Week 13 update

Dear Parents & Carers,
 I hope you are all safe and well and hopefully still managing HL effectively. All staff are keeping safe and well and we too can have difficulties to get our children to do their HL. I was speaking to Ken, today and he can’t wait to see you all ,in September.

As we enter the 13 th week of school closures, there are just two full weeks of school left. It is important that as home learning starts to taper off , that the time is taken to celebrate the start of the children’s holidays.

Thank you for the positive and most valuable feedback about your home learning experiences.The school leaders are using this information to build plans for September. Our school restart focus group will meet on Thursday18th, to explore the possibilities.

What next?

Honestly, the restart plans have more uncertainty attached to them than certainty. The DENI, EA and Teacher Representative bodies  are engaging on guidance advice and materials. These are still subject to approval and may well be subject to local variations. I understand that the guidance advice is an initial arrangement to get schools reopened and not a pathway. As a school, we have preliminary plans and have moved on securing the necessary PPE supplies and resources.This is a constantly changing and challenging situation, I will continue to communicate with you all ,as guidance and decisions are made.

I understand the impact this has equally on the children’s learning and on the ability of families to make plans for the restart to school and being able to return to work.
It is vital that we maintain our social distance and hygiene advice , to keep the Covid 19 situation under control, otherwise, we will lose the positive position, we have all worked together to achieve. Keep safe and well.

Cashless Payments - We are exploring a cashless payment system for the return to school. 

Normal school configuration 

At a recent BOG meeting , the Governors accepted the recommendation of the following school configuration for the return of normal school setting . It was agreed that this configuration resulted in the most stable format for staff and pupils.

P1A Mrs Mc Sorley ,P1B Mrs F OReilly, P2 Mrs Tunney, P2/3 Mrs Hamill, P3 Mrs Coyle, P4 TBC, P4/5 Mrs Orr - Maternity Leave Cover to Christmas - Miss Finch, P5 Miss Mc Quaid , P6 MrSherlock, P6/7 - Miss Mc Keogh and P7 Mrs O’Neill

Learning support - S OReilly & A.N.Other  tbc 

All classes are to be finalised, this week. 80% of pupils will move to the next year group with their current year cohort. You will be notified of your child’s class allocation in due course.

Other news
NI Libraries have launched their summer reading challenge today.

Check out https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk

TheMac

Our P3 pupil - Frank Megraw has been using lockdown to explore his creative abilities.

Frank has been moonlighting over the last few weeks as an ambassador for the MAC. The MAC is asking all children to send in their rainbows for a very special exhibition when they reopen and I’d love the children from St Patrick’s to get involved if possible: https://themaclive.com/about-us/news/save-those-rainbows.

Reminder

P6 Transfer meeting via video conference , Tuesday 16th @ 7pm. Please email any queries or see T2P email update.