Dear Parents/ Guardians, Wishing you all a happy and brighter new year. I hope you and your families are in good health and that you have enjoyed a peaceful and restful Christmas break. Although it was my intention to send this email to you earlier in the week, the continuously changing landscape within our education system prevented me from doing so. As you are aware, it was announced by the Department of Education and Skills that all students including Sixth Years will not be returning to classroom-based learning until further guidelines have been published. In line with these Departmental guidelines, Catholic University School will operate online teaching in the form of live classes by video call in accordance with the timetable for all students from Monday January 11th, 2020. To facilitate our staff with the transition to remote learning, classes will commence for each year group on Monday January 11th at the following times: 1st Year, Transition Year and 6th Year- 11:50 am. 2nd. Year, 3rd. Year and 5th Year - 11:10 am. Students will be invited by their teachers to join their respective classes via Microsoft Teams. From the above times onwards, all students and teachers will be following their normal class timetables with the school day starting at 08:50. Years Heads and Academic Monitors will regularly check in with each of the classes within their respective year groups. To facilitate the continuation of teaching and learning we recognise that students may need to collect books and resources. The school campus will be open during normal school hours to facilitate this process. In line with COVID-19 regulations all students calling to our school for this purpose must sign in at the office. We ask for your patience while we re-establish the distance learning programme as we may encounter some problems with this process which could require the implementation of some alterations to our scheduled timetables. We would anticipate keeping these changes to a minimum where possible. I have attached the school’s guidelines regarding distance learning to this email. I request that all parents and students familiarise themselves with this document Guidelines for Remote Learning. While I appreciate that this is not an ideal learning environment, it is important that all students continue with the work assigned by their teachers and attend all classes as scheduled. Third and Sixth-Year students must continue to work towards the deadline of the State Exams taking place in June and assume that this will not change. The dates for the mock exams may need to be reviewed and we will inform both parents and students if and when a new date has been agreed upon. Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you require any further information. Many thanks for your continued support during these difficult times. In the meantime, stay safe and we will keep all those who are suffering at this time in our thoughts and prayers. Kind regards, Clive Martin Principal CUS