Coronavirus

Dear all,

We are delighted to announce the newly appointed pupil leadership team to take over the reins from our current year 6s for September 2020. A huge thanks to all those Year 5 children who applied. Those shortlisted completed a rigorous presentation interview process today over teams with myself, Mrs Cooper and Mr McInnes. I am sure you can appreciate how brave they were to undertake this challenge and we are immensely proud of all of them.

The new team are:

Emily : Head girl

Lucas : Head boy

Harsh : Deputy head boy

Mahira : Deputy head girl

Head prefects: Emily  Salim , Niharika , Rumel.

I am sure we all extend our warmest congratulations to these pupils and look forward to seeing you around the school in September in your green jumpers!

Best wishes,

Michelle Kinsey

10th July 

Dear all,

We must say a huge thanks at the end of a very busy few weeks for your patience and support to us through what has been a very uncertain time. We are pleased that Kirsty Williams, education secretary, made her announcement yesterday, with the intention of all pupils returning to school by 14th September. This enables us to start planning for the return of all pupils to our school. We will be in receipt of further guidance next week from the local authority and will update you as soon as possible.

We hope you have a lovely weekend in the sunshine.

Best wishes,

Michelle Kinsey and Catherine Cooper

Please see the link below: 

The Child Friendly version of the City Recovery Strategy is now available in a child friendly version and in 8 languages:

https://www.childfriendlycardiff.co.uk/resources/covid-19-recovery-strategy/

26th JUNE 

Dear all,

We are very excited to be welcoming many of you back from next week! As you know, the school is now ready: all health and safety inspections have been undertaken and a full risk assessment completed in conjunction with the local authority. All staff have been fully trained on new guidelines for the safe return of pupils and all hygiene equipment has been installed in every classroom. Rotas, timetables, one way systems and stringent twice daily hygiene measures have been set up to help maintain social distancing and keep everyone safe.The governing body has also been fully involved in all processes. We feel confident to be able to welcome your children back next week and if you are not returning your children to school at this time, we respect your decision and look forward to seeing you in September.

For those children returning from next week, we have created a video for what to expect on return. It will hopefully give you an opportunity to talk to your child about key differences and help them to feel more confident about coming back. It can be found on our website under key information/Coronavirus. The link to this is:

https://www.lansdowneprimary.co.uk/coronavirus/

For those families staying home, a member of the Lansdowne team will be checking in with you over this period to check you are ok, safe, well and continuing to access distance learning.

Hopefully you are all aware that distance learning WILL CONTINUE whether you return to school for catch up or not. The school term finishes on Friday 17th July and teachers will provide distance learning until then.

Finally, a reminder that if you are coming back you just need a water bottle and a coat/jumper. We have sanitiser in each classroom and along the corridors. You can wear a mask if you feel more comfortable, there is not an expectation for this however. Also, library books can be returned into the box outside.

We will be on the gate on Monday morning to welcome you back!

With very best wishes,

Michelle Kinsey and Catherine Cooper

For those you who have

12th June 

Dear all,

Thanks so much for the many responses we have now had to the survey regarding your intentions for returning to school. We would like to thank you for how patient you have been and we hope that you can continue to be as we move through the next two weeks in preparation for 29th June. We felt that as we close the working week and move into the weekend, we would like to just confirm the things we do know currently for reopening and those answers that at present we still do not have. We want you to feel as fully briefed as possible on the plans for opening Welsh schools and what this means for all of us at Lansdowne.

These are the things we know so far:

Your child will be entitled to a catch up session. We think this is going to be at least two sessions over the four week period but we don't know this exactly yet because we haven't had responses from all families about if they will send their children back.

A session is around 4 to 6 hours depending on your child's age. We aim for it to be with your child's usual teacher but due to some of our staff's current circumstances related to Covid risk, we cannot guarantee it. We can say though that it will be a staff member from our usual Lansdowne team.

The session for your child will be with 4 other members of their class. There will be 5 children in each class (10 per year group) because of physical distancing requirements.

The year groups will come in staggered. Not all year groups will be in the same days. The year groups will start to come in from 8.30am until 9.15am and finish from 2pm til 3pm. You will be given a set date and time for arrival and this will be sent to you by email . YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS AND BE ON TIME SO THAT WE CAN KEEP EVERYBODY DISTANCED. There will be a one way system in place inside and outside the school building.

The children will be made to feel welcomed back and we are very much looking forward to seeing them. We will help them to stay safe and we will do everything we can for them to feel relaxed with the new arrangements. There will be a video made by the staff to help them understand the new arrangements and all discussion around COVID will be as usual child friendly and using the expertise of our wonderful staff to guide them through this time.

