January 2022

Welcome Back

I hope you all had a pleasant winter break and weren't too badly affected by COVID19. Unfortunately, the pandemic is still with us and with over 20,000 cases per day, we need to take as much care as we can. As you know by now, schools have reopened. Thank you to all of our families that have been in touch about this. Everyone has been so supportive as we all get through these difficult times. The purpose of this newsletter is to let you know what is happening in the coming weeks ahead so please make sure to take a few minutes to have a read of it. All we can do is cope the best we can while we go through this latest wave of COVID19 and try our best to stay happy and safe.

Information about dealing with COVID19 changes on a regular basis. In fact, the day before we returned to school, there were new changes to isolation measures. These can all be found on the HPSC website. There are two guides - one for people above the age of 13 and one for those under 13. In almost all of our cases, we will need to be familiar with both of these documents. Unfortunately, they are fairly complicated, with lots of different scenarios so if you are unsure about whether your child should come into school, please give us a call and we'll try and figure it out together.

I want to reiterate that we appreciate what a difficult time this is for many of our families and I understand how worried some of you might feel about sending your child into school given the pandemic. Some families have been in touch with me to ask about the 20-day rule - that is the rule that if a child misses 20 days of school, then we must report the family to Tusla. I want to reassure you that Tusla are not going to be coming to any family unless there is a very good reason. If you feel that sending your child into school may compromise your child's or a member of your household's health, just let us know. We all need to come from a position of kindness and understanding in these times and I will support any family in this regard. While schools are obliged to report their attendances to Tusla, it does not mean that they will contact you.

Attendance levels at the moment are between 70% and 80%. If you are not sending your child to school, please note that teachers are updating their online platform about what is being covered in class. You are welcome to collect your child(ren)'s books at the office. Please call ahead so we can have them ready for you.

Eric's Month's mind service will take place on January 16th. His parents have asked me to let our school community know if you would like to attend. It will be in St. Clare's Church. We are waiting for confirmation of the time.

As you know, the Department of Education have not added further mitigation measures for schools since the winter break. A small grant was issued to schools just before the holidays to investigate and put toward ventilation measures. The winter fundraiser also added some money for this purpose. The following is a short summary of current measures in schools right now:

The school has engaged an engineer to assess our ventilation measures in our building. Over the coming days, classrooms will be measured for CO2 levels and temperature to see if there are any rooms which require extra ventilation. HEPA filters may be recommended in some cases but some rooms may require other solutions. As our buildng is relatively new, it is possible no further measures will be needed but I will keep you updated.

Ventilation is the big story of January and schools have been asked to ensure that classrooms are very well ventilated. All classrooms have CO2 monitors and the only mitigation measures that we currently have to keep them under the recommended safe figure is to open windows. The trouble with opening windows means that classrooms become colder so there is a balancing act between keeping the rooms ventilated and comfortable. As you can imagine, this is a trial and error situation, and with classrooms as busy as they always are, it can be difficult to manage. However, we will do our best.

The Department of Education has reiterated its stance that all children from 3rd class upwards are required to wear a mask in school throughout the day. If you don't want your child to wear a mask, snood, visor or any covering and want to discuss this, please get in touch.

As temperatures become colder, it is likely that classrooms are going to be a bit colder than usual, as we have to have windows open in classrooms. It may be worth adding a layer or two of extra clothing to your child to keep them more comfortable.

Please remember the biggest mitigation measure of all is to not send your child to school if they are exhibiting symptoms of COVID19. New rules around isolation have been published by the HPSC and you should try to familiarise yourself with your own particular circumstances. If you are in doubt, please make sure to check with us.

Given the number of cases in Ireland of COVID19 right now, it is no surprise that our staff are likely to either contract COVID19 or be a close contact of someone with COVID19. We will do everything we can to source substitute teachers and cover our classes. We should be able to keep all classes open as long as fewer than 10 teachers are unavailable. In terms of SNAs, we will also do our best to find substitutes to ensure that our children with additional needs can remain in school. Unfortunately, there will be times where our support teachers will have to cover classrooms to keep them open so please bear with us on this.

Parent Teacher Meetings will take place in mid-February. Unfortunately, due to current restrictions they will not take place face-to-face. It is most likely they will take place via phone or through Zoom. You will be given the opportunity to book your time from next week.

As we venture through the winter, festivals of light are happening around the world. In December, many people celebrated Christmas, Chanukah, Yule and Kwanzaa, and in January many faiths and non-faith communities celebrate festivals of light. In this spirit of brightening up the winter, we are going to keep our winter lights on until 1st February, which is the beginning of spring in Ireland. In 2022, this also coincides with another festival of light, The Chinese New Year.