Dear Parents / Guardians,
We have been provided with confirmations from the Department of Education and Punch Consulting Engineers that state “protective interventions have been installed to our satisfaction and the school can now be safely opened”.
In addition, Ahern Fire Engineering Consultants “have reviewed the works from the fire safety perspective and are satisfied with the temporary protection works” and “have worked with the contractor, the design team and associated stakeholders to ensure the schools can open safely”.
Based upon these and other assessments and undertakings, the Board of Management of Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School have decided to reopen the school for all children from tomorrow, 8th November 2018.
With regard to some children staying in our current premises and others relocating, the following is a list of measures we need to put in place in order to keep the children as safe as possible. We cannot manage this without your support and cooperation and hope you appreciate the reasons behind this plan.
Traffic Management at TETNS
- Gardai and Traffic Wardens will cordon off the local access road from Lidl in Tyrrelstown Village to the school, each morning prior to the commencement of school to facilitate access for school buses. This management operation will remain in place until after all school buses have left TETNS.
- Prior to the return of students to TETNS in the afternoon, Gardai and Traffic Wardens will once again cordon off the local access road from Lidl in Tyrrelstown Village. No vehicles will be permitted access until all buses have returned to the school at 2:20pm
- We encourage parents to either walk the children to the school gates or park in alternative areas where available.
- As there will be an increased number of vehicles on the school grounds in the morning, staff will collect children from parents at the school gates to safely escort them to their lines.
- SNA’s will meet children from Setanta at these points also and bring them to their classes and / or lines.
Classes remaining at Tyrrelstown ETNS – Junior / Senior Infants Classes and Setanta
- Children will line up in a designated area in the front of the school prior to the commencement of the school day.
- Setanta children will be collected and supervised by our Setanta Team as usual.
- Children will be escorted to their rooms by the staff of TETNS
- Collection at the end of the school day will operate in the same way as it has always done prior to the school closure before mid-term.
Classes relocating to Hansfield ETSS – 1st to 6th Class
Attendance
Children will gather in the school hall at the beginning of the day. Teachers will organise children into class lines and take the roll call prior to getting on buses. Access to the hall will be from the exit door to the left of the main school entrance. A staff member will be present to direct children in.
Buses
Buses are expected to depart daily from 8:40am from the school car park. They will line up in the set down areas. We would suggest children arrive to school before 8:30am to ensure as smooth a transition as possible.
Buses are expected to return daily to the school car park at TETNS at around 2:20pm. Parents can collect their children from the front of the school.
Each bus will be labelled for students and staff and the children will be walked by the staff from the school hall onto their designated bus in turns.
On arriving at Hansfield ETSS:
- The children will enter the school through their own designated entrance.
- Hansfield ETSS have assigned us the complete second floor of their building for our sole use.
- Secondary School classes will not take place on the floor we will occupy
- TETNS will have designated times for breaks in the Hansfield ETSS yards whilst the Hansfield ETSS students are in class.
- TETNS will depart Hansfield ETSS before the end of the Secondary School Day.
- Each TETNS class will have their own classroom.
- A “Setanta” classroom option has been created to facilitate children on our integration programme.
Communication
TETNS and Hansfield ETSS are two separate schools with different profiles of children, policies and responsibilities.
As a result, and in order to ensure that our temporary accommodation runs smoothly in Hansfield ETSS, the following procedures MUST be followed by parents and guardians:
- Children cannot be directly dropped to or directly collected from Hansfield ETSS, they must commence and end their day at TETNS.
- All communication about TETNS students must be done through our school office in Tyrrelstown.
- Early collections for appointments etc. need to be communicated through TETNS so we can notify our staff to have your child ready for collection. Hansfield ETSS will not be in a position to facilitate this.
- Meetings with teachers will have to be by appointment and through our TETNS office as the school will now be situated over two sites, and teacher’s availability will be limited in the short-term.
- Any student feeling unwell or accidents / injuries will be communicated to you via the TETNS office. If you need to collect your child due to illness, we will notify our staff to make arrangements for collection.
Finally, our regular school office is under remediation and is not available for access for at least the next week or so.
We would advise that communications with the school are done by telephone or email until we can return to that space. Our school secretary will be working out of a temporary office within the building and won’t be in a position to meet with parents and guardians in the short term.
I appreciate that all of the above is a lot to consider however, we have spent the last few days evaluating our change in circumstances and feel that the above measures are required so we can keep the children as safe as possible and prevent unnecessary anxiety.
I would once again like to thank you all for your support and patience at this very difficult and uncertain time for everyone involved with TETNS. This is not a situation any of us asked for but the school community has really come together to do the best for the children in our care and we are delighted to welcome the children back!
Kind regards
Tim Stapleton