19^th June 2020

Dear Parents / Guardians

Covid 19 & Remote Learning

I hope you are all staying safe and keeping well. As we approach the end of this school year and reflect on the events of the past thirteen weeks, I hope that you as a family will have some positive memories of this unique time spent with your children.

We as a staff want to thank you for your support and encouraging comments received over the past thirteen weeks. It has undoubtedly been a great challenge for you as parents/ guardians and we applaud the effort and commitment you have shown. We appreciate the very positive responses received in our recent survey and your comments have been very useful as we plan for the autumn term. A copy of the survey conclusions will be published on the school website shortly. A special word of thanks to our pupils for the hard work and great effort they too have made through the work packs and online programs.

I also want to commend our teaching staff, assisted by the classroom assistants for the level of dedication and hard work they too have demonstrated during this period of school closure. Remote learning has indeed been a challenge that none of us were prepared for but both school staff and all our school families have successfully risen to the challenge.

We look forward to meeting you all in September 2020; as the next school year begins, with optimism and excitement for the future. There is no doubt that the school's teaching and learning will take on a different format and timetables will need adjustment. Despite the fact that we haven’t yet received any definite guidance or directive about the arrangements for next year, we are confident that children will pick up on their learning from where they left off and staff will continue to nurture and help pupils to progress to the next stage in their educational journey.

Annual Reports - Nursery

These reports record progress under the following headings:  Personal/Social/Emotional Development; Language Development; Physical Development and Movement; ArtEarly Mathematical Development and The World Around Us.

Annual Reports - P1 – P7

Please find the enclosed copy of your child’s Annual Report. Unfortunately, we’re all aware that we didn’t have an opportunity to finish the school year as planned. As a result, all the normal end of year check-ups and assessments haven’t been completed and we can’t verify exactly what progress pupils have made over the course of the year. The pupils’ reports, therefore, reflect the progress which the children had been making up until 13th March 2020.

This year, we have again revised the Annual Report format used to report children’s progress and achievements. The reports include statements of progress in Literacy, Language, Numeracy and Mathematics and General Comments. For other areas of the curriculum,  we have allocated grades that best describe how the children are achieving. We have also included graded sections for concentration,  behaviour, effort, application and attendance. Mrs Corey has provided additional reports for the children that she has worked with throughout the year. We hope you find the Report an accurate account of your child’s performance and progress over the past year.

Collection of Annual Reports, books, folders and summer packs

To bring to a conclusion this school term, the teachers have put together the children's exercise books, work books and other pieces of work they have completed during the course of the school year as well as additional work for the summer months, on request. This package will also contain the end of year reports. We invite you and your child to meet the teachers and classroom assistants in the school playground. In order to comply with social distancing guidelines, we have allocated the following collection schedule:

If you have any school library books, accelerated reading books or class reading books at home we would be grateful if you could return these books when you call at the school to collect the children's folders.

Class Allocations for September 2020

In sorting classes we generally use chronological order as the main criterion with adjustments due to special circumstances. These may include: children with additional needs, behavioural issues, gender balance and friendship groupings which may be particularly relevant this year. Teachers spend a lot of time considering the special circumstances within their classes and use their professional judgement in sorting classes, sometimes considering information which cannot be shared publically. We trust that parents recognise teachers’ efforts in this regard and trust their judgement.

Transition arrangements

All classes will be updated on Seesaw and your child’s new teacher will be in contact with their new classes before the end of term. We have included ‘Seesaw invite’ instructions with this letter. Teachers in Nursery, Primary One and Rang a hAon will provide a virtual induction this year including video clips, photographs of staff and the classroom settings.

Primary Seven and Rang a Seacht Transition

Father O’Neill will be celebrating a special "Leavers Mass" for Primary Seven and Rang a Seacht children on Friday 26^th  June going live from St Colmcille’s Church at 1.00pm and we hope that you can all tune in. We have also organised a "Drive In” Prizegiving ceremeny for year 7 children will take place on Monday 29th June at 7.00pm on the school’s football pitch.

Reopening the school in the autumn term

The Department of Education has just advised that:

• Primary Seven /Rang a Seacht and children with special circumstances will commence during the week beginning 24^th August.
• children should be kept in ‘protective bubbles’ one metre from each other. Given the small rooms in the school, class sizes will therefore be limited to a maximum of fifteen pupils per class each day.

We will keep you informed of the arrangements for the autumn term when we receive clearer guidance from DE. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. If you would like to discuss any issue contained in this letter or your child’s report, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Mr P Cush

Principal