Audrey Flood | O Fiaich School

From a school point of view it’s been very strange. Initially it was, what’s going to happen are we close and are we not closing? And what supports do we do we need to put in place prior to closure? We had organised training for our staff, we we’re putting plans in place, but then at the end of the day it happened very suddenly on the Thursday. We were expecting the following week.

So the day of the closure was very strange day in the school as, parents were ringing in, they were very concerned about picking up the kids. Kids were going to their lockers and removing their stuff. To see everyone leaving the campus that day was very difficult, and at that stage, I suppose we thought it was only going to be short term. Then we soon realised it wasn’t.

For us, we’re a DEIS school, the care that we offer our students, is what we would pride ourselves on. For some of our students, that’s been a missing link. We would have major concerns for some of our students, some of our families who struggle at the best of times but I have to say the school has fantastic supports in place for the kids and for the families, and everyone has worked hard, really, really hard, to keep the link going, the tutors, the year heads and the supports, our home-school liaison officer, our school completion programme and all the teachers and SNAs have kept in regular contact with the kids.

I suppose the underlying thing is the worry and the concern for them. Some of them will still send you these emails that really concern you and from some unlikely candidates, asking, ‘when can we return to school’? When the initial period was extended, ‘does that mean we can come back to school after Easter’? I suppose for some of them, they’ve difficult family circumstances at home and for us, it was the worry for their well-being, and have they enough food and are they being looked after, are they abiding by the rules in relation to the hand hygiene, some family members, have underlying conditions.

All of that plays on your mind and you worry for them. School meals have been fantastic, they’ve gone out to our needy families and the little small messages you get, ‘thank you for the food parcel’ that are going to our home-school officer and our school completion programme. Some of them have it tough at the best of times, so this has been particularly tough.

Getting the kids engaged with their online learning has some issues. Some of them don’t have access to internet at home. Some of them don’t have proper devices or if they do, there’s a number in the household depending on it. For us, it’s been keeping the lines of communication open. Then there’s concern with the few that we haven’t heard from, and following up on those. I have to complement our school completion workers Niall and Majella. They’ve called to houses, put themselves at risk, just to check in, to make sure that everyone was okay.

When the building reopened, that was a very strange scenario, no one on the corridors, very quiet. I love going out and checking in on them, when they’re at their lockers, the hustle and bustle and the buzz. It was very, very, very quiet, no noise. Now mind you sometimes during the year and there’s a lot of noise, you’re looking for that five minutes peace. But at the minute, it’s too many five minutes of peace and just very strange.

The uncertainty of the future, like what September going to bring, and what do we need to put in place as a school, to make the return happen and to keep everyone safe? Our sixth years found it particularly tough, as in their school year just ended, there was the whole uncertainty with the exams but the little online messages and virtual graduations, and some of the responses to that, the little messages from the sixth years, hopefully that graduation will happen for them again.

In relation to the education part of it, the teachers have worked very hard to keep that going and using the digital classroom, such as Microsoft Teams, but the students still miss the contact with their teacher and when we did an evaluation of the first few weeks, how it went, some of the comments from the students included ‘I just missed my teacher, I need my teacher to show me how to do it, I can’t do it on my own at home, I need Miss x, y and z, who helps me, I miss my SNA who helps me with my work, I don’t understand this’.

Our staff really got on board and did recordings of themselves which isn’t easy and teaching lessons, sending them out to the kids, getting them on board, getting the pace of the lessons, right, etc. and trying to get as many kids as you can on board. The worry then, when we come back is where they’re at, in relation to their education.

For us here, it’s their whole well-being and to make sure that they’re all safe and well. A lot of them would use the school sometimes as a safe haven. It’s a break from home, it’s a break from whatever’s going on in the neighbourhood and they don’t have that. A lot of them will openly admit that ‘I miss school, I miss teachers, I miss talking to Majella, I miss talking to my form tutor’. That’s one thing staff here have been very clear about, that they are always there and that they do, care about our kids, they’ve gone over and beyond. I know every school and every teacher has, but from our viewpoint, a lot of ours have done more than and above what’s required, checking in to make sure that they’re okay.

Planning for September, a lot of the kids are saying ‘I can’t wait to get back’ and that they miss their friends and that there’s people in their class, that that they haven’t seen and mightn’t see until they get back in

September. The little relationships that they have with kids in their class and in other year groups. A lot of the senior students would be very kind to the junior students, you know, they’re missing out on that. Some of them will openly say, ‘God, I’ve never thought I’d say I miss school and I do’.

It’s strange, and I suppose initially it was the whole uncertainty, are we closing, are we not? Then when the announcement was made, putting the plans in place, and it’s a bit like that now, again, it’s come full cycle. It’s the same with the Leaving Cert, is it, isn’t it?

What do we need to do? And now I suppose it’s a little bit the same again, when we’re preparing for September, and what’s going to happen?

There is a little bit of uncertainty in relation to our school meals programme, it has stopped, but there’s talk, maybe it might get up and running again, and that’s what has happened in the UK. They’ve decided to extend it for the summer so I suppose that’s something from our viewpoint that we’d like to see happen because at least then we know that they’re getting something.

The Minister made an announcement about summer camps and school programmes that they can continue. So Niall and Michelle are working on programmes now that they can run over the summer, albeit with smaller numbers, and generally they would go off and do hill climbing and team building but obviously, they won’t be able to do that work with busses. They’ve been in contact with the school about using the facilities, and the school completion would have also done drops in relation to packs for school completion. The children on the programme would have received activity packs like board games, books to read. They are looking at what they can run over the summer in relation to the summer programme.

In some of our feeder primary schools, Niall and Majella and the Genesis team were working along with Louth Leader Partnership doing little induction packs for incoming first years. So they’re working on that over the summer as well. That’s another area, in relation to our sixth class pupils coming in. We generally would have had them up a few times, we’ve had them up twice in the school, prior to the closure, but we generally would have them up for an induction in May, so that hasn’t happened. It’s now looking at how we can do that, to make them familiar with our school environment for coming in. They had to suddenly change their primary school as well. So that’s one we’re working on as well, that they feel safe and secure, coming into a new school.