St. Patrick's Senior National School is a DEIS school. We share a Home School Community Liaison Coordinator with St. Patrick's Junior National School. The HSCL coordinator is engaged in full-time liaison work between the home, the school, and the community. They are required to link with and work with the key actors in the local community, such as Local Community Development Committees and Children and Young People's Services Committees and others, so that they can add value to what is done in the school, in relation to attendance, participation and retention. Our HSCL Coordinator is committed to supporting parents to enable children to develop to their full potential. They have the ability and willingness to forge positive professional relationships with parents, pupils, Principal(s), staff and relevant stakeholders, in order to make a positive difference to a child's experience of school.

Dear parents/ guardians,

I hope you are well and that your family has settled well back into our school. This is just a short message to introduce myself as the new Home School Community Liaison Coordinator for St. Patrick's Junior and Senior Schools. I'm very fortunate to know some of you already and I look forward to meeting and getting to know anyone who I haven't met yet in the coming weeks ahead.

I am available to support you, the parents and guardians to ensure the best outcome for your child in school. At the moment, I'm mainly checking in by phone calls to see if your child is settling in okay and if there's anything I can do to help such as linking in with their teacher to let them know something important about them.

The safest way for us to communicate in light of the current pandemic is via the phone or email. You can call either school office and ask for me or text/call/WhatsApp my HSCL phone on 0852390092. You can also email me on stpatrickshscl@gmail.com. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or worries. I'm very open-minded, approachable and happy to help. If I don't know the answer, both you and I can work together as a team, perhaps even seeking the help of other professionals and hopefully we can reach a shared solution together.

With regards to courses for parents and guardians such as yoga and cookery, we won't be able to facilitate them for the time being as some of our rooms have been repurposed to accommodate social distancing. However, we do hope to continue classes when we have space where we can safely do so.

Looking forward to working closely alongside you,

Kind regards,

Claire Kelly
HSCL Coordinator
St. Patrick's JNS & SNS