Greenhill Primary School
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Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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IMPORTANT LETTER - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
Fri 18 Dec 2020December 18th 2020
To parents/guardians of Greenhill pupils
I would like to begin this letter by thanking you all for your understanding, co-operation and patience over the past few months. It has been an unprecedented time for all of us, and while we are all looking forward to Christmas, I know most of us are concerned about what January will bring.
Wales will enter a national lockdown from December 28th. The Education Minister has announced the expectations of the Welsh Government for schools and I have shared an update from Mrs K Cole, CCBC’s Chief Education Officer, regarding the situation.
Monday January 4th and Tuesday January 5th will be Blended Learning for all pupils.
From Wednesday January 6th, Greenhill will open for the children of key workers and vulnerable children. Key workers need to apply to the Local Authority in order for their children to attend school on these days. This is via educationwelfare@caerphilly.gov.uk. Pupils will be expected to bring a packed lunch as lunch will not be provided on-site. Pupils in receipt of Free School Meals will have them delivered.
Blended Learning will continue for the rest of our pupils until Monday January 11th, when we plan to welcome all our pupils back on-site.
However, this is a very fluid and unpredictable situation, and therefore these arrangements are provisional; depending on the prevalence of the virus in the community, they may be subject to change.
As always, please contact us with any questions.
I wish you all an absolutely wonderful Christmas, and a happy, healthy new year.
Take care.
Lisa Jones
Headteacher
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Letter from Keri Cole 11/12/20
Fri 11 Dec 202011th December, 2020.
Dear Parent / Carer,
I hope you are well.
You will be aware that there has been another announcement from Welsh Government following a clear recommendation from the Chief Medical Officer.
It relates only to secondary aged pupils and states that the last day of learning on site will be today, Friday 11th December.
There will be a distance learning model from next week apart from any days confirmed by the school as Inset days.
Pupils eligible for free school meals will receive them. Schools will also look to provide suitable support for their most vulnerable pupils.
The position for Trinity Fields, the Learning Centre and primary schools is that we have extended the distance learning offer from Thursday and Friday, to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the 16th, 17th and 18th due to a sharp increase in positive cases across the county borough, in children and adults, which has impacted on the ability of schools to keep classes open as they are encountering more difficulty in securing supply staff.
Your school will contact you to confirm arrangements for next week regarding any inset days that will be used.
I completely understand how difficult this is for you to manage. However, schools can only be open to pupils on site if they can be managed safely, with adequate staffing levels.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding in these uncertain times.
I sincerely hope that you have a safe family Christmas. I know that we will all be conscious of those in our communities that have been affected personally by this virus.
I will write to you before the beginning of the new school term to advise you of any arrangements.
Merry Christmas.
Keri
Keri Cole, Chief Education Officer, Caerphilly County Borough Council
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Class Closure 09/12/20
Wed 09 Dec 2020Dear Parents and Guardians,
Unfortunately, I have been notified today that that we have a positive case of Covid-19 within the school and we therefore need to follow strict public health protocols to ensure the health and wellbeing of the whole school community.
You will have been contacted via text and/or phone call if your child needs to isolate as a contact. Your child will need to will need to isolate until 13/12/20 and can end their isolation on 14/12/20.
Current public health advice states that other members of your household do not need to self-isolate. You should, however, be particularly vigilant about your child’s health and if they display any coronavirus symptoms, you should ensure that are tested as soon as possible.
I know that this will cause you all some concern and this is completely understandable. However, I want to reassure you that all appropriate risk assessments and safety measures are in place throughout the school. These are being strictly followed to protect all pupils and staff and to limit the risk of any cross-contamination.
If your child has been asked to isolate the class teacher or another member of staff will keep you updated daily via SeeSaw and we will continue to provide educational resources for the children using SeeSaw and Google Classroom (for those classes that are using it). Earlier this year your child was provided with all of the necessary log-in details required.
I shall, of course, continue to keep you fully updated of the situation.
Regards
Lisa Jones
Head Teacher
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Letter from Ms Jones regarding the week begining 14/12/20
Mon 07 Dec 2020December 7th 2020
To parents/guardians of Greenhill pupils
The Chief Education Officer has announced that Caerphilly schools will switch to a blended learning approach on Thursday December 17th and Friday December 18th. She has also stated that INSETs may need to be rescheduled. As you are aware, Greenhill has two INSETs scheduled for these days. Therefore we will switch to blended learning for Tuesday December 15th and Wednesday December 16th. This means the last ‘on-site’ day for Greenhill pupils will be MONDAY DECEMBER 14th.
