29th June 2020
Dear Parents,
Those of you with older siblings will have seen my weekly messages on the homepage of the website. For those of you who are new to the school, my message this morning has some details on the start of the new school term, which I will repeat here so that you are fully informed.
We plan to start back on Thursday 27th August for all classes from Senior Infants – 6th Class. Given that the children will not have been to school for over 5 months, we will concentrate on welcoming back these children first, and then we will welcome the new Junior Infants on Tuesday 1st September. The committee formed to coordinate the re-opening of the school will examine all guidance available to us from the DES and the HSE in August. All necessary measures to ensure the health and safety, and the wellbeing, of children and staff, will be in place prior to August 27th. The initial return to school may involve staggered start and end times, to avoid congestion at the gates, and to ensure that the children can arrive to school, having been away for so long, in a calm and orderly manner. We will communicate with you via email and text prior to the 27th August, with concrete details on what, if any, changes will be required. Please be assured that we will do everything possible to cater for the varying needs of the children as we return to school. We are well aware that some will skip back into school, some will be nervous or anxious, and others will wish they were still at home with parents! We are also well aware that the work covered during the home-schooling will have varied in every household. Please let us worry about all of that. Our priority will be to welcome the children back, to gradually establish new routines, to re-establish relationships with the children, and finally, to gauge where each child is academically. Please trust us to do our job. We are very much looking forward to it!
Normally, our new Junior Infants start a day later than the rest of the children. However, this year we are being cautious. Depending on the health situation in August, there may be staggered start times, which would mean a demand on staffing resources for supervision outside the school and on the corridors. We anticipate some children may need a little extra care and attention as they return to school after such a long spell at home. To allow for all of these circumstances, we feel that the common-sense, and safe, approach is to wait until Tuesday 1st September for your children to start Junior Infants. The class teachers, along with myself and the Deputy Principal Ms Therese Shortall, and some members for the Special Educational Needs (SEN) team will be on hand to guide and support your little ones on their big day. We will contact you in advance of the 1st September with the logistics for the first morning, and details regarding home time. Assuming they will start at 9am (this is what we are planning for, but if staggered start times are necessary throughout the school, then we may have a later start time), your child will go home at 12 noon for the first week.
The children have now been allocated into the three classes, and two of the three teachers have been assigned. The interview process for the third position will be held in late July. I will update this group once the process is complete. On the webpage dedicated to you, http://www.scoilmochua.com/junior-infants-2020.html, we refer to video clips for your children. These are now available, and I will text each class this morning with your child’s class details, and the password to access your class video. As one appointment it still to be made, this class just has an address from me for now. Once the teacher is appointed, we will upload a video and I will alert you so that your child can become familiar with his/her teacher.
Thanks for your patience at this time. We hope to host a meeting for all Junior Infant parents in September to introduce you to the school, and to talk about what you can expect, and how you can best support your child, in Junior Infants. If it is not possible to host this in the school, we will organise an online meeting.
I hope you all have a lovely, safe summer, and we are really looking forward to getting to know your child in Scoil Mochua, and being an important part of their lives over the next 8 years. Boys and girls, have a great summer and we can’t wait to have lots of fun with you in September!
Kind Regards,
Catherine Carragher, Principal
Dear Parents,
Those of you with older siblings will have seen my weekly messages on the homepage of the website. For those of you who are new to the school, my message this morning has some details on the start of the new school term, which I will repeat here so that you are fully informed.
We plan to start back on Thursday 27th August for all classes from Senior Infants – 6th Class. Given that the children will not have been to school for over 5 months, we will concentrate on welcoming back these children first, and then we will welcome the new Junior Infants on Tuesday 1st September. The committee formed to coordinate the re-opening of the school will examine all guidance available to us from the DES and the HSE in August. All necessary measures to ensure the health and safety, and the wellbeing, of children and staff, will be in place prior to August 27th. The initial return to school may involve staggered start and end times, to avoid congestion at the gates, and to ensure that the children can arrive to school, having been away for so long, in a calm and orderly manner. We will communicate with you via email and text prior to the 27th August, with concrete details on what, if any, changes will be required. Please be assured that we will do everything possible to cater for the varying needs of the children as we return to school. We are well aware that some will skip back into school, some will be nervous or anxious, and others will wish they were still at home with parents! We are also well aware that the work covered during the home-schooling will have varied in every household. Please let us worry about all of that. Our priority will be to welcome the children back, to gradually establish new routines, to re-establish relationships with the children, and finally, to gauge where each child is academically. Please trust us to do our job. We are very much looking forward to it!
