Return-to-school information 2025
We hope you are all keeping safe and well and had an enjoyable summer. We are very much looking forward to welcoming everyone back to school next week.
Click here to view the school calendar for 2025/2026.
The return-to-school schedule for students is outlined below:
STUDENT RETURN-TO-SCHOOL SCHEDULE
Friday August 22nd
8.45-10.45: 2nd, 5th and 6th Year induction (including LCA1 and LCA2)
No books required; just schoolbag. The school will be providing locks for lockers.
Students go home at 10.45am
GENERAL UPDATES
- Please note the following change to our school day: the first teaching class now starts at 8.37am and all students are required to be present. Assembly has moved to third period (9.57am for 8 minutes), when all students will meet with their class teacher before continuing on with their day as normal.
- In relation to our new school development, we expect an application for planning permission to be submitted in the next few weeks. We will keep you informed as more progress is made.
- Many thanks to those parents who helped out with the painting of the school PE hall during the summer – it looks really well and we are delighted with it.
Please read the below carefully
VSWARE APP
On the VSware App you will be able to access your children’s term reports, enter their absence notes and requests, and have access to their timetables and their attendance records. We will notify you when the timetables are available to view on the App.
NB - The VSware absence note will replace putting absence requests/explanations in the journal, and there will be no need to ring the office. When entering reasons for absence, detailed explanations are not required; for example, if your child is sick, just enter ‘Sick’ or ‘Illness’.
We are also using the VSware App as our primary way of contacting you during the year with any information or updates – these will come through the VSware Mail system rather than through text messaging.
Full information on using this system can be viewed here: Parent App - Everything you need to know (vsware.ie). If you haven’t already done so, we would appreciate it if you could download the free VSware app and ensure Push Notifications are turned on – you'll find full instructions here: Parent App - Downloading the app and logging in (vsware.ie) The school URL is https://cobhcc.vsware.ie/ If you don’t know your VSWare username, please contact the office at cobhcc@corketb.ie and we will supply it.
If you are experiencing any difficulties logging into the app, please contact the office as soon as possible. VSWare emails are more efficient and reduce the running costs for our school.
School website: www.carrignfoycc.ie
GENERAL SCHOOL UPDATES & REMINDERS
As per our school’s Code of Behaviour, students are not permitted to use mobile phones in the school building, on the school grounds and on school trips, and therefore should not bring mobile phones to school.If you need to contact your child urgently, please phone the school office at 021-4811325 (the office will no longer close for lunch). Your child can also contact you either through the school office or through their year head.
- Hot school lunches will be provided free of charge to all students for the coming year, with the facility for each student to order their choice of lunch and a snack each day. Further details will be available shortly. School meals will begin September 8th, so students will need to bring their own lunches up until then.
- Water dispensers are provided around the school so students can bring re-fillable bottles, but please note that bottles can only be filled before and after school and at breaktimes; not between classes.
- Break times: Students may not leave the school premises at morning break (10.45am). 1st Year, 2nd and 3rd Year students must also stay on the premises at lunch break (1pm-1.30pm) and may eat lunch in their year group area.
- The school day starts at 8.37am. School will finish at 3.30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; at 1pm on Wednesdays and at 2.50pm on Fridays.
- Cashless school: We are required by Cork ETB to operate as a cashless school, and all payments, large and small, will be through the Way2Pay system. If you have any queries on this, please contact the school office.
- School books: All students will receive their schoolbooks on the day they return to school. 2nd, 3rd and 6th Year students should have some of their books at home already, so please check this in advance of the return.
HEALTH & SAFETY
In order to ensure the smooth movement of our student population around the building, we ask all students to keep to the left-hand side of the corridor when moving around the school.
BLENDED LEARNING
Students in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Year have already been provided with Cork ETB email addresses, which allow them free access to the Microsoft Office online learning system, which we will be using for homework etc, and will be vital in the event of an unforeseen school closure. These addresses will be provided to all incoming 1st Year students on the return to school. If your child has forgotten their password, please contact the Year Head and we can resolve this.
ABSENCE / ILLNESS / EARLY DEPARTURES
- If your child is unable to attend school due to illness, it is very important that you fill in an absence note on the VSWare app.
- If your child gets sick at school, they will need to be collected immediately. We will need all parents to provide emergency contact numbers in the event that we cannot get you due to work or other commitments.
- If your child needs to leave during the school day for an appointment etc, please indicate this in advance on the VSware app. We will not be in a position to phone you to check if your child has permission and they will not be able to leave the school without it. We really appreciate your co-operation with this.
Please note that students may wear either the full school uniform or the official PE uniform (not a combination of the two).
The school jacket and or school fleece is a requirement for all 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Year students and is optional for other year groups. Next year, it will be a requirement for 1st, 2nd, 3rd year and TY students and so on each year after until it is in place across the school. Please note that TY, 5th and 6th year students may not wear any jacket in school other than the school jacket or fleece.
Only full school uniform will be accepted and if your child is not in full uniform, parents will either need to bring their child’s uniform to the school or we may have to send them home to change. This will be a last resort – we do have a selection of spare uniform items available each day to loan to students who may accidentally have forgotten something. These items will need to be returned washed after use or paid for. Uniform is an important part of the preparation of our students for their future working lives, where they will often be required to dress in a particular way, and we really appreciate your support in this area.
This year the Department of Education is providing students with all school books free of charge, and a starter pack of classroom resources including copybooks and pens will also be supplied. These will be distributed to students in school by their class teachers and Year Heads at the start of the school year. Please note that if any book is lost or damaged, it will need to be replaced by parents/guardians, and you will need to provide replacement stationery during the year as the starter pack gets used up.
We provide lockers requiring padlocks and this year the school will provide one padlock to each student at the start of the year.
We ask for our small family contribution, which helps us to provide the best possible environment for your child. We really appreciate your payment of these fees, and we do understand that parents may need to pay these in instalments – for any issues, please contact the school office on 021-4811325.
All schools charge an additional fee for Transition Year, due to the high cost of activities, and this payment has been requested separately. We will issue a full breakdown once the list of activities is confirmed, but please note that the payment only goes some way towards the cost of TY to the school and activities are organised on the on the assumption that payments will be made. Thank you once again for your support on this.
If your child has special educational needs and you would like to speak to one of the team with any concerns, please contact the school at cobhcc@corketb.ie and we will be in touch. All students who have Irish exemptions will be provided with resource classes at Irish time, and a number of other supports will be in place depending on your child’s needs. Please note that SNA provision is quite different at second level than at primary school, and again, if you have any concerns, please contact us without delay.
