Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope this finds you well. Our news this week is as follows

• Our 6^th class pupils have started a Transition to Secondary school programme here in the school. This is being delivered by Ms Fitzsimons and Ms Kelleher. This will be a great help to the pupils particularly this year as they did not get the opportunity to visit the secondary schools in person. We wish them well as they begin their preparation for moving on.
• Our Parents’ Association have kindly donated an Easter egg for each class to be raffled tomorrow. Good luck to everyone and thanks to our P.A for this generous gesture.
• While we are confident that everyone will return to school on Monday 12^th April class teachers will send books home with pupils just in case. The COVID situation is rapidly evolving and in the event that schools are instructed to remain closed for a while everyone will have necessary text books for remote learning. We all fervently hope that we will return on 12^th April to in person learning. It has been wonderful to have everyone back on site for the past two weeks. I would ask that all families adhere to the COVID guidelines during the Easter holidays to prevent transmission of the virus. 
• I would like to thank all parents/guardians for your wonderful support this term. We know that for some families remote learning has been a challenge and all the staff really appreciate the efforts of parents/guardians during lockdown. I would also like to thank all parents/guardians for your adherence to the necessary COVID measures such as wearing facemasks, social distancing in the yard and not calling to the school in person since we returned to school. We really appreciate all your efforts in this regard.
• I would like to thank all our staff for their tremendous efforts this term also. Staff have been very diligent, hardworking and conscientious both during school closure and since we returned to school. The adherence to all Covid measures by staff here in the school has been excellent all while keeping school life as normal and as pleasant as possible for our pupils.
• St. Tolas will close for the Easter holidays tomorrow Friday 26^th March at 12p.m. We will re-open on Monday 12^th April at 9a.m. I wish all pupils, parents/guardians and staff a safe and relaxing break. I hope you all get to enjoy some fresh air and exercise over the break. Stay safe and we look forward to seeing you all on 12^th April.

Kind regards, Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald, Principal