COVID RESPONSE PLAN

COVID RESPONSE PLAN

Prior to returning to school, the staff and Board of Management have drawn up the following plans to make the return to school as safe, seamless and simple as possible;

Hand sanitiser dispensers have been ordered, and installed in each classroom, the Staffroom, the hallway for the SET rooms and the office.
Ordinary towels have been dispensed with, and replaced by paper towels. The dispensers for these have been ordered and installed in every bathroom, every classroom, Ms Crowley’s SET room – where there is a sink, and the Staffroom.
Also, all bathrooms, classrooms and the staffroom have had a soap dispenser installed to reduce physical handling of bottles/bars of soap.
Signs have been displayed in each classroom and hallway reminding the children, and the staff to remember and respect physical distancing. There have also been signs put up reminding about using hand sanitisers.
There will also be signs up displaying proper coughing etiquette, and the use of tissues, and immediate disposal of same.
All staff members will complete the online training organised by the Dept and the HSE.
The school has been decluttered by the Staff over the holidays, allowing as much space as possible in the classrooms, to allow for the maximum distance between desks.
An Isolation Area has been arranged for the office on Mondays to Wednesdays, and a screened off area in the lobby outside Mr Dervan’s room on Thursdays and Fridays. Screens have been purchased to facilitate this arrangement.
Arrangements will be put in place with the school cleaners, JPA Cleaning Services, to clean the school every day, rather than twice a week. An extra black wheelie bin will be ordered to accommodate the extra waste caused by the use of paper towels. Cleaning checklists will be compiled and left on a clipboard in every classroom, and the hallway down to the SET rooms.
A Return to Work form will be circulated to every member of Staff to be completed and returned to the Principal at least 3 days before school resumes. These will be kept on file in the school.
The outside grounds will be divided up between the various classes to allow for all groups to have some break times on the tarmac, the pitch, in the garden area and on the concrete. Each teacher will have a copy of this to assist them in their yard duty/supervision.
Windows in the classrooms will be opened regularly during the day, eg before class, during break times, and after school to facilitate ventilation.
All visitors to the school will be required to sign in in the Contact Tracing log just inside the main front door. A standard template has been provided for this.
All teachers will also be asked to sign in each morning, and sign out in the evening. This will be in a separate log. All logs will be kept securely when books are full.
All parents have been contacted and asked to adhere – where possible – to the following arrangements for dropping off and collecting children from school;

Drop-off Plan

Families whose surname begins with the letter “A” to the letter “F” inclusive, should, if possible drop their children to the school between the times of 9:00 to 9:10.
Families whose surname begins with the letter “G” to the letter “Z” inclusive, should, if possible drop their children to the school between the times of 9:10 to 9:20.
Families whose children travel on the school bus are not included in the above.
For the very first morning, Monday Aug 31^st, ALL children must go straight into their classroom. This will give the teachers an opportunity to explain the new practices and procedures that school will now entail.
The outside area will be divided into separate zones for each classroom for break times, and before school. These areas MUST be adhered to, to decrease interaction between children in the different classrooms.
After the first morning, children from 1^st class to 6^th will put their school bags in their allocated outside line, and proceed to their zone. When called to class at 9:20, they will line up in their designated queue (practicing social distance for 3^rd to 6^th classes)
On wet mornings, everyone goes straight to their classroom.

INFANTS – FOR FIRST WEEK

Senior Infants come to school as per 1 & 2 above, and come straight into school. We ask parents of Junior Infants to wait until 9:30 to bring their children to school. To make life easier, siblings of Junior Infants can also wait until 9:30. As we are trying to limit the number of people coming into the school building, we ask Junior Infant parents to bring their child to the main front door, where they will be met by Miss Dolan.
For the first 2 weeks, Junior Infants’ day will finish at 12:00. This procedure will endure until Friday Sept 11^th. Sen Infants will go home at 2:00 as usual.

Collection Plan

For the first 2 weeks, Junior Infants’ day will finish at 12:00. This procedure will endure until Friday Sept 11^th. Parents who are collecting Jun Infants should wait outside the gate, maintaining social distance, and your child will be sent out to you.
Senior Infants will go home at 2:00 as normal, and parents should follow the same procedure as above.
For collection of other children, a similar procedure to drop off will take place.
Families whose surname begins with the letter “A” to the letter “F” inclusive, should, if possible pick their children up from the school between the times of 2:55 to 3:05.
Families whose surname begins with the letter “G” to the letter “Z” inclusive, should, if possible pick their children up between the times of 3:05 to 3:15. The children will be kept in the classroom until their parent arrives.
Children who travel on the bus will go home when the bus is ready.
Children who are collected by the Creche, will also go when their transport arrives.
There will be NO hanging around, or playing football after school. Children should go home promptly. In everyone’s interests, we ask parents to leave as soon as they have collected their children.

