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6th year Return to School - Message from YearHead
Created : 01 Sep 2020, 6:52 PM
Archived : 01 Nov 2020, 12:00 AM
Management and staff are looking forward to our 6 th years starting tomorrow..All 6th years are asked to go to their tutor class @8.40. Mr Fenessey's group will meet in room 18. See you all Wednesday morning. D. O Neill.
A message from Caroline
Created : 01 Sep 2020, 10:48 AM
Archived : 01 Nov 2020, 12:00 AM
Good luck to all students and staff on their return to school. Wishing you all a safe return.
Return to School
Created : 31 Aug 2020, 7:22 PM
Archived : 31 Oct 2020, 12:00 AM
As we prepare to welcome our students back to BCS we encourage you to watch this Return to School video as the following link youtu.be/55XtPOxsqBI
Revised Return to School Schedule
Created : 31 Aug 2020, 4:05 PM
Archived : 31 Oct 2020, 12:00 AM
Please see attached image
Foreign Students
Created : 31 Aug 2020, 1:56 PM
Archived : 31 Oct 2020, 12:00 AM
We will have foreign students with us at BCS this year as has been the case since 2003. Before starting at BCS, we are ensuring that each of these students are tested . Following a negative test and an assurance of Quarantine from the host families and related companies for a period of 14 days , these students will be joining our school.
Congratulations
Created : 30 Aug 2020, 9:06 PM
Archived : 30 Oct 2020, 12:00 AM
Congratulations to Ballyduff on winning the Waterford Intermediate Hurling County Championship this evening. Well done to Maurice Geary ( Manager) and Jamie Kearney ( Teacher) and to all our past pupils on the team and panel.
Incoming Cairde
Created : 28 Aug 2020, 1:55 PM
Archived : 28 Oct 2020, 12:00 AM
Could all incoming Cara students please see Teams for a message about training next Wednesday 2nd.
BCS Return to school ... Frequently asked Questions
Created : 28 Aug 2020, 1:46 PM
Archived : 28 Oct 2020, 12:00 AM
BLACKWATER COMMUNITY SCHOOL – QUESTIONS & ANSWERS There are a number of points which we believe need to be clarified for staff, students, and parents at BCS prior to reopening. We have decided to address these through a questions and answers format. Will there be Tutor meetings in the morning? There will not be tutor meetings in the morning as an effort to minimise corridor movement. The roll will be taken at each class by the relevant subject teacher at that particular time throughout the school day. Will morning times be staggered? Our buses arrive early to BCS from 8am onwards. We are asking parents who are driving their students ( and we are mindful that there is a €5.50 grant per day for driving students) to arrive between 8.20 and 8.35 in advance of school starting at 8.40am. Will small break and lunch break be staggered? Yes both, the traditional small break (mid-morning) and lunch break will be staggered with the Junior School (1st, 2nd and 3rd Yr ) at one time and the Senior school at a different time to reduce numbers circulating in the school. Will year groups have separate social areas? Yes, following HSE and DES advice each year group at their assigned morning break and lunch break times will have separate social areas to congregate and minimise any unnecessary interaction. Each year will be assigned their area at their induction session. How will induction for each year group happen? Each class within each year group will receive induction as opposed to the full year group together. Will students be staggered leaving school in the evening? Yes, students will be staggered on leaving the school building during the last class. Will there be a school canteen as normal? It is impossible to maintain social distancing in the school canteen. To minimise risk, we are going without a canteen initially. This will be reviewed. Meanwhile we are asking that students bring their lunches with them. Equally, they will not be left out to the shop across the road or down town as we cannot ensure that social distancing is maintained. Will school water fountains be used? No, we are advised by the HSE/DES not to use communal water fountain so they will be out of action. What will be done to increase ventilation? Where and when possible, doorways will be kept open (weather permitting) to ensure air circulation, also the velux windows and vents will be open. Will there be increased access/exit areas within the school? Yes, we are using all exits and entrances to the school which include 3 through the courtyard and from each practical room. Will signage exist in the school? Yes, we have got recommended HSE/DES Covid related signage professionally printed and will be displayed throughout the school. Also, our school areas will be signed as appropriate for each year group and will be arrows indicating direction of movement along the corridors in a one-way system. How will sanitation work? We will have sanitising stations at the entrances/exits of the school building and inside each classroom. How will classrooms be cleaned? Each classroom will be stocked with cleaning materials and each student will wipe down their own area after each class. Equally , each classroom will be sanitised every evening. Will the school be decluttered? Yes, we have removed all lockers and racks from the corridors to facilitate ease of movement. We have also removed extra furniture from classrooms leaving only the teacher’s desk/chair and student’s desks/chairs. What numbers will be in classrooms? As per DES guidelines most classes will only accommodate 24 students and a teacher. Students will be at a 1 metre intervals in class. Bigger rooms will accommodate up to 30 students only where 1 metre distance can be assured. We have made provision for glass partitions on each teacher’s desk. Will students