Return to School After Easter Holidays

Dear Parent/Guardians and Students,

We are very much looking forward to welcoming all of our students back on Monday and seeing the building full of the vibrancy and life that our student population add to the school community. We recognise the importance of facilitating our students' well-being and learning and re-establishing daily routines to help them settle back into life in school.

For this reason, we wish to communicate some information to you in advance of your son/daughters return to school.

These main points concern:

1. Covid Checklist
2. Lunchtime Arrangements
3. School Bus Arrangements
4. Uniform Etiquette
5. Positive Behaviour Strategy

Covid Checklist:

It is essential to establish excellent norms of everyday habits in the school from our first morning back on Monday. This approach ensures the safety and good health of all in the school community and their extended families.

All students must enter the school building wearing a face mask.Students wearing disposable masks must-have new replacements available to change during the school day.

For this reason, we are asking that you take the time to view and discuss the following with your son/daughter:

We advise that all parents/guardians watch the video at the following link: https://tallaghtcs.ie/News/Back-to-School-Advice/172953/Index.html

Covid -19 safety guidelines that must be adhered to when students return to school are as follows:

• Pupils are to self-isolate or restrict their movements at home if they display any signs or symptoms of COVID-19 and contact their family doctor to arrange a test
• Pupils are not to return to or attend school in the event of the following:
• If the HSE identifies them as a close contact of a confirmed case of COVID-19
• If they live with someone who has symptoms of the virus
• If they have travelled outside of Ireland, in such instances, pupils are advised to consult and follow the latest Government advice concerning foreign travel.
• Advise pupils to cooperate with any public health officials and the school for contact tracing purposes and follow any public health advice in the event of a case or outbreak in the school.

Parents/Guardians are asked to be mindful when dropping students at school, and there should be no congregation outside schools of students or parents.

Lunchtime Arrangements

As usual, the school will provide free freshly prepared food for the students on site. This arrangement includes a breakfast snack pre-school, a morning break snack and a cooked lunch.

Congregation outside of the school gates to purchase foods or drinks will be prohibited by the school as this contravenes public health guidelines. We are asking for the cooperation of all students and parents/guardians in this matter. We are mindful of our responsibility to the local community, and we feel that having students remaining supervised on the school grounds is the best approach to ensure our school community's health and safety.

School Bus Arrangements

The Dublin Bus Route 27* serving Jobstown and Kingswood/Kilnamanagh is outlined at the following link: https://tallaghtcs.ie/page/School-Bus/138854/Index.html

Uniform Etiquette

One of our student cohort's strengths that we are very proud of in the school is their attention to uniform etiquette. Upon re-establishing regular norms, we must ensure all students follow the uniform guidance at this link: https://tallaghtcs.ie/page/Uniform/72892/Index.html

Students attending PE class are permitted to wear their PE uniform only on the day PE is timetabled. On such days, students are reminded that attending other timetabled classes in shorts is not permissible.

Positive Behaviour Strategy

Student certificates and awards for their attendance and engagement in online classes were emailed to the relevant students. We wish to continue this good momentum into the return of all students to the school building.

We will hold online assemblies with the junior year groups on Monday morning and the TY group on Tuesday morning to communicate health guidelines to communicate updated Covid 19 guidelines.

Later in the week, we will also hold a whole-school positive behaviour assembly online to reinforce the norms of positive behaviour and our expectations of all students heading into the school building's full reopening for the next sixth weeks.

We have enjoyed our students' cooperation and feedback from parents/guardians in facing the challenges posed by both lockdown periods. In this phase of full reopening, we all must follow the public health guidelines to preserve all students' attendance to full timetabled classes in school and to ensure the health and safety of all our families.

We appreciate your attention to the matters outlined in this email and your ongoing support during the next six weeks.

Thank you for your cooperation in these matters,

We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Tallaght Community School