Write a commentHome schooling has become a part of everyday life in Newry and surrounds. With the closure of schools everywhere due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many local families are having to come to terms with the added challenges of making sure their children continue their education while in many cases having to work from home themselves.
Newry.ie caught up with the Curran family from Newry and the Braham family from Camlough to see how they were getting on, with what is essentially a juggling act.
The Braham Family
Clare and Seamus Braham from Camlough are home schooling their daughters Orla and Aoife. Both girls attend St Malachy's Primary School, Camlough, Orla a pupil in Miss Sloan's P6 Class and Aoife in Mr Kearns P5 Class.
Clare is working remotely from home as an Auditor while husband Seamus continues to work as an essential worker in his factory manufacturing compressors for air conditioning and refrigerator units for hospitals etc.
Living in such a beautiful part of the world with a perfect view of Camlough Lake and Mountain from their house the children have plenty of opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors for work and play.
Speaking about their routine Clare explains "Generally they do it first thing in the morning and then in the afternoon it's more play. We do a bit of baking, they have a den in the back field that they have discovered so they might go off to the den up there"
St Malachy's have provided the girls with course work packages which gives both parents and pupils a useful structured approach. Clare comments "We just got a new pack yesterday, so it's a lot more structured now for the next five weeks, as in day by day they have a set amount to do and then log it on the computer for the school."
Clare also appreciates how good the school have been at updating their website with information for parents.
On the question if they miss school both girls differ. Orla finds that she misses her time at St Malachy's especially catching up with her friends and finds her home schooling all "a bit boring"
Sister Aoife doesn't miss school at all and has already read all 15 of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven books. To Aoife schooling from home means "You don't have to do as much work" ... although her parents might just disagree with that statement!
The Curran Family
Michelle and James Curran from Newry are also home schooling their daughter Isabella and twins Alex and Juliette. All three attend St Ronan's Primary School in Newry. Isabella is in P6 with Mrs McDonald; Alex is in P3 with Miss Dawson and Juliette is in P3 with Mrs Murphy.
Both parents are working from home, Michelle for a road infrastructure company while James works triaging in his capacity as a Dentist.
The children all miss school, they just don't miss the homework bit!
Isabella misses her friends and explains "It's like, you have a routine and all of a sudden it breaks, you're not in a routine." Alex and Juliette also miss their friends "I miss seeing all my friends, I miss seeing my teacher as well and I miss doing my drawings, but I can still do them here" says Alex.
Commenting on getting into the home schooling routine Mum Michelle says "I got quite stressed the first week, thinking that I had to do it all, I had to work my core hours and I also somehow had to home school, and just realised it was stressful all round for everybody, and chaotic and actually thought, the focus for me was work right now in this current climate, having a job, having employment is so important so I thought I'd focus on that, also being a key worker I have commitments to major road infrastructure projects, so the kids have allowed me to work.
"They've done other things. They may not do school work when I'm working but they've found other ways, things like creativity, helping round the house, cleaning and then when I finish work or when James finishes work we will then do a little bit of schoolwork with them.
"We're creative too, we'll maybe do it at the weekends. We won't put pressure on ourselves to meet targets during the week, as long as the children are doing enough. The twins, there's not as much pressure on them really, I'm happy if they're reading."
It's different with Isabella who is in transfer year says Michelle "Transfer is an important year and so far the exam is still going ahead in November, We haven't been told of any delays to it so I do worry sometimes that with 80% of people actually furloughed or at home working, that they might be able to dedicate more time to their kids and that Isabella might suffer as a result of us being key workers and maybe not dedicating as much time to her schooling, but we will have to see how that goes."
Michelle also finds their children have learned to be more independent, even clean the kitchen and making their beds every morning! "They've become more creative, they're helping more around the house, they're letting me work, they're becoming more selfless, they're fighting less, they are becoming more of a team themselves, more of a unit and they're helping. They're creating, playing games"
They have drawn a chalk snapshot of Newry on their driveway means they can cycle or walk around 'Newry' without even leaving home!
The Future
At present schools remain closed at least into May and it's not known yet if pupils will then be able to return before the summer break so home schooling is set to continue for a while yet. Hopefully the weather stays kind.
