This half term’s value is:
RESPECT
Brawddeg yr Wythnos (Welsh Phrase of the Week)
Croeso! Dewch i mewn!
Welcome! Come on in!
Hero of the Week
We held our certificate assembly virtually today to celebrate all of this week’s certificate winners.
This week’s heroes are:
Dosbarth Coch (N/R): Ava. M and Shayan. N
Dosbarth Oren (R/Y1): Tahlia. A and Cadence. M
Dosbarth Melyn (Y1/2): Imaani. K and Olly. M
Dosbarth Gwyrdd (Y3): Jace. D and Oliver. J
Dosbarth Glas (Y4): Kayden. W and Lilli-Mae
Dosbarth Porffor (Y5): Lewys. L and Sophie. N
Dosbarth Enfys (Y6): Keyia. G
Well done to all of our certificate winners, we are very proud of you all!
Covid-19
As you will all be aware, we have had a number of positive cases of Covid-19 in the school over the past week within 2 classes which I know is of great concern to you all. We are doing all we can in school to reduce the risk of cross contamination. We have strict hygiene protocols and measures in place but we all need to work together as a school community to stop the spread both in and out of school. Please play your part by sticking to the lockdown rules for Caerphilly and supporting us in our health and safety measures in school, particularly with social distancing. Please use the blue hearts inside the school ground and the yellow spots on the pavement to keep your distance from others.
Parents Evenings
Parent consultations are being held next week via telephone. You have been allocated an appointment by your child’s class teacher and they will ring you at the given time. Please be prepared about 5 -10 minutes before your appointment. Each appointment will last no longer than 10 minutes to ensure staff have enough time to talk to all parents. If you’re unable to make your appointment, please contact your child’s teacher to rearrange to a more suitable time.
Dinner Money
Hot meals will resume after half term on the 2nd of November. This will be in the form of box meals delivered to classrooms.
You can see the menu at the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HsGVAWKOZB9wYap0QB3jFDFQqmp_fQs4/view?usp=sharing
The children will be able to order in the usual way in their classes in the morning.
All dinner money needs to be paid in a labelled envelope on a Monday morning. No loose money will be accepted because of the risk of cross contamination of covid-19. We are unable to give out any change at this time. Any additional money will be kept on your child’s account for the following week.
Online Safety
Please see the link below to a guide on keeping children safe online:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nchcy9lCNi-4OoPpCWaYA12ZiAm-QQam/view?usp=sharing
Big Talk (Please discuss with your children):
This week’s topic is ……What does it mean to ‘treat others how you want to be treated?
Upcoming Dates
Week beginning 19th October – Parents Evenings (see above for details)
Thursday, 22nd October – Break up for half term
Friday, 23rd October – INSET Day (School closed to pupils)
Monday, 2nd November – Pupils return to school
Please see letter below from Caerphilly County Council:
An open letter to residents, businesses and partners across the Caerphilly county borough:
I’m sure you are all aware that the national picture has changed significantly over recent days and the situation continues to worsen. The UK map is ‘lighting up’ with an increasing number of local authority areas being subjected to new local restrictions.
You would have seen in the media that there has been a significant escalation over recent days and Welsh Government has indicated that they are giving serious consideration to a short ‘circuit breaker’ to delay the continued spread of the virus across Wales.
The NHS is coming under increasing pressure having seen an increase in the number of Covid cases present in hospitals. Over the past week hospital admissions have increased from 500 to 700 across Wales. If this rate of increase continues there are concerns that, within a short space of time, the NHS will not be able to cope.
We have also been advised that the ‘R’ Rate today stands at 1.4, which is a real cause for concern. This being reflected in Caerphilly’s position, which is 109.9 cases per 100,000 population with a positivity rate of 9.3 %.
We’ve seen many comments from people saying that ‘local lockdowns are not working’ – but we disagree. I’m sure you can imagine how worse the situation would be if we hadn’t introduced the restrictions when we did. It is clear from the UK-wide data that all our efforts have prevented the kind of very large spikes of infection we are seeing elsewhere in the UK.
However, we are still seeing increases here, and in light of this worrying picture, at today’s weekly review meeting, involving CCBC and Welsh Government, it was decided that the Caerphilly county borough will need to keep its existing local lockdown restrictions in place for a further 7 days at least.
None of us want to hear this news, but we are not in a position to ease restrictions just yet due to our continuing precarious position.
It’s important to note that it is not just the Caerphilly county borough in this position – most of our neighbouring local authority areas are experiencing the same problems, as indeed are many other parts of the UK. We are working closely with Welsh Government to inform any national interventions
We are getting lots of requests for more detailed data, but this is held and managed by Public Health Wales. More information can be found on their website:
As stated previously, over recent weeks we started developing an exit strategy with Welsh Government, but the situation is changing so quickly that those discussions are almost irrelevant now because we are now likely to see a Wales-wide approach – and this will require a completely new exit strategy going forward.
Based on our findings over recent weeks, we would like to share with you some of the key areas we need to collectively focus upon:
- The virus needs contact in order to spread and thrive, so we must socially distance ourselves
- Please be very careful when socialising, especially in pubs and clubs. Please don’t mix with people who are not in your household bubble.
- Only mix with people from within your household (ie those who live with you)
- Contact tracing – if you do have a positive test, then please provide us with the full details of your recent movements and people you’ve had close contact with, as this helps us track and trace the movement of the virus. Without this honest conversation we are ‘chasing our tails’.
Please don’t forget the basics:
- Wash your hands thoroughly and regularly
- Socially distance wherever possible
- Wear a face mask in all enclosed public spaces and where social distance cannot be maintained.
In terms of our support for the local business community, you may be aware that Welsh Government recently announced a special Local Lockdown grant to support businesses affected by the ongoing restrictions. The Council has been working hard to get plans in place in order to start receiving and processing applications. We are currently awaiting a ‘go live’ date from Welsh Government to launch the scheme.
It seems we are about to enter a very rough and long winter. We will only get through these challenging times if we continue to work together and take individual and collective responsibility for our actions.
We know that many of you are making many personal sacrifices in order to comply with the restrictions and we ask that you stick with it. Christmas is drawing ever closer and nobody wants to see restrictions over the festive period, so let’s make a collective effort to help drive these cases down.
Thank You
Philippa Marsden
Leader of Council
Christina Harrhy
Chief Executive