Thurles Information

Listen to the CEO of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), Páiric Clerkin, discuss schools re-opening.

In this short video, Páiric Clerkin describes the process of planning and consultation that will need to take place among educational stakeholders.

In addition, he acknowledges that parents, pupils, staff and Boards of Management will need absolute reassurance that the reopening of schools can be managed safely.

He notes that working collaboratively, educational stakeholders will strive to ensure that “no stone is left unturned in terms of preparing for the safe reopening of schools”.

Find a worksheet to help your children with maths learning at home.

Whether it is to test maths skills, reinforce or revise them, maths worksheets are an essential part of the teaching and learning toolkit.

For parents and teachers supporting learning at home, here are five websites that offer free access to good quality maths worksheets in PDF format.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. PDFs retain their intended format and are easy to email and open on absolutely any device.
Another bonus of the PDF file is that you can easily display PDFs on screens and have pupils record their answers on paper. No need for costly printing!

Handwriting & Touch Typing

Here are some great resources for helping parents teach handwriting and touch typing skills during this period of virus lockdown.

Handwriting is a basic skill, but it is equally an important skill. Without legible and fluent handwriting, pupils can struggle to communicate their thoughts through writing.

During this extended school closure period, give the skill of handwriting some time and attention, with the help of these wonderful online free resources.

Handwriting Videos

The website www.schoolrun.com have a YouTube channel with a series of videos dedicated to handwriting (View HERE). Drawing on research and teaching experience, the videos demonstrate how to break down letters into groups that make practice and learning easy and manageable for young and struggling students.

Handwriting Apps

Writing Wizard and Cursive Writing Wizard are two great handwriting instructional apps by L’Escapadou. They are free and available on Android, Apple and Kindle Fire devices.

Handwriting Worksheets

If you are looking for handwriting worksheets, look no further than www.handwritingworksheets.com. Here you can customize handwriting worksheets. Here too you are enabled to change letter size, handwriting style, handwriting colour and teaching support strategy (dot, dash or hollow).

Learn to Touch Type

Learning to touch type is another basic but important skill. Like handwriting, speed and automaticity are extremely beneficial when typing. Moreover, communicating one’s thoughts through writing online or on computer is now an everyday part of school and work life. During this extended school closure period, why not help you or your child to learn touch typing.

Typing Club offers free and fun courses for kids (View HERE) and adults (View HERE). It offers courses through different languages and even courses for (what is often considered the most effective way to type) the Dvorak keyboard (View HERE).

To view their extensive range of lessons across different types of keyboards and languages; View HERE.

Enjoy Together