wear face coverings? Yes, as per DES/HSE advice students and teachers will wear face coverings except where exceptions are outlined re AEN students or for medical reasons. Without lockers, how will students manage books and copies? Students are being prepared for the possibility of distance learning down the line if necessary as per DES instructions. To reduce carrying heavy books, the subject teachers will organise a schedule as to when particular text books are required during the week to minimise carrying unnecessary books each day. How will contact tracing work? A contact log will be maintained for all visitors to the school and for the nonteaching staff. Teaching staff attendance is monitored by our online claims system and students attendance will be monitored by VSware. Do students wear school uniform? Students will wear the PE and normal school uniform on alternate days in consultation with their year head. The TY students have an option of using their 3rd year normal uniform with their PE uniform or having an extra PE uniform (old style) which is being sold at a reduced rate at MaryFM Fashions. Do you have an isolation room? Yes, we have an isolation room where a student suspected of being positive with Covid will be taken and arrangements will be made to send him/her home following parental contact. Will there be study in the evenings? At the moment, following DES advice we are focusing on getting the return to school working safely before providing afterschool study. This will be reviewed within the first month. Will there be co/extracurricular activities? There will be no co/extracurricular activities within the first couple of weeks and then we plan to introduce them after school once school is up and running in a safe fashion. Will staff have their own staffroom area? Staff members will have their usual staffroom but all current crockery and cutlery will be replaced by each person’s personal requirements for each day. Will students have access to toilets? Students will have normal access to toilets. However, students are asked to observe social distancing. Will students have coat hooks? The advice is for students to carry all personal belongings with them including coats. Will students have Mask Breaks? Students will be afforded mask breaks during the school day I hope you have found this Q&A Summary useful. We are constantly reviewing the best ways to navigate the safe return to school for all of our school community .We will provide greater and more personalised details to each year group at their respective Inductions over the coming days. With everyone’s support and patience, we are confident we can make this work. NÍ NEART GO CUR LE CHÉILE, Denis Ring
How to Support your child !
Created : 27 Aug 2020, 4:33 PM
Archived : 27 Oct 2020, 12:00 AM
How to Calm and Support your Child Advice for Parents and Guardians The Government closed all schools in Ireland in order to slow down the spread of the Covid-19 virus and to keep as many people as possible safe and well. This decision affected the lives of all children and young people. While many have coped well, many have found it difficult at times and going back to school may be challenging Some may be feeling worried about someone close to them getting sick or some may be worried about getting sick themselves. Some may be feeling bored, demotivated, sad and lonely. These strong feelings can cause children/young people to behave in ways that can be difficult to understand and manage. If they become overwhelmed by feelings, they can find it hard to control these feelings or how their body reacts to the feelings. This can lead to them ‘acting out” for example, starting fights, lashing out, shouting, hitting or swearing or to ‘acting in’ for example, becoming withdrawn, quiet, sad, refusing to do anything. The following information can help you to support children and young people who feel this way. Teach and Practice Strategies: Many children/young people will not know how to calm themselves down when they feel upset. They can be taught strategies that will help them to calm down, a number of these can be found at the end of this handout. Different activities work for different people, it is important that they try out different ones to see what works for them. You may need to show them these strategies and practice them with your child until they get the hang of them. The Regulate, Relate, Reason Model can help them to learn to manage their feelings physically and emotionally. Remember it is only when people are calm that they can talk about or begin to figure out how to manage how they are feeling or what they are thinking. Regulate: • Keep everybody safe. If the child or young person is in danger of hurting themselves or others, or of damaging property, you may need to remove them or take away any dangerous objects that could hurt them or someone else. • Stay with them and let them know they are safe and secure. “I will stay with you and make sure you are safe”. • Try to use a calm and patient voice. If you seem stressed, anxious, or angry, this can make their anxiety worse. • Tell them lots of children and young people have meltdowns, this is one way they show their stress. • Repeat a calming word/phrase to yourself, such as “breathe”, or use coping thoughts such as “If I am calm, it will help them to be calm”. • Don’t talk about how you think they should be behaving as they won’t be able to hear you or take this on board when they are stressed or having a meltdown. • Demonstrate a strategy which you know they have practiced and you know helps them to calm down. See Appendix 1 for strategies. Relate: • When the meltdown is over, try to understand how they were feeling and what upset them. • It will be important