Normally, our new Junior Infants start a day later than the rest of the children. However, this year we are being cautious. Depending on the health situation in August, there may be staggered start times, which would mean a demand on staffing resources for supervision outside the school and on the corridors. We anticipate some children may need a little extra care and attention as they return to school after such a long spell at home. To allow for all of these circumstances, we feel that the common-sense, and safe, approach is to wait until Tuesday 1st September for your children to start Junior Infants. The class teachers, along with myself and the Deputy Principal Ms Therese Shortall, and some members for the Special Educational Needs (SEN) team will be on hand to guide and support your little ones on their big day. We will contact you in advance of the 1st September with the logistics for the first morning, and details regarding home time. Assuming they will start at 9am (this is what we are planning for, but if staggered start times are necessary throughout the school, then we may have a later start time), your child will go home at 12 noon for the first week.
The children have now been allocated into the three classes, and two of the three teachers have been assigned. The interview process for the third position will be held in late July. I will update this group once the process is complete. On the webpage dedicated to you, http://www.scoilmochua.com/junior-infants-2020.html, we refer to video clips for your children. These are now available, and I will text each class this morning with your child’s class details, and the password to access your class video. As one appointment it still to be made, this class just has an address from me for now. Once the teacher is appointed, we will upload a video and I will alert you so that your child can become familiar with his/her teacher.
Thanks for your patience at this time. We hope to host a meeting for all Junior Infant parents in September to introduce you to the school, and to talk about what you can expect, and how you can best support your child, in Junior Infants. If it is not possible to host this in the school, we will organise an online meeting.
I hope you all have a lovely, safe summer, and we are really looking forward to getting to know your child in Scoil Mochua, and being an important part of their lives over the next 8 years. Boys and girls, have a great summer and we can’t wait to have lots of fun with you in September!
Kind Regards,
Catherine Carragher, Principal
12/06/2020
Dear Parents,
I hope you are all keeping well, and that your little ones are getting excited about going to ‘big school’. We are very much looking forward to welcoming them after the summer. We hope to be able to confirm the start date in the next week or two. We are growing increasingly optimistic that the return to school will be as close to normal as possible. We are certainly keeping everything crossed!
The book lists for your children are available here. These need to be purchased by you over the summer. There is also a School Charge to be paid over the summer. This covers things like art materials, pencils, library materials, photocopying, IT, etc. Those of you with older children in the school have already received payment details, and a breakdown, for these charges. We are still working through the process of inputting your details, from the registration forms, into our administration system. Once this is complete, we will email you with the breakdown of the school charges. You can then log in to the online Payment System here and make the payment. Our system allows you to pay in instalments if this suits you. The full amount due will appear against your name, but you can enter an amount that suits you, and the outstanding balance will reduce. If you have any queries, or any issues with the online payment system, please email us at info@scoilmochua.com.
We have updated this page with some pictures and videos to help your child become familiar with the school. There is also a virtual tour of one of our current Junior Infant classrooms. While your child will be in a different classroom, it will be similar to this. There is also a lovely PowerPoint presentation on a typical Junior Infant day. I am sure you will enjoy talking through this with your child. Please check back soon for further updates. We will send on the password for the section containing the video clips recorded by the new Junior Infant teachers and myself soon.
Emails will be sent to the address you provided on the Registration Form. Please check regularly for communications from the school.
Many thanks,
Catherine Carragher, Principal
Dear Parents,
I hope you are all keeping well, and that your little ones are getting excited about going to ‘big school’. We are very much looking forward to welcoming them after the summer. We hope to be able to confirm the start date in the next week or two. We are growing increasingly optimistic that the return to school will be as close to normal as possible. We are certainly keeping everything crossed!
The book lists for your children are available here. These need to be purchased by you over the summer. There is also a School Charge to be paid over the summer. This covers things like art materials, pencils, library materials, photocopying, IT, etc. Those of you with older children in the school have already received payment details, and a breakdown, for these charges. We are still working through the process of inputting your details, from the registration forms, into our administration system. Once this is complete, we will email you with the breakdown of the school charges. You can then log in to the online Payment System here and make the payment. Our system allows you to pay in instalments if this suits you. The full amount due will appear against your name, but you can enter an amount that suits you, and the outstanding balance will reduce. If you have any queries, or any issues with the online payment system, please email us at info@scoilmochua.com.
We have updated this page with some pictures and videos to help your child become familiar with the school. There is also a virtual tour of one of our current Junior Infant classrooms. While your child will be in a different classroom, it will be similar to this. There is also a lovely PowerPoint presentation on a typical Junior Infant day. I am sure you will enjoy talking through this with your child. Please check back soon for further updates. We will send on the password for the section containing the video clips recorded by the new Junior Infant teachers and myself soon.
Emails will be sent to the address you provided on the Registration Form. Please check regularly for communications from the school.
Many thanks,
Catherine Carragher, Principal