Dillonstown, Drumcar, Co. Louth, A92 CX60

Phone: 041 6851725

Email address: office@stfiniansdillonstown.ie

Website: https://stfiniansdillonstown.ie/

First day of school - Thursday, August 27th

Hallowe'en Mid-Term (October 26th - 30th)

• School closes Friday , 23rd October

• School reopens Monday, November 2nd

Christmas celebration - Wednesday 16th December

Christmas holidays (23rd December - 5th January)

• School closes on Tuesday, 22nd December at 12 noon.

• school reopens on Wednesday, 6th January 2027.

Term 2

Grandparents Day Friday, 29th January

February Bank Holiday -

• School closed Monday, February 1st

February Mid Term 

• Closed Thursday 18th &  Friday 19th February 2027 inclusive

• Re-open on Monday 22nd February 2027

• Yoga will commence on the 3rd of February for a 6 week block for all classes

St. Patrick’s Day - Full Day Closure Wednesday 17th March 2027.

Easter Holidays 

• Closing at 12 noon Friday 19^th March 2027

• Re-open on Monday 5^th April 2027.

Term 3

May Bank Holiday Closing Thursday 30th April 2027

• Bank holiday Monday 3rd May

• School will remain closed for the week (May 3rd - 7th)

• School reopens Monday, 10th May.

June Bank Holiday Closing Thursday 29th May 2027

• Bank holiday Monday, June 7th

Summer Holidays: School closes at 12 noon on Friday 25th June 2027

Aladdin will be the primary means of communication for the school.

Our school has successfully rolled out the Aladdin Schools Connect App to parents/guardians of children in our classes which is of benefit to all parties. Aladdin Schools uses state-of-the art security to safeguard information entered by the school and data is stored and processed in strict compliance with Irish and European data protection laws. We are currently using the following features:

• Noticeboard facility

• Push notifications

• Epayments and Money Collections

• School report card

• Permissions - Permissions lists are a feature in Aladdin Connect which allow schools to create and manage permissions lists for classes and various groups.

• Parent Teacher Meeting Scheduler -We will use this feature to organise and schedule parent teacher meetings in November. This will make it easier for parents to select their preferred time from the time-slots available. 

We hope that you find Aladdin Connect to be convenient, helpful and user-friendly. Should you have any queries, please get in touch with the school directly - by email to office@stfiniansdillonstown.ie with Aladdin Connect in the subject line, immediately. As with all new projects and approaches, there may be some challenges to ‘iron out’ in the early stages. Please bear with us as we do our best to ensure that the system is rolled out as smoothly as possible.  

By default, both parents will have access to view their child’s contact information (including phone, address, email).

Shortly after the commencement of the new school year, you will receive an email/text message containing your registration link. There will be one link per parent which will allow the parent to access information for all their children in the school from one user account.

Please do not forward this email or share this link as this is a unique registration code for each parent for your child/children in this school. During registration, you will choose a password that will be used in conjunction with your email address to securely access the Aladdin Connect going forward. Once you are registered, you will be prompted to download the App. 

The main advantage of using the App is to receive immediate alerts for app messages sent by the school. 

• School starts at 9:10am and Finishes at 1.50pm, (Junior & Senior Infants), 2.50pm (1st - 6th).

• Infants are to be collected from inside the school gates at 1:50pm. Other classes are to be collected from the school gates at 2.50pm. As always, we rely on your support and co-operation in these matters.

• Our school operates a DROP AND GO (morning)/ COLLECT AND GO (afternoon) policy. There is a walkway at the side of the school specifically designed to allow children to walk safely to the backyard and front yard of the school. It is important for everyone’s safety that children or parents do not go through the staff car park.  

• If someone different is collecting your child please notify the class teacher by emailing the office office@stfiniansdillonstown.ie where the message will be delivered. Never collect another child without their parent’s permission and advanced notification. Please try and send an email to the office in the morning instead of calling the school. 

• Children who come late must be sent to their class via the main entrance. 

Their special day will be celebrated in other ways such as singing 'Happy Birthday'. 

We ask that parents do not send party invitations to school. We have found that these invitations cause distress to uninvited members of the class group. This should be done outside of school environs.

Please adhere to this rule at all times, and no exceptions will be made. 

DDLP - Brenda Lambe - Deputy Principal

• PARENTS OR VISITORS HAVE NO PERMISSION TO GO DIRECTLY TO ANY CLASSROOM AT ANYTIME OF THE DAY. ALL PARENTS AND VISITORS MUST ENTER THE SCHOOL BUILDING VIA THE MAIN ENTRANCE AND REPORT TO THE SCHOOL OFFICE. 
• Scheduled Meetings: all visitors must report to the school office where the secretary will notify the relevant staff member of your presence. 

St. Finian’s aims to be a place where children will attain their full potential in an atmosphere of acceptance, security, respect and learning. We hope that each child will leave with a knowledge of their own worth and an appreciation of: the world around them, the rights of all pupils, and spiritual awareness. We hope that each child will have the skills to lead a fulfilled, creative and gainful life.

All members of our school community uphold our mission motto; “Respect, Learn, Grow Together”

We hope you have an enjoyable experience. We look forward to getting to know you. 

Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions, we are always happy to help.

• Two Patron’s Nominees

• Two Parent Nominees

• School Principal and another teacher

• Two other Community members, proposed by the above nominees.

Our school aims to create a learning environment where every child is encouraged and enabled to develop to their full and unique potential, and to the fullest possible extent.

The pupils in our school are expected to give of their best and to achieve high standards of work and behaviour.

Through co-operation and a mutual partnership between school and home we can help each pupil live a full and happy life as a child, and at the same time support them in acquiring the skills which will help them as they move towards adulthood.

The school models and promotes a philosophy of life inspired by belief in God and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Catholic school provides religious education for the pupils in accordance with the doctrines, practices and tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and promotes the formation of the pupils in the Catholic Faith.

St.Finian's N.S. is an inclusive school, with a warm welcoming atmosphere of acceptance which is evident throughout the learning environment and the social interactions of all in our school community.

The Guidance also outlines the roles of the main statutory bodies involved in child welfare and protection: Tusla - Child and Family Agency, and An Garda Síochána. It contains details of how to report a concern about a child and what happens once the report is received by Tusla.

Uniform:

• Royal Blue Cardigan/Sweatshirt with School Crest

• Navy skirt/trousers

• White polo-shirt

• Black/Navy shoes

The school uniform must be worn at all times and this will be closely monitored.   Tracksuit bottoms may be worn on PE days only and navy shorts may be worn on hot summer days.

1. Phonemic Awareness

2. Visual Drill

3. Auditory Drill

4. Blending Drill

5. New Concept

6. Word Work

7. Irregular Words

8. Connected Text

UFLI Foundations targets the following foundational reading skills: 

• Phoneme blending and segmentation practice 

• Accuracy and automaticity of grapheme-phoneme correspondences

• Decoding automaticity of words with previously learned concepts

• Explicit introduction of new concepts

• Decoding and encoding practice 

• Reading and spelling irregular words 

• Reading and spelling connected text

Preschool - Primary

Primary - post primary