Dear parents,
As you know, the Mary, Mother of Hope school community has had a very challenging week, with a number of cases of Covid-19 on the campus, the latest in Third class, Room 4 in the Senior school.
We are acutely aware of the need for all of us to do everything in our power to reduce the risk of infection: in classrooms, on our campus and in our community.
We have been urged by the Department of Education and by Public Health to take steps to reduce the number of adult-to-adult interactions on the school campus. This was one of the central points made in our Return to School advice sent out to all parents last week.
Given the increased rate of cases on the campus, the Board of Management has taken the decision to limit access to the Senior School to staff and pupils only. This has been in places for parents from 4th to 6th class since last September. We are now extending this to 3rd class parents with immediate effect.
As a result, from Monday next, the 22nd March, we are asking all parents to remain off campus until further notice. This means that pupils should make their own way onto the campus in the morning and off the campus at 2:30pm.
Parents of children in 3rd class, who were previously coming onto the campus, are now asked to make alternative arrangements for their children. They should use the week-end to discuss an alternative School Drop-off and Collection Plan, so that everyone can operate under the new arrangements from Monday next.
Parents of children with additional needs, who wish to exempted from this policy decision, should email the school at school@hopens.ie to seek exceptional consideration.
We are asking everyone to continue to co-operate with Seanna and the staff of the school in ensuring the safety of our pupils and our staff and to lend their support for this important new safety measure.
While these measures are important, we have to ask all parents to take every step possible at home to cut down on the spread of infection as well. The most important step we can all take is to limit our social interactions and keep within our own family/support bubbles. The return to school is literally on a knife-edge, and it is incumbent on all of us to do everything in our power to drive down infection rates and keep our schools open.
Take care and continue to stay safe,
Enda McGorman