Minutes of Meeting of the Loreto College Parents Council held on Thursday Nov 14th
2013
Attendance: Breda Ward, Amelia Cox, Marese Bell, Jane Horan, Roisin Nic Tighearnin, ,
Noleen Moloney, Anne Shaw, Evelyn Carey, Rosemary Gilbert, Pat Keating & Marese Bell,
School Principal.
Apologies from: Nigel Boardman, Orla Wheeler, Clare O’Brien Moran, Catriona Duffy,
Tracy Johnston, Sally Ann o Donnell & Browyn Drury.
Chairperson Welcome
Breda Ward welcomed the group and gave apologies as above. Breda thanked Ms Bell,
School Principal for the invitation to members of the Parent Council (PC) to the official
opening of the school extension on 25th Oct 2013 which commenced with Mass in the Cathedral,
followed by the official opening and refreshments afterwards in the school.
Minutes of Meeting
Minutes of Oct 3rd were read and adopted.
Matters arising

Proposed changes to the parents council constitution
1. That officers elected to the committee should not stay in office more than 3 years,
preferably 2 years.
2. The second amendment related to fundraising- i.e. collection of €5 per family at parent
teacher meetings
In light of the above changes, amendments are required to the current Loreto PC Constitution
2009. Two members of the school PC offered to look at updating this document.
Fundraising
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The school walk took place on 4th October 2013 for students and raised € 5000
approximately;
A raffle was held for Loreto students/ticket sellers who returned a ticket card with €20
or more.
4 prizes of vouchers for €50 for Penny’s were provided for the raffle.
Collection of €5 per family at all parent teacher meetings is now due to commence at
Loreto College.
Suggested uses for funds

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Benches/seating for students is a priority due to lack of seating for school
students. Inquires are to be made to source suitable benching. The PC agreed
to purchase the sample bench at the school as it is currently in use. Awaiting
an invoice for same. A member of the PC offered to assist Ms Bell to assess
location of the benches adhering to Health and Safety Regulations. The chair
of Loreto PC will also make inquiries re sourcing of benches.
Request from the Music Dept for financial support for new pianos was
addressed. The PC chair has commenced discussions re fundraising for this
request with both music teachers, Ms Morgan and Mrs Cox. A concert night –
May 1st 2014 was suggested as a possible date. This concert will have the full
assistance of the Loreto PC. A suggestion from a PC member was the
purchase of a digital piano to be gifted in the interim to the Music Dept by the
Loreto PC.
Needs of the adaptations to current building/renovations ongoing
The Loreto College PC would like to sponsor an award for a school student in
the future. This could be an annual event, integrated into to the school awards
night. No decision was reached regarding the prize or category.
Finance position

Finance position was relayed by Ms Jane Horan, Treasurer. Current balance at start of
meeting was €11591.66

Funds raised from the Loreto school walk on Oct 4th 2013 were €5000.

A request from the Loreto College to the PC for €3420 was made for Hockey Goals.
A cheque for this amount was approved by the PC and paid to Ms Bell.

A request for €550 was requested by the P.E Dept for basket ball equipment. A
cheque for this amount was approved by the PC and paid to Ms Bell on their behalf.

Payment for the recent school talk given ‘by Dr Fergus Heffernan’ which was
arranged as a joint venture is to be made to CBS post primary school PC for €120.
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Unsure of status of payment by cheque which was made to the Science Dept by the
PC in April 2013 for €790 -for science equipment. Ms Bell to track same.

Inquiries to be made re ongoing bank charges by Loreto PC chair.

Finance balance after above payments–approx €7,500
School Talks
 Recent talk for post primary schools was held in CBS on Oct 10thth at 8pm.The talk
was given by Dr Fergus Heffernan/ titled ‘understanding the emotional wellbeing of
teenagers’. The cost of Dr Fergusons’ talk was €380. Loreto PC will contribute 1/3 of
the cost to CBS post primary school PC who organised the speaker. A good turn out
was noted and the talk was very well received. A sign in sheet was suggested for
future school talks.
 Ms Catherine O’ Connor Education Specialist in Trinity College, Dublin is booked to
deliver a talk "Cracking the College Code" to the parents and Leaving Cert students
in January 2014. Correspondence was sent by the Chair of Loreto PC on behalf of
Loreto College to Ms Catherine O’ Connor in consultation with the VEC Post
Primary School and St Marys CBS, Mullingar to plan out co-ordinating the talk for
the 3 Mullingar Post Primary Schools as a joint venture. The talks are now planned as
follows.
1. Thursday 16th January 2014 Loreto College Leaving Certs - am
2. Thursday 16th January 2014 Vocational College Leaving Certs pm
3. Thursday 23rd January 2014 CBS time to be confirmed with CBS Post Primary
School itself and Ms O’ Connor
4. A talk will be given in Loreto College, Thursday 23rd January 2014 by Ms Catherine
O’ Connor at 730pm for parents of all senior pupils of the participating schools.

Total cost for the above talks is €1000 /€333 from each school. Catherine has just
written a book "Cracking the College Code" published at end of November 2013
which might be worth looking at for the schools. The book costs €10 if purchased
directly from Catherine and €12.99 if purchased through all good book stores. The
book costs €4.99 on eBooks.
 The National Parents' Council Primary and National Parents' Council Post Primary
AGM took place in October in Kilkenny. An alert was sent to all post primary parents
re same. National Parents' Council Primary and National Parents' Council Post
Primary have developed an Anti Bullying Programme for parents of Primary and Post
Primary children. Loreto College will review their anti bullying policy in the near
future in line with the national review of post primary anti bullying policy.
AOB
The County Council are reviewing the issue of the school crossing at Loreto College and
have commissioned a report on same. Pat Keating will try to get feedback from the Council
on the progress to date regarding the possibility of a Zebra Crossing.
That concluded the meeting of Nov 14th 2013. Next meeting of the PC is Dec 12th 2013 at
7.30pm
Chairperson: __________________
Secretary________________________
Date: ________________
Date: ____________________