As the Chief Education Officer also states, staffing is becoming an issue in a number of schools across the borough. Supply teachers are in great demand due to the number of staff across Caerphilly needing to isolate and there have been occasions when schools are unable to secure a supply teacher or teaching assistant. If this happens, the affected class may have to move to ‘blended learning’ (learning linked to classwork that the children to complete at home) at very short notice. We are not in this situation yet in Greenhill, but I think it is only fair to warn you that this may be a possibility one day.
Also, please remember that the requirement to isolate your child if they are in contact with a positive case is still in force over Christmas. Isolation is for 14 days and therefore if your child is contact with a positive case from Friday December 11th onwards, they will need to isolate on Christmas Day. I feel it is important to let you know this so you can make an informed decision, and will not be taken by surprise if you are asked to do this.
As always, please contact us with any questions.
Take care
Lisa Jones
Headteacher
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Important Letter from Keri Cole, Chief Education Officer
Mon 07 Dec 202007.12.2020
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope you are well and that you are finding a way through the ongoing,
difficult times.
As you will be aware, we have continued to experience an increase in the number of positive cases of Covid 19 amongst children and adults across our borough. As a result, many of our children and young people have experienced disruption in their learning, as they have either become unwell or they have been required to self isolate. School leaders and staff work very hard to implement rigorous and robust safety measures on their sites and to do as much as they can to provide quality learning experiences. Your support
and understanding in this situation is greatly appreciated.
The school term is due to end on Friday, 18th December, 2020. However, the local authority, in discussion with headteachers, has agreed that the last day of on-site learning for pupils will be Wednesday, 16th December. Schools will provide blended learning for the other two days off site and those entitled to free school meals will have them provided for these two days.
During this last week of term, some schools may also have planned or may be re-scheduling Inset days. Your individual headteacher will contact you to outline their respective arrangements. Please contact the school to discuss any specific concerns.
It is also possible that some schools will need to move to blended learning earlier than Thursday, 17th December, if sufficient staffing levels cannot be secured.
The local authority and school communities are absolutely committed to offering the best provision under increasingly difficult circumstances and we recognise how worrying this situation must be for you.
I sincerely hope that you will enjoy a safe, family Christmas and that we will all look forward together to a new year.
Regards
Keri
Keri Cole, Chief Education Officer, Caerphilly County Borough Council. -
Dec Newsletter
Thu 03 Dec 2020Dear Parents / Guardians,
Christmas is almost upon us and things are looking a little different this year.
We would like to address concerns from some parents so that, hopefully, we can then have peace of mind to enjoy the run up to Christmas.
A number of parents have contacted our schools across the Lewis Cluster to let us know their child will not be in school for the last week of term for the following reasons:
- If we were to have a positive COVID test for one of the children or staff in any of our bubbles FROM FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH ONWARDS that bubble would be sent home to isolate for 14 days – those 14 days of isolation would include Christmas Day. This would not allow their family to get together over Christmas under the 5 day Government Christmas rules (allowing up to three households to form a ‘Christmas bubble’ from December 23 to 27, unless a household is isolating).
- Some parents want to give their children a two-week firebreak between being in school and mixing with family over the 5 day Christmas period especially if they are intending to get together over Christmas with elderly and vulnerable relatives who they have not seen for some time. This is because they are concerned that their child may be incubating the virus or have the virus with no symptoms and pass it on to vulnerable family members.
As you know, attendance is extremely important to us, but so is the wellbeing of our community and we understand the anxieties you may have over the virus and the need to spend much needed time with loved ones over the Christmas break.
With this in mind, we have moved our Christmas party to Wednesday December 9th so that children who are not in school from Friday December 11th do not miss out.
Greenhill will be open for pupils until Wednesday December 16th if you decide to send your child to school. (December 17th and 18th are INSET days). If you decide not to send your child to school, we will provide a range of Christmas learning online that they can engage with if they are able to.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT IF YOUR CHILD IS IN CONTACT WITH A POSITIVE CASE ON FRIDAY 11TH DECEMBER, THEY WILL HAVE TO ISOLATE OVER CHRISTMAS DAY.
Please continue to let us know if your child is not going to be in school for any reason.
We want to support our families as much as possible over this period, so please get in touch if you have any concerns or queries.
Take care.
Ms. Lisa Jones
Headteacher
Greenhill Primary School
- If we were to have a positive COVID test for one of the children or staff in any of our bubbles FROM FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH ONWARDS that bubble would be sent home to isolate for 14 days – those 14 days of isolation would include Christmas Day. This would not allow their family to get together over Christmas under the 5 day Government Christmas rules (allowing up to three households to form a ‘Christmas bubble’ from December 23 to 27, unless a household is isolating).
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Open letter from the Leader and Chief Executive of CCBC
Wed 02 Dec 2020An open letter to residents, businesses and partners across the Caerphilly county borough:
December is here and the countdown to Christmas is officially underway!
