May 3rd 2020, Covid-19 Update

Dear Parent/Carer,

As we enter the sixth week of lock-down I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for the support you have shown us during this challenging period. I fully understand that not being able to send your son/daughter to school places a huge strain on you at home; I can honestly say, I am really looking forward to the school returning to normal. We miss our students so much.

Pentrehafod continues to be open for Emergency Child Care; all parents and carers are advised that this provision should ONLY be used when there is no other alternative available and that you need to use this service because you are a Key Worker. We do ask that you contact the school to let us know when you need this provision so we can staff it accordingly.

Please remember that whilst the school is only open for Emergency Child Care, staff on reception are available to deal with your queries. Please email or ring reception.

Online working and wellbeing

As you are aware, we have used our website as a base to direct students to a variety of work and this is proving to be a useful tool. Thank you to those parents/cares who have rang in with queries regarding HWB Teams; please see the useful online guides on our website as they are designed to support you. Please could you continue to encourage your son/daughter to continue with their study habits; they can email their class teacher directly with subject queries if they do not understand the work. We are also an Empathy School and there is a section on our website called EmapthyLab. Please encourage your son/daughter to read as widely as possible. If they prefer to listen to books there are now a wide range of books available to download for free (many sites have chosen to do this now that schools are closed).

Staff have spent a great deal of time producing resources, but, however good these are, it relies on your support and without this, then this new arrangement simply would not work. Working in this way is new for us all and (as with most new things) mistakes will be made. I think that the type and quality of work which we are sending home now is quite different to that which was sent home in the first two weeks. We are learning as well and again I would like to thank you for supporting us all as we ‘get to grips’ with learning in a different way. Please do let us know if you would like paper copies of resources as we can deliver these to you.

I also know that during the first few weeks, there was much written in the national media about plans that parents/carers had to run sessions at home to mirror the school day, constructing timetables with lessons, breaktimes and so on. Whilst, in some cases, this may work, in the majority of cases this will not and will only serve to make the already challenging task of learning from home even more difficult. I firmly believe that any learning is good learning and it has been so refreshing to hear about some of the other important activities which pupils have had time to undertake (e.g. gardening , painting fences, planting potatoes, making cakes and so on) – these experiences can be just as important (and perhaps more so at times) than other formal learning opportunities. Please do not put yourselves under too much pressure to recreate school at home but try to ensure that some learning is undertaken in a way that suits your son/daughter best.

Free School Meal update

From last Monday Swansea moved to a weekly parcel of food for each FSM child. The feedback is that this has been far more effective than the daily ‘Grab and Go’ bags. If you are eligible for FSMs then you should be either be having the parcel delivered to you or picking them up from the primary school that your other children attend. Any queries then please ring reception.

Please keep safe and well and we hope that it isn’t too long before we can welcome our students back,

Jennifer Ford