Dear Parents,
I hope this email finds you and your families all safe and well. ( This note was sent to all emails on our aladdin system – please ensure we get your email address)
The current restrictions are now in place until 5th May and this means that for the next two weeks schools will remain closed. We have not been informed of what will happen after this date or of any arrangements for future events such as end of year testing , Junior Infant induction or sacraments of Communion and confirmation. As soon as we are informed we will pass this on to parents immediately.
Following ZOOM meetings with the staff we have made plans for the coming weeks. Teachers will set classwork for pupils and we will share this with parents via the – Distance learning tab- on our school website.
Staff members ( teacher / SNA) will also try to link personally with every student / family to see how they have been getting on to date and to see how we can support going forwards. They will be ringing from personal phones with numbers blocked to comply with GDPR etc
As a school we are now moving forward in supporting our pupils learning via distance learning.
We now want to try to allow students submit their work to teachers and complete assignments that are set and for this we are going to use the SEESAW APP.
This technology has been approved and recommended by DES and is already in operation for some senior class groups.
The school need each parent to agree via email to using this app ( GDPR) so please follow the steps outlined.
I want to stress that this facility is new to staff , parents and pupils so we aim to start slowly and without pressure on families.
The benefits will be amazing as boys will be able to complete a task ( maths / writing story / reading) and parent can take photo or record and submit it to teacher via phone ( app) . The teacher can then correct, evaluate and reply to the pupil with praise , encouragement an guidance for next task. In order to get the boys motivated you might mention that their end of year reports will mention their home-school work during this period.
Again I would like to reiterate that this school-work is a guideline and if you have a routine in place for your child that works then keep using it. If you need information or help in any way please email the class teacher or SEN teacher- email addresses are on the DL pages on the website outlined above. Some pupils have not collected their school books yet and these can be collected in a safe manner on Wednesday mornings. Please contact me via email / facebook for collection times.
We will be in touch again towards the end of next week with the plan of work for the following week.
In the meantime please continue to stay safe and hopefully we will get back to some form of normality in the near future.
Kind regards,
Niall Crofton
New steps to follow for Distance Learning at St Brendan’s PS Birr
- Ensure the school has your email address – email secretary@stbrendansps.ie
- Receive email letter from class teacher about SEESAW GDPR
- Copy, paste this letter and add your sons name and your name and email back to the CLASS TEACHER
- Receive SEESAW pupil code from your class teacher
- Download the FREE – SEESAW app
- Go to app.seesaw.me
- Choose “I’m a Student”
- Type in the code: ?????????? This code expires on ???????? ( You won’t get the code until you email teacher)
- Each teacher will send home their own code – you just add each student- only download the app once
Finish creating your account using your email address
Niall Crofton
(Principal Teacher)
St Brendan’s PS
Moorpark st.
Birr
Co Offaly
12370C
0579121033
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