School Reopening Information
A message to all members of our school community July 31st 2020
As you will be aware the Government has issued extensive guidelines for the safe and sustainable reopening of Post Primary Schools in Ireland. Over the next month we will endeavour to keep you fully informed around the safe reopening of our school and what is to be expected of all members of our school community. Never before has our school motto of “Together we achieve” been so important. We will need everyone’s help, support and cooperation to make this a successful reopening. The Board of Management and staff at Carrigaline Community School have commenced preparing the school so it can reopen as safely as possible at the end of August. We have commenced working through the many documents provided by the government earlier this week and will be putting in place new procedures and practices along with restructuring classrooms and other learning environments over the coming weeks in preparation for reopening. Where possible we will be removing excess furniture and resources from classrooms in order to maximise space and reduce the amount of surfaces which will need to be cleaned/sanitised daily. The government will be providing additional grants to allow for additional infrastructure, cleaning, sanitation, PPE etc.
Staff will undergo induction training before returning to school and will be required to complete a Pre-Return to Work Questionnaire. A Covid-19 Risk Assessment and Contact Tracing Logs will be prepared. As you can appreciate, there is a huge amount of work to be done to ensure our school is ready for reopening but I am confident that we will be ready to reopen in late August. Any new requirements around arrival and dispersal from school, structure of school day, break times, movement between classrooms etc will be communicated once available. Restrictions to aspects of the curriculum may occur in line with government advice. There will be restrictions associated with access to the school by visitors (contractors, visiting teachers, parents etc); there will be additional time for cleaning/disinfecting the school; there will be restrictions to how pupils share resources and interactions with staff. These are some of the things which will be planned for and circulated to all of you prior to the return to school.
Please be assured, we will put in place rigorous procedure in order to reduce exposure to Covid-19 within the school grounds. Open communication between the education partners (school staff, parents/guardians, the Board of Management and pupils) will be key to a successful and sustainable return to school. I would like to reassure students, parents and staff that we will be working hard to make the school as safe as possible and we will do everything in our power to keep things as normal as we can.
Paul Burke
Principal
