Mr Berne’s Friday message

Good afternoon everyone. I hope all our families remain safe and well. Happy Friday!

The second week of remote learning has come to an end. A huge well done to all our pupils, parents and guardians after another busy week of home schooling. It’s time to close Google Classroom for a well-earned weekend break.

There has been great engagement with the work set this week and we have been absolutely delighted with the efforts of all our families. Well done everyone!

We were delighted to engage with so many parents on Wednesday evening in our Remote Learning Q&A webinar. There were lots of great discussions and ideas shared and it will only serve to help us improve our provision over the next few weeks.

Many thanks to all our parents who also completed our remote learning survey last week. Our phenomenal teachers are determined to provide top class remote learning opportunities for our pupils and the feedback from parents will ensure that we continue to do so.

We fully appreciate that remote learning can be extremely stressful and we recognise the challenges that all our parents face. Nothing can replicate the face-to-face teaching in Edmund Rice College.

Pupils should endeavour to stick to their normal timetable and complete a couple of hours work per day. Work is uploaded on a daily basis for the timetable they would normally follow in school. We would ask that parents monitor the individual subject Google Classrooms for the work pupils have been set. Just do your best over the next few weeks and we will do the rest when our pupils return to Edmund Rice College after February half-term.

Students should find a balance and we certainly don’t expect our pupils to be spending six hours per day in front of a laptop. Be reassured that you can only try your best and we are very proud of you all!

If you have any issues with Google Classroom, feel free to give us a call or visit our Google Classroom tutorial guide which has proved to be extremely beneficial for our parents. https://sites.google.com/c2ken.net/sharing-learning/google-4-parents?authuser=0

This week we also relaunched our #WellbeingWednesday campaign which will continue every week until our pupils return. It is extremely important that our pupils take time for themselves and try to be active to improve their physical and emotional health.

Our pupils have been set a great challenge by the PE Department in their Google Classroom. This week we were also joined by one of our ex pupils, Sean McCafferty who completed a live workout for our school community. I hope you enjoyed it.

I was delighted to receive a phone call from the Education Authority today who want to include our Wellbeing Wednesday initiative in a showcase of good practice to share with other schools. Great news!

I have to pay tribute to our staff. Edmund Rice College remains open every day. Our wonderful classroom assistants and teachers have been providing supervised learning for our vulnerable children and children of key workers.

Teachers have been planning and preparing excellent learning opportunities for our pupils. Some teachers are delivering live lessons whilst all our teachers are emailing or making phone calls home, providing feedback and delivering visual or audio lessons to aid our pupils with their learning. Their work ethic and dedication never ceases to amaze me.

Our office staff have been very busy answering all your calls and helping families get organised with home learning and our technicians are ensuring work is ready and passwords are changed. It has been a real team effort over the past few weeks and the triangular partnership of staff, pupil and parent and that togetherness will ensure our children continue to thrive.

Have a great weekend and we will be ready to do it all over again on Monday morning! Remember, we are at the other end of the phone if you need any help or advice.

Take care and God Bless,

Mr Berne.