Dear Parents,
We have come to the end of a very different school year and thankfully, to the best of my knowledge, we have not lost any of our family members to Covid 19. It has been a challenging time for everyone. Many of our parents are frontline workers and we salute you for the work you do.
I want to thank the staff for their commitment to their pupils in trying to support them with home learning. I would also like to thank Mr. Clerkin for helping with the school meals delivery and for helping to engage with our new entrants under difficult circumstances.
A big thank you to the SNAs, Carmel, Anne, Elena and Paul for helping to clean equipment and get the general purpose areas back to normality after the building works. The window replacement works have finally finished and I’m sure you will agree that the results are impressive. We have gone a long way to help preserve this building which is on the national heritage register of important buildings. There will be some painting done over the holiday period so it will be fresh and clean for the return of our boys in August.
We have not been given any clear guidelines yet for our return to school on Aug 31st. As soon as we are given instructions I will come back to school and try to implement the new procedures. I hope to make a video and upload it on the website in the days before we return. It will clearly outline what the new procedures will entail and you can show it to your son to allay any concerns he may have. We can assure you that every boy will be welcomed back whole heartedly as we have missed them, and we are looking forward to getting back to what we do best.
We hope to keep all of the boys with their current teachers but this may change depending on interviews. This should ease your concerns with regard to core learning that the boys have missed. I think it will also help to alleviate any anxieties they may have coming back to a teacher they do not know. We will seamlessly take up from where they were on March 12th. Junior infants will have a new teacher Ms. Sophie Martin and the 6th Class will be taught by Ms. Carmen Ward and Ms. Méabh McInerney in a job share arrangement.
6th Class had their graduation via Zoom which was a lovely ceremony. I was very aware that they had many disappointments in their final year and wanted to make sure that they were given some sense of closure. It looks like they will now make their Confirmation in August but the parish will be in contact with regard to this. We are hoping to have the parish Communions in the month of September and again contact the parish with regard to this. This is all dependent on there not being a second wave of the virus now that lockdown measures have eased.
The school calendar is on the website and hopefully the school will re-open on 31st August 2020.
If you did not consent to the emailing of your son’s report it was posted on Friday 19th June. If you did not receive it, please contact the school secretary as your contact details may not be correct.
We all hope you have a happy and safe summer and we look forward to welcoming all our boys back to the school on August 31st. The school will close from 30th June but I anticipate I will be back by the middle of August so you can contact me then.