Dear Parents / Carers,

Firstly, I would like to thank you all for your support in following Public Health Wales guidelines and your cooperation in collecting children from school if they become unwell. Following the governments address yesterday, the advice from health states that anyone with a high temperature (above 37.7 degrees) or a new persistent cough should self-isolate for 14 days. In addition to this, anyone who lives with that person should also self-isolate for 14 days. I would kindly ask that you follow this for the well-being of all pupils and staff.

Please refer to PUBLIC HEALTH WALES https://phw.nhs.wales for the latest updates.

Staff are working tirelessly to ensure that there will be continued learning provision for your children in the event of school closures and are setting up online resources through Hwb and the school website class pages. There will be more information on this shortly. I would like to thank staff for their efforts in difficult circumstances in keeping school life as normal as possible for the children.

I have spoken with many of you on the gate and in emails and tried to answer as best as I can any worries or concerns you may have. The school’s position is to look to the guidance of Public Health Wales for advice and this updates on a daily basis. That said, you have to do what you think is right for your own families and your own situation and I respect any decision you make about self-isolation, particularly if you have medical vulnerabilities within your homes.

We are already implementing a number of additional measures to minimize the risk of Coronavirus spreading.

Handwashing

Children are washing their hands on a regular basis throughout the school day. Children continue to use the same soap for washing their hands that we have used for a number of years and we are continually checking our stocks of soap, paper towels to ensure we have enough at all times. However, if you wish to provide hand cream for your child if they are suffering with dry or cracked skin, please feel free to send this in to school clearly labelled with your child’s name and class.

Restricted access to the school site

We have restricted access to the school to essential visitors only to reduce the footfall. If you need to contact us please ring the school office on 029 2020767050 or email us at lakesideprimary@cardiff.gov.uk

Use of the school halls

We will not be holding assemblies in the halls until further notice to reduce the number of children sitting together in one place at any one time.

Cleaning procedures

We will continue to carry out increased cleaning procedures throughout the school on a daily basis.

Home learning

Should school closures be enforced, we now have plans in place to provide home learning activities/tasks through the school website and Google classrooms. Separate information will be sent home with your child on this.

We appreciate these are very troubling times and you may feel uneasy about continuing to send your children to school when the government has asked people generally to avoid gatherings and crowded places. If anything changes relating to any of the above information, or we receive any new updates, we will, of course, let everyone know but until then we have our continuity plans in place and it is business as usual.

Supporting the Lakeside Community

We have decided (with the aid of the PTA), to ask for any donations of the following or similar items to help those families who are vulnerable especially at this time to provide for their children.

Items which we think would be well received are the following:

Please bring any items you can spare into the main office where we will gather and deliver to families at the end of the week/ beginning of next week.

Finally, please look after each other in the coming days and weeks. Thank carefully about who is in our Lakeside Community that may need support and help.

Best wishes,

Rachel Mitchell