St. Vincent's Primary School Glasnevin Dublin 11 (Under the Trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust)

LETTER FROM SCHOOL PRINCIPAL (26/3/2020)

Dear Parents/Guardians,
It is hard to believe that it is only 2 weeks since the Government ordered school closures on March 12th.  So much has happened since then that we couldn’t really have foreseen on that day - especially the fact that we have no information yet on when we can re-open.  Minister of Education Mc Hugh did say today that schools will not re-open “in the short term”.

And so, as usual, it falls to parents to cope – to monitor the children, to stop them from going out and associating with other children, teaching them the vital importance of keeping a safe distance from others, to keep them occupied, to try to keep them doing school work and not go into “holiday mode” etc.  And of course all of this has to be done while shouldering your own worries about older relatives and immune compromised people that have to be shielded from the virus while still cooking, cleaning, shopping……. the list is endless.

So here’s what we can do to help. School will furnish you with materials for school work that is suitable for each boy’s class. Where possible this work will be of an easy correct or self correcting type. Today we are sending you work for next week via this website and if this situation continues after Easter holidays, we will send more school work on a weekly basis.  Please think of this work as a support for you. Something you can dip in and out of and use as suits you. Some schools have sent something approaching 5 hours work per day home. While the intention was no doubt good you only have to realise how many families have more than one school age child to see the stress that this puts parents under. Parents cannot be expected to replicate the school day, to do the job that teachers have been trained to do for 4 years in college while at the same time doing all the work that they have to do themselves.
Likewise when the boys come back, they shouldn’t be facing into mountains of work that has to be corrected and checked out etc. They will come back full of enthusiasm and ready to make up any ground lost. And they will make it up. Of that you can be sure. Every single child in Europe is in exactly the same boat and it is comforting for parents to know that teachers are experts in sorting these things out!
You will be kept well informed by text, on the school website and on the face book page of work offered. You can also send in photos of the boys and their work to our e mail address for the Facebook page to remind them that they are still members of our school community and that the staff of their school thinks of them every single day and are looking forward to seeing them back where they belong- in St Vincents Primary School, Glasnevin.

Lastly could I say that the boys themselves were probably looking forward at first to this break from school routine - thinking it would be like a really long summer holiday. By now the reality of social isolation with playgrounds etc shut down is probably biting home. They are also absorbing the anxiety that we adults are feeling and trying so hard to shield them from.  In these circumstances anxiety, tantrums etc are to be expected. It is important that they boys know that everything will be all right and that someday, hopefully soon, I’ll be seeing their smiling faces and hearing their excited chatter in the yard. I look forward to that day!
In the meantime STAY SAFE, KEEP YOUR DISTANCE AND WASH YOUR HANDS REGULARLY.
Warick Sewell (Principal)