All guidelines will be followed related to the use of materials in school, lunch breaks, toilet breaks and handwashing. The school will follow its risk assessment stringently to do everything we can to minimise risk, in line with local authority instructions.

Children do not have to wear uniform, but can if they want to. All guidance for this, including lunch arrangements, will be sent to you in the week before they return. During that week (w/c 22nd June) we will also host a question and answer session via zoom for any further practical questions you may have.

As yet, we still don't know whether nursery will return at all before the summer.

We understand that as a parent you may have strong views either way about returning to school and we know this will be the case for all of us in Wales as we try to understand what has happened over the last three months. We will respect your decision either way as to whether you wish your child to return. Please let us know your thoughts so that we can plan. I have had many responses but there are still some to come. If you haven't let us know, please complete the survey, link below, and we can continue to work on this.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSea-yt_A8KVB-tAP_lYCYAQBo7yjgo8EbdK53fyq3wp4mrSOQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thank you for all your support everyone!

Have a great weekend. Let's stay hopeful for a break from the showers and some sunshine!

Best wishes,

Michelle Kinsey and Catherine Cooper

3rd June

Dear all,

Please find attached link to Kirsty Williams', Education Minister for Wales, statement at 12,30pm today regarding schools reopening from 29th June.

https://media.service.gov.wales/news/all-children-will-have-the-opportunity-to-check-in-catch-up-and-prepare-for-summer-and-september 

As soon as we have guidance from Cardiff local authority we will let you know details.

Many thanks for your patience; we will bring further information as soon as we have it.

Kind regards,

Michelle Kinsey and Catherine Cooper

22nd May 

Dear all,

Well it's certainly been a unique half term, the only one in the history of education where schools remained shut for a whole half term. However, thankfully, the children were still learning, the teachers were still delivering lessons and the Lansdowne school community was still thriving. Or trying to anyway!

Thank you so much for your continued messages of support, photos, emails; and for joining us on Lansdowne library facebook page every day. It still feels very much that we are all together in spirit and we hope this provides you with as much comfort as it does us. We miss you, we think of you and we pray that you are well and safe.

We must say 'Eid Mubarak' to all of our families who are about to celebrate Eid this weekend. We know this must be a difficult time for those of you who usually celebrate together with extended family and we send all our best wishes to you for this year.

Next week is half term and so distance learning will not take place next week- we hope this gives everyone an opportunity to have a break from school work for a bit. The Lansdowne library facebook live page does continue next week so please 'tune in' and continue to send your wishes for Friday to CooperC94@hwbcymru.net.

Don't forget to share your half term pictures at CooperC94@hwbcymru.net when we return to distance learning on Monday 1st June.

We hope that you have a fun filled and safe half term. Look after each other and send your children our warmest wishes.

Take care of yourselves,

Mrs Michelle Kinsey and Mrs Catherine Cooper

13th MAY

Good morning everyone,

Hoping Wednesday finds you well. Just to confirm, we are continuing to follow WELSH guidelines for the Coronavirus pandemic which continues to instruct us to stay at home and that schools are continued to be closed.

We met with the governing body yesterday online and they pass on their well wishes to everyone and thank the staff for their continued care of the children. We have shared with them the lovely Lansdowne community spirit that we have felt through your emails, the children's emails, your pictures on the gallery, tuning into Lansdowne Library facebook page and all our communications with you. We would all like to express our thanks for this as you have supported us emotionally, as much as we are endeavouring to support you, so thank you.

Lansdowne library page is live at 11 am and 2pm today. We also will be sharing wishes on Friday. The wishes last week were truly gorgeous, all from the children, all sensitive to what is going on around us at the moment, and we weren't surprised at all because they always share kind and thoughtful messages in school each week. We are extremely proud of them, now more than ever for their resilience and their positivity. Please send your children's messages for Friday to CooperC94@hwbcymru.net and get your candles ready!

If you need us, we are on CooperC94@hwbcymru.net and KinseyM4@hwbcymru.net

Stay safe everyone,

Best wishes,

Michelle Kinsey and Catherine Cooper

8th May 

Dear Parents/carers,

Thank you once again for the lovely messages of support and kindness that you have been sending through to us. It is uplifting to hear from so many of you and to see so many lovely pictures of our wonderful children during these difficult times.

Over this last week there has been uncertainty over the return to school and many of you have contacted us regarding this. We have been asked to share that Kirsty Williams, Education Minister has announced that the situation for schools will not change on June 1^st.

