Dear Parent/Guardian,
Involvement of parents/guardians in the life of Skibbereen Community School continues to be a very important element of our mission, as we strive to develop a ‘Community of Learners’ where everybody works together to ensure that all the members of our school community, parents, staff and most importantly students get the best possible opportunity to grow and flourish.
The support, commitment and co-operation shown by parents/guardians to our school and students over the last couple of Covid driven years has been immense and very much appreciated. However, the restricted contact years of Covid made it difficult to maintain the more formal partnership structures that exist within the school.
First amongst these more formal partnership structures has been the Parent’s Association, which prior to Covid had built strong links and worked collaboratively with the school on a number of projects.
As we now enter a new post-Covid phase we are looking to renew and redevelop our more formal partnership structures and in particular the Parent’s Association.
The primary role of the Parent’s Association is to work in partnership with the school for the betterment of the students in the school in a manner that supports and empowers parents to be active in the best interests of their children’s educational journey.
The Association is open to all parents/guardians of the school but is generally run by a committee who work on behalf of the parents. To date this committee has been comprised of two parents from each year group in addition to the two parent representatives on the Board of Management.
Once formed, the committee then selects a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and any other roles it deems necessary. In addition to the Parent’s Association, parents/guardians are represented on the school’s Board of Management. The Board of Management acts as a corporate body to oversee the running of the school on behalf of the Trustees.
The Board comprises of six nominees of the Trustees and two nominees each of parents/guardians and the teaching staff. These nominees are selected every three years which is the term of office of the Board of Management. The Board is about to begin a new three year term. Therefore, two nominees of parents/guardians must now be selected.
We encourage all parents/guardians to take an interest in both of these crucially important roles within our school community. We are now inviting interested parents/guardians to a meeting to select members for both the Parent’s Association Committee and Board of Management.
The meeting details are as follows: Date: Monday, November 14th 2022 Time: 7pm Location: Skibbereen Community School Agenda: Selection of a Parent’s Association Committee Nomination of Board of Management Representatives.
Looking forward to seeing you then,
Anton O Mahony Principal – Skibbereen Community School.