2^nd April, 2020

Dear all Pupils, Parents and Carers

As we near the end of the second week of a countrywide lockdown, of school closures and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis that has befallen the world, I thought it would be a good time to write to you all and share some important information.

As the whole world it seems, goes into lockdown and extreme social distancing is practiced, it’s with great admiration that as I drive into Prestatyn and home each day and observe that the call from the government to stay at home unless it is absolutely essential, is clearly being heeded. The young people, our pupils, are safe in their homes helping the national effort to reduce the spread of the virus. This will go a long way in helping us all turn the tide on this disease, reduce the spread, protect the vulnerable and reduce demand on our NHS services.

As I am sure you are aware, the school has stayed open over the past few weeks as we continue to educate and look after the children of keyworker staff such as parents who work for the NHS or other emergency services. We have also opened our doors to other pupils who have been identified by the pastoral teams as needing additional support during this very trying and difficult period. We intend to remain open until this crisis is over, we will still offer this support until society and our daily lives get back to “normal”. Whilst open, we operate a very strict hygiene policy to reduce the chance of any infection or spread of the disease. It cannot be over emphasised how important social distancing and hand washing is in school and also in our daily lives.

I am delighted to announce that Prestatyn High school will continue to offer this provision for pupils still attending school over the period of Easter break (excluding both bank holidays).

Please contact the school if you qualify but have not yet sent your child to school over the closure period and you would like to utilise this provision. There is a list of keyworker staff on the Denbighshire website and guidance to whether or not a parent qualifies to send their child to school; if in doubt please phone PHS and we will answer any of your questions. Please remember the advice from the Government that pupils are only to attend school if there are no other options. This will once again reduce any potential spread of the virus.

An essential way for our pupils to remain focused and to continue to develop and progress is to access and complete work set by their teachers. This has happened in two stages to allow PHS teachers the time to develop systems and procedures to set work. The first stage was to immediately upload work to the website so that pupils could gain access to some materials in the first week. The second stage and something that will continue for the duration of the closure, is to use Microsoft Teams to directly send work to pupils.

We will continue to monitor the uptake of this system, refine it where needed and improve the service we give to our pupils. If there are any suggestions you wish to make please contact the school through the normal channels so that we can act on this feedback. All parents and carers must ensure that pupils are engaging with this work to keep their minds active and ready to return to school whenever this may be.

We will ensure that over the closure period, we are in contact with all pupils, either by online methods or by direct phone calls. As a school, we want to make sure all pupils know that we are here for them.

Another key area the school has been focused upon is helping the community. We have collected food and provided vast amounts of produce to local food banks because we know that during this difficult period many people will lose income or jobs. We are also collecting donations from staff, local businesses and members of the community to provide vital supplies for the parts of Prestatyn worst hit by this crisis. The impact of COVID-19 is significant not only on health, but also financially. The school has already provided hundreds of pounds for the local food banks and community. We have added a facility to parent pay if anyone wishes or is able to make a contribution.

The school is also using its twitter feed to provide links for mental health charities and other support groups so that those people in our community that are feeling anxious can access the support that they need.

This change to all of our lives is unprecedented, surreal and something only a month ago we would have dismissed as fiction. In a very uncertain time one thing is for sure, this will come to an end and we will only get through this as a community by working together for the good of all. Everyone involved at the High School are so proud to be part of a community that is working together, helping each other and supporting the most vulnerable in society.

Please continue to stay home and please stay safe.

With kind regards

Neil Foley – B.Sc. MA.
Pennaeth Headteacher

Download the letter – Student work March 2020 (1)

As a school we maintain our commitment to ensuring that pupils have access to high quality meaningful work for whatever length of time the school is closed. Initially we have done this through the classroom cloud on the school website. But, having listened to feedback and through consultation with various stakeholders, we have decided to move our working arrangements to a different system.

Over the next week we will be migrating to using Outlook 365 and specifically Microsoft Teams for the setting and return of work. All pupils have access to this via their school email address. Pupils were given instructions on how to access their school emails in the last week of school. This system has been designed for pupils to be able to be set and return work in an easy and straightforward way. We believe this will significantly enhance their provision during this challenging time. Microsoft Teams is available via the web browser version of their Outlook email, but is also available as a desktop app for Windows devices, and on the app store for both Android and Apple devices.

