Today we had a guest speaker, Jamie Wilson, for our fifth and sixth year PE class. We have finished covering the topic on the role of a coach. Jamie kindly accepted our invitation to speak about his role as a coach within FAI, bringing the lesson to life! Jamie is Deaf himself and has gone on to achieve a high level of coaching qualifications. Working as head coach for Shelbourne U17s and Ireland U17s football team, he is a great role model for our students as they prepare to finish secondary school. Our students and staff enjoyed his presentation. Dream big and you’ll win big!
Irish Deaf Society has organised an Internet Safety for Kids and Families talk for safer Internet Day. Please read more information below.
Message from Trend Micro Europe, information about delivering cyber safety education free into our community. As part of their global Internet Safety for Kids and Families (ISKF) programme and to celebrate Safer Internet Day (Tuesday, Feb 9th) they will host a cyber safety night for parents on zoom.
The cyber safety talk will address many challenges facing parents/guardians everywhere and they would like to extend their invite to you, your colleagues, friends and family; especially those in our Deaf community. See poster attached and further details about the event:
5th Years take on Jerusalema Challenge Inspired by the Gardai video that went viral, our 5th years decided to try to take on the Jerusalema challenge with PE Teacher Mrs O’Regan. Mrs O’Regan began class with a video showing the origin of the song and the dance which can be seen here
The song reflects on the promise and hope. So as we live in a Covid19 world, it is important to know that there is promise and hope ahead of us. It was particularly difficult to do in such a small space and via a screen, it wouldn’t be called a challenge after all. After several attempts, the dance shapes our students were throwing began to look familiar! Well done to the 5th Year students. Take a look at our video below to see how they did!
If you want to learn it yourself, follow the video we used!
I hope this email finds you and your families safe and well.
I email to confirm that Holy Family will re-open next Thursday 11th February.
Please see attached the Letter to Principals from the Department of Education & Skills which was sent to the schools yesterday evening. It gives the basis for the reopening and references important documents to help schools prepare.
We are very busy studying this documentation from the Department of Education and will update our Covid 19 Response Plan to ensure to the maximum extent possible, the health and safety of our pupils, staff and extended families.
I will be sharing this updated plan with you and sending you regular updates as we move closer to Thursday 11th. We will translate the key messages for parents and pupils into ISL and upload them to our website.
The Guidance on re-opening of Special Schools states that only 50% of pupils can attend school every day. I will be sending you our schedule for this attendance as early as possible next week. It is likely, but not confirmed as yet, that our Early Intervention & Primary pupils will attend on alternative days e.g. Monday/ Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday. Pupils will attend for either 2 days or 3 days each week. All pupils will have the same time in school over a 2 week period. On the days the class group is at home online or remote teaching will continue to be provided.
Post Primary Classes are likely, but not as yet confirmed, to attend either for 3 days or two days in sequence every week i.e. Mon/Tues/Wed or Thursday/Friday. All pupils will have the same time in school over a two week period. There may be special provision for 6th year Exam pupils to attend on a fulltime basis. This is a model that best fits with Boarding. On the days the class group is at home online or remote teaching will be provided.
We hope that all pupils can return to our school. I would be grateful if you would let me know by Monday 8th February at the latest if your son or daughter will not be returning to school.We need this information to finalize our planning and to notify our bus escorts.
If your son or daughter is not returning to school, we will endeavour to put supports in place for the days they are not attending live schooling. But this will very much depend on the availability of staff to provide this support. It will not be possible for the class teacher to teach students in school and at home at the same time.
School Transport
I understand that grants can be provided to parents/guardians if they wish to bring their own children to school rather than use school transport for this limited period until all schools reopen.
I hope to be able to give you more information and share links to School Transport to apply for this grant as soon as possible.
Illness
It is of HUGE IMPORTANCE that your son or daughter DOES NOT COME TO SCHOOL WHEN THEY ARE SICK. Please err on the side of caution if your child is unwell. I will be directing bus escorts not to allow any child who is unwell onto the school buses.
We MUST keep our school community safe!
Short videos for parents from public health doctors will be circulated to reaffirm the importance of keeping COVID-19 out of education facilities by keeping symptomatic children at home
Every Parent MUST complete and RETURN the attached declaration form.
It is also available at this link:
Parents of children returning in this phase will be asked by the school to complete the declaration form at the attached link: This form is to be used when children are returning to the setting after any absence.
You can email this completed form to info@holyfamilydeafschool.ie or the child can return the form on his or her first day back to school.
If your son or daughter becomes unwell during the school day, You MUST be in a position to collect your son or daughter. Sick pupils are not allowed to travel on school or public transport.
I hope this information is helpful and I will continue to share our plans as they develop with you in the coming days.
Please also check our Website for updates.
Kindest regards,
Eimear
Letter from Department of Education to Principals below
A photography prompt list has been created for the challenge. Daily prompts invite students to take photographs of people, places, and things all within two kilometres of their homes. The prompts focus on different visual features including texture, pattern, colour, and shape. Students can participate by responding to the daily prompts and forwarding their entries to M.Owens@holyfamilydeaf.com and D.cleland@holyfamilydeaf.com.
RTÉ is delighted to confirm that from Monday, February 1st students and their families can view Home School Hub ISL from 10am to 12pm on RTÉjr, mirroring the Home School Hub delivery on RTÉ2.
This new series of Home School Hub ISL will be signed by native ISL presenters Marcus, Jennifer and Tom and will broadcast at 10am Monday to Friday on RTÉjr, followed at 11am by repeat episodes from the first series of Home School Hub ISL.
You can find RTÉjr on UPC /Virgin channel 600/ Saorview channel 7 and Sky channel 617.
This means that from Monday, all children and families will have access to avirtual classroom from 10am-12 noon, either on RTÉ2 or RTÉ Jr and RTÉ Player.
In addition to the broadcast on RTÉjr, the ISL Home School Hub will also stream ‘live’ on the RTÉ Player in its dedicated ISL area which you can find here: https://www.rte.ie/player/onnow/66546216063:
Home School Hub ISL will be available after broadcast here:
RTÉ 2 will continue to broadcast a number of ISL programmes for children during the week including Storytime, Body Brothers, Wild Kids and Drop Dead Weird.
We know this is a challenging time for all parents and their children and we’re committed to supporting the deaf community in whatever way we can. We’re organising a virtual visit by the News2Day team in February in the Holy Family School for The Deaf’s sixth class as well as an on line careers talk for the TY class.
Finally, we’ve added a new feature in RTÉ Player on desktop computers to easily select ISL versions of programmes (where available).
A switch to default to always play ISL (where available) regardless of Sign In:
And the ability to see (and where applicable, select) if an episode has ISL before you play it:
(Click the black ‘Irish Sign Language’ button to turn it red and then click ‘Watch Now’)
All available ISL catch up programmes (Kids and all other genres) can be found here:
As you are aware the plan to re-open Special Schools on Thursday 21st January has now been reversed by the Department of Education & Skills.
Holy Family will therefore not re-open tomorrow.
We very much look forward to our return and fully understand the challenges for our pupils learning from home, and for you their parents in support, at this very challenging time.
Please continue to reach out to your son or daughters’ teachers and SNAs for support.
Please also continue to log on to our website for news and updates.
Following the government announcement that all special schools are to reopen from Thursday 21st of January, we will contact parents to share plans for the return to school as soon as available. Online teaching & learning will continue as planned next Monday.
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