IMPORTANT Return to School Information
I hope you are all keeping well during these difficult times. Thank you to all of you who have been engaging in the home learning tasks and also thank you for the kind words and messages many of you have shared with us in relation to the work that staff have been undertaking, and I do fully agree, they have been amazing.
Following the Minister for Education’s announcement that schools are to open we have been busy getting the school ready for the partial return of your child/ren after June 29th.
Welsh government and the local authority have provided detailed advice and guidance for the safe return of pupils and staff and we are following this advice fully.
Due to the present conditions school will be a very different place from before the ‘lock down.’ In order to assist you in making a decision on whether you wish your child to attend I have listed a number of different principles that we will need to adhere to. These are accurate at present but maybe subject to change.
While we would encourage you to send your child to school, there is no requirement for you to do so and we will fully support whichever decision you choose to make.
Alongside pupils partial return to school we will also be running a school hub providing emergency childcare for pupils of key workers as well as vulnerable pupils. For those of you wishing to make use of the hub provision you will need to apply via the council’s website and a place will be provided if you meet the local authorities’ criteria. The requirement to run the hub does impact on the school’s capacity for teaching time as it will need both classroom space and staff to supervise. At present we have 30 pupils attending the hub so we need to ensure we have 4 classrooms available. Staff pupil ratios of 1-8 will need to be maintained and if numbers go up we will need to provide further classroom space and staff. Please do consider, when applying for a hub place that it is for emergency child care and no other option is available to yourself.
In undertaking the partial re-opening of our school;
1. Pupils will be taught in groups of a maximum of 8 pupils.
2. Where possible these groups of up to 8 will be consistent throughout the 4 weeks.
3. Where possible teachers/ learning support staff will teach/support the same groups over the 4 weeks.
4. Pupils will all have access to two full day sessions over the 4 weeks.
5. There is a maximum of a third of the school allowed in at any one time but this will need to be built up to and is dependent upon staff availability, classroom space and hub constraints.
6. As nursery pupils are not of statutory school age, nursery pupils will not attend over the four week period.
7. Social distancing of 2 meters will be adhered to within the class setting and around the school by all, wherever possible, however we cannot guarantee this will be possible at all times for all pupils.
8. There will be staggered start and end times and staggered play and dinner breaks.
9. The school will not be open for teaching on Wednesday to provide time for deep cleaning and PPA for teaching staff, it will however still be open for emergency hub provision.
10. School policies will be adapted to take into account health and safety guidelines for keeping all persons safe from Covid 19.
11. The school will run the hub for emergency childcare and vulnerable provision on a daily basis.
12. The hub will run from 8am-5pm Monday – Friday
13. The hub is to be separate from the children’s teaching groups to reduce the possibility of cross contamination.
14. On days when hub children attend their teaching groups they cannot access the hub provision either before the teaching day starts or after the teaching day ends.
15. The school timings will be 8.50- 3.15 for pupils in the Foundation Phase and 9am-3.30pm for pupils in KS2
16. All children will bring a packed lunch. If a child is eligible for free school meals a packed lunch will be provided. All rubbish from packed lunches is to go home with the child.
17. Dinners will be eaten in the class setting to minimise contact between the different teaching groups
18. Pupils will be constantly reminded to wash hands and appropriate cleaning facilities will be provided along with hand sanitisers.
19. The school will operate a one way system for dropping off and collecting pupils as well as for pupils use during the day.
20. A detailed risk assessment will be completed and signed off by the health and safety committee, the chair of governors and the LA by Friday 19th June.
It is important that we know which children will definitely be attending. Thank you to those parents / carers who have informed us of their decision on the parentmail survey. If you have not let the school know, please can you email admin.pontyclunprimary@rctcbc.gov.uk with your child(rens) name(s). If you DO NOT respond we will assume that your child will NOT be attending during the 4 week period and will NOT be allocated a teaching group.
We also need to know if you will be applying for a place in the hub as those numbers will impact on the schools teaching provision. Again, please email this information to admin.pontyclunprimary@rctcbc.gov.uk . Please note that you will still have to apply for your hub place in the usual way.
Please can you respond by Friday 19th June 2020.
We have attached a proposed teaching plan for your information. We will notify you of individual teaching groups in due course.
I do not envy your decision making and I am sure you will have many more questions. We are presently working on a FAQ’s sheet to be sent out but for us, like yourselves, your child safety is always our main priority.
Take care and stay safe
Pontyclun Primary