Pupils will be added to a ‘team’ for each of their subjects. Work will be set as assignments by the pupil’s class teacher. These assignments will have tasks and work to complete and return to the teacher. This will enable their class teachers to monitor the students’ progress. There is a facility to chat within the team so pupils can ask for help, or indeed help one another. There is also the facility to add more extended work through the OneNote system which some teachers will utilise. It is important that pupils check their Outlook emails regularly for updates and work.

We must urge that during this extended school closure that pupils are completing work so that they do not fall behind with their progress. We hope that this system will make it easier to do this.

This system will take a little time to be fully operational, but we anticipate that all work will be set using this system by Friday 3^rd April. We ask that all students use the system responsibly and follow the school’s ICT code of conduct at all times.

FAQs
How does my son/daughter log in to their school Outlook?
Visit the school website www.prestatynhigh.co.uk and click on the school email button. The email address is the year the pupil started at PHS, followed by their initial and surname. E.g. if Joe Bloggs was in year 7 it would be 19jbloggs@prestatynhighstudents.co.uk the password is the same as the one to log in to the school computers. Teams can be accessed by pushing the 9 dots in the top left corner.

How often will my son/daughter be expected to complete work?
It is expected that each subject will set at least one piece of work per week, with more work from those subjects they have more lessons in (e.g. Maths, English, science)

How is the work handed in?
Work can be completed on a word document and pupils hand it in via teams. A handy video guide is here: https://youtu.be/O6XcIVR6hH4

What if we have trouble logging in or submitting work?
Please contact out ICT support team by emailing support@prestatynhigh.co.uk

We thank you for your support in this difficult time, and hope to continue utilising this platform once school returns.

Thank you, for all of your hard work on your Welsh Baccalaureate coursework over the last two years. A decision has now been made by the WJEC that learners will no longer have to continue working on their Individual Project. We appreciate your ongoing patience and understanding during this difficult time, and we will update you on decisions made regarding the process of grading learners as soon as we can.

Good afternoon all,

As promised, we’re getting back in touch with you all to share news of our free support site for parents and carers looking after children during the school closures.

Here, parents and carers can find free primary and secondary activities, tools and advice to support learning at home – including sample homeschool planners, primary reading and maths support, access to free eBooks at secondary, and much more.

In addition to this, we hope you’ve all had the opportunity to sign up for the free support we made available to schools earlier in the week. If not, you can access it, along with the latest information, on our webpages dedicated to supporting schools through coronavirus (Covid-19).

We’re working hard to provide a broad range of support, and will add to this bank of resources over the coming days as our teams develop more, and as we learn together with you, parents and students what type of support is most needed and useful.

To help keep us in touch with parents and carers during this time, please do ask your parent communities to follow us on Twitter at @pearsonparents, and on our Pearson Primary Facebook page. They can also sign up on the free support site to receive updates as more information and support becomes available.

As ever, my thoughts and best wishes to you all,

Sharon Hague
Senior Vice President, Schools

Coronavirus Update: Prestatyn High Provision

As I am sure you are now aware, we have been instructed to close to help slow down the spread of COVID-19. From Monday, 23^rd March our school will have a new purpose. It will help support those most in need, including people involved in the immediate response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

We will be open Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm, although this is subject to change. Any alterations made to the provision will be communicated with parents/carers. Pupils will be provided with learning and enrichment by school staff during these hours. We will provide breakfast and lunch for pupils attending this provision. Breakfast will be served 8-8.30am and lunch will be served 12.30-1.15pm. Pupils are not required to wear school uniform. However, pupils are still expected to follow our expectations of behaviour and our behaviour policy ‘Ready to Learn’.

Food will also be available for any of our pupils who are eligible for Free School Meals.

As per the Government’s advice, please only send your child to school if there is no safe alternative. This is the first principle of their guidance to prevent the spread of the virus.

Please continue to follow the official guidance from the Welsh Government, Public Health Wales and Denbighshire County Council on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and how to remain safe in the community.

Please continue to remind your children about hygiene, how to keep safe and to wash their hands regularly.

It’s a difficult time and we know you’re worried about the impact this might have on our community. It’s important we keep each other safe and follow the guidance we get from the government and health board.

