We would like to invite you to come and walk around the school building, at Tyrrelstown ETNS, tomorrow morning, Wednesday 7th November, from 9am until 10am. Please note that you will observe interior structural changes to the classrooms and reception area of the ground floor and temporary support structures in place at the front of the school and in the yards.
These support structures have been certified as safe, from both a fire and a structural perspective, by the Department of Education and the engineering teams involved with the site (Punch Engineering and Afec Fire Safety). We are still awaiting official independent report regarding the Health & Safety of the internal changes made to the school, which was required to stabilise the structure and we should have this shortly.
Representatives from the Department of Education, Fingal Co. Co. and the Gardai as well as our staff will attend to discuss the structural assessments carried out and precaution measures taken as well as an outline of our Traffic Management Plan to cope with the transport of our 1st to 6th Classes to Hansfield ETSS.
We understand that it has been a very difficult time for parents and children in the Tyrrelstown community. We will be happy to try to answer your questions tomorrow, but please remember that we are teachers and SNA’s – not structural engineers and hope that most of your questions will be answered by the Department of Education representatives and Consultants.
After the meeting tomorrow, the Board of Management will review the situation and consider whether they have been furnished with satisfactory undertakings from the Department to allow them to make an informed decision on the reopening of the school.
With regard to starting 1st to 6th Classes in Hansfield ETSS, the staff have been working very hard on gathering books and resources and transferring them to a new location as well as adapting our current safety and day to day school procedures to take into account we will be split between two premises. This process takes a lot of time and collaboration from staff and outside agencies and is why we made the decision to hold off inviting the aforementioned students back until we have identified and assessed all reasonable variables for consideration. Safety and ensuring a planned and coordinated approach to this are essential for taking care of your children.
We look forward to seeing you between 9am and 10am and would remind you that parking on site will not be an option unfortunately, so please walk if possible. There will be no school classes tomorrow but hopefully we will be in a position to provide more information later on Wednesday.
Many thanks for all or you support in these difficult days.
Kind regards
Tim Stapleton