8th September 2011

Dear Parents and staff,

There was a lot of interest and concern regarding the allocation of special needs assistants to our school in May/June. Many parents in this school were rightly very anxious that the children in the school would receive resources and voiced their opinion on the matter.

The Board of Management would like to clarify for parents that it applied to the SENO (Special Education Needs Organiser) for the maximum resources for each child that has care needs. As per Department of Education policy no child is awarded full-time access to an SNA anymore – the maximum they now get is shared access. Our school was awarded three full-time SNA’s.

The Board of Management would like to confirm that Department of Education policy states that the class teacher is responsible for the academic welfare of every child in the class. The SNA’s are there for the children’s care needs only (see circular 07/02 on the Department website www.education.ie). The SNA works, under the direction of and in consultation with, the Principal and the class teacher to look after the child’s care needs.

Please do not hesitate to talk to Sinéad if there is anything you are not clear about.

Yours sincerely

Francis Fullen

Chairperson of the Board of Management.