The school will be open to pupils on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The school will be closed (except for emergency childcare) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for deep cleaning.

Each year group will be split into thirds.  One third (Group A) will attend school on a Monday, another third (Group B) will attend school on a Wednesday, and the final third (Group C) will attend school on a Friday. 

During week 1 (week beginning June 29^th); only Key Stage 2 classes will attend school.  On the second week (week beginning July 6^th); only Foundation Phase classes will attend school.  Having smaller numbers in school on these weeks, will allow better opportunity for the children to become familiar with the new environment and increased expectations of safety.

On weeks 3 and 4, pupils from both Foundation Phase and Key Stage 2 will attend school.  (NB This will depend on current climate, staffing capacity, and efficacy of safety measures).

If achieved, this will have allowed each child to be offered three opportunities to be in school, over the four weeks.

All siblings will attend school on the same day.  Unfortunately, due to logistics, parents will not be able to choose which group their child is in, and pupils will not be able to move between groups.

Parents will be notified which group their child/ren will be in, when we have a clearer picture of the number of children that will be returning.

There will be no more than 10 pupils in a class, each day.  There will be two members of staff in each class (this will typically be the ‘normal’ class teacher and teaching assistant for that class).

School start times, finish times, break times and lunch times will all be staggered.  Parents will be asked to drop off / collect all siblings at the same time.

Clear social distancing expectations and frequent hand washing opportunities will be consistent across the school.

When in class, the main focus of sessions, will be to address the emotional wellbeing of every child.  Activities will involve looking at the impact that this crisis may have had on children.  Pupils will also have opportunities to briefly visit basic language and maths concepts. 

Where possible, learning will take place outdoors.

Pupils will be given their own set of equipment (e.g. pencil, pen, rubber, etc).  Resources will not be shared between pupils.

Break times will be different to ‘usual’.  Unfortunately, no shared resources will be able to be used.

The main means of education will continue to be home learning.  We will continue to provide online learning opportunities for every child, and will also be looking to develop further processes to re-invigorate learning, over the final few weeks.

(Teachers will now focus their attention to home learning on Tuesdays and Thursdays).

All parents will be asked to sign a new ‘Parent/School’ agreement, which will clearly establish agreed processes and procedures. (More information will follow).

No school lunches will be provided.  All children must bring their own lunch, snacks, drinks for the day.

Unfortunately, there will be no Breakfast Club, Wraparound or After School Club provision available, until at least the end of July.

All processes will be evaluated and reviewed constantly.  They will be dynamic, and subject to change, in response to this turbulent situation.  The safety of our children, staff, and families will always remain our main consideration.

Emergency Childcare Hub (ECH):

The Emergency Childcare Hub will continue to run, at the school, up until Friday July 24^th.  As yet, we have had no guidance as to what will happen after this time, however we have been told that the provision will not be run by schools.

From June 29^th to July 24^th, the ECH will run from Monday to Friday between the hours of 8.30am and 3.30pm.

As has always been the case, this provision should only ever be used as a ‘last resort’, and is only to be accessed by the children of key workers and by our most vulnerable children.  Parents are strongly advised to consider their usual childcare arrangements first.

As of June 29^th, all parents using the ECH (whether new parents to the service, or existing parents) will be asked to provide a letter to certify that they have key worker status.

Available capacity will be dependent of available staff and room space.  Should demand for the service increase above available capacity; measures of priority would need to be followed.  These will be made clear, when clarified by the local authority. 

If you believe that you will require use of the hub (either before, or once we return to school, then please do let me know).

Will your child/ren return to school?

I fully understand that there is a lot of information within this document, and you will inevitably still have questions that you would like to ask.  By following this link, you will be directed to a Frequently Asked Questions section on our website, where I hope you will find more information to help inform your decision (https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/mayals-primary-school/UploadedDocument/8dc8e2e074ee41d58032a0eb4fd6deae/mayals-faqs.pdf).

VERY IMPORTANT –

When you have had the opportunity to read and consider the information, please could you complete the very short questionnaire:  https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Ug4_TzS3ZEGUCRtgHRR5k5OU8z2vx7ZBmyGr8Gr9zEFUM0c2OFBON0I3Q09YOVpEU1pLVjVEQVRJVC4u

Within the questionnaire, you will be asked to give a definitive answer as to whether you intend for your child/ren to return to school during the first two weeks of opening (KS2 29.06.20 or FP 06.07.20). 

