School Re-opening

19th August 2020

 Dear parent/ guardian, 

After a long six months of absence we are delighted to welcome you back. We have been working hard behind the scenes to get our school ready for reopening.  As you are aware, our school has now been closed since the 12th of March due to the COVID-19 situation.  However, we took advantage of the closure to make some improvements to the school. All our classrooms have been newly painted. We have new blinds on our windows and all our classrooms now have hot water. The toilets have also been painted with new sinks installed. 

We are now planning to re-open our school safely on Thursday, 27th August in line with current Department of Education guidance and recommendations.   

Re-opening the school safely will require the co-operation of all members of our School Community – Board of Management, school leadership, staff, parents and pupils. We will all be called on to play our part in ensuring that the re-opening of the school is done in a safe manner which prevents the spread of the virus and allows the vital work of teaching and learning to proceed with as little disruption as possible. 

We have been working on our plan for the safe reopening of the school for some weeks now and have published the DES COVID-19 Response Plan for the safe and sustainable reopening of Primary and Special Schools and our COVID-19 Policy Statement on our school website. 

The Response Plan gives details of:  

• Physical preparation, signage, hand sanitiser stations 

• Advice, procedures and training for the safe return to working in the school for all school staff and pupils 

• General and specific advice on how all pupils, staff, parents and visitors will prevent the spread of the virus 

Please read our ‘Return to school plan’ that has details and information required by you to play your part in safely re-opening the school.  We are really looking forward to welcoming our children back to school and will be doing all in our power to ensure that the return to school is a safe and enjoyable experience for the children. We will continue to be in contact with you before school re-opens.

Bríd Galligan.

The following websites provide further information on COVID-19 and on government advice and recommendations regarding the re-opening of schools: – 

• https://www.education.ie/en/covid-19/

• https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/ 

• https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/a128d-back-to-school/?referrer=http://www.gov.ie/backtoschool/