Third Year Student, Tiarnán O’Kelly from Ballinteer, has Autism and is a budding journalist with a special interest in sports journalism.
By Tiarnán O’Kelly
After an announcement from the Government last week, our Autism class returned to the school building on Monday the 22nd of February while following all Government Covid guidelines.
Myself (Tiarnán) and 4 other students in the class returned along with 4 SNAs and 2 resource teachers. We were given a very warm welcome and were supplied with a lovely optional breakfast at 9am.
We chatted with each other and it was great to see and talk to everyone.
At around 9:30 am, Robyn (one of the SNAs and also a qualified yoga instructor) taught us an enjoyable and relaxing yoga and meditation class which for me was well needed. The lads and I enjoyed the session – although it was tough it was quite relaxing.
As part of the lovely welcoming we all went on a nice walk around Marlay Park in the cool weather with two of the SNAs, Robyn and Celine, and we got to have great chats with each other and catch up.
We arrived back to the school at around 11am and enjoyed a nice half an hour of wellbeing time before being given a technology briefing with our new Deputy Principal, Mr. MacGeidigh and a welcoming talk from our new Principal, Ms. Doherty.
Both were very informative and answered any questions we had and were delighted to see some students back in the school.
All of us from the class wish our new Principal and Deputy Principal all the best on their new journey with our school.
At 11:55 am we all sat down at our desks and logged onto our classes on our laptops, which were kindly provided by the school, and we got stuck into our work for the day.
From a student’s point of view, I think the return has been successful so far and very well organised by everyone in our school.
I am very happy to be back in school as I was finding it quite difficult to learn and concentrate when logging onto online classes at home, as it just isn’t the same as being in school.
Hopefully now this can be the start of a positive return to school. I am not the biggest fan of school and schoolwork but I want to give myself as much opportunities possible for the future, and being back in the school building is definitely going to help.
Hopefully, everyone will eventually be back in school with us soon, as us returning has been very safe and very well organised as we continue to follow all guidelines from the government.
Until then stay safe,
Tiarnán and everyone from my class in Ballinteer Community School.
