Dear Parent,
Just a short update as we come to the end of the second week of online learning.
Many thanks to parents who have all engaged in the online resources provided for your child. Your support, guidance and commitment are fantastic, and it is wonderful to know that we are all dedicated to ensuring that our young people continue to learn, even in the current circumstances.
Staff have been working very hard to make sure that your child’s learning is of the highest quality and you have our commitment that we will continue to do our utmost to help you and your child with the online programmes of study.
As we move into the Easter break today, you will notice that work will not be set over the break. This will enable your child to catch up on some missing work, should they be in the position of having not completed some tasks set by teachers, but it will also give everyone a much-needed break to allow for everyone to re-focus and re-charge their energy levels.
I would encourage parents to continue to seek advice from staff if required: we do understand that this is an entirely different way of working for everyone and we assure you that we have realistic expectations in connection with the amount of work that your child can accomplish at home. Please feel free to use the email addresses already circulated if you have any issue in relation to subjects, tasks set or technical problems that you may be experiencing.
I have asked that Form Teacher and Year Heads remain in contact with parents and pupils and I know that many of you will have been contacted to see how things are going. I am pleased to hear the many positive comments that you have made, and I am delighted with the emails that have been sent to school thanking us for everything that we have done to date. I have, of course, forwarded your comments to staff and they are very appreciative of the kindness and regard that you continue to show us. Thank you.
Year 10 Transfer Procedures.
A small number of questions have been posed in relation to the Year 10 Transfer Procedure. You will recall that I informed you that school was looking into this issue and that I would update you all as soon as was practicable. Currently, the members of the school’s Board of Governors are examining a range of options in connection with Transfer procedures this year, and I would hope that by the end of next week, I would be in a position to inform parents of final decisions on the issue.
As you know, LJHS will pass on academic data to the Senior schools by the end of this month. In the meantime, if you feel that your child warrants special consideration in their application to Lurgan College, then I would advise that you gather the relevant information related to this so that you can forward it along with your letter requesting special consideration to Lurgan College no later than 4th May 2020. The College will then review the data that we send to it and will review any special circumstances forwarded by you, the parent, and will issue letters notifying parents of its Board of Governors’ decisions about admissions on Saturday 9th May 2020. Further information in connection with Lurgan College’s Admission Criteria can be obtained if you contact Lurgan College directly.
Online Questionnaires.
I have asked Mr Thompson and Miss Osborne to organise questionnaires to be completed in relation to our online programmes. Over the next few days, these will go live on the website and I would ask that you take time to respond. They will contain some questions about how our online resources are going and the answers to these questions will no doubt prove useful for us as we try to gauge the points of view of pupils and parents, in our bid to refine our approach to online study.
I conclude by reiterating our continued commitment to helping your child with their studies and thank you all again for your consistent and maintained effort and support. Be assured that you are all very much in my prayers at present, as we continue to look to Him for guidance every day and pray that His preserving hand would be upon our entire school family and the wider community we serve.
J. McCoy
Principal