As we reach the end of the school year and hopefully coming to the end of this lockdown, I would like to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication to the boys and girls of St. Aengus N.S.. This has not been an easy couple of months for all involved but I feel we will return to school with brand new skills and talents, and a greater perspective on what’s important in our lives. Education and learning never stop and with the easing of the lockdown, we have seen the reopening of our libraries and book shops. Keep reading to your children for enjoyment and challenge them with projects and activities. Learning happens incidentally throughout a child’s day. You are doing amazing work so just keep it up!
We know that the school work has been onerous on people’s work-life balance and has caused stress and worry amongst parents and children alike. With this in mind in I would like to say that there will be no formal homework for the last week, but we will have different challenges on the website every day for the children to complete if they wish. Please send in any pictures or videos to aengusns@gmail.com and we will post them to the website.
There are a couple of things I would like to share with everyone.
We hope and aspire to have the school open for the start of September. Tuesday the 1st of September looks likely to be the return date but we will confirm this closer to the time. We are preparing for all eventualities and please God we will all return in full in September. We will, of course, listen to all advice from the health authorities and put the health and safety of the children and staff first before making any decisions.
First confession, Communion, and Confirmation ceremonies: We will be guided by the church as to when these will happen and we will give everyone as much notice as possible.
Sixth Class: This has been a tough time for our 6th class. They have contributed so many fantastic memories to the school. They will be greatly missed by the school but we know that they will go on to represent us proudly and continue to show empathy and care to their peers and community. With the easing of the lockdown, it looks like we may be able to have a graduation ceremony before the children start secondary school. We hope to have this sooner rather than later. We will contact the parents of sixth class when a date is confirmed.
New Junior infants: This is a special time for all the children due to start school in September. We will have a meeting with the parents and an open day with the children in the school closer to the start of the school term. We are in the process of putting an information pack together for the new entrants and we hope to have that online soon.
Summer works: If you have passed the school in the last number of days you will have noticed that there is work ongoing in the school. These summer works will upgrade the security of the school and provide safer access to the school. We have also undertaken some drainage works and Danny is preparing a new playground that will be opened for September. We are so lucky with the space afforded to the school and it is our aim to fully utilise this come September.
School reports: These will be posted on Monday and if you wish to contact your child’s teacher please do so by emailing them. The school reports are a summary of your child’s work from September to March (as per Department of Education guidelines). After next Friday if you have any questions please contact me directly on aengusns@gmail.com.
Active week: Thanks to Ms.Greene and Master Kelly for organising this year’s “Active week”. We hope it provided everyone with some good ideas to keep active during the lockdown. Third class were the winners of “fittest class” and they will receive a homework pass on their return.
Teachers for next year:
Junior Infants: Ms. McLaughlin
Senior Infants: Ms. Greene
1st class: Ms.McDermott/Ms. McAteer (Job share)*
2nd class: Ms. O’Donnell
3rd class: Ms. Connaughton
4th class: Ms.McMonagle
5th class: A new class teacher will be appointed to this post and we will inform the 5th class when that is complete.
6th class: Master Kelly
Learning Support:
Ms. Monaghan
Ms.McCarron
Mrs. Ó Murchú
Ms. Kindlon
Ms. O’Toole
SNA’s: Maureen & Liz
*Job share- There will be a meeting with the parents of first class before we return to inform them of how this will take place. Any queries can be sent to aengusns@gmail.com.
These have been unprecedented times and there have been many highs and lows for everyone over the last number of months. All the staff have missed the daily face to face interaction with the children and we long for normality to resume. The children’s smiling faces on the website and interactions with the teachers have made it easier for us as a staff to get through this. We can’t wait to hear all the high jinx they have been getting up to. We promise to catch up on all the work missed but also make sure that there is the usual mix of fun and laughter in their school life.
To quote Séamus Heaney “If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere.”
Stay safe everyone,
Séamus