Ms Áine Lynch:

The National Parents Council Primary welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the committee on the preparations for the reopening of schools and how this is operating in practice. In making this submission, we are mindful that children have only just returned and it may be too early to fully understand their experiences and the experiences of their parents. We issued a survey to parents in order to inform this submission and this issue was raised by a number of those who completed the survey. The survey was open from 4 p.m. last Friday until 1 p.m. on 28 August and a total of 3,177 responses were received. I will go through some of the headline responses from the survey, and the one I want to start with is that 93% of children who went back to school enjoyed their first day.

The further comments that I make are within that context. When I was before the committee a number of weeks ago, over 90% of parents felt their children needed to go back to school. The high percentage of children who enjoyed their first day is really reassuring and strongly reflects the work done within schools to make sure school is a positive experience for children.

We asked parents about school transport. Only 8% of respondents said their children were using school transport and of that 8%, 67% were happy with the transport that was provided. Parents raised a number of issues. There seemed to be a mixed experience from children in regard to adhering to the new guidelines. Sometimes the experience is different going to and returning from school. In situations where different bus companies are involved, it is difficult to sit next to the same person. The availability of hand sanitiser and social distancing was raised.

Some 82% of respondents felt they had enough information in advance of the schools opening, but 12% felt they did not. Some 120 parents who responded to our survey said their school did not share any information with them. That is a matter of some concern.

Parents reported high satisfaction generally with information from schools through many media, such as videos that schools sent to them, and text messages and emails, outlining the procedures that were in place. That gave parents an opportunity to prepare their children for their first day back at school. Some parents had concerns that they had received inadequate information to do this preparation with their children and some said they received information but it was only the evening or two days before their children returned to school. Some 86% of parents said they were able to communicate with the school if they had concerns. However, 40% said they did not have a facility to do this.

We provided many opportunities for parents to give individualised responses. A number of issues came up in those responses. One of the key concerns parents had was what happens if a class or school has to close and what provision in terms of education would be made for their children outside of school. One of the issues with primary school is that independent learning is very difficult for children of this age. Parents had concerns about how school closures would affect their learning.

Pods were an issue. Children's happiness at being back in school was affected by whether they were with friends in pod groups and were able to play with friends at break times. Many parents said drop-off and pick-up times worked very well but some said there were definite difficulties, in particular for those with more than one child. A lot of respondents were concerned about parents congregating at school gates and not wearing masks.

Some parents feel the restrictions in schools should be looser, allowing the children to mix more. However, other parents believe the opposite. That is challenging for schools to manage. A number of parents are concerned about the overuse of hand sanitiser and believe that washing hands with soap is more appropriate for young children.

Windows and doors being open is an issue and is causing some concern, given the Irish weather over the colder months and how this approach will work. Some parents expressed concerns about their children in special classes. Parents are concerned that they will not mix with mainstream classes in the way that they are used to and that their children are missing out on the essential development of social skills.

They are the main issues raised by parents in the survey. As I said, it is very early days. Some of these issues may play out differently over the coming weeks.