Dear Parents & Guardians,

We hope you had a lovely summer.  We are very excited to welcome everyone back to Milford N.S. on Wednesday morning.  A huge thank you to all our staff and Board of Management members for their support and effort in getting everything ready for our school reopening.  Our focus for the week ahead is to help the children to settle back into their daily school routines in a gentle and safe way.  

Our plans for reopening are very much as we were operating during the summer  term. There will be a few changes in relation to reception and dispersal of pupils.  Maintenance works to the school roof will be taking place during Term 1.  As a result, pupils will be entering and exiting the school building via the front entrance doors.  We will circulate a short movie of each classroom route later this evening.  

We will receive children (Senior Infants – 6th Class) from 8:45am on Wednesday morning.  There is a 10 minute window to allow children to enter the school building from this time. Even on wet mornings, we cannot receive pupils until 8:45am.  Children should remain in their parent’s car until at least 8:45am.

The children will go directly to their classrooms via designated routes.   Children from 2nd Class to 6th will be walking up from the church carpark by themselves.   Staff members will be stationed on the roadway from the church carpark to the school to welcome the children and to guide them to their rooms.  Parents of children in Senior infants and 1st Class may escort their children to the drop off zone situated in front of the Infant Courtyard.  Please return to the church car park via the roadway.

Please do not worry if you are running late this week in the mornings. Junior Infants will start on Thursday and Friday this week at 9:30am.

Our plan for the reception and dispersal of pupils will be monitored and reviewed throughout the term and we will keep you informed of any changes via Aladdin and our website.  

Some reminders and notices:

Pupil Medication: Medication for your child can be returned to the school at the main school entrance on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday mornings this week (9:30am – 10:30am) and also on Wednesday afternoon, 2:30pm – 4pm.  It is important that pupils’ medication for critical medical needs be returned as soon as possible. Please contact Ms Yvonne Newman on yvonne.newman@milfordns.ie if you wish to discuss this further.

Allergies: Please let us know if your child has any allergies or any underlying ailments which may cause coughs and sneezes.

Schoolbooks:  Please do not send in all your child’s books on Wednesday morning.  Rental books from last year may be returned.  Your child should bring in their lunch, pencil case and three copies including a maths copy.  The teachers will indicate during the week what books that the children will need to bring into school on each day.  

School Times for Week 1 – these times will be updated for Junior Infants for Week 2

Money:  Please do not send in money until Week 2.  Our preferred method for collection of money this year will be via Aladdin epayments.  Once classes are complete we will circulate Aladdin Connect signup details to new enrolments.  If you are unable to access your Aladdin account please contact the school and we will do our best to help you with the issue.

Lunches: Please remember that our school is a Nut Free Zone.  Some of our pupils have allergies to nut products so please check the labels of all food items in your child’s lunch box.  We also operate a healthy lunch box policy.  Teachers will indicate to classes throughout the year when they may bring in a special treat to eat.

Uniform: Pupils may wear their school tracksuit to school tomorrow.   Teachers will advise shortly in relation to PE days.

Le gach dea-ghuí,

Diarmaid