Dear Parent / Guardian / Colleague / Board Member,

I hope you and your families are keeping well. We are now in the season of spring and hopefully the worst is behind us. I was recently struck by an image of snowdrops and daffodil stems side by side above the snowy grass on the last few days of January. It was a powerful image which in my mind depicts nature showing resilience and hope. We too have these qualities in abundance which have undoubtedly been tested these last 11 months. The darkest hour they say is before the dawn.  We long for a new dawn soon.

DES Update. We learned the following from the Department of Education & Skills this week the sequencing and timeframe for re-opening provision.

Phase 1 – Special schools will reopen from Thursday 11th February 2021

Phase 2- Primary Special Classes will reopen from Monday 22nd February 2021

Discussions will continue about further reopening of Primary Schools during February.

During the period of school closure, remote learning provision will continue to be made available to all pupils in line with each school’s remote learning plan.

To this end we are engaging with children who require additional needs through our Special Education Team (SET) and our Special Needs Assistants (SNA’s) As the process evolves we promise to keep you informed.

Home Schooling and Remote Learning. I hope this is going well for you and your family. If you have any concerns, questions or suggestions please liaise with the class teacher as a first port of call and secondly myself. The contact details you should have and if not they are all on our website ballymacns.com under the “contacts” section. The offer to loan i-pads still applies, please mention it to your child’s class teacher initially.

As a school, we will look for Data Sim cards from 3 which may be made available to help with connectivity. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee anything.

Departure. Miss Coleman was due to leave us today but owing to the pandemic and the goodwill of her new school, she will remain with us and Rang 3 until the current phase of offsite teaching and learning finishes.

Admission’s Policy. Thanks to those who have been in touch with a view to enroll their child. The closing date is the end of this month and I will be in touch in mid-March. Please pass on details to those interested.

Fun Activity. From the entries received, it is evident that our pupils and their families enjoyed the “Fun Activity” e-mailed last weekend. It was difficult, even for staff members to complete correctly. That said, well done to all those who participated and returned their entries by Wednesday. Thanks also for the nice comments. The entry chosen from those closest was Summer Peters. Maith thú Summer. We will try a similar fun item next week.

Conclusion. At our weekly staff meeting on zoom each Friday, I hear of all the good things being done and all the novel ways of children engaging with their teachers and vice versa. Well done to all, children, parents and staff. If we can help at all, please do not hesitate in contacting us. Slan agus beannacht.

Is mise,

Michael J. O’Ryan

Principal