Dear Parents and Carers
It has been lovely to welcome back all of our pupils at the beginning of this term. I have been impressed with the attitude, effort and engagement of so many of our pupils as we return to full time schooling. The atmosphere across the school is purposeful, pupils are working hard in their lessons, and staff are delighted to be back to face to face teaching and support.
I have been pleased with the very high levels of compliance across the school and across all year groups with the wearing of face coverings on school site. Each of the mitigations that we can collectively take in line with ‘hands, face, space, fresh air’ keeps our community safer. The most important mitigation remains prevention i.e. not attending school if unwell with Covid symptoms and booking a PCR test (at a testing centre) within 24 hours.
Another important mitigation introduced by the Welsh Government has been twice weekly, voluntary, home tests known as Lateral Flow Tests. Up to now lateral flow tests have been offered to all staff and to all pupils in Y10-Y13. This voluntary home testing programme will soon be expanded by Welsh Government to include pupils in Y7-Y9. We will write to parents of Y7-Y9 separately once the testing kits have arrived in school to seek the consent of parents for their child to take part in this programme. I would urge all pupils across the school to take part in this voluntary testing programme. This is a further mitigation that will help to keep our school and our community safer as we begin to emerge from lockdown measures.
We have now begun the evidence gathering processes for the awarding of Centre Determined Grades for GCSE, AS and A level this summer. I have been very pleased with the maturity and resilience of our examination year groups as they start this new term. Understandably some of our pupils have been nervous about this new approach to qualifications, but I know that many of them have been reassured now that the process has begun. Their confidence is growing, they know that they have worked hard and engaged well in their learning, and that they now have the opportunity throughout this half term to demonstrate what they know, their understanding of key concepts, and their ability to apply this. In the meantime, please do seek support as needed from your child’s Head of Year or Block Leader by email or by phoning the main school switchboard.
A very small number of pupils in these key year groups have not yet returned to school or their attendance is very low. We will not be able to award a Centre Determined Grade at GCSE, AS and A level in any subject without the evidence to do so. Much of this evidence will come from the adapted past papers sat in controlled conditions on school site, which our pupils are engaging in throughout this half term across their subjects. As I stated in my letter before the Easter break, it is important that all pupils in these examination year groups are in school, particularly between 12 April and 28 May 2021, as this is when these pupils will complete these adapted past papers.
I can confirm the dates for the results days in the summer holidays for GCSE, AS and A level. As yet we do not know what arrangements we will be able to put in place for these days as this will be determined by the Covid situation at the time. In the meantime, the dates for your diary are
- AS and A level Results Day – Tuesday 10 August 2021
- GCSE Results Day – Thursday 12 August 2021
We have four INSET days remaining in this academic year, and we will use two of these days to support the Centre Determined Grades processes. The remaining two days will be at the end of the summer term. Therefore our INSET days will be
- Thursday 10 June and Friday 11 June 2021
- Monday 19 July and Tuesday 20 July 2021
We will also hold virtual parents’ evenings for Y7, Y8, Y9 and Y10 during this term. A letter will be sent to parents of each year group nearer the time with details of how to book online appointments. Each parents evening will run from 1500-1830 with a 30 minute break between 1630-1700. The dates for the parents’ evening this term are
- Y7 Parents Evening – Thursday 6 May 2021
- Y10 Parents Evening – Thursday 13 May 2021
- Y9 Parents Evening – Thursday 17 June 2021
- Y8 Parents Evening – Thursday 1 July 2021
These parents’ evenings will be a further opportunity to speak to school staff about your child’s progress, following on from the phone calls that took place throughout the periods of lockdown. There will be a limited number of appointments available on each evening, and please note that some teachers teach more than one class in each year group. If you have any concerns, please do not wait for the parents’ evening. Please be in contact with your child’s Head of Year or Block Leader by email or by phoning the main school switchboard. Y7 and Y8 will also receive their reports for this academic year later in this term.
It has been a good start back to fulltime face to face schooling here at St Cenydd. We hope very much that we will have an uninterrupted summer term of learning. Thank you for your continued support in helping to ensure that our school community can operate as safely as possible.
Yours sincerely
Miss Collins
Headteacher
