Trust the key to ensuring safety of children and pre-school staff

As childcare facilities prepare to reopen across the county in the coming weeks, trust between pre-school owners and parents is the key to ensuring the safety of children and staff, that’s the message from the early learning community.

Caroline McDonnell of Kentstown Montessori opened her doors again last month after being closed since March. She has introduced a new system of working and ensured that children were fully prepared for the changes as she explains:

“We opened up on the 29th of July for our camps with smaller numbers, about 50 per cent of our families wanted us.

“We put in new systems then for entering and exiting, no parents allowed in and instead we meet them at the door.

“We made a video of the set up before we opened and we sent that to parents to show the children and we had a zoom meeting about any of their queries and concerns.

“We put so much sweat, love and effort into a lifetime of our pre school and after school it was heart-breaking to see it empty through all of those weeks of fabulous weather so we can’t wait to be fully opened.”

The big challenge will be September when preschool actually starts and there will be separate pods according to Caroline.

“We are completely trusting parents to be as vigilant as we are because they have to play a part as well and ensure that their child is ready to come, they understand the protocols and that we are all giving them the same messages about the virus.

“Once they know what to expect and the the same consistent message is coming from all of the adults, the children will adapt.

“As providers we are putting our trust in parents that they will send them to us when they are well, if they are not well they will be honest and keep them at home. We think that trust is going to be our basis.”

Eilish Balfe of Happy Days Preschool in Ratoath also says it is the close relationship with parents that will determine the success of reopening.

“There is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes to make sure that we get open safely and that the policies are there so parents know exactly what we are doing as in infection control.

“We will be doing staggered drop offs and staggered collections over a half hour period. We have forty odd kids so we can’t have forty parents at the door at the same time.

“We have two entrances now so we don’t have everybody at the same door at the same time.

“We were always big on hand washing long before Covid so it’s nothing new to the children, the only real change is that they will have to wash their hands on their way in.

“We will have disinfected mats that they will wipe their feet on when they come in.

“I can’t wait to get back, I do feel that the children need to get back for their mental health and to move on with their development.”

Strict protocols will have to come into play if a child is showing any symptoms of the virus according to the pre school owner.

“The only thing I would have a concern over is children coming in sick or parents coming to the door sick because if a child is showing symptoms or showing a temperature of over 38 degrees we have to go into COVID mode straight away.

“I would have to gear up in the PPE straight away, isolate the child in the isolation room and do a deep clean then.

“We will really have to have a good relationship with parents this year that they are not sending their children in sick.

“If a child is running a temperature they really have to keep them off school for 48 hours to ensure that there is no other problem and that goes for the staff as well.

“I have been through so much with parents over the years with bereavement, family issues, divorces and I’ve always been there for parents at the door to have a chat or give them a hug and we are going to lose that this year as well.

“There will be no hugs and our chats will be very limited, we if need a longer chat it will have to be via zoom or we will have to mask up.”