Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced this morning that all schools in the country are to close, effective from 6pm today until 29th March. This is in an effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Ireland. We understand that this may cause difficulty and stress for families. Unfortunately, we have no control over this decision and we are obliged to abide by government decisions. We encourage you to consider your child(ren)'s emotional health and stress levels today and over the coming weeks. Please avoid exposing them to adult stress and worry, where possible, and give them opportunity to express how they are feeling. Generally, a child won't be able to say "I am stressed because..." or "I am worried because...". A child may instead present with challenging behaviour and rude words. Just be aware that this behaviour may be because of stress, worry and missing their regular routine.
To support your child’s learning at home during this period, we have created this page on our website, where we will upload Home Learning Plans for each class level. These plans contain suggested activities linked to the Primary School Curriculum. Your child can work on these activities while our school is closed. These activities are intended to give children an opportunity to revise some prior learning, as well as giving them an opportunity to further develop some of their skills.
As well as following the Home Learning suggestions, this can also be a time for children to embrace other learning opportunities, such as cooking, developing skills around the home, etc. We will include some other links which may be useful. A number of companies have already announced that they are opening their resources to parents and more will probably do so. As we learn of these, we will add links to these on this web page.
The concerts planned for 3rd April will not be going ahead, even if we are back at school by then.
We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday 30th March or whenever our government decides to reopen schools.
Best wishes as always,
Caitriona and all the team at Citywest ETNS.