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Juniors

17th Aug 2020

Some parents are being given staggered school start times for their children

Melissa Carton

back-to-school

It’s going to make back-to-school difficult.

Parents of multiple children all attending the same have been informed that there will be staggered start and finish times.

This means each child will start at a different time than their siblings, sometimes with an hour in the difference. The same will happen at pick up time too.

Parents are already quite stressed, having home schooled for months and now facing sending their children back to school when cases are on the rise in Ireland.

Now they will have to worry about how they will go back to work or simply manage their day-to-day lives when they have to do multiple drop offs and pick ups.

back to school

While I don’t think this staggered school drop off is standard (I haven’t heard anything from my son’s school about it) it seems to be common enough that it’s popping up in my home feed quite a bit.

Recently journalist Jen Hogan posted to her Instagram stories about how the staggered school drop off and collection at her child’s school was going to be problematic for her.

In her stories she mentioned that as well as the school times being staggered, she also can’t wait around with her other children in between drop offs which means either trying to find a café or something to sit in or heading home and back again.

It just sounds like absolute chaos.

Back to school. Cute asian pupil girl with backpack holding her mother hand and going to school in vintage color tone

To be honest, as a parent everything regarding back-to-school is very up in the air as far as I’m concerned.

I’m still not sure how staff will be able to maintain social distancing among students, especially in already over crowded schools.

How do you feel about your children returning to school? Do you feel fully informed and confident in the safety measures being put in place?