Admissions

Admissions Act 2018 - In line with new legislation the Board of Management of St Anne’s School have prepared the following:

 St Anne’s School Enrolment and Participation Policy (for September 2024 Enrolments)*

Admissions Notice 2024-2025

*This Policy supersedes all former Enrolment policies and is effective for all admissions to our school for the 2024-2025 school year.


 

Applications for 2024-2025 school year will only be accepted during the schools admissions application period: 1st December2023 08:30 up to 22nd January 09:00am

 

To submit an application:

In line with section 5.4 of Enrolment & Participation Policy - The following documents must be included with the application or it will not be considered by the admissions committee

1. Birth Certificate

2. Proof of Address (2 forms)

3. Psychological assessment (completed not more than 2 years earlier). It is important that this report clarifies the child’s diagnosis, cognitive level of functioning of the student, recommendation for special school placement

         In the event your child has additional access requirements to SNA support (over and above the general allocation model), supporting reports from Psychologist/MultidiscipliaryTeam should be included within the recommendation

4. Please also include here any other documents/reports that supports your child's evidence of need (eg, school reports, clinical recommendations, medical needs)

NB all documents must be scanned and attached as 1 file.



Online Application - Recommended

 

  • Click below for our online pre-enrollment form which will be live during the schools Enrollment Application window.
  • Attach all relevant reports confirming your child's diagnosis and requirement for placement in our school

 

Online Application for Enrollment form

 


Email/Post  NO POST/EMAIL APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED OUTSIDE OF THE ENROLLMENT APPLICATION WINDOW

  • Download and complete our Application for Enrollment form.
  • Attach all relevant reports confirming your child's diagnosis and requirement for placement in our school

NB all documents must be scanned and attached as 1 file.

Post all required documents to:

 

Admission Application

St Anne’s School

Ballymany Cross,

The Curragh,

Co Kildare.

R56 VH67


 

*Dates for application window for 2025-2026 school year will be published in December 2025

Fundraising

Fundraising 2023-2024  

Thank you for your interest in supporting St Anne's School

To make a donation to our school please click here

 

 

 

 

This appeal is being made on behalf of St. Anne’s and is a request for you to support us to raise money to enhance the educational experience of our pupils and their learning environment.

 

Unfortunately every year we struggle financially to provide everything that is required to run our school and to provide enough resources to enable our pupils to access an appropriate education. 

Providing appropriately means access to sensory rooms to provide therapeutic supports, sensory diets or sometimes just fun for our pupils. We need to access a variety of sensory toys and equipment to provide for
individual needs and likes. Repairs and replacement of these can be very costly.

As a result of Covid – 19 we have separated our classes into bubbles for play times. Breaks are
organised according to age groups and as you can imagine this has stretched the few items of play
equipment we already have to the limit as they can no longer be shared easily.

We do receive grants from the Department of Education but these do cover the basic costs of
running our school most of the time, not to mention the nicer things in life such as play equipment
or sensory toys.

Our fund raising initiative for this year was cancelled and already we are struggling financially.
We need your help!

What will we buy? These are the items we have identified that our children will benefit most from:

€20,000 will get us;

The ability to make additional specialist resources e.g. cover costs of
photocopying and additional paper/ink required laminators and printers
for every class
Repair/provide laptop for every class that does not have one
Replace and improve supply of all curriculum based resources and
equipment and enough PE gear to provide separately to all classes
Portable barriers to divide play areas for bubbles/social distancing
Outdoor sensory panels, magnetic dry white boards with magnetic shapes,
letters etc.
Indoor activities for break times e.g. games consoles, table top
games/activities, CD players
To go towards and help alleviate high heating and electrical costs. We are a
relatively small special school but have similar number of classes to heat as
a school with a much larger pupil population

€50,000 will get us all the above plus;

Sensory room equipment e.g. .bubble tubes, projectors, music system,
sound to light interactive toys, interactive panels
Funds to service and clean existing sensory room equipment
Purchasing specialist kitchen equipment for the Home Economics Room e.g.
slow cooker, soup maker, food processor/mixer, cooker etc
Provide interactive white board for a classroom plus software/installation
Large outdoor play equipment e.g. slide/swing/climbing frame etc.
Ride on toys (bikes, pedal cars, snickers) for play areas
Install wheelchair swings
Provide adequate PE equipment
Pay ongoing annual subscription for Boardmaker communication system
(€170 minimum annually)

€70,000 and over will get us all the above plus;

Resurfacing play area, replacing grass with resilient surfacing
Awning to cover play area to protect the children from the weather
Outdoor sensory panels, music panels, bench games
Purchase two additional interactive white boards plus software and
installation
Fix roof leaks (for which funding was refused by DES as we will be getting a
new building in a couple of years time)
Continue to support additional heating/electrical costs

 

We depend very much on fundraising to provide additional educational resources as described and
any help we can get is very much appreciated. Thank you for considering our cause and please
support it by donating even the smallest amount to us.

 

 

To support us in our Fundraising please click here

Latest Correspondence:

21st December 2021

 

  • The calendar for 2021 - 2022 school year is now availale to view here

 

Latest Information on Reopening St. Anne's School

The Department has been asked by the HSE to disseminate a letter for principals regarding this vaccine programme. The letter is available at this link:  

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/correspondence/principalslettercovidenglish.pdf

 Further correspondence on the HSE’s immunisation schools programmes is available here.

