Glenealy School Newsletter
7th May 2020
Message from Chris
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
I hope you are all well and had a pleasant bank holiday weekend last week.
Return to School Site
Without a doubt the topic on everyone’s minds at the moment will be our collective efforts to ensure children can get back into school as soon as is feasible within the EDB guidelines. We are really looking forward to seeing the children again, and I am sure we all collectively welcome the announcements over the past week.
As you will have seen in the message from ESFC earlier this week, we are preparing plans across ESF in order for us to best comply with the EDB and CHP regulations and to bring our children back to school as soon as possible. These plans are very quickly taking shape, and I look forward to letting you know our collective approach as soon as possible.
One thing is certain; we will do all we can within the EDB and CHP guidelines to keep children safe on site. We couple this with a desire to get our students back on to the site as soon as possible. The many considerations include clear physical distancing requirements as students move around the school, in school toilets, in the play areas, at morning drop off and at pick up times, how they are seated in the classroom and at all other times.
I want to reassure you that, when the plan for our student’s return to the school site is complete, I will write to you explaining all you need to know about the arrangements.
Family Wellbeing Videos
Before the Easter break we shared two Wellbeing Videos. These videos provide parents with tools and ideas for managing their own and their children’s wellbeing. These videos are very useful and short 7-10 minutes to watch. Tracy Chitty, the counsellor at ESF Discovery College has worked with Jennine Harding to create this useful resource. Today we present our third video in this series - focusing on developing family habits and goals to support wellbeing.
The Wellbeing Videos from previous weeks can be found here:
Family Wellbeing Video 1 - Challenges families are facing and pathways to support
Family Wellbeing Video 2 - Strategies for Coping
Family Wellbeing Video 3 - Developing new family habits and goals to support wellbeing.
And our new video for this week:
Family Wellbeing Video 4 - In this week’s Wellbeing Video, Tracey Chitty, Discovery College’s Primary Counsellor, talks about how our wellbeing is increased and enhanced when we experience positive relationships. Positive relationships increase our ability to face challenges and manage stress and experience greater positivity in our day to day lives. This is something incredibly important to nurture during challenging and stressful times. Tracey talks about what to look for if someone in your family is feeling lonely and what the impact of loneliness has on our bodies and minds, as well as practical and fun ideas to combat loneliness.
Please remember to reach out to your child’s classroom teacher or one of our extended team by email if you have concerns about your child’s or family’s learning or wellbeing needs.
Zoom Update
Thank you to all our families for their patience while we have converted children over to ‘Glenealy’ Zoom accounts. This work is now complete. This ensures our Zoom sessions can only be accessed by registered Glenealy users, ensuring they are safe meeting spaces. I want to thank the Learning Technologies team for their work in this area.
Finally, I would like to thank you all once again for your support for the school and our community. I look forward to writing to you at the earliest opportunity outlining our plans for the return of students to the school site.
Best regards,
Chris