An announcement was made this morning by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD of the closure of schools, pre-schools and further and higher education settings, for a period until 29 March 2020, to support efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. This will take effect from 6pm this evening, Thursday 12 March. This is in line with the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team.
All pupils and students, from pre-school to third level are urged to practice social distancing, and to minimise physical contact with each other, to help avoid the spread of Covid-19. This should include minimising social contact, avoiding meeting up and keeping physical space between them. Parents and guardians are urged to support their children to maintain this approach. The Department of Education and Skills has issued the following advice for parents and schools on talking to children and young people about COVID-19 (Coronavirus): 
Download advice for parents and schools
In order to minimise the impact on teaching and learning our school will provide remote learning for our students. We have been working on our contingency plan over the past week and before we closed today all students had been provided with access to their Office 365 accounts and teachers have set up Microsoft Teams to communicate with their individual class groups and teach them remotely through this platform. Students are asked to treat each school day as a normal school day where learning will occur between 8.55am and the end of the school day. Students have been encouraged to take home whatever books they need and to use E-books where available by utilising the codes.
The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD said:
“I am deeply conscious of the impact that school and education setting closures have on students, on families and on the wider community. This is a necessary and proportionate measure that we are taking as a pro-active measure to help contain the threat of Covid-19.
The Department of Education and Skills urges all pupils and students to practice social distancing and that includes minimising social contact, interaction, meeting up, etc. The Department’s press release is available at the following link: https://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2020-press-releases/12-march-2020-statement-from-the-department-of-education-and-skills.html
We urge all our students to follow the advice of the HSE and the Department of Education and Skills and pray that all members of our extended school community stay safe and well
