Dear Parents and Carers
I am sorry that we remain in a similar challenging position due to staff shortages and we will not have sufficient staff to fully open the school site tomorrow. Therefore, Year 10 will learn from home on Friday 28 January 2022. All other year groups should attend school tomorrow.
Y10 will access pre-planned work by our department staff tomorrow. Remote learning work will be sent to their school Gmail accounts and will also be posted on year group Google Classrooms. They will access a St Cenydd Google site where they will find subject video lessons from teachers in our school. Pupils should complete their work in their exercise books, on Google Docs, or on paper.
Thank you for your support this week. It is very much appreciated. We hope that a number of our staff will have fully recovered over the coming days, and very much hope school will operate as normal on Monday. Should this not be the case, I will contact you on Sunday evening.
You will have seen in the media the Welsh Government update to self-isolation rules i.e.
- if you test positive for Covid, self-isolate for 5 full days and take lateral flow tests on days 5 and 6. If both tests are negative and you do not have a high temperature, you can stop isolating.
- if either tests are positive, isolate until you have 2 negative tests taken 24 hours apart, or until day 10, whichever comes first.
- this comes into effect on 28 January and applies to people who are currently self-isolating.
You may have also seen the update for schools that schools should continue to keep in place their current mitigations until half term e.g. face coverings, staggered breaks and lunch, school timings, ventilation, etc. We have begun to plan our risk assessment for the next half term (i.e. Monday 28 February). I will of course write to you before the end of this half term confirming these arrangements.
The Minister also confirmed that GCSE, AS and A level exams will take place this summer. Our Y11 pupils will have their mock examinations over the coming weeks, with Y13 having already sat theirs. We will, as normal, support our pupils through their preparation for their examinations. They should now begin their revision at home, aiming to complete 2 hours each day outside of their lesson time. Additional revision classes and support will begin after the half term break, along with a programme of support and guidance. More detail will be shared over the coming weeks as we move towards the summer exam season. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s Head of Year in the first instance if you have any questions.
Please be advised secondary schools no longer send ‘warn and inform’ letters to parents. Please therefore be extra vigilant for symptoms and please continue to support our school by ensuring that your child
- undertakes lateral flow tests three times a week
- has the vaccination / boosters
- wears a face covering indoors on school site
Thank you for your continued support.
Yours sincerely
Miss Collins
Head Teacher
