April 20th 2020.
Welcome back to all. I hope you all had a pleasant and relaxing Easter break and were able to make the most of the wonderful weather in these unusual and strange times.
As you are aware the final school term of this academic year began this morning and whilst we may not be congregating in the physical sense we are still a strong school community even if we are employing distance learning and remote methods of teaching which I am sure we never thought would be the case.
All the teachers are getting back in touch with their classes and over the next few days will be advising on their expectations of their students for this term with the end goal of the Summer exams only a few weeks away. Teachers will use many and varied platforms to achieve effective teaching and learning and will communicate directly with their classes to achieve every student’s maximum potential. This cannot be done however without the commitment of the students to attach to the work that is being prepared and delivered by the teachers in a timely, mature and efficient manner.
There is no doubt that the couple of weeks before the Easter holidays were a learning curve for all of us and having to move from a form of education we are so familiar with was both challenging and stressful. I would like to congratulate all our students and teachers on their enthusiastic approach to this enormous change and the positive attitude they adopted in difficult times. I would also like to thank parents and guardians for their support of their sons in implementing the many demands that were made of them. I am more than aware of the difficulties of managing such change at home especially when taking into consideration all the other stresses and challenges families may be facing at this time.
To the 3rd and 6th Years please rest assured you are paramount in our minds and we will go to any length to ensure that you will maximise your grades in the upcoming State Examinations no matter when or in what format they take place. It is imperative that you keep working with a positive outlook and in a structured manner-be organised. So far you have done brilliantly now lets keep the momentum going.
Could I remind Transition Years that next Wednesday 22nd April is the deadline to contact Ms Mc Donagh re subject choice for 5th Year. Please refer to the emails she has sent to you over the Easter break and contact her if you have any queries.
It is now also time for the current 1st years to consider their subject choice as they move into 2nd Year. Over the next couple of days an email will be sent to your son’s school email address indicating the option lines for 2nd Year. This will coincide with a text message to parents when the email is sent so that parents can discuss with their son the subjects they wish to pick moving forward. When making these decisions please refer to previous reports and the advice of the teachers at the Parent/Teacher meeting in January. Students will then have until Friday 1st of May to respond via email to Ms Mc Donagh. This option form will also be available on our website for your information.
I wish all our students every success this term and we will try to make this difficult and different time as easy and stress free as we possibly can.We are here to help you in anyway we can. If there are difficulties please do not hesitate to contact us and we will endeavour to do out utmost to support and advise you.
Ms Garrett.