Dowload the letter  – PHS COVID-19 provision

As you can imagine this is a challenging time for everyone and we are trying to facilitate childcare for key workers from next week. We have been asked by Denbighshire County Council to forward this link to all key workers potentially needing child care going forward. These include, NHS Staff, Armed Forces, Social Care Workers, Blue Light Services – proof of ID may be required.

THE LINK BELOW IS TO BE COMPLETED BY KEY WORKERS ONLY BY 12 NOON TODAY 

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Ug4_TzS3ZEGUCRtgHRR5kyP33WFzFhBAu_xZ0GJ0fSVURU9EWjRWVTlLNExQU1dPR0YxSU5GUUZIMC4u

Pupils who are eligible for free school meals but not intending to attend the provision are still able to have lunch at school, Monday to Friday served at 12.30pm. We will need advanced notice (by 10am) if you are intending to have lunch so we can make preparations. As per the Government’s advice, please only send your child to school if there is no safe alternative. This is the first principle of their guidance to prevent the spread of the virus.

Please contact the Main Office 01745 852312.

Please continue to follow the official guidance from the Welsh Government, Public Health Wales and Denbighshire County Council on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and how to remain safe in the community. 

Download the letter

Coronavirus Update: Prestatyn High Closure

As I am sure you are now aware, we have been instructed to close to help slow down the spread of COVID-19. This means that the last day of teaching will be Thursday 19^th March 2020. All staff will be still asked attend school on Friday 20^th, to finalise their already extensive preparations for online learning. This work will be updated regularly. All departments will provide appropriate work which will be accessible from the website. Details on how access and return work will be on the PHS website by the end of tomorrow.

Please continue to follow the official guidance from the Welsh Government, Public Health Wales and Denbighshire County Council on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and how to remain safe in the community.

From next week schools will have a new purpose. They will help support those most in need, including people involved in the immediate response to the COVID-19 outbreak. What that means in practice is yet to be decided but we will update the community via our twitter account and website.

The key areas that the government are looking at are:

• Supporting and safeguarding the vulnerable
• Ensuring the continuity of learning

The Welsh Government are looking in detail at how it can best support all those who benefit from free school meals and children with additional learning needs.

This will be a Denbighshire wide coordinated response and I will update all parents and carers when I have further information. Please check our website regularly. If any parent or carer works for the NHS, a blue light service or any other front-line occupation and they require their children to continue to be in school for childcare reasons, please email the school.

All examinations are now cancelled and we are awaiting clarification from Welsh Government, Qualifications Wales and the WJEC on how our pupils and students will gain their hard-earned qualifications. We will keep you up to date with any updates as we get them.

Due to the forced closure, we are unable to offer our pupils and students the planned Easter school programme of interventions, however all pupils and students can access exam materials via the school website.

All education ministers across the UK are meeting to discuss the ramifications and will be making further statements

Please continue to remind your children about hygiene, how to keep safe and to wash their hands regularly.

Ensure that your child has access to our website as we are currently uploading a full curriculum and pupil content for all year groups to complete whilst we are closed. Let us know if there are any issues by contacting websupport@prestatynhigh.co.uk

Parents will be alerted to when the school will reopen via the Denbighshire County Council website, School Comms/School Gateway and a post on our website/Twitter account.

Please consult the NHS if you want to know more about the symptoms of coronavirus. If you think you or your child may have the symptoms, use NHS 111 online if at all possible before calling 111.

It’s a difficult time and we know you’re worried about the impact this might have on our community. It’s important we keep each other safe and follow the guidance we get from the government and health board.

Thank you for your continued support.

Tomorrow will be the last day the school will be open, we will close to pupils at 3pm on Thursday. All pupils will be given a letter of information tomorrow. This will also be available on our website.

We are currently planning to keep school open until Friday afternoon for teaching staff to prepare remote learning materials.

Our Classroom Cloud will be populated with subject resources for pupils from Friday onwards.

Please find appended a statement by Kirsty Williams AM. It informs schools that they will need to shut to pupils as of Friday 20th March at the latest.

