Summer Newsletter from the Principal

Welcome to another Principal’s Newsletter which has become the normal means of communication since the onset of our Covid 19 close down. The purpose of these newsletters is to keep you as parents informed on what is happening in St. Farnan’s Post Primary School. Little did any of us imagine that we when we closed our schools on March 12^th 2020, that we would still be closed.

In that time, we have embraced a number of new challenges, of which I am proud to state we achieved top marks. These challenges include,

1. On line Teaching and Learning.
2. Google classroom.
3. Zoom classroom.
4. Assessments on line for 1^st 2^nd, TY, and 5^th 
5. School Based Assessment for Junior Cycle students.
6. Calculated Grades for Leaving Cert students.

We have had to embrace technology like never before. I am asking that we continue to embrace Information Technology in order to keep up to date with new systems that we have to put in place due to Covid 19. I will return to this theme later in the newsletter.

I am mindful that as I write this today on Wednesday, 3^rd June 2020, that our Junior Cycle and Leaving Cert students would have just commenced their written examinations. Instead, this year we will do things differently. Whether it be School Based Assessment or Calculated Grades, the process this year will be no less thorough or transparent than every other year, just different methodologies used to come up with the final result. I, as Principal of St. Farnan’s Post Primary School, am confident in the process. I have confidence in our teaching staff, in my oversight role and in the Department in their role in applying national standardisation to all schools' data to determine the grade awarded to a student. We wish everyone involved well in their various roles. Leaving Certificate results will be published in mid to late August. Junior Cert results will be available through the school’s VS Ware system over the next few weeks. Hard copies of these results will be available at a later stage.

For all non exam-certificate years, students have completed their assessments and teachers are in the process of correcting and inputting results. These results will also be available through our VSWare student portal over the next few weeks.

Graduation Ceremonies.

On Thursday, 28^th May we had the school’s first Virtual Graduation Ceremony which was very well attended by students, parents and teachers. It also included a special message from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. If you go to our school website www.stfarnans.ie, you will be able to see various clips from our ceremony.

This was preceded by our Transition Year end of year get-together. A huge congratulation to everyone involved.

We wish our sixth year students the very best in their future endeavors and ask you to please stay in touch.

School Uniform.

In previous years we would have a Uniform Day and Book Rental day in the middle of August. I have been in discussion with our USUAL uniform supplier to arrange a different system for this year. If you visit www.schoolwear.ie you can place your orders and pay on line. Our uniform supplier also offers a delivery service to your home. This year schoolwear.ie are making available a maroon fleece for Junior students as well as our normal black fleece for senior students. I would suggest that this might be a prudent purchase considering the recommendation that people are advised to be outside when possible. Prices for our school uniform are as follows.

All uniforms can be delivered at a cost of €3.95.

Schoolwear.ie also supply school trousers and shirts if required.

Book Rental and Admin payment

Since Covid 19, more and more payments are going cashless. We are proposing to do the same. I have also been in discussion with an organization called BOIPA.com Way2Pay. This company operates with a large number of schools throughout Ireland. They arrange that you can pay off any school fees on line, using your smartphone. For those that do not have a smartphone we can arrange a manual payment system. I will be in contact again once I have the system up and running. In the meantime, the table below illustrates the payments applicable to each year.

Return of school books.

It is normal practice that 3^rd and 6^th year students would return their books after the state examinations. This year we ask that parents can return books to the school during the month of June. All I ask is that books are put in a box or bag with the student’s name attached. They can be left outside the front door. It is very important that all book rental books are returned.

Incoming First Year Students.

Every year at this stage we would have had our Information night for our First Year students. Unfortunately, not so this year. We have not forgotten you and look forward to welcoming you to our school community in the new school year. We are in the process of preparing a welcome pack for you which you will receive by post over the next few weeks. It contains a lot of useful information which will help you in the transition from Primary to Secondary school. I am delighted to see that we will have over 100 first year students starting with us in late August / early September.

Finally.

As a school community we have adapted very well to the changes that have been brought about by Covid 19. As our country opens up to a new normal, we have to prepare to embrace even more changes to what we took for granted pre Covid 19. I am aware that the Department of Education and Skills is planning for a return to school for all at the end of August. We don’t know what form this will take at this early stage of the summer. It is envisaged that it will be a mix of in-school Teaching and Learning along with online Teaching and Learning. This is referred to as ‘Blended Learning’. As information becomes available, I will keep you informed by this method.

As I have detailed in previous newsletters , if you need to contact the school please e mail principal@stfarnans.ie.