Dear Parent / Carer

It’s hard to believe that we are almost at the end of June and the ‘normal’ school year! Unfortunately there has been nothing normal about this year for everyone in our school community. 

Can I firstly thank all of you for the your resilience, patience and goodwill during these incredibly difficult times. The priority throughout this period of lockdown and school closures has been trying to keep everyone safe. That remains our priority as we move forward but we also want to get all of our pupils back into school as soon as possible. 

Can I also thank all of the Castle Tower staff for their hard work and creativity during this time. As always the staff have gone the extra mile with the online learning provided as well as the pastoral support which has been available for all of our families. I also hope that the many online videos and challenges have reminded our pupils that our staff are still there for them and maybe given them a laugh at times. 

A lot of work has been going on, and continues to go on, to enable us to be ready for what the new school year brings. We are awaiting specific guidance for Special Schools from the Department of Education regarding this but rather than waiting for this we have a number of staff teams actively working on the structures and procedures to make the return to school as safe as possible. 

Unfortunately it is not possible at this time for me to provide you with our ‘Restart Plan’ as we don’t have all the information we require and things seem to be changing on a daily basis! Be assured however that we will keep you informed and let you know, as soon as we know, what that is going to look like for all of our pupils. It is however highly likely that school will have to be very different in its structures and practices from the normal September restart. 

We all desperately miss having the Castle Tower family together and are thinking of you all. Please stay safe, stay well and stay in touch.

Kind regards,

Raymond McFeeters

Principal