Author: John Hurley

Dear parents
We hope that you are keeping well. Since our last letter to you on the 14th August, we have continued to work hard to get our school ready for reopening.
Our priority is to minimise any potential introduction of Covid-19 into our school.

We would like to remind you that;

• Visitor access to the school will be very limited. Parents can only be allowed access if an appointment has been made.
• Any student who has been abroad to countries outside the Green List are required to quarantine for a full two weeks before they return to school.
• Parents should remain vigilant around symptoms and keep their children isolated at home if they are experiencing flu like symptoms.

Our safety matters and with this in mind, we are introducing the following measures:

• All students must sanitise their hands when they enter our school.
• There are 75 Hand Sanitising point clearly identified around our school
• To avoid crowds, students will be designated an entry and exit point at the start and end of each school day. These entry / exit points will be clearly identified for the students during our first week back in school
• Please arrive at school as close as possible to 8.55am and once your son / daughter is in school, they must go straight to class.
• All classes will remain in their classroom for tuition and lunchtimes.
• All students will be allocated a specific seat in their base classroom.
• Lockers have been moved into the rooms and each student will be allocated their own individual locker.
• Year Groups will remain together in pods around the building e.g. Fifth Years will be based in B05 and B07. The students will remain in those classes for the majority of their classes.
• The students will have to move to subjects such as Art, PE, Computer Science etc.
• Classes will be allocated designated toilet facilities specifically for certain Year Groups close to their respective pod area.

A reminder that students must wear MASKS in school. If your son/daughter cannot wear
a mask for medical reasons then you must provide a medical cert to the school before your
son/daughter returns to school.

Thank you for your full support and we are looking forward to seeing your son / daughter
back in our school

Take care
Kieran Golden, Kathleen Daly

As part of the Calculated Grades process, the Department of Education and Skills asks all Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied students to opt-in to the calculated grades process.

The full instructions can be viewed by clicking on this link

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

• Pen and Paper
• Exam Number
• PPS Number
• Email address (Make sure it’s one you will be able to access over the next few months)
• Your phone number

When you are satisfied that you have those, go to: https://lc2020.education.gov.ie/

Good Luck!

Dear Applicant,
This is an important email, read it now and follow the instructions carefully. Please do not ignore. Please note: Due to Covid-19 restrictions CAO will not be sending a postal Statement of Application Record this year.
This Statement of Application Record email has been sent to instruct you to log in and verify that all of your information has been recorded completely and correctly on your CAO Account. Failure to follow this instruction may have serious consequences for your application.

Please take the following steps:
Step 1. Read the instructions on the Statement of Application Record page online at http://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=aboutStmt . On this page you will also find a link to additional information which relates specifically to your application type(s), e.g. Leaving Certificate, QQI FET, GCE, and Other Applicants – including Mature applicants and those presenting Other School Leaving Qualifications. Please make sure to read this information carefully.

Step 2. Log in to your CAO Account to review your account information, including your personal information, your examination information, supporting documentation (if you supplied any) and your course choices. Do not delay. If you have applied for an NUI and/or TCD exemption, check that it is recorded on your account.

Step 3. If there are any errors or omissions inform CAO immediately. Failure to correct errors or omissions at this stage may have very serious consequences and lead to the loss of a place.
Please note: If your examination has been replaced by calculated/predicted grades we still require your examination number (or board, centre and candidate number for GCE applicants) for administrative purposes.

Notifying CAO of errors or omissions:
In some instances you may be able to edit/update your account information yourself using the My Application facility, for example personal details (except for name or date of birth), course choices or examination information. Simply log in to your CAO account and update the information in the relevant sections. If we receive your changes/updates before the end of May they will be updated to your account in early June. For more information on updating these sections, go to the instructions page online at http://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=aboutStmt. In other instances you will need to email CAO via the Correspondence Section of your account to inform us of any errors or omissions, for example an exemption that has not been recorded, an incorrect name or date of birth, or missing documentation.
Please note that only documents received by CAO up to 25th March have been uploaded to applicant accounts. Documents received after 25th March will be processed and uploaded to your account when our office re-opens. If this applies to you, you will be notified and given an opportunity to view your documents at a later date – check your documents when instructed to do so and no later than 30th June.

