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Dear Parents

I hope you are well.

I'm sure you've all heard & read about the back to school guidelines issued by the Department yesterday. A link to these guidelines & a message for parents from the Minister for Education was uploaded to our website yesterday.

I want to reassure you that our school will most definitely be ready to re-open on Monday, August 31st (our school calendar is on our blog & also available on the 'Event' section of the textaparent app)

The classrooms have been reconfigured in line with the guidelines issued yesterday & I've attached some photos that will illustrate how we will lay out our classrooms.

Further information regarding drop off & break times etc will be uploaded to our website in the coming weeks, as will procedures around minimising the risk of infection for our school community.

I know parents, in particular parents that have children in different classes throughout the school, will be anxious to know that due to our small number of pupils & parents, we will not need to apply a staggered drop off or collection policy. Our existing school yard (& we will possibly have access to the Diocesan yard) will be divided between each class grouping so as to keep each group in their own class bubble on days when our playing pitches are inaccessible.

We are fortunate that we acquired our extra playing pitch a couple of years ago, so similarly, we will be able to divide the playing pitches/yard surfaces evenly between the three groups.

 Junior Room (Ms. Keane's Room)

There is no requirement for children in junior infants to 2nd class to socially distance. There will be 10 junior infants (red tables), 4 senior infants (green tables) & 7 first class children (grey tables) in this room. (This layout may be altered by the return to school)

Automatic hand sanitisers & the 'handle hygiene' product (see earlier post) have been installed in each classroom.



Middle Room (Ms. Maguire's Room)

This class of 23 children (2nd, 3rd & 4th class) will be taught again this year by Ms. Maguire. Our seven 2nd class children will sit at the grey tables (no requirement for social distancing). The seven 3rd class children will sit (one per table & at a minimum of 1 metre apart) at the red & blue tables & 4th class will each have their own individual seat at the computer bench. (again at least 1 metre apart). For oral work, work from the Interactive whiteboard etc, the children will be facing the board & for written work/computer work etc, they will have their own individual station to complete this. We have had to utilise the computer benches in both the middle & senior rooms to adhere to social distancing requirements.

Senior Room 

This classroom of 16 (possibly 17) 5th & 6th class children will be taught by myself. It's not possible to accommodate a class of 25, possibly 26 4th, 5th & 6th class children in our classrooms & still maintain social distancing guidelines.
The ten 5th class children will each have their own table & similar to the middle room, 6th class, will have their own workstation at the computer bench.



Each class will have their own individual entry & exit to their classrooms so as to reduce crowding etc so the coat hangers for the senior room will now be placed in the link corridor between the senior room & the classroom extension.

Information regarding bus transport & further relevant information is all contained in the guidelines issued yesterday.

Further information will follow in the coming weeks.


Kind regards

Trevor Larke