Masks in schools brought back as Covid cases climb
Staff, secondary and post-16 students must wear masks when inside school buildings from tomorrow, as stricter measures are reintroduced.
Restrictions in educational settings were relaxed seven weeks ago, as the New Year Covid wave dipped.
But since then cases have been climbing to their highest rate yet, reaching more than 2,500 active cases this week.
The latest measures aim to try and keep schools open and fully operational, so minimising any disruption to young people’s education.
Director of Education Nick Hynes said this was a challenging time for schools, with a number of positive cases.
‘A number of our schools and settings currently have staffing concerns and we all remain focused on managing disruption as a result of absences while maintaining our absolute focus of keeping settings open and delivering education,' he said.
‘This package of enhanced measures will be familiar to our staff, students and parents and carers as we are not introducing anything now that hasn’t been in place before. When we have had to revert to these enhanced measures previously, it has served us well so I’m hopeful that they can do so again as long as we continue to have the support of all involved in the delivery of education. I am sure that will be the case so I again take this opportunity to thank all staff and the community in advance for working with us to ensure these measures have the desired impact.'
READ MORE
The suite of measures includes all staff wear a face covering when inside school buildings, along with all secondary and post-16 students.
Additional outside breaks will be worked into the school day.
Primary school-aged students will be supported to wear a face covering if they want to.
Schools may implement changes to drop-off and pick-up times to stagger the number of people on-site at any one time.
Classroom bubbles will be re-introduced for primary schools and younger secondary schools pupils where possible.
There will be no school-run extra-curricular clubs or activities and no whole-school assemblies or in-person events, such a parents evenings.
There might be slight variations at each setting depending on their specific circumstances and operational needs.
Schools will contact parents and carers to provide further information relevant to the implementation of these measures at their child’s school.
