Presentation Primary School

As we enter the final month of this most challenging of school years. We can only be grateful for all that we have at this time and say thank you to everyone who has helped us locally and nationally through the past couple of months.

Before I share some recent photos with you, here are some updates on our current situation.

Teachers will continue to mark school work up until Friday, 12th June. We ask that everyone continues with the great work that has been done for these last few days. We assure you that the work is important and will stand to each child on their return to school next September.

Speaking of returning to school, we eagerly await an announcement from Minister for Education, Joe McHugh, which is due shortly in relation to how we will return to school in September. There are many theories, rumours and guesses as to what school will look like in September but we ask you to be patient and we will inform you of our decisions and plan once the government advise us on what is permissible. In the meantime, if you do have concerns please feel free to contact me via email at principal@presprimarythurles.ie. Rest assured that we will be doing everything in our power to have the children return to school as often as is allowed, in a manner where they feel safe, relaxed and a sense of normality.

Our plan for the week of June 15th to 19th is that teachers will plan and organise some fun activities. Again we encourage all parents to stay connected via Aladdin Connect and join in the fun!

We haven’t forgotten about a graduation ceremony either – we will be in touch once we have a clearer picture of what is appropriate following the June 8th Phase 2 re-opening.

End of Year Reports will be sent out as normal this year. These will be released via Aladdin Connect on Tuesday, 16th June. Anyone who wishes to have a paper copy can request one and collect it on June 23rd/24th.

Our final task will then be to gather the book rental books that the pupils are using at the moment and return to each of them their belongings from school. On Tuesday and Wednesday, 23rd and 24th June, we will arrange that all parents will return your child’s school books to the school and collect any final items, such as pencil cases, art work etc. We also hope to be in a position to hand out the GAA equipment which was purchased just before we closed.

Now that you are up to speed on all of that, here are some photos of the week gone by. First up some first class pupils who were on a materials hunt around the house!

Firstly I want to say a big, big thank you to all of you for coming to collect your books in school on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was great to see you and chat about what you have been up to at home with your family. I was delighted to hear that you enjoyed our video message (sorry to hear it made some of you cry!) The video has now been viewed over 2000 times and we hope you continue to enjoy it a few more times!

As we near the end of the month of May, I’m sure some of you are finding it more difficult to get stuck into the work. But now that you have your school books, we hope it will be easier. We have only 3 weeks of school work left so lets keep it going and finish strong!

Here are some of the images from the past week!

First up is a collections of photos from 3rd class who used nature to produce some stunning art! This is definitely worth a look so click and enjoy!

Next up are our Junior Infants. This week they have been learning all about partitioning in Maths, Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and about wild flowers.

Thank you to all who sent in photos during the week.

Stay safe and feel free to scroll down for one more view of our video!

Here is a very special message which everyone at Presentation Primary School wants to share with the boys and girls at home.

We are very aware that being away from school is difficult and can be lonely for some so we hope this video brings a smile to their faces.

We look forward to seeing you all (if only for a brief minute!) on Tuesday and Wednesday next as we ask you to come to school to collect school books which will help with learning at home.

We are very grateful for all you are doing at home to help your child continue their learning. It has been amazing to see the level of interaction, communication and dedication to the work that is being set. We hope this video message can inspire our pupils to continue to work hard, to know that we miss them and to be confident that we will all see each other soon back in our wonderful school.

Thank you, take care and talk to us if we can help at home in any way.

Here is the video message, from all of us to all of you! 

We start this post with a very special message from Ms. Ryan to those girls in our second class who should be making their First Holy Communion this Sunday.

To all the wonderful girls in 2nd Class,
I will be thinking of you most especially this Sunday, 17th
May 2020 on what would have been your Communion Day.
I hope you still enjoy the day with your family in the
knowledge that we have it all to look forward to!
We will have a great day when we finally get to celebrate!
With prayers for you all and a virtual hug.
Ms Ryan.

Today…..

Today’s the day you should have been
Getting up at dawn,
To comb your hair, calm your nerves
And put your new clothes on.

Today you should have found your pew
Among the busy crowd.
To join your hands, among your friends
And say your prayers aloud.

Today you should have proudly stood
At the altar in our Church.
And received onto your heart
Dear Jesus, who you love so much.

Today will not bring the
Celebrations as expected.
But this strange thing will pass, and bring
A community more connected.

Today you must enjoy the time
With those who love you dear,
And look forward to your special day
Which will come, don’t you fear.

We look forward to the day when we can celebrate this beautiful sacrament together.

Meanwhile there have been lots more lovely photos sent in this week. Here is a selection.

Junior Infants have been learning about birds.

Many of our pupils have taken the up the challenge of completing the Covid-19 Time-capsule which I posted here on the previous posting. We hope you enjoyed recording what your life is like at this moment so you can look back at it in years to come. Here are some of your most recent moments!

I hope you all enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend. Lots of you were busy and enjoying the wonderful weather we had. As many of you may have seen I was very busy too in my new home office!

Zindy was genuinely busy though. She complete the Covid-19 Time Capsule which is a super project to do if you haven’t already do it. Here is Zindy’s Time Capsule.

And so the summer begins! It might be an unusual time in all our lives but the seasons continue to change and thankfully the weather has been very summer-like for the past few weeks. I hope you are enjoying the sunshine and making the most of this time with your family.

Thank you for continuing to send in photos of you working at home over the past week. Keep them coming and enjoy seeing some familiar faces here on our blog.

Junior Infants have been learning all about Transport and 3D shapes this week and here are some of you photos.

Ms. Gleeson’s first class have been writing letters this week. They wrote letters to their teacher, their grandparents and friends.

Here are pictures Ms. Gleeson received in response to a poem called ‘Time We Spring Cleaned the World’ which they learned as part of Poetry Day Ireland. They had to read it and draw a picture in response. 

More to come…

Here are the most recent photos sent to me…keep them coming!!

As another week of school closure comes to an end I want to say thank you to all our pupils and parents who are working so hard at home to complete the work the teachers are setting for you. I know many of you are using the new feature on Aladdin which allows you to send your work back to your teacher for review and we hope this is helping. Thank you also for the many messages of support and gratitude which you have shared. If you need us, we are here – the school mobile is 083 0884122 or you can email me at principal@presprimarythurles.ie

Here are some pictures from the week gone by.

We look forward to seeing more of you photos next week. Enjoy the weekend and well done. We miss you all and look forward to seeing you back in he Pres as soon as we can.

A special word of thanks to all the mammies and daddies out there who are working on the front-line to ensure we all have food, medical care and security. Stay Safe and Stay at Home.

Welcome back after the Easter break. We are back distance learning and sharing some of the wonderful work that our pupils are doing at home. Please feel free to send me on your pictures, stories, photos or whatever you are happy to share.

Elle in 6th Class was certainly busy over the Easter. She completed these two very challenging jigsaws and is also becoming a very talented artist. I hear she is taking inspiration from Bob Ross on YouTube should you wish to try it. Well done Elle – Perhaps I could buy one of those pictures for my office?

Danny in Senior Infants has been learning about churches this week in Religion and he drew and coloured this masterpiece.