St Patricks N.S.

Hello everyone and welcome back

It’s good to be writing to you having actually completed a week in school. There is no doubt but that it has been a very different week to any we have known before. We are spending a lot of time helping the children to get used to school again. The teachers and the children are becoming reacquainted, which is lovely. We are slowly picking up the threads of learning and making a start iin the work of this new school year. We are also sanitising and washing hands. We are learning whole new meanings for words like ‘pods’ and ‘bubbles’. The systems and routines that we have set up are working fairly well and we are tweaking them all the time to make them safer and better. We cannot eliminate all risk from the school but we want to assure you that we are doing our utmost to keep your children, and our staff, as safe as they can be.

I want to appeal to you to do the same. You’re already helping us by the way you are supporting the morning drop off and evening pick up. Thank you for this. Thanks in particular to the parents of our new Junior Infants who have been unable to bring their children into the classroom(I have to tell you that the class has settled really well – Covid or no Covid, I think we’ll be sticking with this system! It seems to be easier all round.) Can I also remind you that the strategies we have put in place in school need to be followed through outside of school? We must all follow the guidelines if we want our schools to stay open, particularly now that there are new cases of Covid so close to us. Encourage the children to talk about and to implement at home, what they are doing in school. This will keep us all safer.

For your information, there is a Covid page on the school blog – https://stpatricksnsdrumshanbo.scoilnet.ie/blog/covid/

I have posted all the relevant information and guidance that has come to the school and will continue to do so. This is where you will find the most up-to-date information that is being sent to the school from the HSE and the DES. Please check it out.

But it is important that the return to school is not all about Covid. For me, the best thing this week was the playground. Because we have staggered the breaks, the children have much more space and they seem to be really using it and enjoying it. I have a great view of the big yard from my new office and today, when the sun was shining, I opened the window and enjoyed listening to and seeing the fun that was going on outside. It felt normal.

Also, we were delighted to welcome many new friends – and a few old friends back to school. First we have our brave Junior Infants who waved goodbye to their Mammy’s and Daddy’s and marched into Primary School without a backward glance – well maybe a few backward glances but for the most part they have been so confident. Welcome to Adam K, Eoghan, Alana, Ava & Molly, Lidia, Leah S, Vian, Sawsan, Pippa, Leah G, Amber, Adriana, Nala, Helen, Lucy, Ruby, Caoimhe, Aoibhe, Molly & Mark, Mark C, James, Damian, Adam W, Jordan, Donnacha, Luke and a very special welcome back to Shauna.

We also have new pupils in Sixth Class – Aoife, Lara and Maedhbh who already seem like they’ve always been here. Teagan has joined second class and is very welcome. We have Molly in Senior infants who has settled in really well. And in Third Class, we are joined by Giuliana and Jack – new friends for the boys and girls in the class – and by Peyton who got a great welcome back from all her friends.

In the staff Ms. Keegan is back from her travels and we are delighted to see her again. Mrs.

McCabe and Mrs. Duignan are back from maternity leave, as is Ms Cullen, out in the Cairde Class – they all had to leave their little boys behind for the first time this week but, like the Junior Infants, they put on a very brave face! In particular, I want to welcome Ms. Rachel Duffy to our staff. She is job-sharing with Mrs. McCabe and will be working mostly to support. second class.

So all in all, we’ve made a good start and we’re determined to keep it going. This is what we want and need to continue. I hope that you all enjoy the weekend in the knowledge that there will be school on Monday, just as there should be.

See you at the gate.