Happy New Year to everyone,
Well, here we are again. Firstly I would like to say how proud I am of the school staff, children, parents, and school community – amazing work was done from September to December. The sense of community and support was felt by the school. We will get over this pandemic and we will return to school. I am fully confident in the safety measures that were implemented in the school to prevent the spread of Covid-19 before Christmas and these measures will continue to be in place when we reopen.
We have evolved our online learning from the last lockdown and hope to make it even more, user-friendly for the children and parents this time around.
Book Collection: Your children’s books will be available for collection between 12-1 next Monday the 11th. This will be a drive-in collection of books. Please drive to your eldest child’s class and all your children’s books will be waiting for you in a bag. Please have your boot empty so the member of staff will be able to place the books in. There is no need to get out of the car. If you cannot make that time, please ask another parent to pick up your child’s book. Teachers are keeping a record of books that go home, please make sure that all the books you received are returned to school when we reopen. Any unreturned books will have to be replaced at the parent’s expense.
The platform we will be using is Seesaw. The children have already been given work in school and for homework using this online platform, so they should be able to access it with ease. Younger children will require assistance.
The platform will be updated daily with a mixture of online lessons with the teacher and independent work set by the teacher. Corrections of all the work would be hugely time-consuming for teachers so we are asking parents to work with the teachers in easing this workload. Teachers will still correct and comment on the children’s work.
Learning support teachers will be providing one to one zoom lessons with their pupils. The learning support teachers will contact parents in the next few days to find a time that suits all parties.
The seesaw platform is accessible through Xbox and Playstation.
If you have misplaced your user name or password please contact the teacher.
Teachers can be contacted using email. Please use their first name and @staengusbridgend.com to contact them, eg. Junior infants – Ciara McLoughlin’s email is ciara@staengusbridgend.com.
We are hoping that all the children will engage with seesaw but we know that each family circumstance is different from the next. Please communicate with your child’s class teacher or me directly at aengusns@gmail.com if you are struggling with your time or the school workload. The teachers will primarily focus on literacy and numeracy and “new learning” will be ongoing. The seesaw platform gives you the freedom to do the work at a time when it suits your family.
The school does not want to put any pressure on parents and children, but we do hope that the pandemic will not stop your child’s educational development from continuing. Please encourage your child to engage with the work provided and to communicate with their teacher regularly.
Stay safe,
Séamus