Archive for September, 2020
September/October School Newsletter
Sep 30th
September/ October Newsletter
We’ve reached the last day of September and our pupils and staff are adapting
well to the new norms. The pupils have settled quickly into a school routine
and even seem to be enjoying the return to school! We were fortunate to host
our First Communion Day before the Level 3 restrictions came into place and we
felt that both ceremonies were lovely events. Many thanks to everyone who
helped organise the event and a special word of thanks to the Communicants who
seemed to have a great day.
We appreciate your support and co-operation to date in these challenging times. Fortunately, we have had no confirmed cases thus far of Covid among pupils or staff. However, in preparation for such an eventuality, I have posted a note on how the school proposes to deal with such instances (see separate post on School News below) and it is in everybody’s interests to alert us at the earliest opportunity of any Covid concerns you may have. I also appreciate that many of you are keeping your children off school if they have minor coughs, head colds etc and we are grateful to you for this. This is leading to an increase in staff sending homework via email and we would be grateful if you could forward an e-mail to us that could be used for home-school communication or future Learning from Home communications in the event of an unexpected School Closure . We would appreciate if you sent this info to us at kilmacrennanschool@eircom.net by Tuesday, 6th October. Please let us know if you have updated your mobile contact numbers.
We kindly request that any outstanding fees owed for the School Book Rental are paid as soon as possible. We provide all School Books for Junior and Senior Infants at a cost of €60 per child and we operate a School Book Rental system for Third to Sixth Classes at a cost of €35 per child (family maximum of €60). This fee includes art and photocopying expenses etc.
We
request that names are refreshed regularly on all school items
such as lunchboxes, school jumpers, coats and stationery and, in fairness to
all, that pupils maintain Healthy Lunches. We request that you do not provide
sweets, crisps, chocolate, fizzy drinks, glass bottles etc. Please check our
School Lunch Policy for further details.
We
wish to remind you that the School Car-Park is for Staff and School Buses only.
The car-park is somewhat busier as we now have a second school bus on the
school
grounds each day and we request your co-operation in this regard.
We
hope that you appreciate that we are unable to meet with parents
in face-to-face meetings as before but we remain available to chat to you if
you have any concerns or queries. The best way to do this is to phone the
School Office in advance and, to avoid disruption to teaching time, the class
teacher or Principal Teacher will return a call at a later stage. We also
request that the School Office is contacted if you are to collect your child
early for an appointment and we will bring your child to the gate. We are
unfortunately not accepting unplanned School Visitors at this stage.
Please feel to contact me if you have any queries,
Yours sincerely,
John Devenney.
Covid-19 Procedures
Sep 29th
Date: 29th September 2020.
Dear Parents
Re: If we have a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the school
We do not have any confirmed positive cases of Covid-19 in the school. However, it is only prudent that we consider what procedures are in place to deal with such a situation were it to arise, so that all of us are aware in advance of what happens in such an event.
Safety and Control Measures
The BoM, school leadership and staff are very conscious of the paramount need to keep all pupils, staff and visitors safe while in the school. The school is a controlled environment. There are control measures in place to combat the introduction or spread of COVID-19. These are based on:
- Physical Distancing
- Hand Hygiene
- Respiratory and Hygiene Etiquette
- Mask Wearing, where necessary.
When a person displays symptoms of COVID-19
The following steps are taken when a person (child or adult) in the school presents with suspected COVID-19 symptoms:
- That person is moved to the isolated area prior to going home. In the case of children their parents will be asked to come to the school, take them home and contact their GP for a free telephone consultation
- If the GP recommends that the person (child or adult) go for a COVID-19 test, that person is now considered a query case for COVID-19 and all of his/her household members must restrict their movements until the results of the test come back
- In the case of a negative result (98% of cases), the GP will advise when the person should return to school – usually after 48 hours.
- In the case of a positive result (2% of cases), Public Health will, by law, be informed. This may take a matter of hours due to legal and volume of work issues. The risk has been removed from the school as the person who tested positive and his/her household are at home
- The person tested, or their parents, may well be informed before Public Health. In many cases a social media discussion ensues and anxiety levels are raised among the school community.
Public Health Intervention
The Public Health Department of the HSE is the agency responsible by law for dealing with positive cases of COVID-19:
- Once notified by the HSE testing regime, Public Health Doctors assume total control of the situation and will carry out a risk assessment. Based on questioning the person with the positive result, they will ascertain if they were within the school setting when they contracted the virus. If not, there may be no need to contact the school
- If the person was within the school setting when they contracted the virus, Public Health will contact the principal to carry out a Public Health Risk Assessment. This is a set of questions to see who might have been exposed to the virus and who needs to be excluded or tested. This risk assessment will be unique to each school
- The principal and BoM have no function in the risk assessment, other than to provide whatever information is required by the Public Health Medical Officer conducting the risk assessment
- The principal and BoM may be asked to assist the Medical Office by sending a message from them to the relevant families identified in the risk assessment. Public Health will not contact other members of the school community
- The principal and BoM are not permitted to inform members of the school community of the identity of the person or persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 for the following reasons:
- Doctor – Patient confidentiality
- GDPR legislation prevents the publication of personal data without consent
Principal/Secretary Board of Management.