that you remain calm as they will pick up on your stress which could lead to the meltdown getting worse or happening again. • You might want to try to reason with them but remember talking may have the least impact at this time (words are only 7% effective). Again, this could lead to a further meltdown. • As they calm down use short sentences and a calm tone of voice for example, “I know you feel upset right now, this is very hard”. Reason: • When their body signals are saying they are calm, you can talk things through with them and teach them how to manage their meltdown differently the next time. Remember that it might take some time before they are calm enough to talk. This can vary from approximately 40 minutes to a whole day for some. • Emotion Coaching is one approach that is used with children and young people who have meltdowns. It is a step-by-step way to speak to them and to support them. See Appendix 2 of this document or on www.emotioncoaching.co.uk for more information. APPENDIX 1: Calming Strategies Mindfulness: Mindfulness is about bringing one’s attention to the present moment. Here is a simple mindfulness technique: • Sit in a relaxed position with your two feet on the ground. • Take 3 deep breaths relaxing more into the chair. • Pay attention to nice things around you. Firstly, what can you see? Say your answers ‘in your head’. Then move onto what you can hear, then taste… touch… and smell. • Take 3 more deep breaths and enjoy this time of being in the present moment. Deep Breathing: Breathing exercises help reduce feelings of physical tension. The key to deep breathing is to breathe deeply from the tummy, getting as much fresh air as possible into your lungs. When you take deep breaths from the tummy, rather than shallow breaths from your upper chest, you inhale more oxygen. The more oxygen you get, the less tense, short of breath, and anxious you feel. Example: • Sit in a comfortable position with your arms and legs uncrossed. • Inhale slowly through your nose or mouth (one-thousand one, one thousand, two, one-thousand three) and fill your lungs. • Silently and gently say to yourself, “I’m filling my body with calm”. • Exhale slowly through your mouth (one-thousand one, one-thousand two, one-thousand three), and comfortably empty your lungs. • Silently and gently say to yourself, “I’m letting the tension drain away”. • Repeat five times slowly. Younger children can practice deep breathing by blowing up balloons or blowing bubbles into a drink through a straw. In order to do these they have to take in a deep breath to begin. Over time, encourage them to take these breaths without bubbles, balloons or straws. Alternatively, they can try tummy breathing… Tummy Breathing – For Younger Children • Sit or lie down comfortably. • Gently put your hands on your tummy. • When you gently breathe in your tummy will rise. (This may be hard to do at first because we tend to expand the chest to breathe). It may help if you imagine a balloon in your tummy expanding as you breathe in, as the balloon expands your tummy does too!! When you breathe out the air goes out of the balloon and your tummy goes back to its normal size!! By leaving your hands on your tummy you can feel it rising (when you breathe in) and falling (when you breathe out). • Repeat 5 times if this feels comfortable building up to 10 breaths. Muscular Relaxation: Tense and relax different muscle groups in your body. For example, tense your toes on your right foot, hold for one, two, three… and relax. Now do the same with your left foot. Move up your body tensing, holding and relaxing different parts as you go. As your body relaxes, so will your mind. Visualisation – Guided Imagery: Close your eyes and use your imagination to imagine that you are walking down a soft wide path towards the sea. As you walk you feel calm and safe – breathing in and out – calmly and deeply. Suggested Script: You can hear the waves rolling onto the beach. You can smell the sea. You can feel a cool breeze on your face. As you walk along the path - breathing in and out – slowly and deeply – you feel sand beneath your feet – it’s soft and warm. The sun is shining and the sea is blue and glistening. The sound of the waves rolling onto the beach feels comforting and relaxing. And as you look out at the sea you can match your breathing to the pattern of the waves – slowly in and deeply out– relaxed and happy. You can feel the sun’s warmth filling the whole of your body as you gaze towards the water which is bright and blue and green. The beach is golden, long and wide and there is no-one here but you. This is your beach – your place – your time. Breathing in, filling your body with warmth and relaxation and breathing out – letting go of any stress. As you continue to breathe slowly and deeply, lower yourself onto the sand. Sitting here quietly you can watch the waves lapping onto the beach – the water is clear and bright and as you watch you continue to feel the warm relaxing feeling flowing over you – and you feel safe and happy and content. There is no one here but you – this is your beach – this is your place – this is your time. Sitting here in the warm, soft sand, soaking up the sunshine you feel strong and calm and you feel ready to return. Breathing in and out …slowly and deeply. Grounding: Grounding strategies can be used to help self regulate. These involve focusing attention on something in the moment and trying to focus only on that task. For example, counting breaths in and out, focusing on naming five things in the room, counting the lines on your hand, finding items that are a certain colour in the room. Scaling: Using a scale with pictures (see Fig. 1) can help children and young people to recognise how strong the