Final Back to School Update

Posted on Monday, August 31, 2020

Dear Parents/Guardians,
We reopen our school building tomorrow and I'm sure our pupils are as excited as our staff!
We spent the day in school today, putting in the finishing touches and making sure every little detail has been covered.
Here are some new updates and answers to some of the questions we received in the past week:

  • Junior and senior infants will be collected at the school gate. This was one of the changes we identified today. Parents can wait in their cars until they see Ms McGrath come out. This will avoid any congregating. 
  • Junior infant parents can come in to the door with their child on Thursday and Friday morning and for as long as their child needs. 
  • For everyone else, we would ask parents to leave their children at the school gate just in time for 9.20am.
  • Parents should arrange where to meet their child after school so they can walk directly from gate to car/meeting point. There can be no congregating at the gate. 
  • Primary school pupils do not have to wear masks. Teachers will be wearing visors for most of the day. Teachers will wear masks on occasion if they have to administer first aid for example. Teachers also have a portable screen to use when working with groups or individuals. 
  • All pupils should have a lunch which is easy to manage and a lunchbox which is easy to open. Teachers cannot be as "hands on" as before and our pupils are out of practice at having lunch in school!
  • Water fountains are no longer available in school so make sure your child has a drink (particularly in senior room).
  • Change out of uniform straight after school and air it out for the next day.
  • Empty schoolbags each evening and give them a wipe inside and outside. 
  • Lunchboxes should be washed each day. 
  • Have a "home pencil case" and a "school pencil case" with just the essentials needed. We'll help set them up in school tomorrow.
It will be a strange day tomorrow with a lot of hand washing, sanitising and trying to develop new routines. We will also be sorting out our books, having a look at the old books and deciding where we need to start our learning. There will be a lot of revising and getting used to being back in school. Most importantly there will be lots of catching up with friends, hearing everyones news and deciding what games to play at break. 
The best preparation tonight is a good sleep because we've a busy 4 days ahead. 
Thank you all for the support over the past month while we prepared the school and your amazing work at home with your children since March. 
A very special word of thanks to Patricia our secretary for all her work all summer long sourcing PPE and taking care of all the administration and David our caretaker who has been in the school every night over the past few weeks powerhosing the yard, hanging all the signs and sanitisers and anything else the teachers needed.  They are the backbone of our school and we would be lost without them. 
 
Looking forward to seeing all our pupils tomorrow,

Éilis Treacy
Principal

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