School Updates
Posted on Wednesday, May 06, 2020Dear Parents and Guardians,
Last Friday's briefing by An Taoiseach and the roadmap outlined has given some clarity and many implications for our school and pupils.
Primary Schools will not reopen until September
- Learning from home will continue for May and June. If you haven't already, I would appreciate you filling out our survey here so we can support this as best as we possibly can.
- Laptops are still available, and please ask to borrow them as we know many families are trying to work off one device. Say it in the survey or email me directly [email protected]
- Every pupil of the country is in the same situation, every teacher in the country is in the same situation. We are getting advice, taking courses, discussing and planning so we will all be ready to ease your child back into school in September. We will have worked out how best to "catch up" and transition your child into their new class.
- Staffing next year: Ms McGrath will be in the junior room with infants and 1st class, Mr Barrett will have 2nd and 3rd class and I (Ms Treacy) will have 4th, 5th and 6th class.
- Mrs Barrett as our support teacher will be identifying any extra needs among pupils and continuing to support pupils in groups or individually depending on individual needs.
- September will possibly look very different this year. We are still only starting to get advice and no guidance has been issued yet for primary schools. As soon as we have a clearer picture, parents and pupils will be informed.
6th Class
School closures until September was probably the hardest to take for our 6th class. Damien, Eva, Gráinne, John, Orla and Rebecca.
They have waited 8 years to be the oldest in the school. This term they would have been in charge of sports day. They would have been busy attending tournaments and competitions. We were supposed to visit the workhouse in Portumna after reading Under the Hawthorn Tree and we hadn't even decided what to do with the Eyrecourt Examiner profits.(Last year we went to Galway and had pizza in Dough Bros)
I have been preparing for this situation and first of all, graduation will happen. It will be virtual over Zoom and Monday 22nd June at 2pm is the provisional date and time.
I have other ideas which I am working out at present but I would hope that we would have some version of a sports/fun day in June (with a bit of video and ingenuity for the whole school) and also that we might have some little tour/outing for 6th when restrictions are lifted.
Junior Infants 2020
I have sent home a letter today to the parents of the incoming junior infants. Usually this term we have an infant open day which is invaluable for the new pupils, their parents and teachers. A lot is learned, shared and discussed informally that day. I would hope that we will have an evening or a day for these new pupils in August or September before they begin school. As no guidance has been issued yet, I can only speculate that possibly the new infants might start after the rest of the school to allow senior infants upwards to settle in. That is only my speculation, I will have to wait on further guidelines.
For now, we continue to learn from home. On May 18th we as teachers are allowed to re-enter the school and will be able to use the school and resources for our online teaching. I would hope, over the next few weeks, to have more information regarding September which I will share with you.
As always, if you have any concerns or issues please make direct contact with me at: [email protected]
Yours sincerely,
Éilis Treacy
Principal
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