Dear Parents,

As we approach the end of the school year, with schools closed, it is still not clear what way we will be returning to school in September.

This weekend, the Department of Education indicated that they hope to have all children back in school every day from the start of the new school year.

They will issue guidelines to the schools towards the end of June, start of July, with templates and instructions on what we have to put in place.  You can see the latest announcements on the Department of Education website.

This is all the information we have at the moment but I am hopeful that we will all be back to school on Monday 31^st August.  As soon as I get more information I will be in touch again with everyone.

Book Rental:

In order to get organised for the next school year we want to collect the books we gave out to pupils on the book rental scheme.

Each teacher will let you know what books to send back for your child’s class.

To comply with safety protocols, we are asking parents to put the books they are returning in a bag and label them with the child’s name and class.  These can be dropped at the rain shelter outside the school on:

Saturday 20^th June between 9.30am & 12.00 noon.

Monday 22^nd June between 8.30am & 5.00pm

Tuesday 23^rd June between 8.30am & 5.00pm.

We would really appreciate your co-operation with the return of these books.

We will be posting out end of year reports during the last week of the term.

Booklists will be up on the school website towards the end of the last week also.

We are all finding this uncertainty very difficult to deal with but hopefully we will get some definite information in the near future and we will be able to plan properly for re opening on the 31^st August.

Thanks again for all your co-operation during this time.

Mise le meas,

Mike McAuliffe

Message for the Pupils of Lissivigeen School.

Hello to all our pupils. I hope you are all well and enjoying the great weather.

I wanted to send you a message to congratulate you on all the great work you have done since the schools had to close because of Covid 19. I have seen some of the work that you have been sending   back to the teachers since the 20^th April, the date we should have been back to school after Easter holidays, and I am really impressed. It is amazing how you have adapted to distance learning so quickly. The quality of the work you are sending back is fantastic and your teachers are delighted that you are putting in such a great effort. Remember not to worry if you can’t get everything done, just do your best.

It is great to see that the older children are able to complete the work by themselves and send it back to the teachers using Seesaw or email. You have learned so many new skills during this lockdown. I would also like to thank all the parents of the younger children for all the time you are putting in to help your children complete school work and send it back to the teachers.

As we are coming up to the June bank holiday weekend, I want to let you know that you will be getting a break for school work for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week because we would have been off school anyway. You deserve a break after all the work you have done over the last six weeks. The weather forecast is good for the next few days so get out and enjoy the break.

The teachers will put up some work on Wednesday of next week for Thursday 4th and Friday 5^th of June. There will only be two more weeks of work left after that before we have the Summer holidays.

It is particularly difficult for our Sixth Class pupils as we approach the end of your last year in Lissivigeen. I want to let you know that you have been an outstanding group and your great attitude and behaviour have been a very positive influence on the rest of the school. Also, your teachers are so impressed with the quantity and quality of the work you are producing on line. I have been talking and planning with your teachers to organise a Graduation Ceremony for the class of 2020 as soon as it is possible to do so. It will not be happening at the normal time but we will make it an occasion to remember.

Enjoy the long weekend everyone and take care.

Mise le meas,

Mike Mc Auliffe.

A message for parents following the Easter break.

Parents, I hope you all had a nice Easter break. At least the weather was good which made things a little easier during the lockdown.

As schools will not be reopening for another few weeks we will begin allocating work for our pupils again from Monday 20^th April. We will be giving all our pupils the opportunity to send some of their work to their teachers if they wish to and the teachers will be able to give some feedback to the pupils. This will be explained by each teacher on their class page on the school website.

It is important to stress that this is optional as we realise that children will need help from parents to send work back and parents may not have time to do this. We do not want to burden children and parents with too much work as this can be counterproductive.

The work the teachers suggest is like a menu, just pick and choose what suits you. Just try to find a balance that works for your own situation and please do not worry if children don’t get work completed. Staying safe and healthy is the most important thing at this time.

Thanks again to our fantastic pupils for all the work they have done on their own at home so far and to all our parents for supporting them with school work. We are looking forward to having you all back in school as soon as possible.

Mise le meas,

Mike Mc Auliffe.

A message for pupils and parents as we begin the Easter holidays.

Parents and Pupils,

It is just over three weeks since we had to close the school at such short notice. So much has happened in those three weeks yet despite all the unprecedented events taking place around us our pupils have still managed to keep in touch with their school work.

We know from the activity on our website that a huge amount of work has been done at home and I would like to thank all our pupils for the magnificent effort you have put in over the last three weeks. I would also like to thank all the parents for the support you are giving the children with their school work.

As we are now on the Easter Holidays we want to give all our pupils and parents a well-earned break.

We will not be giving out any work for the next two weeks.

We will start again on April 20^th as it looks like we will not be back to school by then.

Finally, I want to thank you all again for your work over the last three weeks. We are looking forward to having everyone back with us again in school when all this is over. I hope you all get some down time over the next two weeks and I wish you all a healthy and safe Easter break.

Mise le meas,

Mike Mc Auliffe.