Dear Parents,
We are now in Term 3 of the most unusual school year of our lives. I hope that you and your loved ones are well.
By now, most people will have been able to get into some sort of routine with their children. You are all receiving schedules of work from the teachers and we hope that you and your children are up and running on the platforms and are engaging with the school work.
The message today as always is to focus on the positives and do what you can. The more you and they engage the easier it will become but don’t panic if your still getting to grips with it all or have days where no school work gets done.
The younger the child, the shorter the amount of time you can expect to spend on ‘academic work’. We would recommend about one full hour for younger children and two full hours for older children over the course of the day of ‘academic ‘ tasks. That would be fantastic if you can manage it.
Remember children are always learning. Playing a board game, jigsaws, lego etc. will challenge them in a fun way and will feel like a break for the children. Keeping fit, reading books or listening to audio books are all great ways to encourage further engagement and to promote a healthy body and mind.
It is extremely important that you give yourself a break also. The RTE hub from 11am to 12 noon might give you a chance to do that. This is suitable for children from 1st to 6th class.
I am delighted to have received lots of emails from you thanking us for our efforts to support our families. I have also received some emails from parents who are worried about the level of support that they can give their children with their online learning. Please do not think that the other parents are all managing to do a great job with this. Everyone is struggling. This situation has been thrust upon us all and we have to do what is best for us and for our families.
You know your family best. You know your children best. You know what resources are available to you in your home (computers, iphones or ipads, text books etc). You know what space you have in your home for children to learn. You know what other work or health related stresses might be on your family. But most of all you and only you know how to strike the right balance for your family. Remember that when this is all over, we will work really hard with your children to make sure that they recover in their learning.
So, be kind to yourselves and your children. Do what you can and what makes sense in your family. Health and well-being are more important than ever during this Covid -19 emergency.
Contact your child’s class teachers with any concerns about log-ins or online work. They will be available to answer your questions.
If you have other concerns about your family or your children’s well-being please contact me (principal@lucaneastet.ie) or Sinéad (Home School Liaison Teacher; sinead@lucaneastet.ie) in the strictest of confidence and we will do our best to help you out.
Warmest regards to you all,
Gráinne