Dear Parents/ Guardians,

 

My name is Sinead Maher and I will be your son’s teacher in First class. I am looking forward to working alongside you to ensure your son’s reintroduction to school is successful and that you feel fully supported. 

 

I have been in our classroom over the Summer months preparing for the boys return to school. Please rest assured that every effort has been made by myself and the wider school community to ensure your child’s safety within the school environment, as best we can. 

 

As you are aware school will be a very different place to the one the boys left back in March. We have many new and recommended procedures in place that will need to be followed in order to keep everyone as safe as possible in the school environment. Please find some useful information relating to these changes below and if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact myself through the school office. 

 

• Your son’s classroom will be located in the Green Building (which can be seen inside the main school gates on the right.)

His classroom is called G2. This classroom is the middle room on the corridor, on the ground floor.

He will use the main school gates each day to enter and exit the school grounds.

• On Friday 28th of August myself and Ms Bradley will be present to greet your son and direct him  to his new classroom. There are new toilets located right outside our classroom which I will show the boys upon our entry to our class. Boys will be asked to hang their coats (if needed) and bags on their coat hook outside of the classroom.
• From Monday, 31st of August onwards, your son should immediately walk to his new classroom on his arrival at school. He will enter through the brown door, located at the front of the Green Building. I will be waiting in the classroom to greet the students.
• Inside the classroom, the students will be organised into groups called pods of 6- 8 pupils . Each pod is at least 1 metre from other pupils and 2 metres from my teaching station; as recommended by the Department of Education.
• I will also be wearing a mask inside the classroom when interacting closely with pupils as I have asthma. I will be using a visor when teaching at the board so students  can clearly hear me.
• Students will be asked to sanitise their hands as they enter and exit the classroom, and wash their hands before eating, when they cough or sneeze and after using the bathroom.
• Please ensure your son is familiar with and practices coughing and handwashing etiquette before returning to school. (cough into the elbow or a tissue to be discarded immediately.)
• Each class i.e. class bubble will mix only with their own individual class from arrival at school in the morning until departure at the end of the school day. The class will have their own designated area on the school yard.
• Your son will use his own stationary, including pencils, rubbers, sharpener, colours, glue etc. Please label all your son’s uniform, bag and other items. Please label these items clearly to avoid cross contamination.   Any shared classroom resources such as scissors and toys will be unique to each pod and thoroughly cleaned and sanitised after each use. 
• Talk positively about the return to school with your child. I understand that both you the parent, and your son will be anxious about returning to school  and we hope to make this transition as smooth and as happy as possible. I will focus on wellbeing and friendship (SPHE), PE in the first few weeks as well as revision and catch up work in the areas of language development (Irish and English), Mathematics. It will be different but it will soon become normal. 

I am looking forward to meeting all of the boys in First Class, I have heard they are a great class and I hope we will have a fun, happy and safe year ahead of us. 

Kind Regards, 

Sinead Maher 🙂