Between 20 to 29 children are expected to resume their education this morning at St Michael's House Special School in Dublin’s Baldoyle.
The school has invited half of its 58 pupils back today, but some of those children will stay away for the time being – their parents still watching Covid transmission figures and keen to wait a little longer.
Principal Ann Higgins says the overriding aim of staff during the first few days will be to re-establish the all-important routine of school.
"The teachers will be really cognisant of keeping the routine exactly the same," she says, "to reassure the students and let them settle back in."
The Government plan envisages special schools bringing 50% of their students back on alternate days over the period of the next few weeks – the reduced number to allow for greater social distancing. But Ms Higgins has tweaked the plan for her school.
"We knew it wouldn’t work to bring the children back on alternate days. So we will bring the first group in for two days, then the second group in next week," says Ms Higgins.
"There was anxiety among staff back in January, and rightly so. But a lot of that has been allayed now."
The school will work on a two-day/three-day rotation with the two groups.
The school has ditched plans to close next week for the mid-term. Instead, it will shut for just the two mandated mid-term break days of Thursday and Friday. It felt it would not be right to leave the second group of children out of school until after the mid-term.
Between teachers, SNAs, bus escorts and others, working full or part-time, 65 staff will be involved in today's reopening. Just three staff are unable to return, for reasons of illness or childcare.
Other schools are likely to find themselves with a higher proportion of staff unable to attend. The trade union Fórsa reckons that around 30% of SNA’s are eligible to remain at home for the present.
An agreement reached with the Department of Education allows those aged over 60, those with certain health conditions, and workers with childcare responsibilities not to return right now.
Schools for students with additional needs reopen today
There are a variety of arrangements in place for those workers, from taking parental leave to working remotely with children who are still at home. However, the union says that it is aware of SNAs over the age of 60 who want to return to the classroom and who will be returning today.
"Everybody is dying to come back", says Ms Higgins. "There was anxiety among staff back in January, and rightly so. But a lot of that has been allayed now."
She laments the way the controversy over whether or not to reopen played out in the media a few weeks ago, how – as she sees it – parents and school staff were pitted against each other.
"The staff here are the most dedicated group. The fault lay with the decisionmakers who should have had a plan.
"We have had a lot of engagement on Zoom. The kids have been able to see their teachers and SNAs, or hear them."
"We could have opened weeks ago, we had surveyed parents and were ready to go. Unfortunately, the past few weeks have been time wasted for our children."
The children who attend St Michael's have severe to profound learning disabilities. Many would also have a physical disability.
Aged between four and 18 years of age they are all at the earliest stages of learning, akin to children attending pre-school.
"In our whole school we would have one child who is verbal," says Ms Higgins.
Not surprisingly for such children trying to teach via Zoom has its limitations, but she says staff at the school still worked hard to engage remotely. Criticising suggestions that teachers have not been working, she says her teachers are "worn out".
But their efforts have paid off. "We have had a lot of engagement on Zoom. The kids have been able to see their teachers and SNAs, or hear them."
Ms Higgins says in terms of maintaining some sort of connection and routine even this apparently small thing cannot be underestimated.
"Some of our parents have really, really struggled, including parents who are frontline workers themselves. Some of the children have been climbing the walls at home. We are just so happy to be able to bring them back again."
The children attending St Michael’s may be non-verbal but Ms Higgins says they will have no problem communicating how they feel about being back.
"We’ll see all their smiles," she says.
