A local principal says it’s a relief to have reached the finish line.
The Christmas holidays are here for students with most schools across Carlow and Kilkenny finishing up on a half-day today.
Paul Thornton from Tullow Community school says the children and the teachers are due a well-deserved rest over the festive period; “There’s an element I suppose people are relieved and I think people are tired, both students and staff are tired at this stage, it’s almost been a sense of a race to the line, if that makes sense, and people will be glad to go to their houses, have a bit of a celebration at Christmas and will be relieved that we got to the end of this term without having to make major changes like keeping your group at home or closing down the whole school or whatever so people are relieved, they’re tired and they’ll be glad of the break”.
The threat of the Omicrom wave has cast a cloud over local schools for the last couple of weeks and Mr Thornton says it’s a relief to get to the end of the term; “There has been a kind of a cloud hanging over the building I suppose of tension around it and I think that’s true of every workplace and I think that’s true of society in general, one of the issues that has arisen in the last few weeks is the level of staff-related illness due to Covid and the knock-on effect that that will have on a school in trying to keep us to operate, we have succeeded, there were times when we were very close to the line of having to send a group home, but I’m very pleased to say that we didn’t have to”.
He adds it’s up to families now to help ensure students return on time in the New Year; “We would want to open, the students will need to come back on the 6th of January, it’s very important for exam students but also for the whole student body from both an educational and social perspective they really need to be in school so we will be making every effort as a school to ensure we open on the 6th of January and we would ask that families keep that in mind when they’re considering their activities and planning their Christmas in order to give us the highest chance possible”.
