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Help For Learning At Home With RTÉ’s Home School Hub

RTÉ, with support from Mary Immaculate College, have developed ‘Home School Hub’ to help primary school children across the country to learn at home, during this school closure period.

Now in its fourth week, ‘Home School Hub’ is well worth timetabling into your home school day.

Home School Hub is available on RTÉ2, from Monday to Friday between 11:00a.m. to 12:00 noon. If you miss the 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon broadcast, there is a catch-up programme later in the day at 4.15p.m. You can also catch up on the RTÉ Player.

In addition, you can view HERE, to allow children download and engage with even more fun activities, based on ‘Home School Hub’ and the Irish primary school curriculum.

RTÉ Home School Hub is presented by qualified primary school teachers. This week, among other fun learning activities, the ‘Home School Hub’ teachers will be teaching all about marbling prints; Japanese Haiku poetry; Irish words for clothes we wear; music and probability and chance in maths.

Maybe adults should tune in too! There will be lots to learn and explain to hungry young minds!

Phishers & Smishers Take Full Advantage Of Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis

Phishing & Smishing, in the case of banking, is the fraudulent practice of sending, respectively, emails and text messages, purporting to come from reputable financial institutions, in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as: User ID; Passwords; Bank Account Details and Credit Card Numbers.

You can view Bank of Irelands ‘365 online’ by visiting HERENote: the bank clearly warns you regarding same ‘Phishing’ & ‘Smishing’ scams when entering personal details on this site.

Text messages (Smishing) are currently being sent out by contemptible criminals, using the telephone number 089 1110111 here in the Tipperary area, and possibly elsewhere, over the past week. Same contemptible individuals are clearly seeking to take advantage of those wishing to remain in isolation during this virus pandemic.

The text messages of which we are aware that have been received, read:-
(1) [BOI]: Your 365 online has been blocked. All services have been withdrawn. Go to www.boionlinenewssecure.com to reactivate now.
OR
(2) [BOI]: We are unable to process your last payment. All services have been withdrawn. Go to www.boionlinenewssecure.com to reactivate now.

Let us remind you again: Banks; Credit Card Companies and Government Departments will NEVER contact people, asking them to enter personal information on line.

Please do take the time to warn elderly parents; friends and those less IT literate.

Resources To Help Children & Young People Stay Safe Online

Resources to help your children and young people to remain SAFE online

Educating children and young people to stay safe online has always been important, but with distance learning being the norm until at least May 5th next, enabling our youth to stay safe online is more important than ever.

Here are some recommended resources that aim to educate children and young people about staying safe and responsible when on the internet, on social media and other online educational tools.

Brainpop and BrainPop Jr.

The award winning BrainPop Jr. provides free access to its videos and games on the topic of Internet Safety.
Visit HERE to access the video on internet safety.

BrainPop Jr. also provides free access to its video and resources on bullying which includes information on cyberbullying. Visit HERE.

The original Brainpop is providing free access during school closures and it provides over 30 videos for older children and young people on topics including Cyberbullying, Cloud Computing and Malware.

WebWise

WebWise is supported by the Department of Education and Skills and it offers free information and advice to parents, teachers and pupils on internet safety. Through it parents and teachers can access a number of high quality Irish resources that explore the topics of cyberbullying, false information and privacy. There are programmes for primary and secondary school pupils. For more Information Visit HERE.

Twinkl

Twinkl provides interactives, worksheets, stories and more to help explore the many facets of internet safety. Free access to Twinkl is available at present by visiting HERE and entering the offer code CVDTWINKLHELPS.

Stay At Home and Stay Safe

Five Great Websites To Support Distance Learning

With the Easter holidays nearing an end and with schools closed until at least May 5th, 2020; here are five more websites and applications to help parents and pupils with another phase of distance learning.

Kahoot is a game based website and app that enables users to create, play and share trivia quizzes. Why not make revision fun by creating a quiz for friends and family? At a time when pupils are far away from their classmates, why not help school friends connect by creating and inviting friends to play a quiz on Kahoot?

Visit HERE

IXL is a website and app that teaches hundreds of English and Mathematics skills from Junior Infants to Leaving Certificate level. Pupils are questioned and coached until they achieve mastery of each individual skill. For a limited time daily you can long on and use IXL for free, otherwise it is a subscription service. At present, IXL are offering educators a 30-day free trial.

Visit HERE

Toy Theater brings together a wonderful collection of free educational games to support learning English, maths, art and music. It also includes a host of games and puzzles that are just for fun!

Visit HERE

Pick a subject and topic and www.topmarks.co.uk has a fun game to match. With games for all ages and abilities, www.topmarks.co.uk has something to offer pupils at all stages of primary and secondary education.

Visit HERE

If you are looking for fresh and fun playground games to keep your children active, learning and having fun then simply visit HERE. Drama Toolkit’s a-z of games will provide hours of offline family fun.

Visit HERE

All Expenses Paid, World Tour, Courtesy Thurles.Info

I Think It’s Going To Rain Today

Broken windows and empty hallways,
A pale dead moon in a sky streaked with grey.
Human kindness is overflowing,
And I think it’s gonna rain today.

Bright before me the signs implore me
Help the needy and show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s gonna rain today

Lyrics Randy Newman – Singer Neil Diamond.

First it was the Donegal Sinn Féin TD Mr Padraig Mac Loughlin on April 6th, sending back his almost €9,000 wage increase, to support Irish frontline healthcare workers, or so he claims.

Next it was Ms Amy Huberman; having hammered away for hours over her cast iron shoe last; she has already or is presently, giving away, free, 20 pairs of shoes from her latest manufactured collection, to Irish healthcare workers.

Then it was the great Rock Band U2, who admit to earning around €5 million a night from its concerts, donating two nights takings, possibly from their low-tax jurisdiction, based in the Netherlands; to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) for Irish frontline health care workers.

We are unsure of the actual shoe sizes on offer, or indeed how this major generosity will be split up between the 40,000 healthcare workers who signd up to fight the Coronavirus COVID-19 in Ireland.

However, not to be outdone, and having read all this accidently leaked details of generosity on offer, we here at Thurles.Info will not now be seen to be wanting, with regards to demonstrating our extreme generosity.

This said we have decided to send our thousands of daily readers, yes, on an “all expenses paid world tour”, starting this very night.

Pack your bags, as we now invite you to go on our VIRTUAL TOUR to visit some of the most amazing attractions in the World, each one linked hereunder.

The Natural History Museum, LondonVisit HERE

The Vatican Museum, RomeVisit HERE

The Guggenheim Museum, New YorkVisit HERE

Machu Picchu, PeruVisit HERE

NASA, USAVisit HERE

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you”. Matthew 6:2

Enjoy Your World Tour & Stay Safe.