keep us in line with COVID restrictions. 
We wanted to share with you some of the outcomes/action points from the meeting. 

1. The PTP 2020 Fundraising Raffle
You should have received an email/Aladdin message from Rory with the details of how you can purchase raffle tickets online. We encourage everyone to try to support this raffle. You can forward the link to your friends and family and encourage them to purchase tickets too. There are lots of prizes all generously donated by many local businesses and parents of GCNS pupils. If you have any questions regarding the raffle please contact ptpgcns@gmail.com.

2. School Video to Education Minister Foley
The school video that was made two weeks ago is almost finalised. The PTP would again like to give a huge thank you to Brian Durnin and Robin Murray for giving up their time to produce and shoot the video entitled "Dear Minister Foley". We would also like to thank Mr Kinane, Ms Sheekey, Mr Hughes and all the teachers for facilitating the PTP in making the video. And a special thanks to all the pupils who wrote the script and starred in the video. You are super stars. We have seen a draft of the video and it looks great.
Once this video is ready to go, we will circulate it to the parent body and ask you to post/tweet/tag it on all your social media platforms. We will include a list of the various Facebook pages, Twitter and Instagram accounts that you should tag it to. 

To ensure that this video grabs the attention of Minister Foley, the Department of Education, Wicklow TDs and the media, we are putting a call out for anyone in the parent body who is involved in PR, has media connections or has a large social media following/influence. Please get in contact with the PTP committee (ptpgcns@gmail.com) as soon as possible as we want this video to go viral so that the Minister and the DES can no longer ignore us.

3. Parent Volunteers
Rory has asked for volunteers to help supervise break times out on the yards. All volunteers must have completed the KWETB vetting process. Please note that vetting only lasts for two years. If you wish to volunteer or you need to be vetted/have your vetting updated, please contact Marie at admin@greystonescns.ie

4. PTP AGM
The PTP AGM will take place on 10 November via Zoom. All officer rolls and general committee members are up for re-election. The officer roles are as follows: 
1. Chair
2. Vice Chair
3. Secretary 
4 Treasurer
5. Communications Officer

There can be up to 11 General Committee Members.

We are inviting all parents/guardians to attend the AGM and encourage anyone who is thinking of joining to express your interest via email to ptpgcns@gmail.com. We are also asking that there is at least one committee member from each class to ensure that the PTP Committee is serving the entire school population.

Finally, the gender balance on the previous committees has been very skewed towards females so we are encouraging all dads to consider coming onto the committee to rebalance it. The Committee always needs fresh faces with new/different ideas, so please do get in contact if you are even remotely interested. We welcome everyone.

5. Shoe Box Appeal for Peter McVerry Trust
We will be collecting donations to the Peter McVerry Christmas Shoe Box Appeal once again this year. It will be a little different this time but you might hold onto any shoe boxes that you have and we will be in touch after the midterm break to provide you with further information.

6. Clothing Donations
Due to Covid 19 we are unable to go ahead with the www.bag2school.ie clothing recycling drive at the moment.

7. Name Change of the Parent Teacher Partnership "PTP"
It was suggested at the last PTP meeting that we change our name to Parents Association (PA) or to Parent Teacher Association (PTA) given that either of those options are more universally used and recognised. We will do a poll to gauge whether you want to change it and if so, your preference for a new name. We will present the results at the AGM.

We are now facing into six weeks of level 5 but the PTP will continue to work with and support our wonderful school. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Warmest regards,
Michelle Boehm
PTP Chairperson