Mr. Alan Mongey:

Congregation is a significant challenge in our schools at all times due to the volume of students within our school buildings. The Irish weather does not lend itself to many students being outside at break times, certainly in September and October. It is going to be extremely challenging.

On school transport, if we start at the beginning of the day as students arrive, significant structures and systems are going to have to be put in place and new routines are going to have be developed within schools. That needs to be done in consultation with transport companies, parents and teachers, etc. All of that is going to take considerable time.

In a way, there is going to have to be a risk assessment carried out of almost all activities that happen in a school from one end of the day to the other. That is why in the context of Covid-19 we are calling for assistance and help for school management during August so we can look at all of those issues and try to develop safe and practical routines to implement the advice and guidance outlined by the HPSC. Potentially we are looking at students arriving on school transport wearing face masks. We need to get to developing those practices and systems and it is going to take a community effort. I have said recently that if parents want students returning to school in September, they must realise that heading off on a foreign holiday to Portugal or Spain is going to challenge significantly the ability of schools to accept those students through their doors at the beginning of September. This is all about trying to keep Covid-19 out of schools and trying to maintain safe, healthy practices within schools.

Schools are going to need additional assistance on an ongoing basis to help with supervision on corridors at break times. Again, there is going to have to be quite a significant education programme created for students upon the return to school. When we return to school at the beginning of September, we will have to deal with all of the issues around student health, well-being and anxiety that have developed over the last number of months, for example among examination students leading into examination years. The development of routines in school, for example with regard to entry and exit from classrooms, needs to be looked at and managed. As these are new practices, there will have to be significant buy-in from all of the partners.

Post-primary schools are extremely complex. It is extremely challenging for students to remain in classrooms, and in pods within classrooms, in post-primary schools. First year and transition year allow for a certain amount of flexibility because there does not tend to be significant movement. Where there are optional subjects in second, third, fifth and sixth year, and where there are higher and ordinary level classes in subjects like maths, English and Irish, no two class groups are the same. In a school like ours, it would be rare to have 24 of the same students together with a number of teachers. That is an extremely challenging environment.

If we look at physical distancing, we need to look at trying to increase separation within classrooms and at decreasing all of the interactions between students on an ongoing basis. That is going to be extremely challenging. Everyone will have to play their part in that regard, including teachers on corridors as students move between classrooms. We are going to have to develop practices within schools to look at how we can assist with that physical interaction in a way that minimises it.

Post-primary schools are going to find it extremely challenging to implement, which is why significant resourcing will be required in schools to maintain that. All of us want our students back. Schools need it and society needs it. If we move to blended distance learning week-on, week-off, that is going to cost a significant amount to the economy where parents cannot return to work because they have to look after and assist children at home. We either invest in ensuring schools can return in September or the option in we look at in terms of blended learning will have multiple and significant costs for society.