Happy Friday everybody and a happy end of term to you all! We have nearly made it to the end of the year! What another interesting year it has been! I would just like to say a very big “thank you” to everyone for your support and understanding this year! It hasn’t been an easy year but you’ve been fantastic! Thank you! I’d also like to say a big “thank you” to all staff as they have worked exceptionally hard in difficult circumstances too, thank you.
Good luck and best wishes to everyone who will be leaving us this year, all of us here at school wish you all the very best for the future! It’s been a pleasure having you at Abercarn Primary!
On behalf of everyone here at school I hope you everyone has a lovely summer break! Please have a nice relax and spend some time together as a family! Enjoy the summer whatever you are doing and fingers crossed for some good weather! Stay safe and take care!
Please read the provisional September 2021 plan below, apologies for the length!
September
2021 – PLEASE READ
I know everyone wants to know what school will be like from September 2021
onwards, I do too! We still have no further guidance from Welsh
Government. Headteachers are anticipating an announcement next week but nothing
yet.
The information below is what I know we will need to do as a result of what
we’ve been told so far although some things will need to be confirmed next
week. Please read the information carefully and if you need clarification,
please contact us on Monday or Tuesday. I will resend this with all confirmed
details next week.
When I have exact details and clarification from Welsh Government, I will
send out guidance both as a paper copy and on our social media sites / website
etc. This may be Wednesday or Thursday next week (or could be later). Please
look out for it!
I believe it is important we move forward and put in place measures to support
school life returning to how it used to be whilst ensuring we are keeping safe
and living with the virus. It is important to build on the things that were
successful and take them forward to make our school even better. We must do
what is right for OUR school in OUR community (it may be different to the
school down the road but that doesn’t mean different schools are doing things
wrong). Things may need to change as we move through this year either in
response to increased cases or to improve even further. Whatever happens
we must follow our risk assessment and keep everyone safe. We have come a long
way during the last 16 months and generally done really well so let’s continue
this success! I know the routines below will not please everyone, I am trying
to ensure we have the best of everything whilst keeping our pupils, staff and
community as safe as possible. Please bear with us for the first few weeks.
Whatever is announced the measures below will be in line with guidance and our
risk assessment.
1:
We will start school on Thursday 2nd September 2021. Nursery start on a
staggered intake and have been informed of their day to attend. This is usual
practice. Some schools in Wales will be taking 2nd September 2021 for the
Queens Jubilee, we will take this day later in the year and provide plenty of
notice to parents. Children will go straight to their new classroom.
2: The Welsh Government will change the law back to what it was pre-Covid for
school times. Our school must therefore start for everyone at 9am. Doors will
open at 8.50am. Everyone will be expected to be in the school building by
9.00am (at the latest). If you arrive after 9.00am you will need to enter
through the main entrance and receive a late mark. We will keep the one-way
system in place as much as possible to ease congestion as it will return to
being very busy. We will need to see how this works, we may want to change
times in the future but we will need to follow WG legislation to do this.
Please bear with us! The following measures are to ease congestion:
- Nursery walk to the main entrance and drop off at the Nursery gate. If you are early then wait on the yard until called.
- Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 parents / children, walk down the school drive, across the Astro turf and down to the classroom door for drop off.
- Year 3 and Year 6 parents / children, walk down the drive and enter through the Junior door (Year 3 classrooms are in Mrs Jones and Mr Yamamoto old classrooms, Year 6 are in Miss Jones old classroom).
- Year 4/5T and Year 4/5J walk down the drive and drop off at the classroom fire doors (Mrs Jones is now in Mr Perry old classroom).
- Year 4/5H walk down the school drive, across the Astro turf and down to the classroom door, Miss Hodges is now in the refurbished demountable classroom.
Dropping off older children at the gate has worked really well, please
continue with this as much as possible.
3: School will finish for everyone at 3.30pm (Nursery 11.30am). To ease
congestion, please do the following:
- Nursery (11.30am) walk to front yard and wait there. Do not queue along the windows as children are working in classrooms.
- Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 parents / children walk down the school drive, across the Astro turf and down to the classroom door, wait in the queue outside the classroom door, please queue rather than be all over the yard.
- Year 4/5T, Year 4/5J and Year 4/5H walk down the drive and wait towards the back of the school. Miss Hodges children will come out of Mrs. Jones classroom door.
- Year 3 and Year 6 will exit through the Junior Door. Please wait in the allocated area. Do not wait by the windows or on the pathway.
If anyone other than yourself is collecting your child, you must contact
the school and let us know.
