Dominican College are delighted to welcome pupils from all Years back to Dominican College from Monday 12th April and wish to take this opportunity to thank parents for all their support over this period of Remote Learning and to congratulate all our pupils for the mature and conscientious manner in which they have kept up with their studies.  


We know that our pupils will be both excited and apprehensive about the return to school and we wish to help them reconnect with their friends and teachers and to prioritise both continuing with teaching and learning and promoting positive well-being.


Our focus will be on looking forwards and celebrating what pupils have done during remote learning; our aim will be to reassure and motivate pupils as we move forwards together. We certainly don't want them, or you, to feel too overwhelmed by all the unknowns right now and we want them to continue to build on all the work produced before and during the recent period of remote learning.


We know these have been the most challenging of times and we have much to get through down the line but your dedication and sheer hard work of our pupils, parents and staff have not gone unnoticed.


Pupils will return to week one of their timetable on Monday and will follow the same school day as they did in term one. Pupils will have an extended form class on the morning of Monday 12th April to help them to reconnect with their Form Teacher and classmates.

• Our senior pupils (Years 11-14) should continue to enter the school by the Pedestrian Gate on Strand Road.
• Our junior pupils (Years 8-10) should continue to enter by the Diamond gate. 

The aim is to enable pupils to return to the established routines of the first term. 


All pupils will wash their hands immediately on arrival to school and again at the beginning and end of lunch and at the end of the school day. School lunch arrangements and bus arrangements will remain as in term one and each school day will commence with registration with the child’s form teacher followed by three morning lessons and two afternoon lessons.


Timetable:

•  Registration: 8.50- 9.10 AM
•  Period 1: 9.10- 10.00 AM
•  Period 2: 10.00- 11.00 AM
•  Period 3: 11.00 – 12.00 PM
•  Lunch: 12.00- 12.30 PM
•  Period 4: 12.30 – 1.30 PM
•  Period 5: 1.30 – 2.40 PM 

Bus times:

• Coleraine: 2.15 PM
• Portrush: 2.30 PM
• Ballymoney: 3.00 PM

We will maintain the following school procedures to help keep our school community as safe as possible:

All pupils will carry out handwashing at four key times of the school day;

• Pupils will be encouraged to continue to use hand sanitiser to maintain positive hygiene;
• Pupils will adhere to existing one way systems and continue to practice safe social distancing measures;
• Face coverings are now mandatory for all pupils* at all times within all areas of the school buildings and on public transport; (*Pupils with a specific medical condition are exempt from this mitigating measure)
• Parents and pupils are asked not to congregate at the school gates.

In addition to these measures the Department of Education (DE) and the Public Health Agency (PHA) have put in place the introduction of Lateral Flow testing for staff and pupils in Years 12-14 as a further mitigation to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. We congratulate the very high numbers of staff and pupils who have agreed to undertake these Lateral Flow tests which will be self-administered at home twice weekly. At this stage only pupils in Years 12-14 will be required to take these tests.


Currently there are building works taking place at the front of the school and we would ask all pupils to exercise personal safety at this time and to adhere to all safety guidance.


We would like to take this opportunity again to thank all our Dominican parents and to wish them and our pupils our very best wishes. We will continue to update all our pupils and parents in line with PHA and DE guidance over the coming weeks and months.


We are looking forward to a very positive Term Three.