Gwersyllt CP

I write this message to provide some clarity on the situation come the restart of school in September.

A few weeks ago we sent out a message from the Director of Education, Ian Roberts which mirrored the information from Welsh Government that the school will cease to provide childcare provision as of July 17th 2020.

https://wordpress.com/post/gwersylltcp.home.blog/1989

As the school will be returning to its primary needs of education from September (with the planning, preparation and phasing stage a critical part of this) there will be no provision for childcare in September.

What were initially planned to be training days will now be plan and prep days allowing the staff time to understand and put in place the Risk Assessment that has been drawn up- this includes protocols, logistics and the setting up of key areas. Not to give the staff this time would belittle a very important piece of an extremely integral part of the planning and preparation. From Thursday onwards, pupils will begin to return to school. In the second week, all staff will be working with half of their future classes, reintroducing and welcoming them to school and allowing the pupils, parents and staff to trial out the new runnings of the school from arrival to pick up and including staggered breaks, lunches and altered expectations. Without this part of the process we could not confidently say we will be ready for the return of all pupils by 9am Monday 14th September.

I appreciate this may cause some complications over those couple of weeks in regards to childcare and send my sympathies to those who have been asking over the past few days. Again, I can only point you to the link above and the phone number provided. However, the school finds itself in the position during those two weeks of readying itself, the staff and all its stakeholders for a very different running of a school at full capacity.

If the situation changes or we get an update from the LA of the Welsh Government on this then we will let you know as soon a possible.

* This message (and the link above) relates to the provision the school has been providing during the day in school not to wraparound/ breakfast club provision. The school will update parents on this when it is better placed to give information on times and the form it will take. On this matter I thank you for your patience.

Kind regards,

Mr J Moore

This Monday marks the first weekday without the Year 6’s of 19/20. Our first group of Year 6’s in the new Gwersyllt CP building- they will be a difficult act to to follow.

It has been a pleasure to to work alongside them for the 18 months as Headteacher of the school and I know their teachers have many fond memories of them. In what has been a very strange end to the academic year we wish them all the best moving on to their next step. I have mentioned to several of those that came in for the check up sessions that, when it is safe to do so, we will create the opportunity to meet up as a group one more time to say a fond farewell and get those shirts signed, a rites of passage every year 6 cohort rightly looks forward to.

I am sure they will go on to achieve many great things moving forward and it was nice to discuss individual pupils with the staff of the high schools they will be attending. Whichever high school is their next step, we wish them well.

We had hoped to send this message out with a final video wishing the pupils good luck. The video will be here soon (just a few contribution to add) and will be added to this post.

For now:

All at Gwersyllt CP

It’s the final day of a very strange year, and all the staff would like to say thank you and we hope you have a great summer break. We look forward immensely to seeing everyone in September to kick off the same term. There will be a few tweaks and changes to the school day, but I’m sure it will still have the same Gwersyllt CP magic.

As you may know we said another farewell this week. On Wednesday, the school its pupils and staff said farewell to Mrs Julie Walker, such a huge part of the school for so long. Mrs Walker has been through many iterations of Gwersyllt CP and been at the front of several of those as Assistant Headteacher. She is a huge part of the reason the school is in its current guise and there will be huge hole left in her absence for quite some time. The school were able to put a small celebration of keyworkers and staff together to commemorate the many years she has spent with us. It didn’t come close to showing our appreciation of all her hard work but the lovely messages sent to us made it very clear how fondly everyone felt towards her. We wish her all the best as she travels up to start a new chapter in Scotland. In true Mrs Walker style, she requested money clubbed together go to charity. £90 went towards the NSPCC and Mrs Walker is now the proud owner of an adopted Barn Owl called Delyth. Fortunately, we were able to give her some gifts as she had a special birthday this week. Many gifts and a vegan cake were sent her way.

And finally, before we leave you for summer term, a huge well done to Kion Dobbins who was awarded this years Olivia Wood shiny happy award. A very effusive write up was put forward by Mrs McHugh. One look at the picture below makes it very clear why Kion was a front runner for this award.

Thursday, 16th July 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This year has certainly been a huge challenge! Both at home and in school we have all had to navigate through some very uncertain and testing times.

I would like to say thank you very much to all parents and children for your patience, understanding and many kind and encouraging words over the past few months, it has truly helped us through. A big thank you those that came in over the past three weeks too. Everybody followed our new rules and made the long awaited return a very successful one. It was certainly good to see children back in Gwersyllt CP’s classrooms!

Where next?

The Welsh Government have made an announcement saying that schools will be accommodating all pupils in September. Schools will be expected to be open to all pupils by Monday, September 14^th. They have provided schools with guidance and have told us that there will be a period of flexibility and time will be allowed time, up to a fortnight, for planning and reorganisation.

September 1^st and 2^nd were training days and we will be using them to plan and prepare the school to ensure a safe, purposeful, organised and nurturing return for pupils. Many of our children will have been at home for 20 weeks so on Thursday 3^rd September we will begin a phased entry for the children to ease them in gently and get them used to the new rules and systems in place. There will be many aspects of school that will have altered slightly. These few days, leading up to the 14^th September, will allow all pupils and staff to trial and understand the systems in preparation for the opening to all pupils.

Septembers Plan

We plan to phase the pupils in as per the table below- We plan to start on the first week with Reception and Year 3 groups thus allowing them extra transition to full time education and Key Stage 2.

You will receive a text by 4pm Thursday 16^th July 2020 to clarify which dates your child will be in. If you have not received a text by this time please contact the school on Friday 17^th July.

What Time and Entrance?