We ask that this decision not be changed, so that we have a clear idea of the number of children to expect. 

All pupils that we do not receive a response for, we will regard as ‘Not Attending’, and unfortunately, your child/ren will not be permitted to attend during the first two weeks.

You will need to complete a separate questionnaire for each of your children. 

Parents must respond to the questionnaire by 6pm on Thursday June 18^th. 

Parents will have the opportunity to review their decision, after the first two weeks.  Another questionnaire will be sent out before Week 3 (week beginning 13.07.20).

Return to School

Thank you to all those who completed the questionnaire, indicating your choices on a return to school.  Around two thirds of our parents responded.

As you can imagine, we have had an extremely busy week, compiling information and beginning to prepare for our school to re-open to pupils, from June 29^th.  An awful lot of advice and guidance has been released this week; and we are in the process of cross-checking our proposed plans against this advice.  Once final clarity has been given, we will be looking to share our plans with you (obviously, as soon as possible).  Thank you ever so much for your patience!

We have however, had some updates that we are able to share with you at this point:

• I am sorry to say; we have been notified by the local authority, that no nursery pupils (either pre Nursery or main Nursery), will be invited back to school before September.  This is a local authority principle, and will apply to all schools across Swansea.
• All pupils, from Reception to Year 6, will have some opportunity to return to school, to ‘check in’ with their class teachers.  This will be in a very different capacity to what school was like in March, as there must be no more than one third of the school population, on the school premises at any one time.

As stated above, we will be sharing information with you, as early as we can.  We are fully aware that many children and parents are going to be very anxious about the return – and we want to give you as much time as possible, to mentally and physically prepare.  We will do all we can to support you all (not just the children) through the transition taking place over the coming weeks.

Emergency Childcare Hub

The Emergency Childcare Hub, which we have been running at Bishopston Comprehensive since we closed our school building in March, will now return to Mayals. 

As of Monday, the provision will run (as it did in Bishopston) to provide emergency childcare for our key worker parents / carers.  We have been asked to reiterate the message, that this provision should only be used as a ‘last resort’.

Our Childcare Hub will operate at Mayals until the end of term (Friday July 24^th).  However, from June 29^th, when other children return to school, the arrangements will change.  The full changes are not yet clear, however we do know that the provision will only operate within school hours (i.e. 8.30am to 3.30pm).  Again, as soon as we have further guidance, we will let you know.

Food Bank

Thank you to all our families, who have generously kept supporting the food bank throughout this crisis. 

Donations continue to be accepted, and can be dropped off to the Holy Cross Church, next to our school.

Thank you again, in advance.

Newsletters / Information

Just a quick reminder that all our school newsletters and information can be found on our school website. 

Should you have misplaced an email, or would like to check what has been sent out – all correspondence can be found by following this link: https://www.mayalsprimary.co.uk/stream/news/full/1/-/

Keeping in Contact

With all that is going on, school staff thought it would be nice to try and catch up with our children and families.  Over the past week, our staff have begun to make telephone contact.  The staff have said that it has been lovely to speak to the children and parents.  We hope that it has been helpful?!   

It is our aim to speak to all our families before the end of next week – and then continue the process, as we move forward.  

If you would rather not receive the call, then please notify either Mrs Edwards (EdwardsK125@Hwbcymru.net) or Mrs Clay (ClayC2@Hwbcymru.net).

Sumdog

Finally, I would like to congratulate everyone that completed the 1000 questions, in this week’s Swansea Sumdog Competition.  1000 questions is no mean feat!

Across schools in Swansea, over 750 pupils participated.  We had five children, who managed to get into the top 50 on the leaderboard – a fantastic effort!!

Congratulations to Morgan Sambrook (who finished 17^th out of 750), Solomon Baker (28^th), Sam Karimbeik (36^th), Jacob Peters (45^th), and Conn Atkinson (49^th). 

We will organise a prize for each of you, and get it to you in the post.  Well done all!!