Emrys ap Iwan

Arrangements for September

As you are aware, the Minister for Education in Wales has announced the full reopening of schools in September.  This means that we are currently working on arrangements to ensure that all learners can return safely and productively to school.  The following is an outline of the plans to date and we will update you if there are any changes at the end of the summer holidays before term starts.

This meets the minister’s aspiration that all learners have returned to school by Monday 14^th September 2020.  Clearly arrangements will be reviewed throughout this period of reopening.

How will learners be organised?

Learners are going to be working predominantly in their year groups, with minimal contact in school with learners from other year groups. This means that each Year Group will be located in their own block of classrooms in the school. Teachers will move between year groups, moving from classroom to classroom, allowing learners to access their subject specialist teaching, minimising the movement of students around the school.

Some learners, particularly those in years 10, 11 and post 16 will have access to specialist teaching rooms such as Science labs for some of their lessons. We will only be permitting one-year group into each of these areas at a time. The blocks of classrooms for each year group are shown below

Learners accessing Additional Learning Needs or other support areas

A timetable is being prepared for those learners who have access to any additional support and this will be communicated with the individual learners upon their return.

Will my child be able to get school meals?

This is proving a complex issue at present and, whilst we are clear that we can keep year groups separate at these times and have appropriate indoor and outdoor access, there are still logistics in terms of providing food, which we need to work through. As soon as we are able to get more clarity on this area of our provision, we will communicate this with you.

Preparedness for Learning

During this period we will be expecting the same high standards from our learners as always.  It is also essential that all learners bring their own equipment to school and are prepared for learning.

As part of our resumption of normality, we will be expecting all learners to return in full uniform. We feel this is important in terms of everyone feeling part of our school community again and it is following government guidance.

Due to the current restrictions, we cannot make the water fountains in school available. It will therefore be important that learners bring water with them.

Uniform

Learners will be in full uniform from the start of the autumn term. As a reminder, learners need to follow the school’s uniform code.

• Plain grey school wear trousers (no jeans, skin-tight trousers or leggings)
• Grey granite stitch-down knife-pleat skirt * specific to uniform suppliers (girls may wear the trousers if they opt to)
• White collared school wear shirt/blouse which buttons to the neck
• School tie worn correctly (to the neck)
• Plain black shoes which can be polished
• Plain black accessories such as belts and hair bands
• Tights – black or grey
• Socks – black, grey or white

We ask for parental support in ensuring that learners look smart and acceptable for school. As a reminder, the rules around jewellery, hair, nails and make-up are based around a common-sense approach that would generally be acceptable in most work places:

• Wearing jewellery is discouraged for safety reasons. With this in mind, a single stud earring in each ear is acceptable but dangling earrings and large rings are not allowed. Facial piercings are not allowed.
• We do allow hair styles and make-up in moderation. The simple rule that we apply is that hair colour and style and make-up should look natural. Anything to excess will need to be removed or changed.
• Excessively long or coloured nails are impractical for some of the tasks that learners carry out at school and are therefore not acceptable. Learners will be asked to remove them for this reason.

Changes to School Uniform Grants

There have been changes to school uniform grants. Full details and the link to apply for the grant are available on the uniform section of the school website.