Dear Parents and Carers

Wearing of face coverings (primary)

The Welsh Government has updated its guidance on the use of face coverings in schools and we have been asked to share the following information with you.

To reduce the risk of transmission amongst parents and relatives, please wear masks when visiting school, and at drop-off and collection areas. Maintaining clear social distance at the school gates will also reduce risk and set a good example to pupils.

If you also have a secondary school aged child, be aware that face coverings should now be worn by year 7 and above pupils in all areas outside the classroom and be worn on dedicated school transport for year 7 and up.

Please follow these guidelines and encourage your child to follow theirs too.

Along with regular hand washing/sanitising and social distancing, this will reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 at school as far as possible.

They have been made stronger to keep you and your families as safe as possible. They are based on new advice from Welsh Government’s Technical Advisory Group, as we learn more about the way COVID-19 is transmitted.

Thank you for your help in doing all we can – together – to keep ourselves and others safe.

Yours sincerely

Richard Cook

Head Teacher

The Federation of Bedwas Junior and Rhydri Primary Schools

Dear Parent / Carer,

Children In Need

A reminder that we have decided we would like to support Children in Need this year by holding a pyjama day on Friday 13th November. Children are welcome to come to school dressed in their pyjamas if they wish and a voluntary donation of £1.00 for taking part in the day would be greatly appreciated.

Musical Instrument Lessons

These lessons should now be taking place weekly for all instruments unless we are contacted and told otherwise by Caerphilly Music Service. It was a little confusing when some of the teachers were only able to come in once a fortnight so hopefully this will now avoid the issue of forgotten instruments!

Drop-Off and Pick-Up Arrangements

Thank you for your continuing co-operation in helping the start and end of each school day work smoothly. Please continue to be careful, especially at the end of the day, with the restricted parking that is available at school and do not spend any longer on or around the site than is necessary.

Communications – COVID

Some test results are still coming back very much outside normal school hours. Although we will try to contact parents of the children affected by any class closures as soon as we are able, with tests results being received so late into the evening, this cannot always be done immediately. It could be possible for a result to be received and passed onto school just before the school day begins. Please ensure that you have registered on the new website – https://www.bedwasrhydri.school in order to receive an e-mail notification should a class need to be closed. We also have the Text2Parents service which will enable you to receive any closure notifications immediately. Please contact the school office to give permission for your details to be added to this service if you would also like notifications by text.

Attendance

If your child is unable to attend school could you please make sure that you contact the school office as soon as possible on the day of non-attendance to inform us of the absence. CCBC are checking school registers regularly to analyse attendance trends and we need to know the reason for absence in order to complete the records accurately. Children who are self-isolating because they are awaiting the result of a test or because they have been identified as a ‘close contact’ of a positive case are recorded separately from other reasons for absence.  Please make sure that the school office has your most up to date contact details as it is more important than ever that we are able to contact parents and carers as quickly as possible, especially if a class needs to be sent home to self-isolate.

Head Teacher

The Federation of Bedwas Junior and Rhydri Primary Schools

Diary Dates

Free School Meals

Catering provision in school returned from November 2^nd with lunches being provided. The following information is covers eleigibility for free school meals and the process that you need to follow to obtain these. Please contact the school office if you require any support with this.

Your child may be eligible for free school meals if you are in receipt of any of the following benefits/support payments:

•             Income Support

•             Income Based Jobseekers Allowance

•             Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

•             Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

•             Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and their annual income does not exceed £16,190

•             Guarantee element of State Pension Credit

•             Working Tax Credit ‘run-on’ – the payment someone may receive for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

•             Universal Credit.

•             Young people who receive Income Related Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit, Income Support or Income Based Job Seekers Allowance in their own right may also be eligible to receive FSM.

Your child will also need to be attending school full time, which can include full days at nursery and sixth form students. In order for your child to receive free school meals, you will need to fill out an application form either online by visiting http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk and typing free school meals into the search field or complete an application form which is available at our school and return to Catering Services, Caerphilly County Borough Council, Penallta House, Tredomen Park, Ystrad Mynach, Hengoed, CF82 7PG.

If you pay for your child to have school meals you could save around £500 per year if your child qualifies for free school meals.

