Covid 19 Update Re-opening School
Dear Parents,
We are looking forward to re-opening on Thursday 27th August.
We hope we can keep everybody safe as we re-open the school.
The Covid-19 Response Plan for the school was discussed at our Board Meeting on Wednesday the 19th August and is attached if you wish to read it.
Every parent needs to be aware of the following :
Children can not come to school if they have any symptom of Covid-19 - cough, shortness of breath, temperature, change to the sense of taste or smell
Visitors to the school, including parents, are restricted to essential purposes and must have been arranged with the Principal prior to arriving at the school office. Please ring Maria for an appointment before you arrive at the school.
Should a child develop symptoms at school we will phone you immediately. It is essential that your phone number is correct, if you have changed your phone number please ring the office to have it changed.
Children who have symptoms will wait in the Isolation room in the school for their parents to arrive. A staff member will be with them. Please note we will need to err on the side of caution and we will be ringing you if your child develops any of these symptoms. Full Protocol on page 4 of Response Plan
If we were seriously concerned about a child or could not contact the parents we would contact the emergency services in the normal way and explain the situation.
If a child goes home from school with a symptom or symptoms of Covid 19 the child cannot return to school until you have been advised by your GP or HSE that it is safe to do so. The Principal may ask for a doctor's letter upon return.
The school will not be furnishing details of these instances as per Department Guidelines - the HSE will advise and do any followup contact tracing as required.
If your family has recently returned from a country which is not on the Green List for travel your child should not return to school until the 14 day quarantine period has been observed.
You will have received an email as to the Drop off and Collection times for pupils until the 4th September when we will review the situation.
Senior Infants 9.30 - 2.00
First to Sixth can be dropped between 9am and 9,30am First & Second collected at 2.40 Third & Fourth 2.50 Fifth & Sixth 3pm
Junior Infants 10am - 12 noon APART from the first two days where they are arriving in groups of nine - 10am Group 10.15 Group 10.30 Group
Pupils are going directly into their classrooms on arrival.
Children who arrive by bus can go straight to their classrooms on arrival and the bus will be on-site at 2.40 to accomodate our staggered collection times. I was awaiting confirmation of that but received it today.
Break times have been changed so as to allow maximum space for the children to play within their own class bubble outdoors - children are allowed play with all the children in their own class but different classes will not be mixing. The different zones are marked out each day.
Children in Junior classes - Infants, First and Second are being seated in groups of 4 - 4 children at two tables
Each group of 4 is a pod and each pod is 1m from the next pod. Children will stay in the same pod each day.
Third Fourth Fifth and Sixth class pupils are seated so as to maintain a 1m distance from each other.
Children who receive extra teaching support from a Resource/Support teacher may where necessary go to the resource room with the teacher.
Hand hygiene - children will wash their hands on entry to school, before and after they eat, after playtime outdoors, after they sneeze or cough, after using the toilet or when hands are dirty from activities eg art
It is important to teach your child to cover their cough or sneeze , using a tissue or coughing into their elbow if they don't have one.
Hand sanitisers are in place throughout the school at entry/exit points.
We have increased the number of hours for cleaning services as each school setting has to be cleaned each day - this includes pupil's tables, chairs, work areas, toilet and wash areas and frequently touched surfaces such as handles, switches, bins etc
More detailed Protocols on cleaning in Response Plan & Cleaners Schedule
I hope this answers most of your queries.
Michael Moloney
| ballyfin_ns_covid-19_response_plan.docx |
