Over the next 5 weeks or so guidance in many areas from both the Welsh Government and CCBC will be issued. As a result of this it is not possible to present a reopening plan at the moment as there are still too many unknowns for a meaningful plan to be able to be put in place. It is also clear that the situation and the required responses are changing, at times daily, and we are not able to accurately state what the situation will be six weeks from now. We are currently expecting updates through August in areas such as shielding, transport, PE, Nursery, ‘Test, Track and Trace’ as well as the longer term plans for Catering alongside further supporting guidance from Caerphilly and the Welsh Government.

The Welsh Government requirement is that all children will be back in full time education from September 14^th 2020.

We are aiming to publish our reopening plan after we receive the last piece of key guidance and therefore expect the plan to be published towards the end of August.

The first two days of term (Tuesday 1^st and Wednesday 2^nd September) are designated ‘Planning and Preparation’ days and we have been directed by Caerphilly to use those days to finalise our response to the reopening in the light of the most recent guidance and any changes to the wider COVID-19 situation. We will also need to carry out new full site and staff risk assessments and action any subsequent adjustments on those days as this will mean that they are as relevant as possible to the situation at that time.

At the moment our plan is that –

• Year 1, Year 3 and Year 5 will start school on Thursday 3^rd and Friday 4^th of September. This gives us the opportunity to focus on and support the children who will be starting new classes this academic year.

• Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6 will then start school on Monday September 7^th.

• We are hoping that Reception children will also be able to start on Monday September 7^th although we will update this in the reopening plan; the work to repair the fire damage which has been on hold due to the pandemic is scheduled to be completed by 28^th With statutory schooling being required from September 14^th we might need to take advantage of this leeway in order to endure that we are able to accommodate all children safely

• Nursery parents will be contacted separately.

There will be staff on hand to help.

The timings for school start and end times will be confirmed in the reopening plan but will hopefully be as close as possible to the timings of a normal school day.

The arrival and pick up plans will be detailed in the reopening plan as aspects such as the staggering of start and finish times and points of access and exit from the site will need to be confirmed.

A letter from Caerphilly detailing further aspects of the return to school will be shared once we receive it.

It must be emphasised that all of these plans are provisional and could change completely before the return to school.

Thank you for working with us and helping to make our return to school for the last three weeks so successful. It has been lovely seeing the children again; we have really appreciated the chance to catch up and are looking forward to our return in September.  It is still very frustrating to be unable to plan in more detail but that is the nature of the situation and we will keep you as up to date as we are able.

‘Our Wild Lives’ will launch this Friday, 17^th of July.

Our Wild Lives is a six-week project to bring people together to reconnect with the natural world as we start to come out of lockdown this summer.

Each week on the Our Wild Lives website we will publish a Discovery Card with a simple, thoughtful and free idea for getting out and about and engaging with nature.  There is no charge for taking part as we have been lucky enough to secure funding from the National Lottery. We just want everyone who uses the ideas to send in a photo or comment, so that together we can create a unique digital scrapbook which captures our re-found appreciation of the natural world as we all learn to live with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

The project is for everyone – young and old, urban and rural – and we are really keen to spread the word and get as many people as possible involved.

We would love it if you could help support the project by tweeting and sharing it, and perhaps taking part yourself?

The project will launch for the summer holidays from 17th July, but you can see a draft of the website here, to give you a feel https://www.ourwildlives.club/

If you would like any more info e mail co-founders Zoe and Sarah on info@wildkind.space

Have a relaxing summer

Andy Wilkinson
Uwch Barcmon Addysg Amgylcheddol | Senior Environmental Education Ranger
Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Caerffili | Caerphilly County Borough Council

The staff at Bedwas Junior and Rhydri Primary Schools would like to thank parents and carers for all of the hard work, commitment and effort that they made to keep their child/ children engaged in learning throughout the recent school closure. The resilience and motivation of many of our families has been outstanding, and we are very proud of what has been achieved.

