Dear parent,

As I have been trying to do each day this week, I want to check in with you all again to keep everyone informed of the situation in school and the general situation regarding the Coronavirus outbreak. Please read the following points carefully so that you have the most up to date information.

WORK FOR CLOSURE

Work is being sent home with children today (Wednesday). Parents of absent children are invited to collect work from the front entrance hall from 1.30pm. A few reminders regarding this work are worth mentioning again:

• The work is designed as a two-week emergency pack in the event of a closure at very short notice. It should not be commenced until day one of an official closure.
• If you have chosen to keep your child from school, please be aware that if you start the work earlier than an official closure, you may not have enough to keep going until plans are in place for term 3 (should we need them). You may have to supplement it with additional work from online resources (i.e. Twinkl, which is offering a free NI resource pack)
• At this stage, no closure date has been announced. The best that we can do is to continue as normal and keep going until we are told that we can’t.

NO SUSPECTED OR CONFIRMED CASES OF CORONAVIRUS

To date there have been no reports of suspected or confirmed Coronavirus cases amongst the children or staff at Gilnahirk Primary. A number of families (including at least one from Astoria Kindergarten) are following the most recent guidelines of 14-day self-isolation due to relatives exhibiting what may be Covid-19 symptoms, but no child or adult has shown symptoms while in the school building. Please be assured of openness and transparency on our part as a school in this regard. We will take no action that will endanger or risk the health of the children or staff.

SCHOOL BOOKS RETURNED

As part of our ongoing preparations for possible closure, you are asked to return all reading books belonging to school by Friday 20th March. If your child is currently attending and will be in attendance on Friday, simply send them in with your child. If your child is not in school, they can be left in the labelled boxes at the front entrance hall. You will accept that school budgets are extremely tight at the best of times, so your help in returning these valuable resources is greatly appreciated. Many thanks for this.