Dear Parents and Carers
I am pleased to confirm that our return to pupil movement across the school has gone well this half term. Teaching staff and pupils are delighted to be back in their specialist subject classrooms, laboratories and workshops. We intend to maintain this operation for the remainder of the summer term.
Covid: updated information re symptoms and mitigations
I would urge all pupils and all staff to take part in the twice weekly Lateral Flow Tests (LFT). It is easy to sign up and once this is done tests can be collected by your child from school. These LFT tests, along with ‘hands, face, space, ventilate’, are an important mitigation for school operation and community safety.
Please inform the school immediately if there is a positive test result in your household, whether that be a Lateral Flow Test (LFT – at home test) or a PCR test (test which needs to be booked and usually takes place at a testing centre). On school days, our school reception phone line is open 0800-1600. Please send an email outside these hours to the main school email account stcca@caerphilly.gov.uk.
Please remember that any pupil who has any of the three main symptoms of COVID-19 must not attend the school and should arrange a PCR test and immediately self-isolate. The three main symptoms are
- A new, persistent cough
- Fever
- Loss of taste or smell
PCR testing is also available for individuals who are experiencing a wider range of symptoms such as fatigue, myalgia (muscle ache or pain), a sore throat, a headache, a runny nose, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhoea. Pupils are asked to arrange take a PCR test if they are experiencing any of these wider symptoms and if they are new, persistent and/or unusual symptoms for them.
Please book a PCR test if your child has any of these wider symptoms and your child should self-isolate while they await their test result. Children and adults with diarrhoea and/or vomiting should remain away from school until they are symptom free for 48 hours even if their COVID-19 test is negative.
In addition, unless they themselves develop one of the three main symptoms, the child’s household does not have to self-isolate. If individuals then receive a positive COVID-19 result, they and their household must then isolate. Households must also isolate if anyone develops any of the three main COVID-19 symptoms while waiting for a PCR test result taken on wider symptoms to come back.
Centre Determined Grades – GCSE, AS and A level
We posted the provisional Centre Determined Grades to pupils in Y10-Y13 entered for GCSE, AS and A level this summer on Monday this week.
My congratulations to pupils who have worked so hard throughout their qualification period and who have achieved grades that they can be rightly proud of. A copy of the letter I wrote to accompany their grades is available here.
Parents’ evenings
We have one online parents’ evening remaining for Y8 on Thursday 1 July 2021. Parents of Y8 pupils should have received a letter with details of how to book online appointments.
Support
A small number of pupils have not returned to school in full uniform or have not topped up the money in their canteen account. Please do not hesitate to be in touch with your child’s Head of Year if we can support with uniform and/or lunch provision. These conversations are confidential and please be in contact if we can help.
We try to keep a stock of good quality, freshly laundered second hand uniform here at school. If you have uniform items at home that your children have grown out of, please consider donating these to the school. If your child brings items in to donate to the school, they can drop these off in reception. This would be much appreciated.
Planning for September
We do not know the arrangements that schools will operate under in September, and it is likely that we will not know this from Welsh Government for some time yet. As you will know, the UK and Welsh government are currently focused on the possible national easements in mid-July. The current Covid situation and Delta variant means that it is unlikely that we will be able to plan with certainty for September until mid-August. Please be assured that we are currently planning for a variety of school operation scenarios for September.
However, I can confirm some dates for your diary. The autumn term begins on Thursday 2 September 2021 and this will be an INSET day. It is likely that Y7 and Y12 will return on Friday 3 September with other year groups returning from Monday 6 September onwards. As I did last year, I will write to you towards the end of the summer break outlining the detail of our school arrangements for the new academic year.
Thank you for your continued support and kindness.
Yours sincerely
Miss Collins
Headteacher
