Dear Parents/Guardians, I hope this email finds you well. The children are doing well and are really good humoured and creative. I would like to acknowledge the positivity and flexibility of the staff. There is great work going on in school, fantastic displays around the place and a lovely atmosphere and lots of fun despite all that is happening with Covid 19. In the past few weeks, we have had a super Maths week, Halloween art competitions and Science week. We are currently running a competition for creating a bird feeder using recycled materials. You may find the boys seaching through your green bin! Please support them with this project. As the winter settles in now you can also support their reading by sitting with them while they read a book, taking them to the library or discussing a book with them. It makes a wonderful break from screens and really develops the imagination.
Covid 19 is having an impact on the day to day operation of the school. There are very few to no substitute teachers available, so we may need to temporarily reassign our Support Teachers to cover Class Teacher absences within the school. This may mean that your child’s class will be taught by a different teacher or that numeracy and literacy support groups are suspended for a period of time to deploy the SEN team as class teachers. We will try and provide continued support for the children with the highest level of need (School Support Plus) but this may be at a reduced level than currently provided. If members of the S.E.N team are absent, your child may need to be supported by another teacher. You have probably started to hear about classes having to be work from home in other schools due to high levels of staff absence. It will be a last resort if we ask children to remain at home and be taught via the google classroom and we hope that we won’t reach that point, however it is a possibility and if it is to happen we will give you notice as soon as we possibly can. We will continue to look for sub teachers but there is a serious crisis and it may well happen. We are fortunate to have such a supportive community of parents/ guardians and this is more important than ever as we deal with the uncertainty of Covid 19. You can help us by ensuring that if a member of your household has a positive Covid-19 result that your child restricts their movements as per Public Health advice. In addition, we would like to remind you that any child who displays symptoms of Covid-19 should stay at home and not be sent to school. Symptoms include a cough, sore throat, runny nose, high temperature and loss of smell/taste. More information: https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.ie%2Fen%2Fpublication%2F3361b-public-health-updates%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C560844c9b56d4249bbf108d9aaaca101%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637728480668366245%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=OQZZZ7%2BoQufrhjd7sDgzAObidDEE26sJlYzDTGVtxVM%3D&reserved=0 Regards, Róisín Hickey Nov 23rd 2021