Dear Parents,

At long last we are in a position to accept pupils back to school. All of the teachers are eagerly awaiting the return of our pupils after our enforced break coupled with the summer break. Over the past few weeks we have been working in school to ensure that your children can return to school in the safest manner possible. This will bring some temporary changes to how we operate on a daily basis. The following are the main changes taking place:

Access to School.
Unfortunately, nobody outside of school staff and pupils will be allowed to enter the school building at any time without an appointment. Where parents wish to collect their children for appointments or similar the following procedure will apply:

• Parents must phone the school to inform us of the time at which the child will be collected.
• At the appointed time the child will be collected by a member of school staff and taken to the reception area to await the parents arrival.
• When the parent arrives they will be admitted to the school where they will collect the children and sign the contact tracing log in the school reception.
  Please wear a visor or face mask at all times when in the school building.

Beginning and End of School Day.
The school building will be opened at 8:50 a.m. daily and will be divided into access zones for the children only, as follows:

At the end of the school day it has been necessary to organize the finishing time as follows:

2:45p.m. : Pupils who walk to school

Children with no brothers or sisters in Scoil Íosa.

Children in First Class.

2:50 p.m. : Pupils in 2nd Class and 6th Class.

2:55p.m.: Remaining pupils 3rd, 4th, 5th Class.

Please note that the pupils must be collected at these times. Do not be late or leave collection until later. Due to the Department of Education and Skills directives as laid down in the Roadmap for returning to school , we cannot allow the children from different classes to mix in the school building or in the school grounds. Your cooperation in this regard is very much appreciated.

Contact Details.

As we are required to contact parents in the event of children displaying symptoms consistent with Covid19, it is absolutely essential that we have up to date and accurate contact details. Now more than ever we must be vigilant in this regard. Failure to provide proper contact numbers will lead to referral to TUSLA under child protection guidelines as this will be constituted as neglect. In the present climate everybody must be responsible with regard to doing all in our power to combat the spread of the Covid19 virus.

Email Addresses.

We ask all families to provide the school with an email address to ensure that all correspondence/ newsletters can be forwarded to parents. Please email your address with the name and classes of your children to ccassidy@iosaballyhaunis.com

Finally, our thanks to all for your continued help and support. We are in unprecedented times which hopefully will be short term. Our collective aim must be to keep our children, their teachers and families safe. Always err on the side of caution. If your child has a temperature, a cough, Sore Throat or an altered sense of smell or taste, please do not send them to school under any circumstances. This is vital to stop the spread of Covid19 and I cannot emphasise how important this is. Your actions can avoid infection or equally could be the cause of infection which must be avoided at all costs.

With Thanks,

K. Dennedy