Letter to Parents/Guardians

John Hurley

Dear student / parent / guardian,
 I hope this message finds you well during these challenging times.  Further to the Government’s decision to close schools to support efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, I am writing to share with you what our school is doing to support your learning and what we will do to help you to mind yourselves and your family in the coming weeks.

You will remember that last Thursday, 12th March, we asked all students to bring home with them their books so they could study and work from home. All of our parents received a text as well. By any chance if you did not get a text from the school, will you email me at kgolden@mayfieldcs.net and I will update that immediately.  Thank you. 

Over the coming weeks, our teachers will continue to work with you in a number of ways:

  • All of us have access to google classroom and your teachers have invited you to join their classes so you can continue to complete your assignments. If you have forgotten your password or log-in, please email jhurley@mayfieldcs.net and Mr Hurley will get you set up pretty quickly. Parents if you are not sure whether your child has logged in or not, send a message to jhurley@mayfieldcs.net or kgolden@mayfieldcs.net  and we can let you know straight away. 

Thank you to those of you have been so good at really getting involved in this way of learning. I know that many of you are doing really good work here. Thank you as well to those of you who have sent lovely pics of their work back to their teachers – we will award some prizes to the best pictures of artwork OR pictures of anything you cook or bake OR clips of you exercising / dancing in the next week. We’ll get some more details to you about that competition. Great prizes to be won 

  • There are really helpful directions on how to use google classroom on our facebook page, our school Instagram account and our school twitter feed. Keep a close eye on these social platforms as we are posting the best advice available on these official accounts.

  • Teachers will send work to you through our school addresses and you can reply using the email addresses given to you. All of this helps you to stay in a routine which is very important for your physical and mental health. 

 

  • There are some really good websites out there and all of these ones you can access for free:

      • https://irevise.com/ie (Additional notes and tutorials) use the code STUDYCENTRE and you will get free access for a month
      • www.studyclix.ie (Exam builders) all our Leaving Certificate students have full access to all their subjects 
      • The Educational Company of Ireland is giving you free access to their JC and LC e-books – for Junior Cert, the user name is jcedcobooks and the password is edco2020 and for the Leaving Cert, the username is lcedcobooks and the password is edco2020

Some updates from the State Examinations Commission

We heard yesterday, Thursday, 19th March that our Minister for Education announced the cancellation of the Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate Oral and Practical Tests. (Orals in Irish and French – Practical performance in LC Music and practical performances in JC Music and Home Economics)

All of our students will be awarded full marks for this part of the exam – yes you read that right – FULL MARKS. Now it is well within you to push on and get really good scores in those subjects. Go for it…

We will go through challenging times over the next few weeks. I would like to remind our students to be kind to their parents and to thank them for everything that they are doing for you. They want the best for you and it is important that we look out for each other.

I would ask all our students to do the following every day for the next seven days:

  • Get 30 minutes of fresh air

  • Be thankful for what you have

  • Clean your bedroom

  • Drink 2 litres of water

  • Do any 2 of the following: 60 second wall-sit, 10 push-ups, 20 jumping jacks

  • Say thank you to three people close to you

  • Wash your hands with soap at least ten times a day

We are in unchartered waters and our community will come together to find solutions. It is an unusual time for us all and we need to work together to delay and limit the transmission of the COVID-19 virus.  We encourage parents to emphasise the importance of social distancing to all in their care, so we as a nation can protect the most vulnerable in our communities.

We encourage all our students to do the best they possibly can in the coming weeks. We are very proud of you all, we miss you and we are thinking of you at this time.
Finally, I would like to thank all our staff for their commitment and dedication to support your daughter(s) and son(s).  Our staff and your daughter(s)/son(s) are a credit to our school community.
I am always contactable and if I can be of any help to anyone, please do not hesitate to contact me at kgolden@mayfieldcs.ie.

Take care, stay safe and mind yourselves and your loved ones.

 Yours faithfully,

Kieran Golden                                           Kathleen Daly

Principal                                                    Deputy Principal