The parents will be asked to maintain physical distance in the car park when dropping off/picking up their children.
In relation to school uniform, parents will be asked to ensure that children change out of their school uniform as soon as possible when they go home, and not to wear the uniform outside of school hours, to reduce cross contamination.
Parents will be informed of the guidelines regarding children not attending school if they are unwell, in order to protect other children and members of Staff.
Parents of children who travel on school transport, will be advised that their children should sit in the same seat every day. Members of the same family should sit together, and/or members of the same pod in their class. The children should use hand sanitiser as they board and disembark the bus.
Parents will be informed that they will only be allowed to enter the school premises by appointment, and that they must wear a mask/visor when they do so. There will be signs on the school doors outlining this procedure.
A sign directing ALL visitors to the main senior end of the school door will be erected on the wall for all visitors to see.
All non essential visitors to the school will be cancelled, eg, artists, shows, guest speakers. Only essential people, eg Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists will be allowed in, as well as medical and health professionals from the HSE, eg school nurse, doctor and dentist.
Teachers will wear masks/visors while in class to reduce the possible spread of disease. All play/PE equipment, and art equipment will be wiped down with anti-bacterial spray after use.
SNAs will wear masks/visor, or both, as they see fit because they will be in closer contact with the SEN children.
Children in Infants, and in 1^st and 2^nd classes will not be arranged in pods, as per Department guidelines. However, the children in 3^rd and 4^th, and 5^th and 6^th will be. Every effort will be made to ensure the children stick to these pods. In the morning, and after breaks, pods will be allowed in to the school one at a time to avoid contact as much as possible.
The following letter of welcome back, and information outlining our plans will be circulated to the parents by email a week before we return.

Dear Parents

RE: Re-opening of Lisaniskey NS

I hope you and your families are keeping well.

As you are aware, our school has now been closed since 12^th March due to the COVID-19 situation. We are now hoping to re-open our school safely, in line with current guidance and recommendations.

Re-opening the school safely will require the co-operation of all members of our School Community – BoM, School Leadership, Staff, Parents and Pupils. We will all be called on to play our part in ensuring that re-opening of the school is done in a safe manner which prevents the spread of the virus and allows the vital work of Teaching and Learning to proceed with as little disruption as possible. We want your children to return to school in as normal a way as possible. The less stress they are exposed to, the better. Please emphasise this to them.

We have been working on our plan for the safe reopening of the school for some weeks now and have published the DES COVID-19 Response Plan for the safe and sustainable reopening of Primary and Special Schools on our school website. The Response Plan gives details of

Physical preparation, signage, hand sanitiser stations,
Advice, procedures and training for the safe return to working in the school for all school staff and pupils
General and specific advice on how all pupils, staff, parents and visitors will prevent the spread of the virus

We have also published our COVID-19 Policy Statement on the school website. Our BoM will keep you informed as to the progress of our re-opening plans and provide you with the information required by you to play your part in safely re-opening the school.

We are really looking forward to welcoming our children back to school and will be doing all that we can to ensure that the return to school is a safe and enjoyable experience for the children.

Hygiene And Etiquette

We would emphasise that children should regularly wash their hands, and use sanitiser every time they enter or re-enter the school/classroom. The children will be guided in these practices by their teachers.

If any child wishes to wear a facemask in school, they are welcome to do so, but it is not mandatory.

All children should have their own pencil case and resources, and there should be no sharing of these.

We would ask that when homework has been completed, that books and copies are wiped down before being put in the school bag.

Teachers will wear appropriate PPE during the school day.

RE: Physical Distancing and Safe School Attendance

We have been working on upgrading our procedures and routines within the school to ensure that there is as much Physical Distancing as is possible in our building. We will apply physical distancing in a practical and sensible way, recognising that the learning environment cannot be dominated by a potentially counterproductive focus on this issue.

Physical Distancing will be achieved in two ways: –

Increasing Separation. This will be achieved by re-configuring the classrooms to maximise physical distancing. Each class will be referred to as a bubble and we will ensure that there is as little contact as possible between children in different bubbles. Within the bubbles, children will be organised into pods. A pod is a group of children (normally 6) who will sit together and who will stay in their pod while in the bubble, or classroom.

