Changes to our Covid Prevention Measures

With the advent of the ease of restrictions from Monday the 28th of February, the school has decided to take a gradual approach to change. The following are the changes that will be happening over the next few weeks. As always, we greatly appreciate the support of parents and the wider community. It has been a long road and it is terrific that we are finally able to relax some measures. 

• Face Coverings for staff/ visitors/ children is voluntary with immediate effect. We ask that all adult visitors are respectful of the wishes of all parties with regard to mask wearing. 
• Infant classes will start school at 9:20 am from Monday, March the 7th.
• Infant classes will finish school at 2pm from Monday March the 7th.
• There will be no change to the manner with which children can be dropped off and collected.
• The gates will open for all classes from 9:10 am March the 7th.  Please do not arrive too early as supervision will not begin until this time.
• After school GAA training with children with Staff volunteers will take place from Monday the 7th. Details will be forwarded to applicable pupils. Many thanks to Ms Klara Donohue, Ms Nicole Conway, Mr Mark Ronaldson, Mr Liam Geraghty, Ms. Sinead Kenny and Mr Kevin Barrett for offering their time and expertise so willingly!! 
• External coaching in Hurling, Gaelic Football and Tag Rugby with selected classes will begin with immediate effect.
• As most Parent/ Teacher meetings are now complete and teachers' time is already very well spent, it will not be possible to facilitate additional face-to-face Parent /Teacher meetings. If additional issues arise, parents may ring to make appointments to meet with staff if necessary.  This will be arranged through the office. 
• For security reasons, the gates will remain closed during the school day. Visitors should only enter school premises from the main entrance as current practice. 
• Pods and bubbles have ended in classrooms.
• We will still be asking children with symptoms to stay at home and the parents of children who have been working close to cases identified to be positive will still be offered the opportunity to avail of free Antigen tests. We would appreciate it if parents continue to tell us of their childrens' positive Antigen tests results.
• We will be resuming singing and instrument playing with immediate effect.
• Hand sanitising, cleaning and ventilation measures will not change. Every classroom in the school is now equipped with both a HEPA filter and a CO2 monitor. 
• The end of year school tour date has been fixed for Friday the 24th of June. Other class based field trips will recommence with immediate effect. 
• Unfortunately, due to a water-logged pitch, we will be unable to extend the time that pupils from older classes are allowed to play ball on the pitch for the moment. Current practice remains. We will review this practice on a continuous basis. 
• We will keep you informed of other changes to our practice. It's clear from the volume of cases that we are still dealing with that Covid has not gone away but with co-operation and a team effort, we can ensure that the wellbeing and success of our pupils is not severely impacted. 

Once again, many thanks for all your support to date. We draw our strength from our unity. 
Kind Regards,
Áine Ní Cholleráin Bleahene