Dance class available via Newry, Mourne District Council beginning next Friday

Katrina Hynds from the Council has appointed Jenna Finnegan to complete a dance programme for schools as detailed below in the following emails. If you would be interested in your child taking part in this Dance Class, it will begin at 11am next Friday 5th March and will last 45 minutes. I will send out the link to the zoom class each week via a message on the Schools NI App. The option is there for each family and the choice is yours, if you would like your child to take part in this.

Please read the information below for further details.

Dear Principal,

I do hope that you enjoyed your summer break albeit somewhat different due to the current pandemic and are coping successfully with the new challenges faced as you enter the new term.

As you know we have engaged very positively with schools in the past rolling out programmes such as Building Resilience, Mini Medics, drugs/alcohol awareness, Road Safety Poster Competition (Chaos at the school gates), Dance, multi sports project, Young Driver’s Initiative,  intercultural learning and intergenerational choir services.  We firmly believe that these early intervention projects have immense benefits for the development of our young people and wish to ensure that they do not miss out on such opportunities in the future.

We have had very positive feedback on all the programmes delivered and in view of the current situation we are enquiring if your school would be in a position to participate this year?  If the answer is affirmative and conscious that we may not be able to deliver ‘en masse’ we would welcome your views on how you visualise delivery of same embracing all social distancing regulations?

Several of our programmes are delivered by individual tutors (e.g. Building Resilience, Dance, physical exercise etc,) who have now prepared risk assessments in view of covid-19 regulations to reassure participants, teachers and guardians that they can take part safely.  However local restrictions may not permit such a step and that is why I am writing to see if there is any merit in progressing delivery of the programmes?

I am happy to meet with you(socially distanced of course), to allay fears or to speak with you on the phone should you wish to discuss this matter further.  As we need to undertake either the tender or quotation processes we would be grateful if you could respond to this email by Friday 25^th September, 2020. 

I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Katrina Hynds

Downpatrick DEA Co-Ordinator

 Newry, Mourne and Down District Council
Oifig Dhún Pádraig
Downpatrick Office
Downshire Civic Centre
Downshire Estate, Ardglass Road
Downpatrick BT30 6GQ

Dear Principals,

As the dance instructor for the DEA school dance programme, I am contacting you on behalf of the entire DEA team of coordinators to confirm that the project will be delivered virtually via zoom as we know that many schools already offer classes via zoom or some form of virtual learning.  I am sure you are all familiar with Zoom and I myself, have been delivering all my company classes this way since last March. It is a great way to keep in contact with students, ensure students are being proactive at home and it is also a great way for the students to get some much need exercise into their daily routine. 

The weekly zoom class would last roughly 45 minutes and the day/time will be chosen once school's confirm. Teachers could either pass on zoom codes from me to parents through the usual method of contact they use every day, or if teacher would rather host meeting themselves they can add me in along with students. Of course teachers are welcome to be present for the classes if they wish to, however this isn't necessary. I have all Access Ni checks, child protection etc.

 We hope all schools that were already selected for the initial programme are happy with this new and unique way of delivering the classes we propose. However, if this is something you are not interested in, please let us know at the earliest convenience as we then can offer it to other schools that would be happy to avail of it. 

Jenna