Dear Student, parent and Coláiste Clavin families,

I write to you to wish you well as we finish up for the summer holidays. What a strange last term it has been, online teaching and learning, social distancing from family and friends, online graduations, cancellation of state exams and questions and even more questions about what will happen in school in September?

The truth is, we don’t know yet. The Minister for Education, the HSE and the Government are working to keep us all safe while at the same time starting to reopen society and find safe ways for us to resume work and school. There are a few things which are certain; – Our Leaving Certificate students will receive their calculated grades and in time their CAO offers, so will leave our school and progress to college and future careers. Our Junior Certs will have received their JC results by post over the past few days, and congratulations to them too on their achievements. School and classes will continue next year. Our school community will work together to find a way to overcome the challenges so that you will receive your education in the best way possible. Remember my favourite saying….alone we are great, but together we are brilliant….we WILL be together again.

Our present 2nd, 3rd,TY and 5th years will continue to move forward to their next year of study as usual. We did think that we might start The Leaving Certificate Applied Programme, but with so much uncertainty this year we have deferred starting that programme for the moment. The Transition year programme will be on offer again next year. We still have a few limited places available on that programme, and we urge our current third year students who may be worrying about how to catch up on the class/time missed during the school closure to consider doing Transition year. It may help lessen the impact of the covid-19 on your school progress and give you the time to consider your future career options. If you are interested in finding out more on that email [email protected]

All year groups will have the opportunity to collect the items that will be cleared from their lockers as soon as the government allows us to open the school to more people. We will advise you about that and how it will happen in time by email and text. 1st, 2nd and 5th Year reports will be available on eportal shortly. We will send a text to parents to advise of when they are ready.

Geraldine in the office will soon be sending you the information regarding Student contribution, ebook orders etc. Earlier this year we conducted a survey about the use of iPads in our school. The results of that survey overwhelmingly showed to all of the partners in education (students, teachers and parents) wished for a blended approach and that is what we will do. As 1st and 5 th year place orders for books they will receive hard copies of the books delivered to their homes (and will be used at home) while they will also have ebooks uploaded to their iPads for use in school. This will follow on for all year students over the coming years. iPads and ebooks may be ordered through Wriggle, you will receive a text from school to advise when the store is open to start that process. This will be slightly delayed this year due to the pandemic so please bear with us, we are working hard to get all the arrangements in place with Wriggle, book companies etc.

We wish to remind all students now that when school reopens every student will be required to attend in full uniform including PE Uniform, black shoes, PE Tracksuits and school jackets. All of those can be purchased through TED MURTAGHs in Haggard Street, Trim. We are stressing that black shoes will be enforced this year, so we are asking parents please do not purchase black runners. Your child will not be permitted to wear them in school. Also school jackets must be worn – others will not be permitted.

Lists of class equipment required by individual teachers such as maths sets, calculators, copies and folders will be advised to students when we return to class, there is no need to buy those additional items until you are asked to do so by your subject teachers.

We look forward to welcoming over 100 new first year students to our school when we return. This will be a difficult transition for them, but we will be sure to offer them a warm welcome and help them settle. Our 5th year mentors and Student council will play a big part in all of that. Over the summer you are encouraged to check your emails the school website and follow our twitter account to remain aware of any changes or announcements. The school building will close for July but we will reopen in August and will keep you updated on the plans for reopening.

We do have a provisional calendar prepared for the year ahead, and that will be posted on the school website soon. School is expected to re-commence on the week of the 26th August but again we await official advice from the Chief Medical Officer and the Department of Education on this.

We want to take this opportunity to thank Ms Cawley (Guidance) and Ms Strappe (Irish) who will leave our school soon. We thank Ms Brennan and Ms O’Byrne for their work, kindness and support throughout the year. Finally, we want to wish you and your families well, we ask you to stay safe, obey the guidelines on social distancing, take care of yourself and others.

Enjoy your holiday….summer is here.

This video was created to celebrate the Graduation of the LC Class 2020 – we hope you enjoy it

Kind Regards Margaret Deegan │ Principal │ Coláiste Clavin │ LMETB │ (046) 955 5018