Please see the link below for further information.

https://gov.wales/situation-schools-will-not-change-june-1st-education-minister-says

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy bank holiday.

Stay safe & take care,

Best wishes

Michelle Kinsey

Headteacher

6th May 

Dear everyone,

It's been lovely to speak to lots of you this week and 'see' many of you on facebook live Lansdowne Library page.

Just to remind you that it is bank holiday this Friday 8th May and so it is a 4 day week for online learning. However, we still have two live reading sessions, the first at 11am and the second at 2pm.

We really miss our assembly times together, especially lighting the candle, sharing our values and making a wish or prayer for our families and our community. Two lovely sisters in Year 2 have even told us that they are continuing to do this on a Friday in their home and although they said it's not quite the same (probably because the staff usually dance on a Friday morning in celebration assembly!) they said it makes them feel happy to do this. So this gave us the idea to share a wish during Friday's facebook live session. We are therefore going to read a story and then afterwards share some of your wishes live online and blow the candle out, as we usually would in morning reflection. To help us with this could you please ask your child to make a wish and send it to CooperC94@hwbcymru.net

I will then read these out live during the 11am session and blow the candle out for you. It may be nice if you have a candle at home if you do this with me at the same time and we can send our wishes, prayers and thoughts for all our families and friends together. it is always very much part of our Lansdowne routine and we would love it if you could join in!

As usual, if you need us, you will find our contacts on www.Lansdowneprimary.co.uk

Best wishes,

Michelle Kinsey and Catherine Cooper

1st May 

Dear all,

We hope that you have all managed this week the continued range of emotions and experiences that life in lock down is giving us all. It has been nice to speak to many of you, and we will continue to make contact next week just to check in and see how you are getting on.

The teachers are very much missing reading to our classes so our library founder, Mr McInnes, has come up with a brilliant idea moving forward. There is now a Lansdowne Primary Library Facebook page so that we can live stream story times. Search for ‘Lansdowne Primary School Library’ on Facebook and like and follow the page. From next week, you and your children will be able to tune into regular live story times with staff from school. A timetable of reading sessions will be posted on the Lansdowne Library page over the weekend. The first live streams will take place on Monday. Your child will be able to see many of us next week when we go live! We are all very excited.

It has also been lovely to receive so many messages from you showing, through pictures and emails, the things that you have been doing during this time. Thank you for thinking of us and sharing. We do miss you very much and we hope that you are safe and well.

Have a lovely weekend and we hope to see you next week in the Lansdowne library on facebook!

Best wishes,

Michelle Kinsey and Catherine Cooper

24th April

Just to say that we have a put a page in the News and Events/gallery section of the website for 'life during lockdown'. We have been receiving some lovely pictures and descriptions of things that some of you have been doing to keep yourselves busy during lockdown. Keep sending them through to CooperC94@hwbcymru.net and if you write on them that you are happy for them to go on the website we will post them to try to keep all our spirits up!

As we approach another weekend, may we say that we are missing you, we hope you are well and safe and please try to have a rest and enjoy this weekend as much as you can safely.

20th April

Dear all,

A huge welcome back to the summer term at Lansdowne Primary and hopefully a return to some sort of routine and normality for you. Obviously we only have the same information as you regarding if and when schools may open again. For the moment, lock down continues and so we will continue to provide distance learning to support you with teaching children at home. That said, it is just as important that you continue to get through this unique experience as best you can as families. Therefore, remember that you feeling stressed out about trying to be the greatest teacher in this set of circumstances is not what we want.  We absolutely advocate the basic but crucial things- reading, talking, discussing, listening, exercise, basic maths skills, real life problem solving, creativity and being outside if you can be safely. In addition, we know that we are moving through an extraordinary period of history and that our children may feel isolated, alone, scared and generally strange. We know that you may also feel like that as we ourselves do and it is really important to work through that together. We know that the walk to school and the interaction with others- whether it was other parents or the school staff-  used to be all that was needed to make us feel better on a Monday morning. Without that at the moment, if you are feeling vulnerable or low please please email us, even if it’s just for a chat.  We will put on the website details of other services available as well to help.

News from ourselves is that the hub school has been working very well and has been open during the holiday. Many of our staff have already contributed to working there and will continue to do so as long as the hub needs to be open.

The teachers are looking forward to getting back to communication with the children. As before, they will update you on the website regularly with tasks for the week and from there may direct the children to other platforms like bug club and hwb. As a reminder, this is how to get onto your child’s class page:

www.lansdowneprimary.co.uk. Then, hover over the tab ‘Learning and teaching’. From this menu, pick ‘DISTANCE LEARNING’ then scroll down the page and there will be each year group’s page.