Other important information:
The CAO Change of Mind facility will operate as usual, opening on the 5th May at noon and closing on the 1st July at 17:15. If you wish to make changes to your course choices you must do so online at our website: www.cao.ie before 5.15pm on 1st July.  Go to `My Application` and log in to your account. There is no fee for this facility and you may use it more than once. Carefully read the instructions on page 14 & 15 of the 2020 CAO Handbook. Additional instructions and a `Change of Mind Video Guide` are available here: http:// www.cao.ie/index.php?page=aboutCOM Over the coming weeks, CAO will hold further discussions with the State Examinations Commission about the expected revised timeline for the provision of Leaving Certificate grades. Following on from this, CAO and HEIs will continue to discuss the impact this change will have on the existing offers and acceptances schedule. We will be notifying you as soon as a revised schedule has been agreed by CAO and HEIs.
Yours sincerely,
CAO Information Service

There is a lot of confusion in the matter of students and parents contacting school staff.

Students may need to contact school staff for legitimate reasons such as careers advice, support, etc.

In this matter, we  will follow the following advice from the DES

However, In advance of any planned interaction with students a clear statement must be communicated to students and parents/guardians that the guidance counsellor will not be engaging in discussions regarding the calculated grading process or potential marks awarded by teachers. Guidance Counsellors, teachers and students may not discuss the student’s achievement in the subject over the past two years.  Nor can they discuss the student’s ranking in a class, or their estimated mark or the level at which an estimated mark is to be provided in a subject.

All conversations between Leaving Certificate students and members of the School’s Student Support Team, during this time, need to be prefaced with a statement such as the following:

‘As part of our conversation today we are prohibited from having any discussion about student achievement over the past 2 years, student ranking in a class, student’s estimated mark or the level an estimated mark is to be provided in a subject.

If our conversation strays into speaking about any of these matters, our meeting will have to cease immediately.’

Guidelines from Department of Education & Science, FAQ #33

For more information go to the Department of Education & Skills website:

https://www.education.ie/en/Learners/Information/State-Examinations/leaving-cert-2020.html

There is an FAQ page regularly updated at:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/d8920c-leaving-cert-2020/?referrer=/leavingcertificate/

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

3 rd February 2020
Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),
ACCS has informed the Board of Management that all TUI members have been directed to take strike action on Tuesday 4 th February. Pickets will be placed on all schools where TUI members are employed on that day.

Due to this strike action, the Board of Management will not be in a position to discharge its responsibilities with regard to the care of students in its charge on that day.
The Board of Management is therefore requesting you not to send your son/daughter to school on Tuesday 4 th February.

The Board of Management regrets that this course of action is necessary. The Board has no wish to interrupt the education of students in this school.

Yours sincerely,
Mr. Paul O’Leary
Chairperson of the Board of Management.

Mayfield Community School students were invited to entertain guests at this year’s National Association of Principal and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Gala Dinner in Kilkenny.
The Gala Dinner was attended by Deputy Joe McHugh. Minister for Education and Skills and his officials, representatives from the management bodies, trusts, parent bodies, teacher trade unions and over three hundred school principals and deputy principals.

The Gala Dinner paid tribute to Kieran Golden, Principal of Mayfield Community School, who has acted as President of NAPD for the last school year. The Presidency has been a great honour for Mayfield Community School and its principal, Kieran Golden.
NAPD is the only professional association representing principals and deputy principals from all sectors and has over one thousand members. The National Conference this year was held at the Lyrath Hotel in Kilkenny and registration had to be closed at 600 delegates. Kieran Golden’s keynote Presidential address took place on Friday morning and all delegates were looking forward to the Minister for Education’s response.

The students from Mayfield Community School sang, danced, and played a variety of instruments at the start of the Gala Dinner. They have all practised hard and worked closely with their teachers, John Casey, Siobhán Carne, Orla Byrne and Lisa Meaney.

Ms Daly, Deputy Principal of Mayfield Community School, said that “our school is very proud of Mr. Golden and are delighted that our students had the chance to show the audience at the Gala Dinner how talented they are.” All the money collected for the President’s Charity on the night will go to Cork Penny Dinners. This charity was chosen by Kieran Golden knowing that all the money raised will go to a great cause.

Our school,  as lead school in our local Digital Learning Cluster, reached the final of a Tech Leaders competition run by it@cork.

We were shortlisted in the category “Excellence in Education” which was kindly sponsored by Trend Micro.

Teacher Liam Begley, who started the Cluster and is also teaching the new Leaving Cert Computer Science course in our school was joined by John Hurley to accept the award.

The citation mentioned that our school uses G Suite, giving all students access to email and cloud storage; Our implementation of Computer Studies as a Leaving Certificate Subject; Our success in the Astro Pi competition where students had experiments used on the International Space Station; and our involvement in the local Digital Learning Cluster.