As we mark the start of the festive season, we thought it would be useful to provide a quick update on our current position and what we can expect over the next few weeks as we continue our efforts to supress the spread of coronavirus in our community.
We all know that the Christmas period is likely to present significant challenges in terms of managing the infection rate. We also recognise that 2020 has been a very difficult year and families are looking forward to spending quality time with loved ones during the festive period.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Christmas this year will be very different to what we are used to and we all need to accept that some sacrifices will need to be made in order to keep our friends and family safe. We know it is very difficult, but we would urge you to please keep the amount of people you mix with over Christmas to a minimum.
Coronavirus remains a real threat and the latest data shows that infection rates remain high. The 2-week firebreak did buy us some time, but over recent weeks the spread of the virus has increased and our figures continue to be in the region of 250 cases per 100,000 population. These figures are broadly mirrored across the Gwent region and across Wales. The Wales ‘R’ rate is between 1.3 and 1.4 at the moment with an average incidence rate of 200 cases for 100,000 population. Our colleagues in Aneurin Bevan Health Board are reporting more hospital admissions now than they experienced during the first peak earlier this year.
We must remain vigilant as we enter the festive season. Everyone is frustrated and annoyed by the ongoing disruption to our daily lives and we, like you, are missing family and friends who we have not seen for such a long time.
We know that trials are progressing well on various vaccines, which offer us a path out of this pandemic. The Council will play a lead role in the distribution and roll out of any vaccination programme, working closely with our colleagues in Health. However, the vaccination programme is a massive task and is going to take time some time to roll out.
In order to reduce the continued spread of the virus in the run-up to Christmas, the First Minister yesterday announced a range of new coronavirus measures for Wales. It is important that everyone is aware of the latest changes, so here is an overview of the key points:
- From 6pm on Friday (4/12), our national measures will be amended to introduce new restrictions for hospitality and indoor entertainment attractions.
- Pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes will have to close by 6pm and will not be allowed to serve alcohol.
- After 6pm they will only be able to provide takeaway services.
- From the same date, indoor entertainment venues, including cinemas, bingo halls, bowling alleys, soft play centres, casinos, skating rinks and amusement arcades, must close.
- Indoor visitor attractions, such as museums, galleries and heritage sites will also have to close.
- Outdoor visitor attractions will remain open.
- The rest of the national measures will remain the same – there will be no changes to household bubbles, how many people can meet in public indoor or outdoor places or restrictions on other businesses.
- The English lockdown will end of Wednesday this week. In that context Welsh Government are looking at travel restrictions in and out of Wales and will make a further announcement later this week.
- These restrictions will be reviewed by December 17 and every three weeks thereafter.
Additionally, there will be extra financial support for businesses affected by the ongoing restrictions. The Welsh Government is making a further £340m available through the Economic Resilience Fund to support businesses affected by the new changes to the regulations. This funding will be targeted primarily at businesses operating directly in the hospitality and leisure sectors but some support will also be provided to businesses in related supply chains that can demonstrate a material impact to their enterprises as a result of the additional restrictions. The support is split into two funds:
- £160m Restrictions Business Fund
- £180m sector-specific Economic Resilience Fund grant scheme.
Local Authorities will administer the £160m Restrictions Business Fund with the £180m Fund being administered by Business Wales. We are awaiting further details about these schemes, but for the Local Authority element we anticipate that some of the payment process will be automated. However, some businesses will need to undertake a registration process to apply for the funds.
Further advice will be provided to businesses as soon as we have the details and the latest information will be made available on the Council’s website. Our Finance and Business Support teams have been working extremely hard over recent months to administer the existing grants and they will continue to provide focussed support throughout this difficult time.
In terms of the position in schools, discussions are continuing on the most appropriate arrangements during the last week of term. We are aware that a small number of Head Teachers have chosen to survey parents about their intentions that week and are in the process of making local decisions based on the feedback. Distance learning, which is now regularly used to support pupils who are self-isolating, may also provide an opportunity for pupils who do not physically attend school during that final week to continue to engage in learning. We will feedback to you on the outcome of these discussions as conclusions are drawn.
2020 will certainly be a year we will all remember. We recognise the toll this has taken on many of you, but let’s continue to work together and keep up the fantastic effort that you have all demonstrated over recent months. We are all looking forward to Christmas, but please take a moment to consider alternative ways to celebrate this special time in a safe and sensible way so we continue to protect ourselves and our loved ones from this terrible virus.
As we look ahead to 2021, the promise of an effective vaccination programme signals the end of this very difficult period in our lives.
Stay safe and keep well
Cllr Philippa Marsden Christina Harrhy
Leader of Council Chief Executive
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