If you have any problems with passwords you can either email the teachers as many have put their email addresses on their year page, or you are welcome to contact CooperC94@hwbcymru.net .

There is also in this section the further support page, wellbeing and cookery.

In addition, in the ‘key information’ section on the homepage, there is a section called ‘Coronavirus’. In here, we put any updates we have and any parent mails we send out to try to keep in touch and keep you informed.

We intend to keep in contact as regularly as is possible and so you may hear from us by telephone just to check in that you are well and safe. The teachers would also really like to hear from the children by email or on teams if they access this so that they know they are well, safe and able to access their work. Please encourage them to email their teachers and share their work.

Finally, if you can, try and enjoy the sunshine safely while it lasts and remember that in the same informal way we always were, we are here for a chat if you need us- our email addresses on the website.

Stay safe everyone and please send our warmest wishes to your lovely children- we do very much miss them.

Kind regards,

Michelle Kinsey and Catherine Cooper

2nd APRIL 

Dear Parents/carer,

As we come to the end of a very distressing and uncertain school term, one that none of us has ever experienced, I would like to say a huge thank you for your continued patience, support and understanding. It has been lovely to share with staff the positive comments and supportive messages that have come from you as parents with all staff.

In a very short time staff, students, parents and carers have all had to adapt to a new way of teaching and learning and I’m pleased to see that most of us have embraced it. A big thanks to you all for your support in helping your children adapt to their new routine at home.

Next week is the first week of the Easter holidays and it is important that you treasure this time with your children and re-charge your batteries. Over the two-week period, there is no requirement for your children to access the online learning; there are however websites and learning provided that if they chose to do so they can access during this time. Please encourage your children to have a break.

Mrs Cooper and myself will continue to contact our families throughout the Easter period to check in and if there are any questions or you need help with something please do not hesitate in contacting one of us on either CooperC94@hwbcymru.net   or KinseyM4@hwbcymru.net . We will also continue to support the hub provision during this time.

All teachers will be ready and raring to go again on Monday 20^th April. I would like to say a huge thank you to all staff for their commitment and for going the extra mile in many cases, to ensure that all children have accessed their learning, you are a great team and one that I am very proud of.

Take care, stay safe

Best wishes

Michelle Kinsey

Head teacher

31 March 

Dear all,

Good afternoon everyone and we hope you are all keeping well and safe.

Just checking in on all of you and reminding you that we are still around, should you need us for anything! We hope you have managed to access the shops safely for any food you need, that you are managing to take your exercise safely, and that the children are able to access the website for all their distance learning.

There is also a well being section within distance learning to support you in getting through the next few strange weeks. If you need any advice or support, we are here, even if it's just a chat or to hear a different voice. We are all going through this together though we all have different pressures, so we can try to empathise with each other. Please send us an email if things are troubling you and we will try to help or point you in the right direction, at least.

Send all of our very best wishes to your lovely children. They are doing so well with their distance learning and all the staff are very proud of them.

Enjoy the sunshine safely today!

We will be in touch.

Kind regards,

Michelle Kinsey and Cath Cooper

27th MARCH

From Monday the Local Authority will be operating on a hub school basis. Our hub school is Ninian Park Primary School and this is where all childcare for key workers will take place.

The service will operate Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm (not including bank holidays) and can be accessed by those key workers in the following sectors:

• Health care
• Social care
• Emergency services

If your child has accessed the provision this week at Lansdowne Primary you will have already heard from Mrs Cooper or myself and your child is registered. If you haven't used the facility but put your name down on the list YOU MUST register with the local authority on the following link and they will confirm if you have been allocated a place.

www.cardiff.gov.uk/keyworkerchildcare

All childcare support for key workers is being dealt with via the Local Authority. If you have not registered and you have not been allocated a place you will not be able to bring your child along to the provision.

I would like to thank you for your continued patience and support at this changing time.

Kind regards,

Mrs Kinsey

24th March

Hello all,

Good morning from all of us and just checking in to see how you are all doing.

We are busy both in school and working from home and are available during the days to answer any of your questions via the school office or, for questions about home school learning, through your class teachers and/or through Mrs Cooper at CooperC94@hwbcymru.net

Skeleton staff at school are supporting a small number of children whose parents are BOTH key workers and have tried all other means of child care before making the decision to send to school. This is to support the government's instruction to physically distance as much as we all possibly can and to keep everyone safe.