We still have to adhere to many new rules including social distancing (particularly between different classes, staff and parents) so during the Autumn term there will be new staggered drop off and pick up times. It is absolutely essential that you do not arrive early or late but on time to avoid too many parents and children on the school premises at one time. We have decided to split the start of the day into 2 windows allowing parents time to drop off all siblings if required and leave the site (we hope that 2 windows won’t mean parents are having to wait for long periods of time to drop off with different classes). We have tried to allow for as many entrance points as possible. Please help us by allowing for social distancing at all times on the site.

Please see the tables below for start/finish times and entrances.

There will be members of staff on the yard and signage on the entrances during the first two weeks to help parents and pupils find their way to the classes initially.

When they return pupils will be expected to wear school uniform.

We will provide a letter regarding the finer details including school meals etc as soon as we return in September.

I would like to thank you for your support and patience over this difficult time and am really looking forward to welcoming everyone back in September, we have really missed the children! I hope you all manage to have a safe and enjoyable summer and we will be here waiting for you in September.

Many thanks,

Mr J Moore and all the staff at Gwersyllt CP

Please find a printable versions of this here –> Letter to parents 2

Welcome to our family at Gwersyllt CP

Please find attached a video for a tour around Barn Owls (led by Mrs McHugh)

Apologies for the low sound on some bits of the video

we are trying to get the video of a story read by the Barn Owls teacher Mrs Hughes up (a few technical issues)

Dear Parents/Guardians,

After much communication and work behind the scenes I am finally able to give you information about what the class group day will look like. I will try to break it down as much as I can.

Breakfast club and Keyworker groups

The school can offer this for Keyworker pupils only. The school will be open from 7.30am onwards for pupils of Keyworkers, normal pricing applies, sadly no breakfast can be offered for the next three weeks. Please enter via the front gate and school reception door and ring the playmates bell. Unfortunately, we will not be able to allow parents in to the school at this point so a member of staff will come and collect your child from reception. We will not have the gate to home bargains open over the next three weeks to prevent entry to the yards where pupils will line up at staggered times.

Keyworker pupils must arrive prior to 8.50am otherwise they will not be able to access the provision until 9.45am (when the last pupils has arrived for class groups).

Arrival of class groups

You will have been sent a time for your child to have arrived- please ensure that you (1 adult per child please) arrive for that time as there will be a short 10 minute window to allow your child to access their group. If this window is missed, your child will not be able to access the group until 9.45am (when the last pupils has arrived for class groups).

On arrival, you will see signage tied to the fence that runs parallel to the pavement. This signage will indicate the 2m distance that you will be asked to queue with your child. When it is time for your child to enter, their class teacher will come on to the yard ready to line them up. I will be present to mark their attendance and let the children through the front gates one at a time to their teacher. Spots have been sprayed onto the yard floors to allow the pupils to line up within a 2m distance. Your child’s teacher will then lead them into class prior to the next group’s arrival.

The school day

The school day will be spent with their class teacher either in the classroom or accessing outside activities (again with their group and teacher). At no point will your child mix with another group. These sessions will focus on wellbeing and ‘checking in’ and will be individual to the needs of the pupil/group.

If you can no longer attend please contact the school as soon as possible to let us know.

Toileting

Each class has been allocated their own toilets. There will be no more than one pupil in the toilet at a time and this will be monitored by the class teacher and adults around the school.

Lunch

Currently, as the Local Authority have yet to decide if they are offering the choice of dinners, we are asking ALL pupils to bring their own lunch in, this will go straight into class with them (pupils will not be using the lockers). Lunch will be taken in the class for 30 minutes and overseen by the MDSA at the class doorway. FSM pupils will also be required to bring in their own lunch due to the voucher/direct debit scheme.

Pupils can also bring their own snack and water (water fountains will be out of action).

Clothing

There is no requirement for the pupils to wear school uniform. The priority is for pupils to wear fresh clothes for each of the three days that they are present. Wherever possible doors and windows in the classroom will be open so please ensure pupils are dressed appropriately for this.

Resources

We kindly ask that pupils do not bring in any resources (with the exception of their packed lunch). The school will supply all they need for the 3 days.

Pick up

As with arrival it is hugely important adult’s arrive for pick up at the time given. If the time slot is missed the pupil will not be available for pick up until all pupils have left. The teacher will bring out their class group and line them up on the yard ready for pick up. I will be present to ensure pupils are sent to the parents one at a time in the order of the queue outside the school. Again, we ask that parents queue up next to the 2m signs the school have laid out. I am confident that the queue will go down quickly.

Keyworker pick up

We ask that keyworker parents pick up their pupils from 2.45pm onwards and not before to allow class groups to leave at the staggered times. IF you require your child to stay past 3.10pm please contact Mrs L Radhi to make arrangements. Currently, we can only offer this to Keyworker pupils.

Online provision

The school will continue to provide online provision for pupils. However, teachers will not be available all of the week due to their teaching commitment and providing Keyworker cover. Work will be updated weekly for your child.

Unfortunately, we can no longer offer hard copy packs.

I hope this has answered many questions and assures you that the process are in place to best mitigate any concerns and anxieties you, your child and the staff may have.

Symptoms

If your child is displaying any symptoms, please do not bring them into school. A pupils who starts displaying symptoms will be placed into an isolation area and looked after at a distance by a member of staff. They will be sent home as soon as possible.

Please inform the school if a suspected case is confirmed as COVID-19 and follow current government guidance.

And finally…..

We will endeavour to text all parents the class their child will be attending in the first week of July. The teachers have been working hard to create the class lists alongside the task of preparing for the reopening of school.

For those we will see over the next few weeks, we are looking forward to it immensely. For those we won’t, stay safe and we will hopefully see you in September.