Dear Parents
Welcome back to everyone, I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter break.
We are now facing into a final term unlike before. We will continue to work hard in school to keep everyone safe and we will rely on you to work with us to keep the school open for your children.
COVID-19 Update
I am happy to share the following information with you all so that you are aware of what happened at the beginning of the Easter Holidays. You will remember that I was in touch with you all during the Easter Holidays regarding children from our school who tested positive at the beginning of the holidays while these children were at home.
Sometimes, it can be worrying for families when they hear of a case of Covid in their child’s school and especially when they receive a letter from the school – I hope what you read below will reassure you. I hope also that you will appreciate that I am not in a position to give details of children or classes or staff where there is a case – these are the rules that I must follow.
I was contacted by Public Health on the 1st Monday of the holidays regarding a number of children, who attend our school, who tested positive in the early days of the holidays. Public Health needed to go back a number of days to see who these children were in contact with and, because the children were in school on the previous Thursday and Friday, we had to get in touch with a number of staff and families of children who were identified by Public Health as close contacts.
The children and staff (only those identified as close contacts) were contacted by the school to inform them of the situation and to let them know a text would arrive from HSE to attend for a Covid test. The children and staff were tested the following day and again on Day 10 (last Monday) and I am delighted to inform you that none of the children and none of the staff tested positive in either of the two tests.
You might draw certain conclusions from what happened here – it’s possible that the children who tested positive weren’t positive when they were in the school on the days before the holidays and contracted the virus when they were at home over the 1st weekend of the holidays; it’s possible that they were positive while they were in school but because of the measures taken by the staff and children (masks, hand washing/sanitising, extra cleaning, children staying in own bubbles/pods, ventilation etc) there was very little opportunity for the virus to spread.
This incident has been a big learning experience for all of us. It caused anxiety and disruption during the Easter Holidays to the lives of the families of staff and children, who had to be tested. I must commend those directly involved for their patience and understanding during those days and I have to thank them for fully cooperating with all that was asked of them.
The Final Term – week by week
We will continue to work very hard to make sure everyone stays safe in our school during the final term. We ask that you, the parents, keep doing what you have been doing – especially, keep those sick children at home – you are directly responsible for keeping our school open and safe for all of us.
We will continue to work with Parents and Children through Microsoft Team– we will spend the final term building on the skills we all have developed over the last months. We urge those parents who have yet to download the App to do so immediately because our newsletters and other correspondence from your child’s teacher and from the school will now be sent to you this way.
School Closures in Final Term (see school calendar):
May 3rd – 7th school closed
June 7th school closed
Summer Holidays: Friday 25th June
Thank you again for all your support
Denis Coleman, Principal
