26^th March 2020

Dear Pupils,

I hope you are all keeping well during this very unsettling time. I know that it must be so difficult for you all not to be able to see your cousins, grandparents and all of those you love. I’ve no doubt that you’re missing your friends at school and your teachers too. We miss you all so much, we miss your beautiful smiles greeting us in the morning, we miss the fun and laughter we have with you all everyday but most of all we miss teaching you because as teachers it has always brought us so much joy to watch you learn and grow as wonderful children.

We are going to see you all back in school once this passes, which we all hope will be very soon. In the meantime we have been trying to think of the best ways we can help you to learn while you’re at home. We know that doing school work at home is very different to doing it at school but we ask that you try to do something every day if you’re able, a little goes a long way.

As you may know we have setup Google Classroom for all classes from 3^rd– 6^th and you should all have received your welcome letters today. We are going to start this on Monday 30^th March. We are going to be taking very small steps as we, the teachers are learning too and will only be assigning one assignment a day to begin with. We will all be learning this together, we will make mistakes together but we hope it will be something fun, exciting and new for us all during this time.

2^nd Class will also be setup in the next few days. I know that there may be only one laptop or ipad in a lot of homes and we know that it may have to be shared with other brothers and sisters so please listen to your parents about sharing it as they know best.

For Junior Infants, Senior Infants & 1^st Class continue with your work and we are thinking of exciting ways to help you learn as well.

For next week all classes continue with the plan of work we set for you the day that the school closed and we will be using our website after Easter also to post work for you. All teacher’s emails will be on their classroom link in the website if you have any questions.

Most importantly though try to get out and get some fresh air every day, go for a walk or a jog with your parents, play football, hurling, dance or sing, keep yourself active and busy and have fun with your families. While doing so it is absolutely necessary that you continue practicing social and physical distancing, cover your mouth & nose when you sneeze and wash your hands regularly. Please follow all the HSE guidelines. I’m so proud of each of you – I know you are doing this so well already and you are making a huge difference to help reduce the spread of Covid-19.

Keep safe and well girls and boys and your teachers and I will be in touch again soon.

With love and best wishes.

Mrs. Walmsley.

P.S. Tell your parents I’ll be in touch with them over the next few days.