You may also qualify for the Welsh Government Pupil Development Grant (PDG) – Access Funding of up to £125, this is available to  pupils who are eligible for free school meals or are looked after by a Local Authority if they are:

•             entering reception class in primary school

•             entering year 7 in secondary school

•             aged 4 or 11 in special schools, special needs resource bases or pupil referral units.

The purpose of this PDG funding which is to provide grant assistance to families on low incomes for the purchase of:

•             School uniform including coats and shoes;

•             School sports kit including footwear;

•             Uniform for enrichment activities, including but not limited to, scouts; guides; cadets; martial arts; sports; performing arts or dance;

•             Equipment e.g. school bags and stationery;

•             Specialist equipment where new curriculum activities begin such as design and technology; and

•             Equipment for out of school hour’s trips such as outdoor learning e.g. waterproofs.

Think of the time you would save if your child is eligible and has free school meals instead of packed lunches, you could save up to 190 hours a year, which is the time needed to make packed lunches that meet the nutritional standards of school meals – that’s just over a week!

Our school will also receive £1150 additional funding for every child registered for Free School Meals.  This funding must be directly targeted at Free School Meal pupils.  This year we have used that additional funding for interventions in Literacy and Numeracy.

If you require any further advice, please contact Catering Services on 01443 864055 (or email catering@caerphilly.gov.uk). A member of the team will be able to advise you. 

This is a reminder that updates and posts are now available on our new website. These posts include updates such as diary dates and special events such as non-uniform days and INSETs.

Please visit www.bedwasrhydri.school/blog for more information.

We have decided we would like to support Children in Need this year by holding a pyjama day on Friday 13th November. Children are welcome to come to school dressed in their pyjamas and a voluntary donation of £1.00 for taking part in the day would be greatly appreciated.

Please see the link for a letter to Parents/Carers from Keri Cole Chief Education Officer.

https://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/CaerphillyDocs/Coronavirus/Lettertoparents-23-10-2020

Dear Parent / Carer,

This has seemed like an extremely long half-term and I want to thank you for the way in which you have supported us during these unusual times. We reopen for the pupils on Monday 2^nd November. Although we have had to change certain aspects of the way we run the school it has worked well thanks to the co-operation of the pupils, parents and staff. We will continue with the existing school arrangements in the new half-term, the only change being the resumption of school dinners with the availability of a limited school lunch menu. I hope you all have a safe half-term holiday.

Communications – COVID

Some test results are still coming back very much outside normal school hours. Although we will try to phone parents of the children affected by any class closures as soon as we are able, with tests results being received so late into the evening, this cannot always be done immediately. It could be possible for a result to be received and passed onto school just before the school day begins. Please ensure that you have registered on the new website – https://www.bedwasrhydri.school in order to receive an e-mail notification should a class need to be closed. We also have the Text2Parents service which will enable you to receive any closure notifications immediately. Please contact the school office to give permission for your details to be added to this service if you would also like notifications by text.

Non-uniform day

On Friday 23^rd October we will be having a non uniform day to raise funds for the PTA, ‘Friends of Rhydri Primary’. We ask for a donation of £1 per pupil. Please bring the £1 in an envelope.

Please contact the school office if you would like any further information on how to get involved in fundraising for the school through the ‘Friends of Rhydri Primary’.

Attendance

If your child is unable to attend school could you please make sure that you contact the school office as soon as possible on the day of non-attendance to inform us of the absence. CCBC are checking school registers regularly to analyse attendance trends and we need to know the reason for absence in order to complete the records accurately. Children who are self-isolating because they are awaiting the result of a test or because they have been identified as a ‘close contact’ of a positive case are recorded separately from other reasons for absence.  Please make sure that the school office has your most up to date contact details as it is more important than ever that we are able to contact parents and carers as quickly as possible, especially if a class needs to be sent home to self-isolate.

Head Teacher

The Federation of Bedwas Junior and Rhydri Primary Schools

Diary Dates

Free School Meals

Catering provision in school is set to return from November 2^nd with lunches being provided. The following information is covers eleigibility for free school meals and the process that you need to follow to obtain these. Please contact the school office if you require any support with this.

