September Updates
Posted on Tuesday, May 05, 2020Dear Parents and Guardians,
As you are well aware there was a significant announcement on Friday regarding schools and reopening. Unfortunately primary schools will not reopen until September. We will be "learning at home" for the next two months and if you haven't already done so, I would be grateful if you could complete this survey so we can provide the best support to you.
While this is difficult for all our pupils, it is particularly hard for our outgoing 6th class. 6th class is such a special year, when finally after 8 years these kids are the top dogs! In this term 6th would have their confirmation over, they would be busy planning sports day, attending various sporting tournaments, looking forward to their school tour and enjoying their Eyrecourt Examiner tour.
I have to finalise the date with staff but there most certainly will be a graduation. This will be over Zoom but we will make it as special as possible. I have a few other ideas which I need to make sure of but as the 6th will be missing this years school tour, it is a certainty that we should organise some sort of outing for the 6th class staff of the Eyrecourt Examiner when national guidelines allow.
For the rest of our pupils, we have a lot to prepare for September. We are awaiting proper guidelines for schools and we are really not sure what September will look like yet.
Usually this term we have our Infant Open Day when we meet our new infants. This is a very important day as a lot is learned and exchanged between parents and staff in the informal chat. The new pupils get a chance to see their classroom and it eases a bit of the apprehension. I would hope in September, that we would have some type of Open Day or evening where the new pupils can visit and parents can meet the teachers before their child starts.
What I do know for September is, our staff remains the same as this year. Ms McGrath will be teaching in the junior room and she will have infants and 1st class. Mr Barrett will have 2nd and 3rd class and I will have 4th, 5th and 6th class. Mrs Barrett is our full time support teacher and will be assessing in September the priority needs of the pupils. She will take individual pupils and groups as the needs arise.
The positive of this whole experience is, that every child, every school is going through the same. When we do return, we will be catching up with the whole class. I read this article a few weeks ago about how children in Christchurch who missed school due to the earthquakes and children in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina progressed. It was found that they progressed fine and even did well in their exams. Your children are very resiliant and they are very fortunate to have wonderful supportive home environments. This time at home, according to that article, could even boost their education.
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