Decreasing Interaction. This will be achieved by decreasing the potential for children from different bubbles to interact. There will be marked routes for various bubbles to enter and exit the school and to access their classrooms. We will make these routines enjoyable activities for the children, emphasising safety at all times.

While all children will be welcome back to school, we would remind parents that, where children are displaying colds, coughs or flu like symptoms, they should not be sent to school. Children who display such symptoms in school will be isolated and parents asked to collect them from the school.

Children who have travelled from countries not on the Green List should not attend school during the 14-day self-isolation period

Further information on COVID-19 symptoms in children is available at: –

https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/if-your-child-has-symptoms.html

Teachers will make children aware of the proper hygiene procedures regarding hand washing and etiquette related to sneezing, coughing or spitting. We would be grateful if you could also emphasise safe behaviour in this regard to your children at home as part of the preparation for returning to school.

Our aim remains to re-open the school in an orderly safe manner, while reassuring the children and making them feel comfortable, safe and relaxed with their friends in the new school environment. This will be achieved by all of us working towards this common goal.

Drop-off and Collection Routines

The BoM and the School Leadership Team have been working to ensure a safe return to school for all pupils and staff in two weeks’ time. We have now finalised our plans for drop-off and collection of the children every day.

We appreciate your support as we try to safely reopen the school building. If at all possible we request you not to come onto the school grounds or into the school building unless it is essential. Working together we hope to be able to progress the reopening in as safe a manner as possible for all.

We would ask all parents to familiarise themselves with the following drop-off and collection routines for the safe delivery and collection of pupils from school. Please be patient as we endeavour to embed these necessary precautionary and protective practices at the beginning of the school year.

School Transport

School Transport Scheme services operated by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department will fully operate as normal, in line with public health advice, when schools re-open for the 2020/2021 school year.

In planning for normal resumption of school transport services consideration has been taken of the fact that school transport somewhat differs to public transport in that:

School transport services are controlled environments.
Each transport service carries the same children on a daily basis to their school of attendance.
It is a restricted group of transport users which will facilitate contact tracing if required.

Observing hygiene requirements will be a key priority and clear communication to all parents of children or to older students using school transport services will set out the following requirements for those travelling on school transport:

Not to use school transport if they are displaying symptoms.
To maintain physical distancing while waiting for transport.
To always sit in pre-assigned seating and next to a sibling or child from their class group (this should be the same child at all times).
To use hand sanitiser on boarding the bus.
To observe respiratory etiquette at all times while waiting for and on-board transport services.
To disembark the bus one by one in an orderly fashion.

It is imperative that

adults do not come within 2m of each other

parents do not try to have meetings with members of staff in the playground at drop-off and collection times – meetings between parents and teachers can only take place by prior arrangement. .(This may have to be more restrictive depending on guidance – it is quite possible that the recommendation will be for remote meetings/telephonic communications.)

all parents adhere to the drop-off and collection plans as outlined below (See above)

These arrangements will be reviewed and changes made, if deemed necessary.

Uniforms

There has been a lot of discussion, mostly on social media, about children needing multiple uniforms. We have received no instruction from the Department to this effect. As far as we are concerned, children should wear their uniform as normal, BUT they should change out of it as soon as they go home. Please try not to have children going anywhere in their uniforms, except to school. This will aid attempts to reduce any contamination.

Play Equipment

Again, in order to minimize any cross contamination between home and school, or between play zones in school, we ask that children not bring footballs, basketballs or other equipment to school for break times.

RE: Fáilte ar ais

The BoM and School Staff are looking forward to welcoming all our pupils and parents / guardians back to school for the 2020/2021 school year on Monday, 31^st August.

We are satisfied that we have control measures in place to ensure that this will be a safe re-opening. It will take some time for all of us to get used to the “new circumstances” as we become familiar with the new routines and procedures designed to keep everyone safe and to prevent the spread of the virus. There will, undoubtedly, be some unforeseen challenges and we will deal with these as they arise.

We would like to thank you for your co-operation in making preparations to date and look forward to working with you as we assist the children adapt to the necessary changes. We are also conscious of the fact that our pupils have not been in school since March and that they are looking forward to coming back to school to meet their friends again. We are aware that our new pupils are beginning a school year at a challenging time and have made plans to ensure that their arrival will be as free from stress as possible.

The following websites provide further information on COVID-19 and on government advice and recommendations regarding the re-opening of schools: –

COVID RESPONSE PLAN

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