Dear all parents and carers
We come to the end of what has been a very challenging 18 months for education, for our community and for the world. As a whole school community, we have done amazingly well to contain the virus, continue to educate our young people and stay safe. Whilst other schools have sent multiple year groups home multiple times, we have only lost a small amount of learning time. Indeed, it was only until two weeks ago that TTP instructed us for the first time to send an entire year group home to isolate due to a positive case in Year 10. We are exceptionally proud of what we have all achieved over the past 18 months and I would like to thank all staff, governors, parents and carers for their support over these difficult times. Our goal was to minimise the impact of the pandemic on our learners education and with your support we have done this exceptionally well.
We now turn our focus towards September and the new academic year. A year we hold lots of hope for, a year of normality, a year of normal systems in school, a year of school trips and school clubs restarting. We will try to return to normal as soon as possible in the new term including uniform standards, behavioural expectations, attendance and also what we expect in lessons through teaching and learning. We want to make a fast start next year so that any missing gaps in education due to COVID-19 over the last few months will be bridged immediately. We will have a single focus which is getting back to great education and preparing our examination classes for their GCSEs and A-levels.
We have received the operational guidance from Welsh government and PHW for our return in September 2021. Many of the arrangements will remain the same when we return after the summer with some significant changes. The main changes are;
- • Pupils will not be required to wear facemasks in classrooms
- • Facemasks must still be worn in communal areas for the first two weeks until the school has had the chance to review the risk of infection locally and taken advice from PHW
- • The requirement to bubble classes into contact groups is removed from September
- • Those pupils who have signed up for testing are asked to complete an LFD COVID-19 test before they return to school. Pupils are not however, expected to test throughout the summer break.
Most other COVID-19 rules and measures will stay in place until we hear otherwise. As soon as we can, we will change our risk assessment so that we can remove other COVID-19 measures. If we receive further guidance over the summer, I will write to you over the holiday to inform you of any additional changes for September.
All teachers and staff return back on the 1st September in order to carefully prepare for the term ahead. I look forward to seeing all of our pupils on Friday 3rd September so we can make a great start to what promises to be a great year.
I wish you a very pleasant summer break and I hope you have a restful and safe holiday ready for a new start in September.
Best wishes
Neil Foley - B.Sc. MA.
Pennaeth Headteacher