Information for September

Dear Parents, 

You will be aware that the Minister for Education released information last Friday regarding the ‘New School Day’ in September.  Although we are still working through the documentation, I wanted to give you some information for the new school year. 

Our aim and greatest wish is to welcome your child back to the normal school experience.  However, the current instruction is that we must maintain a 1 metre distance between pupils and currently a 2-metre distance between adults and children.  Whilst for some schools this may mean it is possible to welcome all children back full time, that is unlikely to be the case in our school with this current restriction.  We unfortunately do not have small class sizes, empty classrooms or other areas with access to adequate hand washing facilities.  We also want to ensure that your child’s mental health and physical wellbeing is not adversely affected by unfamiliar buildings, adults and experiences.   Dealing solely with infants we are mindful that there will be much nurturing and assurances needed, particularly after this prolonged absence from school.  

For this reason, it is likely that we will be providing a blended learning approach in September, unless restrictions change.  This will enable all children to receive in-class tuition in smaller groups (or bubbles) for part of the week and targeted home learning activities for the other part of the week.  However, as this depends very much on scientific evidence and requirements issued to us by the Department of Education,  we will be ready to change this with immediate effect should that be possible and resort to our normal practices. 

As the children have missed the introduction to their new teachers and the opportunity to visit their new classrooms we have put in place arrangements to ease transition.  On week beginning 17th August we hope to set up appointments for you and your child to visit the school and meet the teacher.  We will also be able to arrange some short introductory sessions the next week before the full day sessions in the first week of September.  Details of the proposed dates and work pattern for each scenario for your child can be sent to you by emailing me any day next week.

The infant schools met this week to set up a plan pertinent to their unique demographic and will meet again next week and over the Summer to ensure that every step can be taken to deliver the best education possible to your children in these unusual times. 

Please be assured of our commitment to your child, their educational journey at Belmont and their pastoral needs. We really cannot wait to see them all again!

Best wishes

O McIlroy