Dear Parents / Carers,

Further to the Welsh Government Advice for schools that came out recently, our focus in the coming weeks will be taking appropriate measures to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our pupils, staff, parents and community and for the continuation of learning. To minimise the risk of exposure to COVID 19 and to ensure the school is a safe environment the following measures will be put in place from today until further guidance from the Welsh Government.

Schools are currently remaining open. If this changes, we will contact you via Parentmail, the School website, Facebook and Twitter. Please check these channels of communication regularly. As soon as we are aware of any changes we will let you know as promptly as we can; we are guided by Welsh Government in this situation.

Additional measures in school:

• Pupils, staff and visitors will be reminded of the importance of good hygiene techniques including regular and thorough hand washing
• We have employed one of the cleaners to work at lunchtime to replenish soaps, wipe down door handles, taps etc

School events:

• PTA ball is postponed until the autumn term

• Year 1 assembly will be postponed
• Reception class assembly will be postponed
• Nursery Easter bonnet parade will be cancelled
• Parents evening will be postponed. We are considering other methods of communicating your child's progress with you
• Individual school trips will be considered on a case by case basis and in accordance with Welsh Government guidance
• Dragonflies and after school clubs will run as usual as long as the school is open
• Sports fixtures will be cancelled
• Y5&6 PE at UWIC will be cancelled and activities done in school

Illness:

• Parents are asked to ensure that any child with a cough that is new or persistent should be kept at home to self-isolate for 7 days. This same request is also being made of staff
• In the event of staff sickness, you may find your child is taught by a different member of staff
• If pupils start to feel unwell at school and present with a new cough or a high temperature then we will contact parents immediately and await parent collection. We ask that you pick up your child promptly if asked to do so
• Visitors are being asked not to visit the school if they feel unwell in any way, or have been in contact with anyone who exhibits any symptoms

Should the UK Government enforce school closures our teaching staff are preparing to support learning from home using the website, HWB and Google classroom where appropriate. Staff are preparing topic / projects that children can work on at home if they would like to do some independent learning.

We will continue to follow and monitor advice from Public Health Wales. Current advice can be found through the link below:-

https://phw.nhs.wales/topics/latest-information-on-novel-coronavirus-covid-19/

Thank you for your support and understanding. I am aware that many parents may be anxious, please do not hesitate to contact me if you are worried.

As I am sure you will appreciate, we are currently dealing with a complex and rapidly changing situation. Our first priority will always be the health and safety of the pupils and staff in our school.

This is an entirely unprecedented situation and we are following official advice from the Government and PHW. This advice is being added to on a daily basis and we are monitoring and responding to that as it is published. This official advice will underpin all the actions we take.

Whilst I appreciate that there will be a wide range of different views about how we should be responding and what actions should be taken, I hope you will appreciate that the school is duty bound to follow the official advice from government.

The situation may well change over the coming days and weeks as the Government issues further advice and guidance. We will communicate these with you – please ensure that we have your up to date contact numbers / email address.

Best wishes

Rachel Mitchell