Your child may be eligible for free school meals if you are in receipt of any of the following benefits/support payments:

•             Income Support

•             Income Based Jobseekers Allowance

•             Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

•             Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

•             Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and their annual income does not exceed £16,190

•             Guarantee element of State Pension Credit

•             Working Tax Credit ‘run-on’ – the payment someone may receive for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

•             Universal Credit.

•             Young people who receive Income Related Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit, Income Support or Income Based Job Seekers Allowance in their own right may also be eligible to receive FSM.

Your child will also need to be attending school full time, which can include full days at nursery and sixth form students. In order for your child to receive free school meals, you will need to fill out an application form either online by visiting http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk and typing free school meals into the search field or complete an application form which is available at our school and return to Catering Services, Caerphilly County Borough Council, Penallta House, Tredomen Park, Ystrad Mynach, Hengoed, CF82 7PG.

If you pay for your child to have school meals you could save around £500 per year if your child qualifies for free school meals.

You may also qualify for the Welsh Government Pupil Development Grant (PDG) – Access Funding of up to £125, this is available to  pupils who are eligible for free school meals or are looked after by a Local Authority if they are:

•             entering reception class in primary school

•             entering year 7 in secondary school

•             aged 4 or 11 in special schools, special needs resource bases or pupil referral units.

The purpose of this PDG funding which is to provide grant assistance to families on low incomes for the purchase of:

•             School uniform including coats and shoes;

•             School sports kit including footwear;

•             Uniform for enrichment activities, including but not limited to, scouts; guides; cadets; martial arts; sports; performing arts or dance;

•             Equipment e.g. school bags and stationery;

•             Specialist equipment where new curriculum activities begin such as design and technology; and

•             Equipment for out of school hour’s trips such as outdoor learning e.g. waterproofs.

Think of the time you would save if your child is eligible and has free school meals instead of packed lunches, you could save up to 190 hours a year, which is the time needed to make packed lunches that meet the nutritional standards of school meals – that’s just over a week!

Our school will also receive £1150 additional funding for every child registered for Free School Meals.  This funding must be directly targeted at Free School Meal pupils.  This year we have used that additional funding for interventions in Literacy and Numeracy.

If you require any further advice, please contact Catering Services on 01443 864055 (or email catering@caerphilly.gov.uk). A member of the team will be able to advise you. 

Please find a link to a recent letter from Keri Cole, Chief Education Officer for Caerphilly.

https://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/CaerphillyDocs/Coronavirus/LetterParents-30-09-2020

Flow chart for Parents:

www.caerphilly.gov.uk/CaerphillyDocs/Coronavirus/FlowChartParentsPrint

I hope you and your family are safe and well and thank you for your continued support in these challenging times.

Following a risk assessment and consultation with the full federated Governing Body at Rhydri Primary School, we have made the difficult decision that the resumption of the free breakfast club provided by the Local Authority in our school should continue to be postponed until safe to do so.

We have determined that it would be unreasonable to continue to provide free breakfast club at our school for the foreseeable future for the following reasons:

• Safe spaces cannot be provided for each contact group to remain separate.
• Unavailability of an adequate number of staff to supervise and safeguard pupils and maintain contact groups.
• Mixing of class contact groups could potentially cause the whole school to close if a case was identified within the breakfast club (staff or pupils).
• Individual classrooms cannot be used for breakfast club due to insufficient numbers of breakfast club staff to supervise, no capacity to clean adequately before lessons begin and  teachers requiring statutory preparation time in their classrooms prior to pupils arriving for school day.

This will be reviewed on a monthly basis with the Governing Body and you will be kept updated.

Dear Parent / Carer,

Parent Teacher Consultations

Due to the restrictions imposed by the current pandemic, the parent teacher consultations will be carried out by phone this term. Please contact the school office by phone (02920 852525) or e-mail (rhdpa@caerphilly.gov.uk) to book your appointment.

Communications – COVID

Some test results are coming back very much outside normal school hours. Although we will try to phone parents of the children affected by any class closures as soon as we are able, with tests results being received so late into the evening, this cannot always be done immediately. It could be possible for a result to be received and passed onto school just before the school day begins. Please ensure that you have registered on the new website (link below) in order to receive an e-mail notification should a class need to be closed. We also have the Text2Parents service which will enable you to receive any closure notifications immediately. Please contact the school office if you wish to make use of this service.

