Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope that you and all your families are keeping well during this time of crisis.

This is a really strange time but the following tips and ideas might make the next few weeks at home a little more manageable. Maybe some of them will be useful for you and maybe some won’t work, so pick and choose to best suit your children.

While I think it is absolutely brilliant to see so many companies, teachers and other educators sharing ideas and activities for you to use at home, I do also find that it can be totally overwhelming and can lead to parents and guardians wondering if they are doing enough or comparing themselves to other parents. You know your child best – you know what they need and what works best for them, so do it your own way. Don’t be under any pressure to complete every single fantastic idea that you see. Pick and choose what you think will work best for you and your family.
This is a difficult time for everyone. It’s strange to be working from home, particularly as we are not really sure when this will all be over. Our ‘normal’ day to day routines are completely changed. The same goes for the children. This is a tricky time for them – I imagine the initial delight of having 2 weeks off school has worn off a bit as they are not able to just carry on as normal, meeting and playing with friends and going to basketball, dance or gymnastics. Let them have time to just be children as they try to make sense of what is happening and process the changes to their normal lives.

Activities/School work
Your child’s teacher sent home work for the initial fortnight. Going forward teachers will send a weekly workbank comprising of 5 days work to you on each Monday morning during normal school time. Can you encourage your child to complete the work that has been assigned on a day to day basis as if your child were in school.
This work will be sent via the school website on your child’s class page(in the class blogs).

Please use this time also to revise what the child has learned already and then maybe give them some challenges based on what they’ve learned.
Teach your child ‘real life’ skills – baking and cooking, sewing on a button, putting on a wash, folding laundry, ironing, budgeting, money, telling the time, cleaning etc.

Most importantly, I hope that we as a community are staying well and healthy.
On behalf of the staff of Presentation Primary School, I wish that each and every family in the school may journey safely through this difficult time.

Le meas,

Carol Leonard,
Principal.

==============================================================Letter from DES

Covid-19 information available in different languages

Dear Principal, Teachers & Parents,

In the current climate of uncertainty, the Department of Education and Skills appreciates that students, staff and parents are being affected in various ways by the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are equally aware that there are many students and parents in Ireland for whom English/Irish is not their first language.

With this in mind, the Department of Health and the HSE have produced Covid-19 resources in a range of languages other than Irish and English which you can access below:

https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/covid19-updates/partner-resources/covid-19-translated-resources/

The languages currently available are Chinese, Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Latvian and Lithuanian.

It is vital that this information reaches the students and parents who need it most. Given the important role you play in your own communities around the country, we are asking you to share this information in a way that is appropriate to your school community.

The site above will continue to be updated with more resources, so we encourage you to check it regularly.

We hope this information will be useful and that it will make important information more accessible to everybody.

Thank you very much for your continued efforts in getting these important messages out there. It is much appreciated.

Pearse Ó Caoimh
Higher Executive Officer — Communications.
An Roinn Oideachais agus Scileanna
Department of Education and Skills