AS MAY begins so typically does study leave for GCSE and A level students here. This year however, pupils have come to the end of their post-primary education in a very different fashion.
Schools in Fermanagh closed from Monday 23 March meaning that for over one month now pupils have continued their studies from home, supported remotely by online resources and virtual contact with teachers.
Friday should have brought the beginning of study leave for students at Mount Lourdes and as tradition this should have been a day when the pupils came together to share in a leavers Mass. Instead, Rebecca Breslin deputy head girl and leader of the liturgy committee addressed her year group via the school’s social media page.
Noting that this was a “very different experience” she reflected on how the pupils had planned to have the traditional leavers Mass in the assembly hall with teachers and family members, followed by a leavers party in Pats plans which have been put on ice.
Rebecca began by saying, “We are living in unprecedented times and it is hard to believe that we have been ordered to stay at home. How many times in our educational years have we wished for school to close and now that it has happened it’s not all that good. Many of us have missed the daily routine of our school days.”
Rebecca took around five minutes to press pause on the Covid-19 pandemic as she reflected on post primary education at the Enniskillen school.
Looking back Rebecca said, “From the moment we stepped through the doors here at Mount Lourdes, whether it was September 2013 or September 2017 we became part of a welcoming exclusive and connected community.”
She added that before the pupils left their “second home” they would like to express gratitude to all the teaching and auxiliary staff, former principal Maureen McKeever and new principal Sinead Cullen and Fr McQuaid who led weekly Masses.
“We arrive, albeit abruptly at the end of this academic year and the leaving of post-primary education. We are at the arrival of a new chapter in our lives, the title of which for each of us differs but for all of us it is a chapter that will see the entrance of new characters a host of new experiences and new learning curves.”
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