Year 6 – Admission to Secondary School – September 2021

A reminder – In September 2021, your child is due to transfer to Secondary School. In order to secure a place for your child, you will need to complete an application online.

Please visit the Caerphilly.gov website, search for School Admissions and click on ‘apply for

a place at school’. The actual web address is as follows:- www.caerphilly.gov.uk/schooladmissions

You must complete the form by the 23rd October 2020.

Music Lessons

Music lessons from Caerphilly Music Service have been  re-introduced over the past three weeks. Please note if your child wishes to continue lessons you will need to make full payment of £25.00 for the Autumn Term by Friday 9^th October. If no payment has been received by this date we will presume your child no longer wants to participate and their space will become available to another child.

Attendance

If your child is unable to attend school could you please make sure that you contact the school office as soon as possible on the day of non-attendance to inform us of the absence. CCBC are checking school registers regularly to analyse attendance trends and we need to know the reason for absence in order to complete the records accurately. Children who are self-isolating because they are awaiting the result of a test or because they have been identified as a ‘close contact’ of a positive case are recorded separately from other reasons for absence.

Please make sure that the school office has your most up to date contact details as it is more important than ever that we are able to contact parents and carers as quickly as possible, especially if a class needs to be sent home to self-isolate.

New Website

Don’t forget that our new website is now live. You can find it on – https://www.bedwasrhydri.school

INSET Days

The INSET days have now been set for the year. In order to minimise disruption in this term they have been mostly allocated in the second half of the school year.

Safety

Please make sure that the children don’t climb on any area of the school site especially on or around the main wall or fences. This is to avoid any injury to the children and any unnecessary damage to the site. We have recently had to carry out repairs on the main wooden gate, adjoining fence and also the school perimeter wall.

Head Teacher

Bedwas Junior and Rhydri Primary Schools

Diary Dates

Free School Meals

Catering provision in school is set to return from November 2^nd with lunches being provided. The following information is covers eleigibility for free school meals and the process that you need to follow to obtain these. Please contact the school office if you require any support with this.

Your child may be eligible for free school meals if you are in receipt of any of the following benefits/support payments:

•             Income Support

•             Income Based Jobseekers Allowance

•             Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

•             Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

•             Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and their annual income does not exceed £16,190

•             Guarantee element of State Pension Credit

•             Working Tax Credit ‘run-on’ – the payment someone may receive for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

•             Universal Credit.

•             Young people who receive Income Related Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit, Income Support or Income Based Job Seekers Allowance in their own right may also be eligible to receive FSM.

Your child will also need to be attending school full time, which can include full days at nursery and sixth form students. In order for your child to receive free school meals, you will need to fill out an application form either online by visiting http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk and typing free school meals into the search field or complete an application form which is available at our school and return to Catering Services, Caerphilly County Borough Council, Penallta House, Tredomen Park, Ystrad Mynach, Hengoed, CF82 7PG.

If you pay for your child to have school meals you could save around £500 per year if your child qualifies for free school meals.

You may also qualify for the Welsh Government Pupil Development Grant (PDG) – Access Funding of up to £125, this is available to  pupils who are eligible for free school meals or are looked after by a Local Authority if they are:

•             entering reception class in primary school

•             entering year 7 in secondary school

•             aged 4 or 11 in special schools, special needs resource bases or pupil referral units.

The purpose of this PDG funding which is to provide grant assistance to families on low incomes for the purchase of:

•             School uniform including coats and shoes;

•             School sports kit including footwear;

•             Uniform for enrichment activities, including but not limited to, scouts; guides; cadets; martial arts; sports; performing arts or dance;

•             Equipment e.g. school bags and stationery;

•             Specialist equipment where new curriculum activities begin such as design and technology; and

•             Equipment for out of school hour’s trips such as outdoor learning e.g. waterproofs.

Think of the time you would save if your child is eligible and has free school meals instead of packed lunches, you could save up to 190 hours a year, which is the time needed to make packed lunches that meet the nutritional standards of school meals – that’s just over a week!

