An important email has been sent to 6th Year parent email addresses. Please check at your earliest convenience. Regards, Ms McDonough; Ms Thornton & Ms Mulcahy.

Dear Parents/Guardians, Please be advised that an email has been sent to your account with some preliminary return-to-school details. Please check your email at your earliest convenience. Stay safe and well. Kindest regards, Ms McDonough

Good morning and we hope that everybody had a lovely midterm break. As you know we will be online again this week. Please see attached a photo of the rockery to the front of the school, taken this morning. Wonderful to see the beautiful spring colours looking so radiant. As per email which was sent on Fri last, we will keep you updated with any news in relation to return dates, leaving certificate details etc. Stay safe and well. Kindest regards, Ms McDonough

Please find links to the 'Stress Control' sessions run by the HSE. Dr Jim White, Clinical Psychologist, will live stream classes to help people to manage their stress levels. The first session took place earlier this week. However, it will still be available to live stream, until 11.00 pm tonight. Stress Control can teach us great skills to fight stress and manage our wellbeing. Click on this link: https://stresscontrol.ie/ to access the first of these six sessions. Session 2 will commence tomorrow at 11.00 am and will be available to view until Sunday February 14th at 11.00 pm. For further information about this HSE initiative click on this link: https://stresscontrol.ie/stress-control/ We hope that you might find this useful.

In the survey we carried out last year, the issues of greatest concern to parents were, Anxiety, Uncertainty, Time management, Online Behaviour, Social Media, Peer pressure and Gaming. We are delighted to tell you that we have organised a Zoom meeting with Monica Rowe from Key Conversations to discuss these issues and how we might deal with them. Monica works with 30,000 10-18yr old youngsters every year and has seen many of these issues increase during the lockdowns. She has gathered extensive feedback from students on just how they are coping with these issues, which have been exaggerated by Covid and she will share why so many young people say they would not go to their parents/guardians if they have a problem. . Monica Rowe is Director of Key Communications, and has run her own business for many years. She has worked with the ISPCC / Childline as their School Liaison Officer, and volunteered on their phone lines for 8 years. Her biggest concern is the rising levels of stress and anxiety in our children of all ages. Some of what Monica will share may shock you but she really believes that, while it is worrying, it's not all bad... THERE IS HOPE and she will share some of her extensive experience on how we can introduce guidelines and maintain healthy relationships with our teenagers. 2nd years met with Monica before Christmas in school and 1st years will have an online session with her on Thursday 11th next. A Zoom invite has been sent to you via email today for the parent talk. I would urge you to put this date in your diary to attend online. Kindest regards, C McDonough

Message from the President Michael D Higgins: The dark days of the pandemic will continue to challenge us for some time and, while lockdown fatigue is very real and palpable for so many, we must continue our journey within and muster up courage. Moving through such moments of darkness, it is important to celebrate the light that comes from our common determination to see out the challenge. Just as the seasons change, this crisis, too, will pass. As an old Caribbean song puts it: ‘Time heals everything.’ How long it will take and how high the price is that we will pay for it depends, to a large extent, on how we react today and in the weeks ahead. Lives lost Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of people have lost their lives to the virus, many of whom were left without “the intimacy of their passing or the opportunity to grieve as they would wish”. Countless people too have seen their lives radically altered, their livelihoods curtailed and the social bonds, from which they drew comfort and joy, ruptured. It is appropriate that we all pause to acknowledge the distress of all those for whom the pandemic has brought such pain and loss and all those who are now experiencing loneliness and isolation from the contacts with those who previously sustained them Patroness of healing St Brigid was a “powerful woman” and the patroness of healing, the arts, fertility and agriculture. St Brigid was a woman who rejected the conventions of her time, who dedicated herself to innovation in the realm of education and who, in seeking to ensure that her voice was heard in a male-dominated world, had to summon an extraordinary courage, transcend obstacles and not just survive but put a new version of things in place. How appropriate, then, our invoking her is for our present circumstances. Generations of Irish women have benefited from her inspiration and legacy. Today, as we recall her story with admiration, may we also resolve to seek inspiration in her example, to pursue our ideal of equality, universal respect for rights and a better world for all our citizens, male and female. As we celebrate the “courage and commitment” of St Brigid in her day, we in our day pay tribute to all of those who, in their different ways, continue to put their lives at risk as they continue their important work, for the benefit of all of us – their fellow citizens. Future generations will recall, and feel grateful for the enormous debt of gratitude we owe to all those workers who have responded to the pandemic with such courage, misneach, such care, cúram, and with a spirit of solidarity, dlúthpháirtíocht. - adapted from article in the Irish Times Sat 30-01-2021. Let us take inspiration and strength from his words at this time and may we take hope from the actions, values and vision of St Brigid/Bríd on this day, 1st February/Feabhra, the first day of Spring.

Well done to everybody at the end of the first week of online school. Have a restful weekend. Stay safe and well. See you online next week. Take care. Ms McDonough