Scoil Chormaic, with the support of the Board of Management, and with health and safety as our priority concern, have made the decision not to return school workbooks to pupils until September once schools have returned.

Our reasons for this are as follows:

* There is a need to respond appropriately to the public health information and play our role with due regard to the movement of staff (many of whom are located around the country) and the movement of parents (we have 400 families). Health and safety is our priority concern.

* Other schools may be more reliant on workbooks, but Scoil Chormaic is not because we moved all learning online – to Seesaw – with daily lessons planned and assessed with regular feedback and support for parents and pupils. Many schools have not done this and may be more reliant on school workbooks. It is difficult to compare schools given differing contexts. We are very proud of our school’s response to the sudden closure of schools and the rapid move by all our teachers, pupils and families to online learning. 

* Some classes have been using online versions of workbooks very successfully to date, and many sections of books have been completed. More importantly, parents can rest assured that curricular areas that have not been covered will be fully revised at the start of the new school year before all learning moves on. It is important that progression in the children’s learning takes place. Where feasible some copies may be reused.

* Sixth class workbooks will be returned in the final few days of the school term if the public health conditions permit this. These children will not be returning to school and must receive these books in any event. This is being left to the final moment to ensure there are minimal risks to parents or staff coming to the school. 

* It is logistically impossible to post books to families at this time.

Regards,

Scoil Chormaic