We were thinking of you all last night as further measures were put in place. We are, as always, a school community and though things are incredibly difficult, we are at the end of a phone or email if you want to just touch base with us or ask anything. We can try to help as best we can at this time.

Finally, there is a lot on social media at the moment about home school learning. We know how hard it is! Please remember that interacting with your children, talking to them, playing in the garden, board games, cooking, doing odd jobs, cuddles and down time together are all as important as formal learning. Your family's continued wellbeing is our number 1 priority.

Please send all our best wishes to your lovely children and tell them we miss them and that all will be well in time.

Keep safe everyone, we are thinking of you all.

Kind regards,

Michelle Kinsey and Cath Cooper

19th MARCH 

19^th March

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Yesterday, a decision had been made to close all schools. We have been preparing for this event over the last week and all staff have been working tirelessly to ensure that our children are supported as much as they can be during their home school learning experience, for however long it is going to be. This is a big unknown and therefore we have done as much as we can to ensure that this will be sustainable. We will be relying very heavily on digital communication, via www.lansdowneprimary.co.uk, www.activelearnprimary.co.uk, and through www.hwb.gov.uk.  

It is vitally important that you check the logins that have either been sent home tonight, or were sent home in the last few days so that you can access hwb and/or bug club. Your class teachers will be updating you via the website in the first instance of expectations for home learning. There is not a 9 to 3 expectation, like we are hearing of some high schools. We cannot ensure that this is happening and do not expect that you would be able to facilitate formal learning in this way. We hope that some of the learning activities that you undertake with your children will be creative and practically based, such as cooking, sewing, playing board games, making, helping to manage the home, playing in the garden etc. I am sure I will speak for everyone when I say that we hope from this difficult time will come happy memories of quality time spent with our children as parents, during a set of extraordinary circumstances.   

You can expect that your teacher will communicate with you via the website twice weekly. This may be to direct your child to other learning platforms like hwb, to add further activities for you to access directly via the website or to simply check in with you on the set of work that has been left for you to complete for the week. 

Please remember that daily reading, practising spelling, practising times table and mental recall of number facts are staple parts of daily learning. 

Finally,  we are completely with you from the point of view of feeling uncertain, anxious and strange at this time.. This is a natural feeling for all the family.  There will be an area dedicated on the website called ‘Wellbeing’ within the Homework section that tries to offer some practical tips and activities for helping to cope with this period.

If you do not have your child’s log in or there is an issue with logging in, please contact CooperC94@hwbcymru.net. 

If you do not have access to internet and computers at home, you must tell us before school close on Friday as we will not be able to mail you work via postal systems. 

15th MARCH 2020

Dear parents and carers,

We hope you have had a restful weekend. This email is to keep you informed of the school's current position regarding latest developments around coronavirus. We also hope to assure you that we are following all appropriate advice and being proactive, but not panicking, about the current situation that we all face in Wales at this time.

We are liasing on a daily/hourly basis with the local authority, Welsh Government and public health Wales. This is to ensure that we have the latest, up to date information on what should be happening now to protect the school community, and what we need to do to prepare for what might happen next in the government's delay phase. Please rest assured that we have a continuity plan in place to prepare for any escalation that may happen over the next few days/weeks regarding school closures.

Until we have any further updates/escalation by the government, we will be protecting the school community in the following ways as outlined in guidance for educational settings published by Welsh government and updated 13th March:

• All children will be washing their hands on entry to classes, at break times, after using the toilet, before lunch and before they leave school at the end of the day;
• Children will be encouraged not to touch their faces;
• Cleaning stepped up with door handles, frequently touched objects and surface cleaning a daily priority.

If you or your child displays any symptoms of coronavirus infection, however mild, we ask that you do follow NHS/government stay at home advice around self-isolating and that you do not enter the school community. The main symptoms as outlined by NHS direct/government are:

• cough
• high temperature
• shortness of breath

This also applies to our staff who have been fully briefed. Please see NHS website for further advice on this.

We also ask that you ensure that by tomorrow morning you have fully updated us if you have changed any of your details and telephone numbers.

If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us. Again, if you are feeling unwell, please contact by telephone so that we can support you and get further advice for you.

We will of course do our very best to reassure all of our children and make them feel safe at this time.

You can help to slow the spread of Coronavirus!

• Make sure you and your children follow these general principles to prevent spreading any respiratory virus:
• Wash your hands often – with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, or an alcohol-based sanitiser if soap and water aren’t available.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• If you feel unwell, stay at home and don’t attend work or school.

• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in a bin.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces in the home.
• If you’re worried about your symptoms, please call NHS 111 – don’t go directly to your GP or other healthcare environment.