Principal's New Year Newsletter

New Year Newsletter to Parents/Guardians:

Welcome to the St. Farnan’s New Year Newsletter.    A happy new year to all our school community. It is not the start to the New Year that we expected but due to the huge increase in Covid Numbers in our country, the Government has decided to close all schools for the month of January. All Year Groups will be staying at home and using on line Teaching and Learning methods which we have mastered since our previous lockdown.

Since our return to school in September, we have embraced all the changes necessary to make sure we had a safe environment in and around our school. We also embraced new teaching and learning methodologies to make sure we were all prepared in the event of a school closure. Such a closure has been announced for the month of January.

Since the announcement we have had a number of meetings to plan the way forward. You can appreciate that this has meant a number of changes as the Government decisions changed.

From Monday all teaching and learning will go on line. This will involve on line classes, assigned work and various project work. It will all be done through our Google Classroom platform. Teachers and students are asked to follow their timetable where possible. Attendance will also be marked through the VS Ware system that we use in school. It is important that all students engage with on line learning during this time.          

If there are any difficulties in doing so please let us know by emailing your child’s Year Head or myself at principal@stfarnans.ie and we will do our best to resolve any issues.

Sixth Year Students:

We are all mindful of how difficult this uncertainty is for you at this time. We ask that you continue with your studies and to fully engage with on line learning. A lot of your classes will be live through our Google classroom/Google meet platform. It is important that you attend on time and fully prepared for all your timetabled classes. If there are any issues that you encounter, please contact your Year Head, Mr Cleary or myself.

At our meeting yesterday it was decided to postpone mocks until later in February. We will of course keep you informed.

On a different note, Croi Laighean credit union has extended the date of submissions to the Pat Jones Bursary until February 12^th.

Third Year students:

It is important that you keep up with the full engagement with your school work and revision at this time also. You too have mocks coming up in February and there is much work and study to be done between now and then.

Second Year, Fifth Year and Transition Years:

At this stage, you are all used to online learning also. It is very important that you do not look on this time as an extended break. You have much work to do also as all subject courses will continue to be covered by your teachers. You are also expected to fully engage with remote learning. You Year Head will be in contact with home to discuss any issues that may arise. When we have further information about CBA’s we will let you know.

First Year students:

We are all very aware that our first year students have had a very different transition into second level school since September 2020. You have all done incredibly well so far. I hope you were pleased with your Christmas Results and that it has given you the motivation to continue to do your best. Like all other year groups, it is equally important that you fully engage with your teachers during this time of school closure. We will have a Parent Teacher report available on for parents towards the end of January.

Room 25/26 Students:

I am mindful that there has been much discussion on the airways about students with additional needs. I am proud that the feedback that we have had from Parents and students has been positive with regard to your education provision during the previous lockdown. This will continue this time also and ask if there is anything else we can do to facilitate this please contact me on principal@stfarnans.ie . We will do our best to facilitate.

Kind Regards,

Eddie Collins, Principal.