School gets the thumbs up!
Ava Coughlan and Layla Moran give the thumbs up on their way to school for the first time since December in the Mercy St John’s Road on Monday morning.
‘THE best day of my life so far.’ That was how one child described their return to the classroom at the Mercy School on John’s Road yesterday. Following an unscheduled, extended break the school’s Junior and Senior Infants, and First and Second Classes are back at their desks this week and, according to Deputy Principal, Ann Woodbyrne the relief is palpable.
‘It was great to be back, there was a great sense of relief among the staff to be back doing what we love,’ said Ms Woodbyrne. ‘And the children were delighted, they all had little smiles on their faces on the way in, some of them even ran in the door with the excitement.
‘My own child was back and he said today was “the best day of my life so far”.’
And Ms Woodbyrne said the experiences of last year stood both staff and pupils in good stead when it came to resuming lessons.
‘In terms of safety measures it was a case of reverting back to what we did in September; bringing the children into the school in an orderly manner and using hand sanitiser.
‘But the children were familiar with all of that already, we just had to revise the etiquette with them. In truth it was more nerve-wracking in September, a lot of it has become second-nature for us now.’
Despite learning many new skills herself since moving to remote learning, the Second Class teacher said there was nothing like having the children in the room in front of her.
‘I’ve become massively upskilled since this began and I’m doing things now I never thought I’d be able to do this time last year,’ said Ms Woodbyrne. ‘We’ve been communicating with the pupils in a whole variety of ways but nothing can replace that face-to-face interaction and everybody is on a level playing field when they’re in front of you.’
With the school’s remaining students set to return on March 15, Ms Woodbyrne said everyone at the Mercy School was eagerly awaiting the day when they could all be together again.
‘We felt a little bit lonely today without the rest of the school community but we’re looking to having them all back on March 15.’