Bedwas Newsletter 10.3.22
Eisteddfod
Well done to everyone for their contributions to our Welsh Week that culminated in our Eisteddfod which we held on Friday 4th March. Both schools came together for a shared ‘virtual’ celebration in the morning; thanks to Mrs Gettings for organising this. Later in the day each class paired with another from the Federation (using Teams) to share and celebrate their Welsh Week work.
Cardiff City Football Club
We now have a coach from Cardiff City FC in all day on a Thursday to lead multi-skills sessions with the four remaining classes who did not receive the sessions last term, they are also providing an after school club for our Year 6 children. These sessions will continue up to the end of this term.
Upbeat
Friday mornings are now a bit noisier thanks to ‘Upbeat’ who are delivering drumming workshops based around Samba and African Drums with Orange and Green classes. It has been brilliant to be able to welcome providers such as Upbeat and CCFC in to school; even though they are working to Covid guidelines it is so much better than the situation we were in last year when very few visitors were allowed into schools. Upbeat will be working with all the other classes during the summer term and the upper school classes will get to experience Japanese ‘Taiko’ drumming in their sessions.
Covid Arrangements
Schools have usually been instructed to operate at one ‘level’ above the Covid response level set by WG for the country as a whole meaning that many Covid-specific arrangements in schools are lingering on longer than they are in the country in general. Nevertheless, with the moves towards the removal of more restrictions becoming more regular we will also be taking cautious steps to relaxing some of the plans we have in place as we move towards Easter.
Despite some outbreaks, overall, our schools have not been hit too hard (so far) in Covid terms compared to some. Where there have been pockets of the virus they have mostly been contained within classes. To reflect that, class bubbles will remain in place until Easter for indoor activities but we will start to blend our upper and lower phases at play times and lunch times when they are outside. This means that Purple, Blue and Red will have play times together and then Orange, Green and Yellow will be together. We will still ‘stagger’ the break times to give the children more space in which to play. Assemblies within phases will be able to take place but with around half the usual number of children in the hall the classes will be able to be positioned away from each other.
I think that we are all hoping that after the Easter holidays we will be able to move back to something more or less approaching normal which means that we will potentially be losing class bubbles and should be able to re-open after-school activities. All of this depends on the Covid situation nationally but we should be able to communicate arrangements for these clubs just before the end of this term.
Outdoor Wednesday Afternoons
We have started visiting our allotment again with Purple Class being the first group to go there after winter and start to put things in order! It is a wonderful resource to have and I would like, once again, to thank the volunteers from the allotments who have facilitated this and helped to provide this lovely opportunity for our children to do something positive and active in the outdoors in the heart of our community. More classes have now started to access the ‘loose parts play’ equipment and Red and Blue Class are working together outside in order to help enhance the school site.
School Crossing Patrol
We are still in the position of having no SCP after the latest recruitment process was unsuccessful. The post is being readvertised again. The traffic at the front of the school is now back to being as busy as it ever was and whilst we wait for CCBC to be able to source a replacement for Mrs Wheeler we all need to remind the children to be as careful as possible.
