Parents of P2 pupils at Enniskillen Integrated Primary School have shown their appreciation for the home-schooling support from teachers Jamie Johnston and Majella McCabe by creating a collaborative video with special messages of thanks.

During lockdown Mr. Johnston taught his class remotely via daily live lessons on Facebook whilst Miss McCabe would share ideas and learning resources to the page.

Rachel Doogan, one of the parents who co-ordinated the video told The Impartial Reporter: “We as parents decided to put this video together to surprise Miss McCabe and Mr. Johnston before their last live home-schooling lesson online. As parents we all had our own reasons for struggling with home-schooling, some of us had both parents still working full time, some were single parents, some with new-born babies, some stay at home parents with multiple children to teach. Mr. Johnston gave up his time every morning at 10am with two little girls of his own to look after and taught our children live for 40 minutes, singing songs, giving a full lesson, and laid out homework for that day. This kept our kids in a set scheduled routine each morning just like school.”

Rachel noted that during his lessons Mr. Johnston said hello to each individual child which kept them motivated and focused: “They felt he was with them in a classroom and they were excited seeing all there classmates names being mentioned and could write to each other. He didn’t have to give up every morning, he went that extra mile to ensure our kids kept on top of their work, he kept in touch every day and took a huge weight off us as parents, we are not teachers and we all learned how to teach our kids by watching his methods. We just could not thank him enough for doing the work for us as busy parents.”

“Then Miss McCabe came on board which we never expected her to do, she made the kids so excited getting involved as she is so bubbly and fun and always smiling, the kids love her,” said Rachel, adding that Miss McCabe made up new games and crafts for the pupils: “By doing her tasks the kids learned so much without even feeling like they were doing home-schooling because it was so fun, this was all focused on P2 however preschool to P4 were tuned in every morning.”

“We felt these two teachers gave up their spare time and done a lot of work off camera to ensure the 40 minutes was perfectly spent and their dedication and commitment to putting our kids before their own needs blew us away, we cannot thank them enough they are a credit to the Enniskillen Integrated Primary School,” she concluded.

The video features singing and short recordings from the pupils along with messages of thanks from their parents.

In the video, one parent says: “We just want to say a massive thank you Mr. Johnston and Miss McCabe. Thank you so much for all the hard effort you have both put in to help us teach our children through this Covid-19 period. Mr. Johnston thank you so much for every morning without a fail popping online and teaching our children. Miss McCabe thank you so much for all your ideas with our home crafts and fun learning. We really really have appreciated this, thank you.”

“Hi Mr. J and Miss McCabe. I would like to thank you for all the good things you have done for us during coronavirus,” said one of the P2 pupils.

Principal of Enniskillen Integrated Primary School Adele Kerr commented: “We’ve had lots of individual emails and thanks but this was just something that the P2 parents had got together and done because Mr. Johnston does that live lesson every morning and Miss McCabe would then add to it on the Facebook page so it’s just a wee bit of uniqueness from the school that parents do go out of their way to say thank you and appreciate the staff.”

“I know Jamie and Majella were really taken aback and very emotional. I was actually with Miss McCabe when she watched the video because we were in childcare together on Friday morning and she actually cried,” Mrs. Kerr told this newspaper.