Our second day back after the Christmas holidays is now complete. The children had great fun in the snow and it brought a welcome, enjoyable distraction!
We had a total of 50 children (out of a total of 141) absent today. The majority of these children are absent due to Covid, but a few had the usual winter bugs and flus and others were snowed in at home.
The above statistics show the extent of the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in our local area. We have positive cases in all classes, albeit that none of these children with covid have been in school since before Christmas. All teachers prepared 'covid contingency' learning packs before Christmas and we have begun to issue learning packs for children who are due to be absent for the duration of next week. We will continue to issue packages for children who will be isolating as further positive cases arise in the coming weeks.
I reiterate my call for parents to use the lateral flow tests again on Sunday evening as a precaution for returning to school on Monday. This is our best protection against further spread of covid amongst out pupils and staff. And please keep sick children at home until you rule out Covid with a PCR test.
January is going to be a challenging month. Indeed some children were a wee bit un-nerved today by the fact that several of our classes were almost half empty. However I am hopeful that if we 'winter' out these next few weeks, we will be in a much more positive position in the pandemic by the end of the month.
I reiterate my thanks to all parents for working in partnership with us and for taking steps in their own family homes to protect other families within our school community. I send best wishes to all our families who have covid / sickness in their homes at this time.
Rest up over the weekend and we will begin a fresh, new week on Monday. Lets all remain positive, deal with each scenario as it arises and keep moving forward!
Happy weekend to all!
Bainigí sult as an deireadh seachtaine!
