Monthly Archives: March 2020

While school is closed all of our pupils have been very busy doing amazing work at home! Please keep an eye on our class blogs for photographs of everyone at work and at play!!! If you would like your photo to be included just send it to your teacher’s email. Keep it up everyone!

I appreciate that this is a very difficult for everyone, especially parents and children. I am attaching for your information a recent communication from the Department of Education on talking to your children.

It is important to reduce the risk of further spread of the infection and therefore all social interactions should be minimised.   The Government guidelines on social distancing should be followed in order to decrease or interrupt the spread of COVID-19.

The following are some links which may be of use to you and your children during the school closure.

Ursula Hedderman

Twinkl

All Classes

Twinkl are offering all parents and teachers a One Month FREE Ultimate Membership to Twinkl.ie. This will allow parents and teachers unlimited access to every single resource for every single curriculum subject from junior infants to sixth class.

Notes: Setting this up is really easy to do – go to www.twinkl.ie/offer and enter the code IRLTWINKLHELPS. This code will only work for new memberships. If you are an existing member with a Core or Extra membership, please get in touch and we will upgrade you to Ultimate right away.

TTS

All classes

TTS have created a “Learning at Home Pack” with over 40 resources both literacy and maths. It is an english publication so it is sectioned into KS1, KS2 and early years.   Search for tts-group on Google

BorrowBox

All class levels

If you or your child/children or parent/s are a member of the local library, you can access an App or website called BorrowBox. It is free. I use it for audio books and also, ebook. There is a children’s section.

https://www.borrowbox.com/

Notes: To register, you need your library card which has your membership number on the back.

Vooks

All class levels

Vooks is committed to being a resource for families to keep kids reading at home. Vooks can also be a welcome distraction for parents, allowing them to enjoy time with their kids, watching and discussing books together. To help, we have created take-home lesson plans that can be shared with parents and guardians – built to provide children with 20 minutes a day of read aloud time and activities.

https://www.vooks.com/

Notes: Free one month, sign up required

Oxford Owl Ebook Reader Library

Junior Classes

Oxford Owl has an ebook library with over 250 books in it and offers free access to teachers and parents once you create an account at www.oxfordowl.co.uk They also have some vocabulary and comprehension activities for most of the books.

An announcement was made this morning by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD of the closure of schools, pre-schools and further and higher education settings, for a period until 29 March 2020, to support efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. This will take effect from 6pm this evening, Thursday 12 March.This is in line with the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team.

All pupils and students, from pre-school to third level are urged to practice social distancing, and to minimise physical contact with each other, to help avoid the spread of Covid-19. This should include minimising social contact, avoiding meeting up and keeping physical space between them. Parents and guardians are urged to support their children to maintain this approach.

In order to minimise the impact on teaching and learning, all schools will be asked to continue to plan lessons and, where possible, provide online resources for students or online lessons where schools are equipped to do so. Schools are asked to be conscious of students that may not have access to online facilities and to consider this actively in their response.

Schools are asked to prioritise supporting exam classes to continue to prepare for State examinations.

Physical classes in universities and higher education facilities will not be held during the closure. Institutions can make other arrangements for teaching and learning and other activities in line with their business continuity plans and contingency planning.

Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD said:

“I am deeply conscious of the impact that school and education setting closures have on students, on families and on the wider community. This is a necessary and proportionate measure that we are taking as a pro-active measure to help contain the threat of Covid-19.

“This is the right decision at the right time. It is taken in the best interests of our children, our young people, our school and college communities and our wider society.

“At this point in time the closure is planned for two weeks, from tomorrow until 29 March. The Government, in conjunction with the public health authorities, will keep the situation under ongoing review. Any change to that date will be communicated widely.

“Pupils should take their books and learning materials home with them this evening.

“This is a very challenging time for our pupils, our teachers, our students and our colleagues in further and higher education.

“Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine – we all live in one another’s shadow. If there was ever a time for us to appreciate how closely we are connected, how much what we do matters to others, how much we rely on each other, this is it. This is a time where we all need to work together for the best possible outcome for our students. The support of everyone across the sector is vital, as we all strive to ensure that this threat is dealt with as effectively as possible.”

The Department of Education and Skills will remain open and will continue to provide supports to the education sector at this time.

The Department of Education and Skills has been liaising closely on a continual basis with the Department of Health in relation to Coronavirus/Covid-19 since early January. This will continue.