More local students head back to the classroom this morning.
From today all primary pupils will have returned.
Brian Roche is Principal at St John’s Senior School in Kilkenny City and says the mood there is excited and less anxious than the last time, telling KCLR News “It’s a fantastic day to be reopened and to have children back in school, I suppose it’s slightly different to what we experienced in August when we were opening up for the beginning of the school year, there’s a little bit less anxiety because we successfully, as so many schools did, had things in place to help control Covid around entrances and exits, the bubble system, limiting the interaction with classes and ventilating the rooms as often as possible”.
He adds “So they’re practises that we were using very successfully before Christmas, all of which will be back in place and a lot of people are familiar with those and maybe a little bit less anxiety but I think most importantly, and I think this is for the majority of parents, children and teachers is, we all just wanted to get back to teaching and learning in that way that we’re most used to which is in the environment of the school building and taking place in classrooms”.
At the secondary level fifth year students go back today too.
Séan Óg O’Sullivan is principal at Grennan College in Thomastown and says all there appear to be looking forward, noting “In general I think there’s a general relief by the students that they’re back into a what they’d call a normal routine and full routine and then the teachers I think they’re delighted to be able to get face-to-face with students but there’s still an element of caution in all respects, the school set up is pretty much as it was, with just the fifth years and sixth years it gives a bit more scope to rotate around the rooms to ensure greater ventilation but after Easter then it’ll be back to normal, hopefully, that the weather’ll be good and suit windows open etc”.
He adds that the latest home learning stint was a little bit easier, saying “Definitely second time around the transition was a lot better, quicker, people settled into it a lot better and I think people were far more advanced in terms of delivery and students to a large degree were more in tune with it, there was still a lot of getting used to it, you still had the diverse access and issues that would arise around that or wifi etc and devices, but we were able to give out some devices this time around, prioritising exam years”.