Welsh_Gov_Statement_School_Closure_Coronavirus

Coronavirus Update: Prestatyn High Guidance

As you are probably aware, the government’s guidance on the coronavirus has changed from the ‘contain’ phase to one of delaying the spread of the virus. We are getting in touch to let you know what the school is doing in light of this, and what we expect from all of you, to help make sure our school community keeps safe and calm during this difficult period. We’d like to reassure you that at Prestatyn High we’re taking all of the necessary steps to protect our community and are continuing to follow official guidance from the Welsh Government, Public Health Wales and Denbighshire County Council.

What is the current situation?
• The school remains open – this is the current official guidance we’ve been given.
• So far, all parts of the school are open and will be running as normal.
• All physical education will continue but will be limited to non-contact sports and activities. Where possible, they will take place in large spaces with limited equipment. All competitions and fixtures have been cancelled for an indefinite period.
• Pupils should attend unless they feel unwell – if your child has any of the following symptoms, they should remain at home for 14 days:
o a new, continuous cough and/or
o a high temperature
o If your child is unwell, report this to the school as you would normally

School trips abroad at the moment have been banned by the government. We will contact all parents whose children are involved in the following trips abroad:
• The MFL department France trip has been cancelled
• The PE department trip to Holland has been cancelled
• The Science trip to CERN is pending a decision
All events not directly linked with teaching have been cancelled. This means that, unfortunately, the Awards Evening and the 6th Form Taster Evening have been cancelled. Staff have cancelled all external meetings, where possible, along with visits and courses. All governors meetings have been postponed.

All examinations are still scheduled to run on the same dates.

We will keep you up to date with any changes to the current situation.

What we are doing to protect and support pupils and staff:
• We are reminding pupils and staff about hygiene and how to keep safe.
• We are supporting all pupils experiencing anxiety at this time.
• Staff and pupils are consistently reminded about the importance of washing hands and we communicate regularly about this virus.
• We have hand sanitiser located around the school and in offices.
• We have disconnected the open spout water fountains in school to reduce infection. The bottle filler water fountains are cleaned regularly and remain in use.

What we need pupils to do

• Wash hands often – with soap and water, especially when they arrive in school after using public transport, after visiting the toilet, after break, before eating food and before leaving school.
• Covering their nose and mouth if they cough or sneeze with a tissue, throwing the tissue in the bin.
• If they feel unwell, please stay at home.
• If they start feeling unwell during the day, inform a member of staff immediately.
• Avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with other people, especially if they are unwell.

What we need you to do

• Ensure that your child is healthy before sending him/her to school.
• If you have recently changed your contact details, please inform the school office as soon as possible via email, letter or telephone.
• Talk to your children about the coronavirus. It’s a scary time and we should make sure children feel supported.
• Ensure all children have appropriate equipment in school; sharing is not acceptable. Provide paper tissues in school bags.
• Come and collect your child straight away, if we ask you to (we will contact you if they become ill with either a high temperature or a new, continuous cough).
• Ensure that your child has access to our website as we are currently uploading a full curriculum and pupil content for all year groups to complete whilst absent. Let us know if there are any issues by contacting websupport@prestatynhigh.co.uk (so we can make sure we’re well prepared for remote learning if the school does need to close at some point).

What happens if the school has many staff absences?

• We will try our best to keep the school open if some staff members are unable to work. However, this may have an impact on the school day.  We will be operating in order to ensure the least disruption possible to our learners’ education, and will prioritise examination groups, if necessary.

What happens if the school has to close?

• We will only close if we are either officially advised to do so or we do not have enough staff to run the school. In either case, we will alert parents to the closure via the Denbighshire County Council website, School Comms/School Gateway and a post on our website/Twitter account.
• This will be the same method used in letting parents know when the school will be reopened.
• We plan to set work for pupils through the website. Our teachers are currently uploading work onto this site as a precautionary step. We will be prioritising examination groups.

Please keep in mind that we are only sending out this information to help the school community prepare. There are currently no plans to close.

If you have any questions about our response to this issue, please consult the school office. Please consult the NHS if you want to know more about the symptoms of coronavirus. If you think you or your child may have the symptoms, use NHS 111 online if at all possible before calling 111.

It’s a difficult time and we know you’re worried about the impact this might have on our community. It’s important we keep each other safe and follow the guidance we get from the government and health board.