A chairde,

I hope you and your families are keeping well.

As you are aware, our school has now been closed since March 12th due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  We are now hoping to reopen our school safely and in line with current guidance and recommendations from the Department of Education and Skills.

Reopening 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 upon to play our part in ensuring that reopening of the school is organised in a safe manner which helps reduce 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 our 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. See below.

COVID-19 Response Plan for Primary and Special Schools

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.

We are currently applying  these guidelines to our specific setting. Further information will follow over the coming weeks to ensure that everyone is as prepared as possible for our school’s reopening.

We have also published our COVID-19 Policy Statement. Our Board of Management will keep you informed as to the progress of our reopening plans and provide you with the information required by you to play your part in safely reopening the school.

Covid-19 Policy Statement

We are really looking forward to welcoming our pupils back to school on tuesday September 1st and will be doing all that we can to ensure that the return to school is a safe and enjoyable experience for our pupil and families.  Junior Infants will finish at 12 o’ clock for the first two weeks of school (September 1st – September 11th.) Senior Infants will finish at 1:40 pm and all other classes will finish at 2:40 pm as per usual. More information will follow and we will be in touch with you again before school reopens.

Le dea-ghuí

Niall Madden

Príomhoide

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/