Happy New Year to you all. Thank you all for your kind Christmas wishes.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I look forward to hearing about Santa’s presents, when I meet my class again on Monday morning!   I am very much looking forward to beginning Zoom Classes with you every day!

      We will begin each morning at 9.30. Pupils may wish to have a small snack to hand, as we will have a short break at approximately 10.45.  This will include a short guided movement break.  Class will continue until approximately 11.30/11.40 for Fourth Class and 11.45/12.00 for Fifth with a little bit of homework/ independent work to be completed afterwards.

        This homework will be prepared in the Zoom Class and hopefully, everyone will be able to complete it,  without any further help. All classwork/homework should, hopefully, be completed by 12.30, approximately, if children are continuing with it after the live Zoom Class.  Of course, independent work/homework can be completed at any other time during the day, if your child needs a break directly after the live Zoom class.

Obviously, as we get into the swing  of things, this may be adjusted if it proves necessary. Hopefully the classes will prove pleasant and enjoyable, as well as productive. We will also discuss options for some active, outdoor homework as part of our Active Flag.

    Written work can be completed in a copy, preferably the same one for all remote learning work, or on sheets of paper which can be stapled together and placed in the children’s folder, when we return to school.

We will be using textbooks a bit more than last year, which will, hopefully, alleviate demand on shared devices.

 The children will need to have their textbooks and pencil cases to hand each day for class. All classwork and homework will be discussed and corrected orally, each day, but, as last year, please photograph the children’s Maths/English written homework and e mail it to me on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I will send feedback by e mail. The emphasis will be on quality rather than quantity, with good vocabulary,  sentence structure, punctuation and handwriting encouraged.

        I know that Fourth and Fifth Class have wonderful creative minds and love to explore, so there will also be a few optional extension activities, each week which may spark interest! Hopefully, everyone will try some of them, at some stage.  All the useful resources from last year are still on our website. While we will be clashing with RTE Home School Hub, each day’s episode will be available on RTE Player, if anyone would like to watch it, beginning on Monday 11th and Cúla 4 ar Scoil returns on Monday 11th.

       Hopefully Zoom will run flawlessly for us all, over the coming weeks, but just in case, I attach the plan of work for the class, which we will be completing each day, throughout the week. If there is any glitch, on a particular morning, children can start straight into the work and I will follow up with an e mail and hopefully, a solution!!  This is a new departure for us, as a class, but we will gradually get used to it, I have no doubt. It will be great to keep connected until we are back in class in school again.

Every good wish,

Rath Dé ar an obair,

S.English