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/correspondence/schoolprincipals.html 

 

  • 7th January 2022 - Parents Letter - Latest Covid Update (Amended)
  • 6th January 2022 - Parents letter  - Latest Covid Update  Please note further information received today  (7th January) clarifies that Covid related concerns in Special Schools will be addressed directly through risk assessment in consultation with Public Health and not as described in the letter. A new letter will be sent out
  • 17th November 2021 - Parents letter - School Update on Covid
  • 20th October 2021 - Letter to parents regarding procedures we will follow in the event of high levels of staff absences. Access letter and information here
  • 29th September 2021 - Information for parents from the Department of Education as follows

The HSE has provided information for parents about the changes to contact tracing and testing for children aged between 3 months and 13 years in early learning and care, school aged childcare, education, primary school sports and social settings. You can find it here:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/13610-information-for-parents-about-the-changes-to-contact-tracing-and-testing-for-children-aged-between-3-months-and-13-years-in-early-learning-and-care-elc-and-school-age-childcare-sac-education-primary-school-sports-and-social-settings/

You can find other resources for parents for download here: 

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/a04fc-advice-for-students-and-their-families/

Videos and posters outlining the common symptoms of Covid-19, and stressing  to parents that if a child has any new onset symptoms as listed and feels unwell or seems off-form,  not to send them to school and contact their GP for advice, if necessary.

  • 30th August 2021 - Letter to Parents 30th August 2021 available to read here

Under DES guidelines, It is no longer obligatory to complete the Back to an Educational Establishment form as requested in the letter to parents above

 

 

Important Covid Information: Updated 30th August 2021

          https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/af24b-wellbeing-guidance-documents-for-parents-students-and- schools/#parents

Other useful links:

  1. Video advice for parents and students at different levels
  1. Posters/graphics advice for parents
  1. Multilingual advice for parents
  1. Communications to Parents regarding School Transport – SEN and Primary
  2. St. Anne's Covid - 19 Response Plan
  3. A Parents Guide to Close Contacts (HSE) 
  4. Advice during COVID-19: Back to school - Advice for Parents  
  5. Reminder to anyone attending school who has travelled abroad: Please check the following website for up to date guidelines regarding travel.

Useful Websites:

https://www.education.ie/en/covid-19/  

https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/ 

:https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/a128d-back-toschool/?referrer=http:

Supporting Learning From Home

 

Supporting your Child's Learning and Wellbeing

The staff of St. Anne's are very aware that these can be difficult times for parents trying to manage their families safely within the current restrictions. The teachers have linked together to come up with suggestions for activities that you might be interested in trying and which the family, as a group, can enjoy. 

We are thinking of you all in these difficult times and hope that we all come through it safely.

Please click here to access the link to suggested activities

Specific Curriculum Information

Home Economics - Video links to specific areas covered can be found here

 Lamh Free membership and access to online resources has been extended until the end of August 2020. Go to www.lamh.org  When you log on use code lovelamh to gain access.

 

Therapeutic supports  

 - Useful link for parents. The link has social stories about Covid and PPE and also tips from an SLT & OT covering communication, independent living skills etc. Please click on the following -https://www.enableireland.ie/parent%E2%80%99s-resources

 - Link to Covid - 19 social storyhttps://asiam.ie/social-story-covid-19-lockdown/ 

 -The National Council for Special Education (NCSE)

The link below is to materials have been developed by Occupational Therapists and Speech and Language Therapists.

   https://ncse.ie/online-resources

   https://ncse.ie/online-resources-for-parents

 - NCSE have published the first 4 of 7 behaviour resources on their website that might be of interest to you.               These have been developed by their Behaviour Practitioners and other Regional Team Members  

   https://ncse.ie/parent-primary-promoting-learning-and-behaviour-at-home

 

Latest Information from Sensational Kids

 

Food sensitivities and proclivities - 'Autism, a parents guide'

In episode 6, of our podcast series for parents/carers of children with autism, Dr. Vicki Ford, of the complex feeding team at Evalina London Children’s Hospital, looks how to build a healthy relationship with food whilst understanding the challenges for many autistic children. Full details here.

Dealing with apprehension and anxiety when returning to school

The charity Nip in the Bud has produced a short film and fact sheet to help parents and teachers deal with any potential feelings of apprehension and anxiety that children may experience on returning to school. Full details here.



The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health 

Last week Dr. Jon Goldin, Vice-Chair of the Child and Adolescent Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists spoke to ACAMH  - child mental health and Covid19, do please listen and share this podcast.

Coronavirus, and helping children with autism

New podcast, please share with relevant networks.


Dr. Ann Ozsivadjian and Dr. Marianna Murin discuss issues that may arise for autistic children including the disruption of closing schools, anxiety and obsessive behaviours. They focus on practical tips like how to help manage anxiety, maintain structure and support and explain the situation to young people. Additionally, tips on how to keep well as a parent and reliable sources for coronavirus updates. 

 

Sensational Kids has just announced a new innovative virtual care package

"Access to therapy supports for a child or adolescent can make all the difference in the world, which is why we are innovating to improve access to services and to look after our vulnerable children and adolescents, when clinic based services are unavailable. You can now connect with us remotely for Virtual Care."

https://www.sensationalkids.ie/online-therapy/

 

Make a Wish Ireland Fun Family Activities

https://www.makeawish.ie/get-involved/fun-family-activities