emotions are that they are feeling. Ask them where they are on the scale. Help them work out some calming activities they can use at each point on the scale. Meltdown – I’m not ok I’m getting anxious I feel calm Fig 1: A simple Feelings scale The Turtle Technique: This can be used to teach self-control to younger children. The technique should be taught when they are calm and relaxed and you can remind them to use it if they are becoming stressed or about to have a meltdown. • Tell the story of a turtle who is always getting into trouble because he does not stop to think. These problems make him cross and angry and he ends up fighting with everyone. With help from a wise old turtle, the young turtle learns that when he has a problem or when he feels angry or sad, he can pull his body in to his shell to think. • The child learns the turtle technique, they pull their arms close to their bodies, curl up in their shells stop, think and then relax. This helps them to feel relaxed after tensing their muscles and it helps to develop self-control and problem solving skills. For some it may help to make a physical turtle shell that they can go into. Other useful links: NEPS Relaxation text ​NEPS Relaxation podcast Appendix 2: Strategy for Reasoning 1. Recognise the child or young person’s feelings and empathise with them. • Try to notice what emotions they may be feeling. “I can see you are very upset right now.” 2. Support and put a name to what they may be feeling • “It’s ok to feel angry and frustrated. This is a difficult time for you.” 3. Set limits (if necessary) • Remember - All feelings are ok, it’s what we do with them that matters. 4. Help them to problem-solve • When they have calmed down talk in a kind and supportive way about what behaviours are and are not acceptable. • Talk about the feelings that caused the behaviour. “You were angry and upset because…………..” • Try to focus on the positive, acceptable behaviour, i.e. what you would like to see, instead of the problem behaviour. • Brainstorm with them some other ways that they could have dealt with their feelings. • Talk about how feelings come and go and even though they may be sad or scared right now, they will probably feel better soon. Developed by the DES National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS)
COVID Advice for parents
Created : 26 Aug 2020, 3:32 PM
Archived : 26 Oct 2020, 12:00 AM
COVID-19 Advice for parents Symptoms to look out for and when to contact your GP Schools are back and the winter season is ahead of us. Every year, schoolchildren get colds, flu and other infections. This time, coronavirus (COVID-19) is with us. Here is a guide on what symptoms to look out for and what to do if your child is unwell. When to keep your child at home and phone your GP Do not send your child to school or childcare if any of the following is true. Your child has: • a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or more • any other common symptoms of coronavirus such as a new cough, loss or changed sense of taste or smell, or shortness of breath • been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus • been living with someone who is unwell and may have coronavirus You will need to: 1. Isolate your child. This means keeping them at home and completely avoiding contact with other people, as much as possible. Your child should only leave your home to have a test or to see your GP. 2. Phone your GP. They will advise you if your child needs a coronavirus test. 3. Everyone that your child lives with should also restrict their movements, at least until your child gets a diagnosis from their GP or a coronavirus test result. This means not going to school, childcare or work. 4. Treat your child at home for their symptoms. When it’s okay to send your child to school or childcare It’s usually okay to send your child to school or childcare if they: • only have nasal symptoms, such as a runny nose or a sneeze • do not have a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or more (as long as their temperature has not been lowered by taking any form of paracetamol or ibuprofen) • do not have a cough • have not been in close contact with anyone who has coronavirus • do not live with anyone who is unwell and may have coronavirus • have been told by a GP that their illness is caused by something else, that is not coronavirus. Your GP will tell you when they can return to school or childcare • have got a negative (‘not detected’) coronavirus test result and have not had symptoms for 48 hours Most of the time, you do not need to phone your GP if a runny nose or sneezing are your child’s only symptoms. Talk to your pharmacist instead. Preventing the spread of illness Help children to understand and to follow this advice: Wash their hands Use tissues or regularly elbows to cover their coughs and sneezes More information Keep their distance from people who are sneezing or coughing Don’t share toys Don’t share food at lunch or other times Go to hse.ie/coronavirus for more information. This includes advice on the following: • protecting your child from coronavirus • if your child has symptoms of coronavirus • getting urgent medical advice if your child is very unwell • children with underlying health conditions • explaining coronavirus to your child • how your child should wash their hands • caring for a child isolating and self-isolation • treating coronavirus symptoms at home • bringing your child to a test centre and test results Flu vaccine This year, all children aged 2 to 12 years will be offered the children’s nasal flu vaccine free of charge. See hse.ie/flu For updates visit www.gov.ie/health-covid-19 www.hse.ie Published: August 2020 Ireland’s public health advice is guided by WHO and ECDC advice