Thank you to those who completed our parental survey. We are currently collating and analysing the results and working hard behind the scenes to ensure that they inform and improve our future practice. In the event of further school closures, we will be able to use this feedback to enhance the provision and support that we can provide so that it suits the needs and preferences of our families.

Mrs S Banks

Dear Parents / Carers

Following today’s announcement from Kirsty Williams about the return to school in September, we are now waiting for the Welsh Government guidance which will enable us to start our planning. This guidance is expected early next week. Once this is received we will be working closely with CCBC and other schools in order to prepare our return to school plans. These will be shared with you as soon as they are ready however, many things about our current situation could change before September requiring significant adjustments. If this is the case these adjustments will be communicated with you via the school blog.

Mr R Cook

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HNX6G9Z

Further to the email yesterday regarding the parents survey, if you have not already completed the survey please use this link above.

With plans for September 2020 and the foreseeable future uncertain at the moment, we are keen to hear your feedback on your experiences with home-learning during the recent school closure. We would be grateful if you could take 2 minutes to complete this survey to help us ensure we continue to support you and the children to the best of our ability. The survey will remain live until midday Wednesday 8th July 2020.

Applications for September 2020 will NOT be received by our Schools but will be received and administered by the Local Authority.  Due to the current circumstances a new on-line application process has been developed for 2020. It is anticipated that the on-line application will be available for families to access from Monday 27^th July 2020. Support will also be provided by the Local Authority where families do not have on-line access to apply. Details and updates will be available on the Caerphilly website. To reassure families applications and payments will be on-going through the summer holiday period, into September and onwards.

The Purpose of the Scheme is to provide grant assistance to families on low income. It  is aimed at supporting pupils who are eligible for free school meals because of the benefits or support payments their parents / guardians currently receive [Note – pupils in receipt of FSM’s through transitional protection linked to the roll out of Universal Credit are not eligible to access the PDG Access Grant in 2020/21].

The PDG Access grant provides assistance 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 hours trips such as outdoor learning e.g. waterproofs.

This Funding is available to pupils who are eligible for free school meals (as detailed above) entering:

• Reception class of maintained primary schools in September 2020;
• Year 3 class of maintained primary schools in September 2020;
• Year 7 of maintained secondary schools in September 2020;
• Year 10 of maintained secondary schools in September 2020;
• Pupils in special schools, special needs resource bases; pupil referral units and alternative provision (arranged by the Local Authority) who are entering Reception, Year 3, Year 7 and Year 10 in September 2020.

The Funding is available to ALL looked after children of compulsory school age, irrespective of FSM entitlement.  Applications for LAC pupils will need to be made to the Local Authority in which the pupil attends school.

 Families with pupils under a Special Guardianship Order would only be eligible to claim if the guardians / carers meet the eligibility criteria (relevant year group / in receipt of FSM’s due to benefit or support payments received).

 Pupils with no recourse to public funds entering reception; Year 3; Year 7; and Year 10 in the 2020-21 school year are entitled to assistance under this Funding.

 Funding of up to £125 is available for each learner with the exception of those in Year 7. Eligible learners in Year 7 will be entitled to a maximum of £200. This recognises the additional costs associated with starting Secondary School.

 To reassure families, the guidance is quite clear that if a uniform has already been purchased for a learner and they meet the criteria, a retrospective claim can be made.

With plans for September 2020 and the foreseeable future uncertain at the moment, we are keen to hear your feedback on your experiences with home-learning during the recent school closure. We would be very grateful if you could take 2 minutes to complete this survey to help us ensure we continue to support you and the children to the best of our ability. The survey will remain live until midday Wednesday 8th July.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/233LBGD

ChildcareLetterParents-01-07-2020

Letter to parents and carers 23.06.20

The Leader of Caerphilly county borough council has confirmed that schools across the area will reopen to pupils on Monday 29^th June for a period of three weeks before the start of the main summer holidays on Friday 17^th July.

