Dear Ard Rí Community, 

Anyone who suffered illness or lost loved ones over the course of the Covid pandemic, on behalf of the team at Ard Rí Community National School I would like to offer you our deepest sympathies. No doubt it was a challenging time for everyone. Social distancing, job loss, cocooning, illness all causes grief, worry and anxiety.  

As a community we definitely learned how to dance in the rain!  

Our frontline workers rose to the challenge in caring for the evolved needs of the country. On behalf of everyone thank you.  

Parents you worked hard to ensure your children were kept safe. You protected them. You embraced remote learning. You used the time not only to teach the academics but to pass on your own skills and funds of knowledge to your children. Through baking, cooking, gardening, teaching electronics and coding, sewing, playing, exercising you were educating your children…probably without even realizing. Well done. 

I would like to thank our teachers who, in a few short weeks, shifted teaching and learning from their classrooms to online and into pupil’s homes. You were dynamic and positive throughout the last 16 weeks and I am very grateful for your commitment to the school and your profession. We are dedicated to working hard to follow all the advice and have all the recommendations in place to ensure we can provide a safe learning environment for our boys and girls in September. We look forward to welcoming 36 new Junior Infants to Ard Rí CNS. We will do everything we can to make your first day in big school one to remember.

Teacher recruitment is currently underway. We will let you know who your child’s class teacher for next year will be as soon as the details are finalised.

Most of all I would like to thank the children. You all showed such resilience during lockdown. I know when you are young your friends are everything to you. Boys and girls, your sacrifices and dedication to #stayapart showed real courage, well done. You submitted high quality and creative work on Seesaw. The teachers were amazed with how well you all did. We are very proud of you. We missed you all so much. Have a wonderful summer. Stay safe, be kind, be active, read, read, read and keep smiling.  

We will see you all in September,  

Darragh