Parents’ Association News

Coffee Morning & Guest Speaker

A wonderful coffee morning was shared with around 60 parents in the Drawing Room in Whitehall on Friday morning. Thank you to our wonderful guest speaker, John Lonergan, who presented a thought provoking talk on “Parenting – The Challenges and the Rewards.” Having spent 24 years as the Governor of Mountjoy Prison, retiring in 2010, John has spoken for over 20 years on the topic of parenting, sharing his personal experiences as both a parent and grandparent.

John’s presentation on Friday was light-hearted with a simple matter-of-fact manner accompanied by charming anecdotes. As John rightfully pointed out, “there is no other task, that is as demanding, challenging, responsible, complicated and never-ending as, parenting.” There is no end to the list of skills and competencies that are expected of us.

John concluded that our primary goal as parents should be to guide and nurture our children to becoming mature, capable, independent, responsible and self-sufficient adults. Thank you John for emphasizing the importance of communication and consensus. For reminding us too of the joy of parenthood and for making us realise that parenting is often a two-way learning process.

Thank you parents for joining us and we hope to see you at the next PA event on the 15th Feb – see details below.

Recent Purchases by the Parents Association

In December the PA committee purchased five sofas and a television for the Common Room in Tibradden House. Once the television cabinet is completed, the TV will be installed. These will be welcome new additions for the comfort of the students in the House.

Next Get Together Event

To coincide with Mental Health week in the school the Parents’ Association is organising a walk for parents on 15th February at 9.00 am. This will last for about an hour and a half and we will be back at the school in time to have a coffee or tea before the Parent-Teacher meeting at 11.00am.