Dear Parents, Staff and Pupils,
I am sure you are all glad it is Friday - mind you the Friday Feeling doesn't seem the same these days!
Well done to all pupils and parents who have been so engaged with online learning this week - I know myself how difficult that is at the moment. There are parents working from home, older kids are online for secondary school and college and now your primary school child is online. It is very hard to juggle everything and it is tough going. I did say last week that Pressure is only for tyres! How many of us feel like tyres, right now!!!!
We have 91% of our families engaging with Seesaw and that is fantastic for week 1 of school closure. I do sincerely hope that by the time we are all Seesaw experts that our school will be re-opened! Right now, there is no official news about when or how that will happen.
Some things to remember for online learning next week:
- On Monday, you will get a notification message/reminder on your phone app (iclassCms) to say that your teacher has put up a news article.
- Click into this article on your phone or go online to the website and look under Latest News/News.
- There you will see your class teacher's article where work will be laid out for you or you will be directed to Seesaw.
- Remember also, you don't have to do ALL the work you are sent and you don't have to send back ALL the work to your class teacher. Teachers love to see your work and we know pupils love the feedback but you can only do what you can do!
It is important that kids and parents take a well earned break from school work at the weekend - you all need to feel refreshed for next week's work!
News was announced yesterday that pupils in special classes and with special needs would be returning to school as early as next week. There are guidelines to issue so we will keep you informed.
Thank you to the staff who have engaged for many, many hours online and who are busy planning and organising next week's work already.
At a local level, I would like to say a huge congratulations to the Ballymitty Hall Committee who secured funding of €200,000 from Town and Village Renewal fund. This will go towards the building of a new community centre which will be at the heart of our community. It will bring some wonderful facilities to the community such as a cafe, a shop and a digital hub. There will be lots of building work in Ballymitty over the next few years between the community centre and our school Autism unit. Well done to all involved.
Our Board of Management meeting for Tues. January 19th is postponed until further notice.
Finally, remember STAYING AT HOME is the best and only way to make sure we can RETURN TO SCHOOL sooner rather than later.
Stay safe,
Kind regards,
Audrey