Coronavirus

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.