Dear parents,

Thank you very much for your cooperation last week.  The school book collection went very well and over 90% of our families collected their books.  A huge thank you to our staff who facilitated the collection. We are just glad that you received the books before the latest restrictions came into force.  I also wish to extend a sincere word of thanks to the members of our parent body who volunteered advice and support during the past fortnight.  It is very much appreciated. Parents who didn’t get a chance to collect the schoolbooks may be able to view them online.  The main publishers have made their books available online. The links will be posted on our school website. 

The teachers are now in a position to assign a suggested programme of work.  Each teacher will post a notice on Aladdin tomorrow morning at 9am. The notice will contain a link to a shared Google folder where you can view the programme.  This link will remain the same for the duration of the extended school closure. Please feel free to access the documents at a time that best suits you. 

Mindful of the exceptional times we are currently experiencing, we do not wish to add further stress to family life, but rather to help provide structure to your child’s learning while they are at home. You, the parents, are best placed to choose and monitor their child’s engagement with the suggested activities.   Engage as much as you can.  

Not every family will be in a position to participate in the Home Learning activities.  As a staff, we understand this and value every family’s decision equally. There is no obligation on families to complete the activities we will suggest.  Everyone’s main focus should be on keeping safe and healthy. We have to look after “happy” and “safe” before we look at “learning” so please don’t feel under pressure.

I would ask parents to please be cognisant of the fact that the sharing of ideas, photographs, movies, etc of their children’s school work on the various social media platforms can be a source of stress for other households.  However, the teachers would love to receive photographs of the children’s work and projects. The teachers will offer guidance on the best way to this during the week.

Tech Support?

There are a few things that can go wrong and please don’t hesitate to ask for help. I can generally help you so a quick email to office@milfordns.ie will generally work but if I can’t help, I will send a message to our Tech Experts who hopefully will be able to sort everything out. 

Finally, to those parents who work in the health services and other front line services, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Take care everyone.  Please do not hesitate to contact us at school (office@milfordns.ie) if you think we can help in any way.

Le gach dea-ghuí,

Diarmaid