Dear Parents,
Another school week has come and gone! Well done to all the pupils for working hard and getting back into all the routines of school life!
The weather was super this week so we had lots of time outside, we had many ventilation breaks throughout the day and best of all, the field is in use at lunchtimes.
Our class teachers are busy planning for the pupils and some assessments were carried out this week to give us an idea of the ways in which we need to support the pupils. The class teachers held many meetings together also to discuss homework which will begin on Monday next. Homework will be more or less the same each evening so that in the event of a class or a school closure pupils will be able to continue on with their work. For the senior classes 2nd - 6th next week's homework will be Reading, Spelling and Tables. This gives everyone a chance to get back into the routine of homework. We won't be using homework journals this year. Instead, the pupils will have their homework given to them on a page for the next two weeks. Thereafter, homework will be put up online. We will review this again in October. A letter explaining homework will go out to all mainstream classes this Monday.
Our Special Education team (SET) Ms. Fitzharris and Ms. Bohanna were busy setting up the special education plans, timetables and resources for the months ahead. Starting from Monday some classes will come out to the SET teachers for Maths and other supports.
Our teachers and SNAs in An Choill Bheag and An Choill Mhór Autism classes are busy planning for the pupils for the year ahead. Some of the pupils also got to integrate into their mainstream classes this week which is extremely important to them and to our mainstream class pupils.
All of our teachers will be familiarising themselves with the online teaching tool Seesaw which will be used in the event of a class or a school closure.
As a Principal, I have met with all class teachers, SET teachers and Autism class teachers aswell as all the SNAs to make sure that we are all planning and working together. All of our staff are working collaboratively to ensure that we get off to the best possible start.
Our Junior Infants had their photographs taken outside for the People Paper this week also. We look forward to seeing their smiling faces in the People Paper, hopefully on Tuesday next. Also, our Junior Infants stay in school until 2pm next week. This will be a big deal for a lot of them and to get them through the longer day make sure they have some extra food for lunch! There will be some tired Junior Infants this time next week!
Our school TÚS worker, Davy Murphy, finished today and we would like to thank him for all the work he did over the past year. We have a new TÚS worker Conor who will start next week and we wish him all the best.
Our Infant Club which runs from 2 - 3pm each day has started. This Club is for Junior and Senior Infant pupils. If they are coming from different bubbles they will be kept apart when in the GP room or outside. There are only 2 - 3 pupils so far. If the numbers stay this low it will not be possible to keep it going. Please contact Sam Brennan if you wish to book a place on it - it runs Monday to Friday, 2 - 3pm for 4 euro per evening.
Everyone in our school is working together to ensure that we stay safe and to ensure that we keep our doors open. A huge thank you to all the parents who have let us know when pupils are sick. We encourage you to keep your child at home if showing any symptoms and to contact your Doctor first.
Well done everyone on another week of school!
Have a lovely weekend everyone and stay safe.
Audrey