St Tolas ‘Wednesday Note’ 25th March 2020

March 26th, 2020

25th March 2020,

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We hope you are well and adjusting to the new reality of life with Covid19. I am sure that like me and my family you are finding it a challenge to live with the current restrictions to our everyday lives but we all want to keep this disease from spreading so it is a socially distant life for all of us at present.

I wanted to give you some updates, resources and information that may be helpful.
 All teachers provided guidance on work for pupils to complete at home up to this Friday 27th March. We realise that all families/children are different and it may be very challenging for your child to complete some or all of this work. Please be sensible and treat it as a menu. Engage as much as you can. Not every family will be in a position to complete or participate in these activities and that is fine too. As a parent you make a judgement call regarding your own child and if schoolwork is causing undue stress in your household please do not feel that it must be completed. If your child can continue to do some reading every day and maybe a little bit of mental maths that would be very useful.
 All class teachers are working on suggestions for next week and we will email these tomorrow Thursday 26th March. Again treat these as a menu and engage as much as is appropriate for your child or family. If you have a query for your child’s teacher please send it to office@tolasns.com with the teacher’s name included. We will forward it to your child’s teacher and then send on the reply to you. Please be mindful that it may take a little time to reply and we appreciate your patience in these difficult times.
 I have attached a document produced by the Department of Education and Skills that you may find useful. It is a Guide for Parents on Supporting Children and Young people with Daily Routines while Schools are closed
 The National Council for Special Education has produced some guides for supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs. These may be accessed at https://ncse.ie/online-resources
 Many families are wondering about First Communion and Confirmation. We do not have any updates at present in relation to these events but we will communicate any news as soon as we have it.
Finally we hope that you and your family stay safe and keep healthy.
Kind regards,
Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, Principal