First Communion Celebrations for Lissivigeen N.S.

Saturday 5^th September

Church of the Resurrection

Mrs. Long’s 3^rd Class at 10.30am

Mr. Brosnan’s 3^rd Class at 12.30pm.

The following guidelines have been issued by the parish to ensure that First Communion ceremonies can take place safely.

• Adults must wear a face mask or visor in the Church and use hand sanitiser on entering and leaving the Church.
• Attendance in the Church is limited to the First Communion child plus 5 others per family and they will all sit together in the one seat.
• 2 metres between each family will be maintained by using every second pew.
• There will not be a choir so the music will be by a cantor and organist.
• Readings and prayers will be read by school staff.
• There will not be any entrance processions or offertory processions.
• There will not be altar servers.
• There will be one practice in the Church to organise seating places and movement at Communion time. Each class will have a separate practice time. We will organise this with the school in the week prior to Communion.
• No class photographs will take place in the Church after Mass. Individual photographs can be taken outside afterwards.
• First Holy Communion is a lovely family celebration. We encourage all celebrations to happen within the public health guidelines.
  
  
  
  

First Confession at Lissivigeen National School.

First Confession will take place in the school on Thursday 3^rd of September. The children had all the preparation completed for this prior to the lockdown so with a little practice within their own class they will be ready again for Thursday 3^rd. It will be a very simple ceremony with children going to the hall in small groups where we will have plenty of room for social distancing while making their First Confession. Obviously we cannot invite parents into the school for this ceremony so it will be children only.

If you have time you might go over some of the prayers for Confession and Communion with your children as this will help us when we start revising them when we return to school.

Thank you all for your cooperation and patience and hopefully we will have a great celebration on September 5^th.

Some details on the reopening of Lissivigeen National School on 31^st August 2020

As you know by now the Minister for Education announced on the 27^th July that all schools will be reopening at the end of August. Details of the plan for reopening primary schools are available on the Department of Education website.

At this stage I want to outline a few items relating to the reopening of Lissivigeen National School. I will be in touch again with more detailed information at the end of August.

• Lissivigeen National School will be opening on Monday the 31^st August 2020 for all classes.
• School will start at the normal time for all classes with doors opening at 9.10 AM. We will be finishing at the normal time for all classes.
• We will be using four different doors for the children to enter the school in the morning, evening and at break times. We will give more details on this in the week prior to reopening. This will reduce congestion and will help with social distancing while entering and leaving the school.
• Parents will not be allowed enter the school in the morning with the children. We will have staff in the carpark to escort children from the drop off area to the school grounds.
• Children are not to be dropped off early as we cannot let them play in the school yard before school.
• We have attached baskets underneath each desk and children will keep their own books in these baskets. Books will not be shared between pupils.
• We have placed hand sanitiser and paper towel dispensers at the toilets in each classroom. Children do not need to bring their own towel for hand drying.
• Our normal school uniform policy will apply. Some parents were concerned that uniforms and track suits might have to be washed every day but there is nothing in the Department guidelines about this, so there is no need for more washing than you would normally do.
• All school staff will complete Covid-19 Induction Training prior to returning on the 31^st of August.
• We will be following templates form the Department on classroom layout to maximise space and ensure social distancing. Children will be in Pods in the classroom which will be groups of four. Children will be with their own class group on the yard at break times.
• We will be staggering break times during the day to ensure less children are on the yard at any one time.
• Masks: Children will not wear masks in school as they are not suitable for children under 13 years of age.
• If a pupil is sick or displaying any symptoms of Covid-19 he/she must not attend school.

These are just some of the things we have in place for a safe return to school. I will be in touch again with more details prior to reopening.

Norma Foley, Minister for Education has sent a letter to all parents which I have included on the parents section of  our website.

Some children may be nervous about returning to school so please reassure them that we will all be working together to make school as safe as possible for everyone.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Mise le meas,

Mike McAuliffe

Pupils and Parents,

Now that we are at the end of the school year I want to say thanks again to everyone for all your efforts to complete ‘lockdown school’ since schools had to close on the 12^th March.

Thank you for returning the school books also.

We do not have any guidelines yet on how schools will reopen after the summer break but I am very hopeful that all children will be returning on Monday 31^st August.

First Communion will take place in September hopefully and we will be in touch with Second Class if a date is confirmed over the summer.  Some First Communion ceremonies for smaller school will take place over the Summer at Sunday masses but Lissivigeen’s First Communion ceremony will not be until September when a larger number can attend.

Confirmations will take place at the end of September and in October, but again no dates have been confirmed.  We will notify Sixth class if a date is confirmed.

I hope you will all take a well deserved break from the laptops and

ipads and have a great summer.

We will see you all at the end of August.

Mise le meas,

Mike Mc Auliffe

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