St. Conleth’s Infant School,
Naas Road,
Newbridge.
August 12th
Dear Parents/Guardians,
We are very happy to write to you regarding the imminent re-opening of our school after such a lengthy closure due to the current Covid 19 emergency. We look forward to welcoming back our Senior Infant and First class pupils and to welcoming our Junior Infant pupils for the first time. We are planning to re-open for all classes on September 1st.
At all times, we are guided by the recommendations of the Department of Education and Skills and NPHET and will be in touch with you should there be any change in the advice given the current situation in Kildare.
The roadmap to re-opening schools was recently published and armed with this, the school has been working tirelessly to be ready to open in a safe way. While the welcome to our pupils will not change, there will be some changes on how the school is organised so as to ensure the safety of pupils, staff and parents in accordance with safe practice as advised in the roadmap for re-opening.
In order to re-open safely and to remain open safely, we will require huge co-operation from our parent body. We can only succeed if we have co-operation from all sections of our school community, pupils, parents, staff and the community in general.
Our foremost concern is to open and to remain open in a safe way, while providing a stimulating educational environment for your child. Some of the arrangements sanctioned by the Board of Management include:
- Staggered entry and exit times to eliminate crowding at entrance points.
- Changed entry and exit points, entry points at hall, science door and side gate.
- In-School management will assist with supervising staggered entry and exit organisation.
- Furniture arranged according to DES regulations.
- Parents will be required to wear face coverings when speaking to staff members.
- No access to the building for parents or visitors without prior approval/permission from the principal/deputy principal. Face coverings to be worn by all visitors to the school.
- Parents and staff must declare if they have travelled abroad to a red zone country and must observe required isolation of 14 days before returning to school.
- Parents and children are required to adhere to Covid guidelines.
- Code of Behaviour to be amended to include Covid adherence by pupils and parents.
- Parents are asked to contact the school as soon as possible if their child has compromised health and may not be in a position to return to school.
- The Board understands that changes may need to be made to arrangements as we transition through the re-opening phase and ask your co-operation and forbearance with these.
- We appeal to parents not to send their child to school if the child are feeling unwell.
The school will be in touch with you over the next week or so with further details regarding arrangements for re-opening including start and finish times for your child.
Yours Sincerely,
Pat Lonergan,
Chairman, Board of Management.