Children who are ill should not attend school. Any infectious illness should be notified to the school immediately. Children should return to school only when they are fully recovered as advised by their doctor. Written notification should be sent to the class teacher if a parent/guardian requests that a child remain indoors.

Parents are asked to inform teachers, in writing, of any physical disability, medical condition, allergy etc. which their child may have or may develop during their time in the school.

Ratoath Senior National School and its grounds are a designated non-smoking area.

Chewing gum is banned in the school and its grounds.

No child is allowed to leave the school grounds without permission from a teacher. Those collecting children during the school day must first go to the office for safety reasons. Children must walk when indoors, in the classrooms, corridors etc. Pushing, jostling or any sort of rough play are not allowed. When the day is too wet, pupils remain in their classrooms for breaks. They must observe implicitly any directions given by teachers or other supervisors and safety procedures must be followed at all times.

Children must walk when entering or leaving the school and must use the footpaths on the roadway and in the school. Cyclists must dismount and walk when entering or leaving the school.

Litter bins are provided in all classrooms. Children are expected to use these for appropriate refuse. Children are expected to bring their own lunch refuse home, especially containers and packaging. Recycle bins are also provided in the school.

High standards of hygiene are required at all times throughout the school. All children should come to school with a clean hand towel in their bags. Parents are expected to train their children towards habits of good hygiene and best practice with regard to the use of toilets, washing of hands and personal neatness and hygiene.

For health and safety reasons, and towards preventing accidents, wearing of earrings by children in the school is limited to stud-rings only. Other body piercing is not allowed. No other jewellery is allowed (i.e. rings, bracelets, necklaces etc.)

As a rule, children are not allowed to have mobile phones in the school. Exceptional situations will be considered on a case by case basis subject to the parents or guardians contacting the school Principal directly. In the interests of protecting all children, picture-phones are not allowed at any time.

Head lice are a common problem in primary schools. As your child shares a classroom and playground daily with a large number of other children, it is very easy for head lice to spread. Unfortunately head lice are extremely mobile and infectious and can pass from one individual to another by head to head contact.

How do you tell when your child is suffering from a head lice infection? The first clue is frequent scratching of the scalp. To check if head lice are present, carefully examine the hair around the back of your child's neck and behind the ears. The best way to find lice and their eggs is to run a fine-toothed comb through damp parted hair, looking carefully for evidence of lice. Since head lice shy away from light, you may only see their empty egg shells (nits), which are small whitish ovals of equal size attached to the hair shaft.

You should check your child's hair regularly in this way for head lice - if your child has contacted lice you should inform the teacher or Principal and treat the hair immediately. Everybody, including you, other members of the family and school friends, who have been in contact with your infected child should be checked for lice infections. The reality is that anybody your infected child has been in contact with could catch head lice. Head Lice are not choosy about what type of hair they go for. In fact, they tend to prefer clean rather than dirty hair.

Head Lice are very easy to treat - lotion or shampoo treatments can be bought from the pharmacies without a prescription.

A good diet and plenty of sleep, fresh air and exercise are essential to the growing child. Allow plenty of time in the morning for your child to eat a healthy breakfast. Choose lunches carefully. Sandwiches and fruit are healthier than sweets and biscuits. Our school has a ‘No sweets policy'. Do not include sweets or foods or drinks which have a high sugar content in your child's lunch.

Cut down on the amount of packaging by refilling a plastic bottle with water or a low sugar diluted drink. Do not give your child glass bottles or containers.

Food is to be consumed under supervision in the classroom and must not be brought out to the toilet or to the yard or school field.

Children form their eating habits for life from an early age. They will, of course, always have their own preferences - but you can have a lasting influence by starting them on the right road.

Eating habits, started in childhood, will influence your child's chances of a healthy life. A good variety of nourishing foods is important from the start to ensure a healthy growing child. Children's lunches sometimes tend to be low in fibre and high in fat and sugar. To change your child's eating habits for the better it is best to do so gradually. Start by substituting biscuits with pieces of fresh fruit one day a week in order to make your child's lunch healthier and better for teeth too. Then move on to two, three four and eventually five days, i.e. the full school week.

We have a number of children in the school who have heightened sensitivities or allergies to certain foods, especially nuts in any form. For these children, eating the wrong food or, in some cases, having such food in their immediate vicinity could cause anaphylactic shock, cause serious illness or prove fatal. In an effort to prevent any of these ever happening, all parents are asked to be extremely careful in preparing your own child’s lunch. Please ensure that nuts or nut derivatives in any form are never included. Also, please regularly remind your child not to share or swap lunches.

For school children, breakfast is perhaps the most important meal of the day. Not only does breakfast break the child's long overnight fast and help concentration, it also lays down the foundation for healthy eating for the rest of the day. Try a wholegrain or bran-type cereal with chopped fresh fruit on top with milk, an orange or unsweetened fruit juice and some wholemeal bread, toasted or plain.

Lunch should provide one-third of your child's food requirements for the day. The simplest and most effective way to plan a healthy lunch is to include in you child's lunchbox one food from each of the four main shelves in the food pyramid. Bread, Cereals, Potatoes; Fruit and Vegetable; Milk, Cheese, Yoghurt; and Meat, Fish and alternatives.

Children often prefer fruit and fruit juice to vegetables - that's alright. As long as they eat a variety of fruit each day, they will get all of the vitamins and minerals they need.

Children love easy to eat fruit like mandarins, small apples and bananas. Keep your fruit basket well topped up.

Children often prefer raw vegetables! So offer carrot or cucumber sticks, tomatoes or any favourite raw vegetable as snacks. These can also be wrapped and put into lunch boxes. To encourage children to eat vegetables hide them! Grate vegetables into stews, soups and casseroles. Offer children sweet vegetables like sweetcorn and carrots in preference to strong tasting vegetables like cabbage or parsnip.

Pizza is very popular with children. Buy supermarket own-brand mini-pizzas and add vegetable and fruit toppings. Add chopped fruit to breakfast cereals. For a simple dessert at any time of the day, chop an apple, banana or orange together for a tasty fruit salad that children will love. Preparing it themselves adds to their enjoyment.

Fruit and Cheese. Save old cartons and small tubs and fill with cubes of cheese, pineapple and apple (dip apple in lemon juice to avoid going brown) Add fingers of brown bread for a satisfying, healthy lunch. Cheese strings are also popular.

Pitta Pockets. Pitta breads are fun for children. Store frozen and grill lightly or pop into the toaster for a few seconds. Cut a split in the middle and fill with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and chopped cooked meat or tinned fish.

Pizza Slices, topped with vegetables are a tasty filling food.

Mixed Salads. Tuna, sweetcorn and tomato; cheese and coleslaw; egg and onion; meat salads, can be brought to school in little tubs and eaten with brown bread.

Fruit Yoghurts are a good choice. If you like, add more chopped fruit.

Homemade Vegetable soup with brown bread is a great winter warmer. Make soup with half milk and half water for extra nourishment.