Our school will also receive £1150 additional funding for every child registered for Free School Meals.  This funding must be directly targeted at Free School Meal pupils.  This year we have used that additional funding for interventions in Literacy and Numeracy.

If you require any further advice, please contact Catering Services on 01443 864055 (or email catering@caerphilly.gov.uk). A member of the team will be able to advise you. 

If your child is currently attending a Caerphilly School, is eligible for free school meals because of the benefits or support payments that you currently receive, is in Reception, Year 3, Year 7 or Year 10 only.

Have you submitted an application for the PDG Access Grant ?.

Funding of £125 is available for eligible pupils in Reception, Year 3 and Year 10 and £200 for eligible pupils in Year 7.

Full details of this funding are available on the Council website, together with details of how to apply.

Please note if you haven’t already submitted an application for free school meals this would need to be done first and eligibility confirmed. Again details are available on the Council website with regards to the eligibility criteria and how to apply.

Please access the new posts on the new website:

http://www.bedwasrhydri.school

For quick links, click the following:

https://www.bedwasrhydri.school/blog/pdg-access-reminder

Please visit the following page to view our brand new blended learning policy, as well as other important COVID19 related documentation.

https://www.bedwasrhydri.school/pandemic

Thank you for your support, patience and help at the beginning of this term; these are challenging times for everyone. It has been fantastic seeing all of the children back in school. There are still uncertain times ahead but we will work together to help the children through this.

Year 6 – Admission to Secondary School – September 2021

In September 2021, your child is due to transfer to Secondary School. In order to secure a place for your child, you will need to complete an application online. Please visit the Caerphilly.gov website, search for School Admissions and click on ‘apply for a place at school’. The actual web address is as follows:- www.caerphilly.gov.uk/schooladmissions

You must complete the form by the 23rd October 2020.

Music Lessons

Music lessons from Caerphilly Music Service have been safely re-introduced over the past two weeks. Please note if your child wishes to continue lessons please make full payment of £25.00 for the Autumn Term by Friday 9^th October. If no payment has been received by this date we will presume your child no longer wants to participate and their space may become available to another child.

Some music teachers will be visiting the school on a fortnightly basis. On the week that they are not in school lessons will be set via Google Classrooms.

Monday: Guitar (Fortnightly)
Wednesday: Violin (Fortnightly)
Thursday: Woodwind (Fortnightly)
Friday: Brass (Weekly)

Spaces are available for woodwind, violin and guitar, but are limited. Guitar students must have their own instrument. If you wish to express an interest please contact the school office for further information.

Attendance

The Welsh Government has specified that from Monday September 14^th attendance at school is statutory. If your child is unable to attend school could you please make sure that you contact the school office as soon as possible on the day of non-attendance to inform us of the absence. CCBC are checking school registers regularly to analyse attendance trends and we need to know the reason for absence in order to complete the records accurately. Children who are self-isolating because they are awaiting the result of a test or because they have been identified as a ‘close contact’ of a positive case are recorded separately from other reasons for absence.

Some people are understandably anxious at this time and especially so about their child or children returning to school. There might be support we can provide or agencies we can contact on your behalf; please contact us as we are here to help if we are able.

We also ask that you make sure that the school office your most up to date contact details as it is more important than ever that we are able to contact parents and carers as quickly as possible, especially if a class needs to be sent home to self-isolate.

New Website

Don’t forget that our new website is now live. You can find it on – https://www.bedwasrhydri.school

Head Teacher

Bedwas Junior and Rhydri Primary Schools

Diary Dates

Please follow the link below:

http://www.bedwasrhydri.school/blog/letter-from-the-chief-education-officer

Just before the lockdown we were one week away from launching our new website. In order to avoid confusion at the time of the school closures and lockdown, we decided to hold back on the launch as it was important that the main method of communication we used was one with which everyone was familiar. Our existing websites will remain live for many months to come but will now contain a link taking you to our new site which will eventually supersede the old ones and will hopefully provide a more user-friendly presence for our Federation on the Internet.

You can find it on – https://www.bedwasrhydri.school