Ms Áine Lynch:

I am not sure what the specific question was but, with regard to the usefulness of the text messages and videos, many parents said that these really helped their children. Children going back to school and their parents were anxious about what it would be like because of what had been reported in the media about the changes that would be made. Seeing the school, how to enter and leave it and what the classrooms and pods would look like was very reassuring. Families who did not get this information said they would have liked to have received such support because its absence added to their child's anxiety on the first day. It was also an anxious time for children just starting primary school because normal things such as visits to the school before attending and parents going in with them on the first day were all very restricted. That first day for junior infants was particularly challenging for some children.