President says pupils should be proud for rising to challenge
PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has delivered a special message to 6th class pupils, paying tribute to them for the way they have risen to the challenges of recent months.
The president has sent his best wishes to the 70,000 pupils who were not able to share the final months of primary school together and the rituals that go with it.
‘The cancellation or postponement of Confirmations, sports days, school concerts, graduation ceremonies and other events which would traditionally mark and celebrate the end of your time in primary school will, no doubt, have been a source of disappointment for so many of you,’ he stated.
In an uplifting message, which pays much attention the valuable lessons they have learned about value of school as a social community, he said: ‘Although your school buildings have been closed now for many weeks, the fact that you have remained united has shown that there are some things that no lockdown can ever postpone, shut down, cancel or take from you, including the connection you share with your fellow pupils, your teachers, and with all those who have made school and your community such an important part of your life.’
He said that the experience had allowed them to learn ‘that your school is not just a building containing a series of classrooms where lessons are held, tests are sat and homework is corrected. A school is so much more than that’.
President Higgins said many of them had written to him confiding with the holder of the highest office in the land how they were missing grandparents, cousins or neighbours they hadn’t seen for some time.
He said, as President of Ireland he was ‘very impressed with the way in which all of you have responded, risen to the challenges, continued to learn at home, working with your teachers and parents. You have found all sorts of imaginative ways to remain in touch with your friends and pursue your hobbies, while at the same time always putting the safety of others, including your relatives and neighbours, ahead of your own wishes and plans’
They were achievements of which they all could be very proud, he said.
While acknowledging that their last term in primary school had been difficult, ‘it is my great hope that it has also allowed you to experience something very important about your school days. School is where you have been making friends, working together in teams, discovering your talents and developing them to the best of your ability. School is where we celebrate all that we have in common with each other while recognising and respecting the differences that make each of us unique.
“School is where we learn how to be part of a community and, most importantly, how to include others in that sense of community, by being kind and supportive and generous.
“School and home are places where we release our creativity and begin to realise our great potential as citizens, and the importance of becoming a person who works with others to make our society a better place.
He said in September they will be commencing a new and exciting chapter of their lives ‘during which I hope that all of you will be able to look back on your years in primary school with gratitude, affection, and humour too.’