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Letter from Principal, May 1st 2020
Letter from Principal, May 1st 2020.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you are all staying safe and well during these unprecedented times. It is heartening to know that our collective efforts as a nation in reducing/preventing the spread of the Covid19 virus are working.
On behalf of the school community of St. Farnan’s PPS, I would like to thank teachers, students and parents for their engagement over the last number of weeks and would ask that we all continue to do our best until the end of the school year. We also keep in mind our Junior Cert and Leaving Cert students who are keeping up with their work and study.
STATE EXAMINATIONS:
1. Junior Cycle.
As you know by now, the formal Junior Cycle exams organized by the State Examinations Commission will not take place this year. All schools are asked to run a school based examination/assessment for their students which must be completed by May 29th 2020. Please see link below.
https://www.education.ie/en/Learners/Information/State-Examinations/junior-cert-2020.html.
In brief, all teachers of Junior Cycle will assess their students over the three-year period and schools will produce a Junior Cycle Achievement Report. Students will be assessed over the three years of Junior Cycle along with an assessment which will be designed by our school subject departments. These individual subject assessments will be issued and completed before May 22nd. They will then be corrected and collated by individual subject teachers. Results will be made available in June.
It is the Department’s intention to issue a Certificate of Completion to every Junior Cycle student later in the new school year. In relation to exam fees for Junior Cycle, the department has waived all fees and those parents that have paid will be reimbursed. I hope this provides clarity and closure for students and parents.
2. Leaving Certificate and Leaving Cert Applied.
The Department are continuing with their plans to hold the Leaving Certificate from July 29th. We are still awaiting clarification and guidance in relation to how this will operate. This is a matter for school management to worry about, so I am asking students to keep up with the study and revision. Continue to engage with your online classes, emailed work etc in preparation. It is advisable to continue with practicing past examination questions using the state examinations commission website which continues to have past papers and solutions on line.
As mentioned elsewhere on our website, the closing date for payment of fees has been extended until after results have been issued.
A number of queries have come in asking about practical examinations in engineering, construction studies and art. Once clarifications are made by the Department on aspects of these subjects, I will let you know.
On a different note, our Senior Management Team in school have had discussions about school graduation and yearbook. It is our intention to have some type of graduation ceremony and Yearbook for the class of 2020 sometime in the new school year.
3. Summer Assessments.
All first, second and fifth year students will have summer assessments as usual this year and all parents and guardians will receive a school report. Individual teachers will assign assessments to their classes. The assessment of students’ learning achievements in each subject will be based on the teacher’s professional knowledge of each student’s learning along with a subject department’s agreed method of assessment.
4. Transition Year offers and Fifth Year options.
Our TY Coordinator, Ms Flanagan will issue offers to TY Applicants and we ask you to acknowledge receipt of these offers when it arrives. We will be in touch at a later stage to arrange payment of fees etc.
Deputy Principal, Mr. Cleary will be in touch next week with fifth year options offers. We have tried our best to facilitate student choice.
5. Book Return and Lockers.
We are asking students to keep all Book Rental books safe until our return to school. This is particularly important for our Third and Sixth year students as we will need all books returned so that they are available to reissue to other students as per Department Guidelines for schools with book rental.
Finally, may I take this opportunity to thank students and teachers for their engagement in Teaching and Learning in this unprecedented time. We have all had to embrace new technologies and methodologies during these strange times. Thank you also to you as parents and guardians for the important role you play in our school community.
For anyone that has lost a loved one over the past few months, you are in our thoughts and prayers and please remember if there is any issue or problem that you would like to bring to the school’s attention, please email me at principal@stfarnans.ie
Kind regards,
Eddie Collins, Principal.