4:
School bus times will remain unchanged.
5: Breakfast Club
will start week beginning 13th September 2021 at 8.10am, we will aim to keep
children in “year groups” to support any TTP for at least the Autumn Term.
Breakfast will be yoghurt and fruit for the moment. Children must be in
Breakfast Club by 8.35am at the very latest. Children are not accepted after
8.35am. Drop off breakfast club at the hall door. Enter through the pedestrian
gate (do not use the road), walk past the main entrance and around to the red
hall door through the Foundation Phase yard. Leave the way you came in. Do not
walk on the road as the road will be busy with staff traffic until 8.35am.
Breakfast club forms will need to be completed in September, do not do this
before September.
6: Face coverings and social distancing – To be confirmed
7: Hand sanitising stations – To be confirmed
8: To keep everyone safe during the colder winter months we will try to keep
children in contact groups as much as possible anyway but they will be larger
e.g. All Year 3 as one contact group, all Year 4/5 classes as one contact
group. We are hoping for the best of both worlds – children with friends but in
contact groups too. The winter period may be tricky so we need to keep
everybody as safe as possible and support TTP if we happen to have cases here
at school.
9: For any events that may take place we will try to hold them on a “class”
basis so we do not have a huge amount of adults on site especially during the
winter months. Some things may continue to be virtual but we will try and have
a good mix. This means parents / families can be involved in events but we are
living with the virus too. Parent evenings in early October will be virtual.
Parents on site and mass gatherings will be in line with any risk assessment in
place at the time. These details will be confirmed
10: We will still have staggered break times because this has worked well
(fewer accidents, more play opportunities and happier children), it also keeps
everyone safe and will help with TTP and any solution that may be required (if
any). We will gradually move to our “old” break times during the year. Children
will not be missing out, in fact they are gaining more time and gaining more
space to play etc. We may want to remain with this new plan going forward.
11: If we have a confirmed case(s) we will need to follow Public Health Wales
and Environmental Health guidance. This may involve isolation of groups
although as we are keeping larger contact groups it may not impact on the whole
school and hopefully keep disruption to a minimum. It may not involve any
isolation at all. We will follow advice at the time and keep you updated. These
details will be confirmed
12: Risk Assessment – Our Risk Assessment will be updated in conjunction with
our Health and Safety Officer and Local Authority to reflect the measures we
have in place and help keep everyone safe.
13: Office, absence and online forms, Please continue to limit physical contact
with the school office and remember only one person in the foyer at a time. All
forms for absence, change of address, consents and holiday requests etc are
online in the virtual office section of our school website.
14: Cashless School – Regardless of Covid-19 we were going to be moving to be a
completely cashless school anyway. Our School will remain cashless and
everything will be paid for online, dinners, trips, donations, fruit, snack etc
Further information will follow. Dinners will continue as we are doing now with
Upay. Please ensure accounts are topped up.
COVID-19 has not gone away and will always be with us. We may need to
reintroduce some measures if things worsen throughout the year or
alternatively, we may be able to relax restrictions even more. The above
measures are a massive relaxation of rules and much more like usual routines.
Thank you in advance for your continued support! It is really
appreciated.
End of Term / Start of Term
Term finishes on Wednesday 14th July 2021. It will finish at the usual staggered times. Term restarts on Thursday 2nd September 2021.
Nursery going to Reception
Nursery children will visit Reception class on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week and meet Mrs James and explore the classroom environment. We will make sure they have a lovely time and prepared for September!
Year 6 Leavers
The Prom is 6pm to 8pm on Monday 12th July at The Crown! Thank you to all staff, parents and the PTA for their help with organising the event!
It is nearly time for the all-anticipated leavers video. Here is a sneak peak of what is to come:
The leavers day videos will be live streamed at 1pm on Wednesday 14th July 2021, https://leaversday.abercarnprimary.com
School Dinners and Fruit
Hot food next week is WEEK 2. There will be NO Pizza on Tuesday, there will be sausages instead. Parents need to ensure Upay accounts are topped up. Hot food is available for all children. Fruit will be available free to all children. Children can bring in a healthy snack too. Lunch menus can be found at https://lunchmenus.abercarnprimary.com
Reporting
an absence
Please do not report absence / illness using SeeSaw as it may not be picked up
in time and we need to ensure everyone is safe. Please either:
1: Use the report an absence feature on MySchoolApp
2: Complete the form at https://absence.abercarnprimary.com/
3: Report an absence on our telephone line by pressing 1 and leaving a message.