PLEASE READ THIS UPDATE CAREFULLY
Dear Parents/Guardians.
We are revising our procedures to ensure that there is as much Physical Distancing as is possible when we reopen on Monday 31st August. Our new procedures will be practical and sensible. We will need your help to make sure that these new procedures work.
This update shares some of our new procedures with you. We will share more next week.
Meanwhile thank you for your continuing support. We look forward to seeing your child back in school shortly.
Noel Loftus
Principal
Physical Distancing
We are…
- Removing furniture from the classrooms to maximise available space and physical distancing.
- Leaving a 1 metre distance between all pupils in 3rd Class, 4th Class, 5th Class & 6th Class.
- Creating class bubbles to ensure that there is as little contact as possible between children in different bubbles.
- Decreasing the potential for children from different classes/bubbles to interact.
by allocating entrances/exits to each class. We have created new openings in the front wall to help keep children apart when arriving and leaving.
- Marking routes for various classes/bubbles to enter and exit the school and to access their classrooms.
- Forming class bubbles that will have different break times and different break times in the yards
Hygiene
- Teachers will promote proper hygiene procedures regarding hand washing and etiquette related to sneezing, coughing or spitting. Please remind your child about these hygiene procedures at home as part of the preparation for returning to school.
- Regular handwashing and sanitisation breaks will be part of the school day. Every classroom will have new or upgraded sink units with warm water, sanitiser stations and paper hand towels with pedal bins. Please get packets of wipes and tissues for your child. Your child will use the wipes to regularly sanitise their own desk every day.
- A cleaner will be employed by the school to continuously sanitise all the touch points in the building e.g. door handles, toilet handles, taps, shared items like i-Pads.
- Make sure to send your child to school every day with pencils, colours etc. because children will not be allowed to share their things.
- Every classroom bubble will have its own sports equipment. Your child should not bring a football to school for break times. The teacher will have footballs for break times
Stay at Home if Unwell
- While all children will be welcome back to school, it is very important to remember that “No person (child, teacher or parent) should attend an educational setting if unwell or any members of their household are unwell with symptoms consistent with COVID-19”
- If your child has a cold, cough or flu like symptoms, your child should not be sent to school. Children who display such symptoms in school will be isolated and parents asked to collect them immediately from the school. Further information on COVID-19 symptoms in children is available at: –https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/if-your-child-has-symptoms.html
Our school’s ‘Every school day counts’ campaign will not operate for the coming months. No attendance awards will be made at the end of the school year. This will encourage pupils who show symptoms not come to school.
Lunches
- The free school lunch scheme will resume on Monday 14th September. Your child should bring a healthy lunch and a water bottle to school for the first two weeks.
Water coolers are removed from the school. Individual water bottles will be provided to each pupil daily with their free school lunch. Pupils are permitted to bring their own water bottles to school also.
Returning books rented from the school
- If you have not yet returned the rented books, search for them now. We need the books to be returned to us.
- Place the books in a plastic/paper bag with the name of your child on the outside.
- Your child should give the bag to the class teacher.
- We will then put the bag to one side for three days before we open it, sanitise the books, and distribute them to other children.
MORE INFORMATION NEXT WEEK
