Letter from Principal

Scoil Mhuire na mBuachaillí

Hello everyone and hope you had a pleasant Easter break. In all my time in the Boys School we’ve never faced such daunting and dangerous times and I want you to know that my staff and I are thinking of you all and your son’s. We miss you and them and I know how difficult a time this is for you as we are all going through this together.

We were successful in getting the boys schoolbooks out to them over Easter and will be predominantly working from them over the period of time that the school is closed. This decision is based on the fact that not everyone has the online capabilities, broadband or in house hardware needed to do the work remotely. For this coming week, boys where possible, should try to do the work laid out in the letter from their teacher, which was included with their schoolbooks.

We will be also be introducing the online app seesaw which can be used on a laptop, tablet or phone as a way of interaction between the children and their teachers. This will be set up this week and I ask all Parents/Guardians if they have time, to familiarise themselves with the app at https://web.seesaw.me/ . It’s all totally new to many of our staff as well, so bear with us as we sort out the teething problems.

 In order for your child to use Seesaw, the app needs your child’s name to be able to associate work like their photos, videos or voice recordings with their account. Seesaw only uses this information to provide the service and doesn’t advertise in Seesaw, create profiles of students, or share or sell your child’s personal information or journal content.  You can read more about their strong privacy promises here: https://web.seesaw.me/privacy.

Under an EU law called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in order for your child to use Seesaw, the school must get your consent. Under normal circumstances we would send the consent forms home and you would sign them or not and send them back to the school. You will receive an email with a code from your son’s teacher for your son to sign up to seesaw. Given the current constraints, I’m simplifying things by stating that by signing up or not doing so is your decision on the consent.

In these difficult times where every home’s situation is different, I emphasise that the most important thing is for everyone to be safe and our guidelines of work are just that, guidelines. If the home situation allows it, then try to get your son to complete the work each week and to continue reading either via Accelerated reading or otherwise. I will continue to put links on our website to help with activities and resources to keep the boys occupied and there is a huge amount of links already on there.

My staff will strive to do their best to help your son with their work at home, but again I don’t want people to stress out over educational matters. If he can’t do something don’t worry, let him leave it and move on to something else. Small amounts of work daily would get him into a routine but not at the expense of your own health!!! Many people online are well intentioned with their suggestions and methodologies of how to do things, but from parents I’ve spoken to in  a few different circumstances, they feel very pressurized for their children to get work done, never mind all the other pressures of everyone having to stay at home all the time.

I will contact you each Monday and my staff will be in touch with you also, with the suggested work for the week ahead. Hopefully seesaw will provide us with an interactive outlet which will be beneficial to all.

If you haven’t already done so please forward your email address to blayneybns@gmail.com

Yours sincerely

Eamon Mc Eneaney

Principal

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