We’re Reopening on June 29th

Grovelands delighted to officially announce we will reopen on the 29th of June

This is the post that we have been waiting to write for the last month! We are happy to officially announce that Grovelands is reopening on June 29th.
The following centres will reopen:

• IDA Business Park, Athlone
• Corran Riada, Monksland, Athlone
• IDA  Business Park, Tullamore
• Market Point, Mullingar

The following sessional and school age childcare centres were due to close for the summer on the 27th of June and as such will remain closed until ECCE and national school resume. Provisionally  the date for that is August 24th. However, dates may be subject to change.  Please check with us in early August.

• Ballymahon Rd, Athlone
• Millbrook, Monksland, Athlone

We know many of you have questions in relation to our reopening and we are doing our best to answer those. Please send any specific questions you may have to admin@grovelandschildcare.ie.

We have been working non stop for the last few weeks to prepare the centres for reopening. All staff will be completing Covid 19 guidelines training prior to their return to work.

As always at Grovelands, Health and Safety is paramount and our policies have been updated to reflect that. We will be uploading the policies to our website next week and we request that parents read them and sign off on them before your child returns to the centre.

All staff and children will also be required to complete a Covid Declaration form prior to returning. The forms will be downloadable from the Grovelands website next week. It is a requirement that parents complete them and return them signed  to the centre the week of the 22nd of June.

We are aware that parents may be concerned around the changes their children will encounter on their return to our centres. However in reality there will be very little changes for the children in the centre. You will have heard a lot in the media around ‘playpods’. We are fortunate that our room sizes are in excess of the regulatory square footage per child and as such the childs room will be their play pod.

• Under the guidance issued by DCYA there will be no separation or social distancing  required between children in their rooms. They will be able to play with their friends again which will make a wonderful difference to their wellbeing.
• Our staff will have to social distance themselves from each other where possible  but not from the children. On that account the children will continue to receive the same level of interaction from their key worker as they did prior to the closure.
•  Sleep & Rest. For children who still sleep and rest within the centres they will still be able to sleep comfortably or have their little naps. There may be slight changes to the rooms where they sleep however  their routine in the main will remain the same.
• Food and Snacks – our chefs will be working in line with the return to work protocol and we will be able to maintain our 3 week menu plan that the children love.
• Fees – fees payable will resume in July and Government Funding Schemes (with the exception of ECCE which was due to finish on June 27th) will be reinstated by DCYA . We would advise all parents with children under 3 who remained on CCSU rather than move to NCS to apply for your CHICK now at http://www.ncs.gov.ie as you will require this to avail of funding. If you already have a CHICK it should be still valid for when return.

We will be doing a short video next week in one of the centres  to show you what arrival, drop off and collection may look like in the centres. Depending on locations there may be some changes required to the environments indoor and outdoor prior to the children’s return.

 

At this point most of you will have seen our “communication screens” which allow for safe entry of the children to the centres and continued communication between staff and parents .

In actual fact the biggest changes will be for you our  parents. Currently we will not be permitted to have parents or visitors in the premises. We are conscious that this will be a challenge for many parents and in order to support you we are offering 1 on 1 consultation in the centre the week before we reopen . These meetings are by appointment only so please let us know well in advance and we will be happy to make arrangement at a time to suit you.
Please forward any questions you may have to us over the weekend and we will communicate with you next week and advise on appointment procedure for your chosen Grovelands centre.

We look forward to welcoming you and your family back to Grovelands.
Stay safe. Wash you hands!

Grovelands Childcare Directors
Regina, Ronan & Dee Bushell