School reopenings a ‘window of opportunity’ for students

Yesterday (Monday) was viewed as a positive day, one when the 5km travel restriction lifted and schools reopened properly for the first time this year.

Principal at St Patrick’s College in Cavan Town, Christopher Rowley, wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a “typical” Monday. It was certainly more busy with more paperwork to wade through checking and cross-checking all the health-declarations handed in.

Then of course there were the assemblies, updating students on new and existing safety measures since the school halls were last filled with the hustle and bustle of several hundred teenage boys.

Mr Rowley recalls the impact of Covid pre-Christmas was “very minimal”, and fully believes schools can continue to assist in managing the spread of the virus successfully, while adding yet another necessary cog to the spinning wheel of normality.

“We’ll only be as good as the community. When there was a major outbreak in October that impacted on schools and the numbers absent but the schools stayed open and in spite of all that was going on in the community.”

But as positive as it has been, in the back of the principal’s mind is the overbearing fact that all schools must close on May 28 - just seven weeks away.

“It’s been very strange,” grumbles Mr Rowley. “... I won’t say disruptive but there has been a lot of change and schools are not the same now as they have been traditionally.”

From the State exam classes for this year and last, Mr Rowley is all too aware of how certain “rights of passage” have have been interrupted, especially for the newer intake of pupils.

He though remains confident students, of all ages, will “bounce back” and show the same strength and resilience that has helped them get through the past 12 months to embrace whatever more is changed in their learning environment in the years to come.

“They had a disrupted end to national school, there’s certain rights of passage there, whether it’s confirmation, end of year things, and then all of a sudden coming into secondary school, having to wear masks, and by Christmas being at home online. There is no group that hasn’t been impacted.

“Incredibly, kids are generally very resilient, a lot of them are coping very well, and the system in fairness, in terms of accredited grades, is really working to try and support them through it.”

CMETB view

Chief Executive of Cavan-Monaghan ETB viewed the full reopening of his secondary schools across Cavan (5) and Monaghan (6) from a certain remove. That’s not to say that the head of the region’s largest educational provide wasn’t on the phone checking in to see how things were going.

As confident as he is in the robustness of the online learning strategy rolled out over the past 12 months, John Kearney is strongly of the opinion that nothing beats face-to-face interaction between a teacher and a student for learning, and peer-to-peer engagement for social development.

Conscious of the latter, from the ETB’s perspective, the school network has invested significant resources in pastoral and student support care. “Particularly in the last three month fatigue has really set in. It was a massive disappointment when schools didn’t reopen after Christmas, and that brought with it inevitable anxieties. So we had no other choice but to intensify our efforts to offer as much remote support to students, and continuing with that once they return on site.”

Mr Kearney adds, it is only when students actually return to classrooms, the importance of school is fully realised. He hopes the next few weeks will serve to “repair” some of the damage caused by lost time.

“We have a window of opportunity here and, fingers crossed, there won’t be a spike [in new Covid cases]. It’s inevitable there will be spikes in individual schools, but the protocols are in place with the HSE and are clear. Ultimately, five or six weeks are better than none, and hopefully some form of respite can be given from Covid at this time. It’s very much moving sands at the moment, but this window of opportunity is very much welcomed.”