St Kilian's CS Online School January 2021 (1)

Sun, Jan 10th, 2021

Email to Parents/Guardians January 10th 2021

Dear Parent/Guardian,

This email is to provide you with information about the arrangements for the coming three weeks of Remote Learning.

 1. Timetable

• All students will follow a timetable of live classes.
• Students’ timetables will be based on the normal timetable, which is followed when the school is open.
• 6^th Year students will have a full normal timetable of classes i.e. starting at 8.40am daily and finishing at 3.50pm (1.10pm on Wednesdays).
• 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Year students will have classes until lunchtime only. The finish time may vary slightly from day to day.
• Timetables for 1^st, 2^nd 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Years will vary slightly from their normal timetable. This is to ensure a balanced spread of subjects across the week. Students will be given full details tomorrow morning.
• 5LCA and 6LCA students will start their live classes on Wednesday, January 13^th. All of their families will be contacted by telephone tomorrow.
• Students must attend all scheduled classes.

 2. Office 365 / Microsoft TEAMS

• Classes will take place on Microsoft TEAMS.
• All students have a school email address for which they have created a unique password. This is how they will access their classes. Each class is a ‘meeting’ on TEAMS.
• I have attached the following three documents which should be of assistance:

1. How to access Microsoft Office
2. Join a Live Class in Microsoft TEAMS
3. Join a Live Class in Microsoft TEAMS on your phone

• If you need any help with logging in, passwords etc. please email ictteam@stkilianscs.com.

 3. Devices

• The school has a number of laptops which it can loan to students for the duration of the lockdown.
• If your son/daughter would like to borrow a laptop, he/she should email advice@stkilianscs.com.
• The numbers are limited, but we will do our best to support as many students as possible.
• Students to whom devices are being loaned will be contacted with collection details.

 4. Games Consoles

• Games consoles may be used to access remote learning. Please see advice below:

•  See also the following tweet from Conor Power: Lots people usefully pointing out that consoles can be used to access @GoogleForEdu #googleclasstoom. Here is a quick demo of Google classroom on @Microsoft @Xbox #edchatie #remotelearning. Mouse won't work so use the controller, the left stick moves cursor, right stick scrolls. https://t.co/8eFkWhDU60

• (https://twitter.com/conpower/status/1347168164174581760?s=03).

 5. Collecting Books, Materials

• Students who wish to collect books from lockers may do so from 2.00-4.00pm daily.
• Individual teachers may advise students to collect specialist materials/equipment. These may also be collected from 2.00-4.00pm daily.
• Students coming to the school should, at all times, wear masks and strictly follow all other Covid-related protocols.

 6. School Meals

• As you know, since September the school has been very successfully operating a Schools Meals programme.
• For this the school has accessed funding for lunches for students for the duration of the school year. A small number of students have opted out of the scheme.
• For the duration of the lockdown, the funding is still available to the school, via Carambola, the contractor that supplies the lunches.
• The DES has decided that this funding is directed to students’ families, by way of hampers of food to be supplied by Carambola . The contents are to include: “Each box contains 4 WEEKS' WORTH of breakfast (cereal, fruit juice), lunch (pasta & sauce, baked beans, spaghetti shapes, flavoured noodles, packet soups, wraps) and healthy treats (tinned fruit,  cream crackers, digestive biscuits, popcorn). These items may change depending on availability.”
• The families of any students registered on the School Meals schemes are entitled to avail of this totally free offer.
• If you wish to register for this offer, please fill the online form below before 11.00am tomorrow, Tuesday January 12th:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=EEuYUnvKU0K7BP7vyKtQ0LjiMAbTMWNJqNrJ_U3TDLhUQ0JOUUUzTkozV0syUjVNNDBOMDBMWElLVS4u

I look forward to working with you over the coming weeks in ensuring that all of the school’s students will get maximum benefit from this period of remote learning. It is only through the school and the families supporting one another that this will happen. I will be in contact again over the coming days with further information and, should the situation change, with any relevant updates. In the meantime, please contact advice@stkilianscs.com with any queries that you may have.

With best wishes to you and to your families for safety and good health at this difficult time.

Yours sincerely,

John Murphy,

Principal.