Class Pods 1st to 6th Classes

Class Pod Groups for 1st to 6th Classes are available HERE

Back to School - Older Classes

PDF Version available HERE

31^st August 2020

Back to School – September 1^st 2020

1^st to 6^th Classes

Dear Parents,

We are looking forward to seeing all the children tomorrow as we begin our new school year. We have put some special arrangements in place for the morning routine.

Under DES guidelines, we are expected to have drop off areas for the children coming to school. For Infants, we are initially allowing parents to accompany the children down to the Infant yard where we will have a special ‘infant only’ drop off area. Parents will be able to stay a little longer in this area as we strive to get all the infant children back into school happily. However, all other classes will be dropped off at the school gate and parents are asked not to pass the drop off area.

On arriving at the school main gate, you will find a walkway coned off for Infants and Parents to progress down to the Infant yard. This will be well signed. There will also be an assigned route for the children from 1^st to 6^th classes to walk around to the back yard. I will be at the gate to help direct the traffic!

A few notes.

For organisational purposes we have allocated Room numbers to each class this year. This will help with lining up in the back yard. The room numbers for each class are as follows:

Room 4:          Fourth Class                Ms Dwan

Room 5:          First Class                   Ms Cowhig

Room 6:          Second Class               Ms Rooney

Room 7:          Third Class                  Ms O’Meara

Room 8:          Fifth/Sixth Class         Ms Casey

Room 9:          Fifth Class                   Ms McGovern

Room 10:        Sixth Class                  Ms Horan

The yard has lining up areas marked 1 to 10 (Rooms 1, 2 and 3 are assigned to Infants). Each class line has 36 dots, each 1m apart, in six colours which will correspond to the Class Pods. As a child arrives into the back yard, they progress to their class line and stand on one of the dots of their assigned colour. The colours are, from top of the yard to the bottom, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. (We have a rainbow yard at the moment!)

The class teachers will all be in the yard for the first morning to guide their classes to the right spot. When a child is in the right place, they will be assigned that exact spot for lining up going forward. This is the same spot they will use every morning and after each break.

It will take a day or two to get the children in tune with the new lining up arrangements but we are certain they will adapt to it very quickly.

There will be a teacher in the yard supervising each morning from 8.45 am. Therefore, it is important that children arriving at school do so after that time each morning. The only exception to this rule is for the early bus which arrives between 8.30 am and 8.40 am. I plan to be there to meet them each morning and will be monitoring that children arrive at the right time. With a little patience, we will get this new system running smoothly.

I will shortly send each class group a copy of the class pod groups.

See you all in the morning!

Yours sincerely,

Dermot Dunphy,

Principal.

Back to School - Infants

PDF Version Available Here

31^st August 2020

Back to School – September 1^st 2020

Infants

Dear Parents,

We are looking forward to seeing all the children tomorrow as we begin our new school year. We especially look forward to welcoming our new entrants who are beginning their school journey with us. We are also very aware of how our returning Senior Infants had their first year in school disrupted and I’m sure for some, it feels like starting all over again. Therefore, we have put some special arrangements in place for the Infants starting this week.

Under DES guidelines, we are expected to have drop off areas for the children coming to school. For Infants, we are allowing parents to accompany the children down to the Infant yard where we will have a special ‘infant only’ drop off area. Parents will be able to stay a little longer in this area as we strive to get all the children back into school happily.

On arriving at the school main gate, you will find a walkway coned off for Infants and Parents to progress down to the Infant yard. This will be well signed. I will be at the gate to help direct you there.

At the infant yard, you will see two distinct areas set out for the Junior Infants and the Senior Infants. Again, this will be signed for you. The infant teachers will be at this drop off area to guide you and bring the children into the school. We hope to be able to do this in groups, so if you wish to wait for a friend to arrive, you will be able to do this in the yard. Unfortunately, we are not permitted to allow adults into the school building. We hope with some time and patience, we will get the children safely and happily into their classrooms.

A few notes for Junior Infants. Ms Ahern is unable to return to school until Monday September 7^th 2020. Ms Claire Dunphy will take charge of the Junior Infant Class for this week. Ms Ahern has been in contact with Ms Dunphy and outlined her plan of work for the first week. Ms Dunphy, as a past pupil of the school who has worked with us on a number of occasions and is very familiar with how we work in UNS. She will also be assisted in the task of starting the children in school by Ms Margaret Delaney. Ms Delaney is part of our Special Education Team, but as many of you will know, she was our Junior Infant teacher for well over 20 years. The children will be in the safe hands of a very capable team!

The Junior Infants are in school from 9.00am to 12.00pm for the first two weeks to ease them into their school lives. When you come to collect the children at 12 noon, you may assemble in the Infant yard again, and the children will come out to you with their teachers.

For Senior Infants, they will go home as normal at 1.40pm. We would suggest that parents wait at the gate drop off area for the Seniors as you would have done last year. Mr Doyle and Ms Ryan will bring the children out to you. The Afterschool groups will have an assigned area for collection and the bus children will also have a waiting area before being brought to the bus.

We hope that by week two, we will be able to have the Senior Infant children line up in the back yard in the morning time with the older classes. The teachers will teach them the routine this week and we know they will be delighted to be the ‘big infants’ heading to the back yard with the older children!

Finally, for organisational purposes we have allocated Room numbers to each class this year. Ms Ahern’s class are in Room 1, Mr Doyle’s class are in Room 2 and Ms Ryan’s class are in Room 3. This will help with lining up in the back yard.

See you all in the morning!

Yours sincerely,

Dermot Dunphy,

Principal.

COVID-19 - Returning to School

As we prepare to return to school on Tuesday 1st September 2020 there is much important information that will help us all keep safe in the coming term.

Firstly, we would like to let you know that our school has been prepared for the return of our pupils. Last Wednesday, the school received a deep clean, where all rooms and public areas were professionally cleaned by Ryans Cleaning, Thurles. All the staff have worked very hard this week to dismantle the school in preparation for the deep clean and then to put the school back together again. There have been a lot of other people involved in getting the school physically ready for Tuesday and we want to thank everybody involved for their help.

The Sensory Room had been turned into our Isolation Room for the foreseeable future.

The back yard is being prepared to allow the children line up each morning in a socially distanced way using coloured pods.

We will have special instructions in place at the gate for the introduction of infants to school and the entrance of other children to the school. Please remember that will have a 'drop and go' policy for children from 1st Class onwards. The school gate is the drop zone.

Each class has been prepared in 'bubbles' and 'pods', with designated entrances and exits. Play times will be staggered and classes will be assigned an area to play in the yard.

Older classes will leave in a staggered manner beginning with Sixth Class at 2.30pm. There will be areas assigned for our two afterschool groups.

we will be rolling out Aladdin Connect in the next week. This app will make connectivity between home and school so much easier.

Every effort will be made to keep the school as normal as possible, while ensuring we are following the guidelines of the Department of Education and Skills and the Public Health Service.

There is much advice available from the DES and NPHET. It is important for parents to know that the Public Health Service will advise on all decisions to be taken with regard to any possible case of COVID-19 in a school. This is laid out clearly by the DES in their document Schools Pathway for Covid-19. They have also sent us Advice for Parents and Information for Parents. These documents are linked and the last two are easily printable if you want to keep them at home.

Finally, for now, our School Covid-19 Policy is being sent to the Board of Management for ratification. When it is ready it will appear here.

Thanks for your time in reading this notice and looking forward to a successful return to school and seeing our school full of children again!