Dear Parents and Guardians,
No doubt you will have been following the reports in the media regarding the new school year in September. The Government has published ‘Reopening our Schools: Roadmap for the Full Return to School’ as well as a large number of supporting documents. I just wanted to give you a quick update on how this will play out in Lucan East ETNS.
It is our clear expectation that the school will reopen in full to all children for the full day in the first week of September. While we will have to make significant changes to the way the school operates to ensure this will be done safely, we are fortunate in a number of respects.
Our building is modern, with large, well-designed classrooms. We do not have any classes in the school with more than 30 children. The combination of these two factors means that we will be able to follow the public health advice on social distancing for children in primary schools and provide the necessary hand-washing and sanitizing facilities in each classroom.
The exact details of how we will manage the return to school will be communicated to parents in the coming weeks. This process is well under way in terms of organising classrooms and yards, purchasing hand sanitizer and deep cleaning the school building but there is a lot more work to be done in the coming weeks.
There will be significant changes to how we arrange the arrival of pupils in the morning and their departure from school in the afternoon. To allow us to smoothly and safely introduce these changes we are going to stagger the school return over the first two days of the year.
On Monday 31st August all existing pupils (who were with us last year) in classes from Senior Infants to 6th class will attend the school. Junior Infants and new pupils in older classes will not attend on this day.
On Tuesday 1st September, all pupils in all classes from Junior Infants to 6th class will attend as normal.
This staggered start will allow us to make sure that everything works as it should to ensure everyone’s safety.
After the prolonged closure it will be a relief to us all to get back to some semblance of normality. With the cooperation and good will of the full school community, I am confident that we will be able to successfully achieve a full, safe return to school in September.
We look forward to seeing you all, especially your children, very soon.
Best wishes,
Grainne