| Scoil Naomh Padraig Baile Mhic Thorcaill Ath Na Sceire Co Chill Mhantáin |  | St. Patrick’s N.S.Curtlestown# Enniskerry Co Wicklow Ph/Fax: 01-2861649 E-mail: curtlestownns@gmail.com |
Dear Parent / Guardian, Staff Member,
Thank you for your support and cooperation getting the children back to school successfully. It has been lovely to see them all again and our first few days went very smoothly.
Now that the children are back in school and we have experience of the flow of the day, there are one or two items we need to adjust.
The pick-up time in the evening is not taking as long as we thought due to everyone’s punctuality and so we are going to so we are going to shorten the window from Monday.
Your child’s pick up time is now; ………….
Due to the numbers in the senior class room, I am asking all children to wear a mask when they need to go to the toilets, as this requires them to pass close by other pods.
On Thursday, further advice was published by the Department around symptoms and protocols.
Some of the main points are;
Ø It is inevitable that with confirmed cases of Covid-19 circulating within the community, there will be suspect or confirmed cases amongst pupils and staff attending, or working within, educational facilities.
Ø However, children will also continue to display symptoms of many other circulating respiratory viruses. It is known that young children often have a persistent cold. A child with a blocked or runny nose, but no fever can attend school but if they require paracetamol or ibuprofen, they must stay at home for 48 hours and parents or guardians should contact the GP to assess whether a test is required. This phone call is free of charge
Ø If a child displays symptoms which may be consistent with Covid-19, the school should contact their parent or guardian and ask them to collect their child as soon as possible.
Ø When the GP of the child or staff member has assessed the symptoms to be consistent with Covid-19 infection, and the person is referred for a test, at this point the person becomes a suspected Covid 19 case and household members including siblings should be withdrawn from school by their parent or guardian.
Ø Where no evidence of Covid-19 is detected by the test, the child or staff member should remain at home only until he or she is clinically well enough to return to school (unless specifically requested by HSE to do otherwise). In particular, all diarrhoea symptoms need to have been resolved for 48 hours prior to return to school. Household members can return to school immediately following the receipt by the parent or guardian or staff member of a “not detected” result.
Ø When a case has been confirmed, the Medical Officer of Health and teams will liaise directly with the school and inform them of the confirmed case as necessary and will undertake a Public Health Risk Assessment to inform any further actions and recommendations.
The full text of this document, ‘Schools Pathway for COVID-19: The Public Health approach’ is available at https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/a0bff-reopening-our-primary-and-special-schools/#additional-guidelines-and-procedures
The Board of Management would like to thank you again for your support and punctuality.
Le gach dea ghuí,
Margaret O’Grady Mary Conroy
Chairperson of the Board of Management Principal teacher