Dear Parents and Carers

In line with Welsh Government guidance, all our Foundation Phase learners from Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will be able to return to school from Tuesday 23rd February onwards. Unfortunately, all our other pupils from Years 3 to Year 6 will continue to access their learning from home.

• Tuesday 23^rd February            - Start day for Nursery
• Wednesday  24^th February     - Start day for Reception
• Thursday 25^th February          - Start day for Year 1
• Friday 26th February              - Start day for Year 2

We are going to be staggering the start times as we did previously. The times are as follows:

Please note all Foundation Phase pupils to continue to enter from either St Mark’s gate or North Road entrance only. All children should bring a healthy packed lunch and a drink.

Parents and Carers will also need to follow appropriate measures during drop-off and collection times, including the correct wearing of face coverings and adhering to social distancing measures, both at the gates for drop off and on site for collection.   If you are exempt from wearing face coverings on medical grounds then we can make alternative collection arrangements.

The Welsh Government information states that the control measures we have adopted in school remain appropriate, despite new variants of the virus. The Local Authority continue to review control measures regularly, in line with Welsh Government guidance and we are taking every precaution we can to keep the children and staff safe

Families are reminded that under no circumstances should learners attend school if they:

• feel unwell, have any of the three identified COVID-19 symptoms (a new continuous cough, a high temperature or loss of taste and/or smell) or they have tested positive to COVID-19 in the past 14 days
• live in a household with someone who has symptoms of COVID-19 or has tested positive to COVID-19 in the past 14 days

Outside of school grounds and out of school hours it remains important that all staff, children and their families continue to stay at home as much as possible and limit their contact with others, ensuring that national prevention measures are followed. In her recent message to parents and carers the Education Minister reinforced the need to avoid “play dates, birthday parties with members outside the immediate family and no sleepovers for the time being”. In order to protect our whole school community, it is vital that we all continue to follow this guidance. Please be aware if your child also attends another setting, that the latest local authority advice is that pupils do not mix or cross bubbles and attend only one setting rather than several.

Welsh Government will be looking very carefully at the number of Covid positive cases in our community once schools start to re-open. If rates remain low then they will be keen to get our older children back in to school in the coming weeks. We would love to have all our children from Years 3 to 6 back in school as well so please continue to do everything you can to minimise transmission risks and hopefully this can happen sooner rather than later.

I appreciate it has been a tough few weeks trying to juggle learning and working from home. I would like to thank you for all your hard work in supporting the children to continue to learn at home and also for the appreciation you have shown to the staff during this time. It has made a tough job all the easier knowing that we have your on-going support.

We are really looking forward to welcoming the Foundation Phase children back to school. In the meantime, do not hesitate to contact us if there is anything you are unsure about or you just need a chat!

Stay safe

Cofion cynnes

Alex Riordan