Cllr Philippa Marsden said, “The original proposal was for pupils to return for a period of four weeks, however, after extended discussions we have concluded that our schools will now open for 3 weeks and close for the summer holidays on 17^th July.”

“We are taking a consistent approach across Gwent and I very much welcome this opportunity for pupils to check in and catch up before the summer break. Our priority is to safeguard the health and wellbeing of pupils and staff, as well as ensuring learning can resume as quickly and safely as possible.”

Schools across the county borough will open their doors on Monday 29th June for pupils to return on a phased basis. Year groups will be split into cohorts with staggered starts, lessons and breaks. This means that, at most, around a third of pupils will be present in the classroom at any one time, although individual schools may need time to reach this level of operation.

CCBC has been successfully running a number of childcare hubs in many of its schools throughout the outbreak, so staff have significant experience of working within these new conditions and limitations and are well placed to provide safe, well managed learning environments.

Cllr Barbara Jones, CCBC Cabinet Member for Education added, “We would like to assure the whole community that all appropriate steps will be taken to safeguard pupils and this will remain our key priority.”

“Everyone involved in reopening schools has been working extremely hard and we are sure that the children attending school for the 3 weeks will have an enjoyable, productive and worthwhile experience that will help as many as possible to check in, catch up and prepare for September.”

The Welsh Government has published guidance to support schools, as well as further and higher education institutions. This includes information on managing their facilities and logistical arrangements, including buildings, resources, cleaning and transport.

Next week, for Years 3 and 4 there will be ‘Cardiff City’ resources provided as well as an alternative themed series of activities for children who might not choose the CCFC activities.

Both of these sets of activities will be shared via Teams but if any parents are not able to access Teams, they can email teachers for the alternative pack. Staff will continue to set a small number of tasks on My Maths and Purple Mash through the week.

Dear Parents / Carers

Our reopening plan is now available. The last two pages contain a ‘quick check’ section that will hopefully contain answers to most questions about the reopening. I’ve put key words or important information in bold type in that section.

Unfortunately, some of the information that we were expecting from CCBC has not yet been forthcoming, therefore the plan contains as much as we know and details our current plans as they stand but could be subject to change if any of the expected support on which we have based our ideas is not confirmed in the next week. Also, in the last day there have been suggestions that the last week of term (week beginning 20^th July) might not take place. We are expecting a Local Authority decision on this that they are co-ordinating with the other Authorities in Wales. At the moment there seem to be changes on an almost daily basis and this makes any kind of forward planning very challenging. I will try to keep you as informed as possible.

The plan is based on advice and guidance we have received from the Welsh Government and specific departments in CCBC such as Health and Safety and Education. This is a time of great uncertainty for everyone and these last few months have been entirely uncharted territory for all of us and the months to come will be the same. The bottom line for the plan is that we will try to keep everyone- children, parents and staff, as safe as we possibly can.

As teachers work towards the preparation for the reopening their time available to interact online will be restricted.

In order to help any children who might be nervous about returning to school, we will be filming a video walk through of the schools next week when they should look more or less as they will on the first day back. We will put this video on the school blogs so that anyone worried can see what our schools look like now with the new signage and classroom organisation.

As detailed in the plan, teachers will be contacting you in the coming week.

Reopening Plan V6 Parents

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe.

Mr R Cook

Dear Parents,

The NHS has asked for this message to be sent out to you.

Undiagnosed Type 1 diabetes in children requires urgent medical attention

If your child has ANY of the main symptoms of Type 1 diabetes please make an urgent GP appointment or contact the Out of Hours service. The main symptoms are known as the 4 Ts – Thirst, Toilet, Tiredness, Thinner. If you notice your child is thirsty or using the toilet more frequently, is always feeling tired, or has lost weight recently, seek immediate medical advice.

NHS services are very well equipped to look after children safely if they are unwell. Please do not delay seeking medical advice because of Covid-19.

There is more information available here:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/in_your_area/wales/campaigning/know-type-1—wales

Letter to parents & carers