Letter to Parents 23/10/20

October 23rd, 2020

Dear Parent/Carer,

Re: National ‘Circuit-break’

As you will have seen, this week the Welsh Government announced a circuit break, (a set of tight restrictions, for a short period of time to slow down transmission and infection rates of the coronavirus) which will come into effect from 6.00pm on Friday 23rd October and remain in place until Monday 9th November 2020.

This will affect our school provision the week after half-term, week beginning 2nd November 2020. During this time, pupils in Years 7 and 8 will attend school for face-to-face learning as normal. However, the remaining year groups will not attend school and will access their work remotely using a range of platforms. Information will be provided on the weekly ‘Teams’ information which will be sent to all learners. Learners will be expected to follow their normal weekly timetable for Week A week beginning 2nd November 2020 and engage with the Blended Learning.

Blended Learning is a combination of traditional in-classroom and online or home learning activities, which many of our learners have already engaged with over the past weeks and months. Parents/carers will need to consent to the developing online live teaching arrangements that we are beginning to offer via an online form. This must be completed before your child will be allowed to access live online lessons. This guidance for learners/parents and carers, together with the live online consent form can be found on our school website. If there are any technical difficulties, please contact Techsupport@aberdareschool.co.uk

Learners who attend the Local Authority resource base provision (Astra & Sirius) at Aberdare Community School should attend as normal from week beginning the 2nd November 2020.  Home to school transport will operate as normal during this week.

May I also take this opportunity to remind all parents and learners that we will be using the Class Charts ‘Announcements’ package as the school’s communication system after half term. (Please see the links below). It is essential that all parents, carers and learners follow the log on information already sent out, so that we continue to improve our whole school communication systems during these challenging times. The functionality of the ‘Announcements’ system allows much greater flexibility for effective communication with classes, year groups and the whole school. Please email school@aberdareschool.co.uk with any additional queries.

https://www.classcharts.com/parent/login
https://www.classcharts.com/student/login

BACS payments will be made to parents/carers for those eligible for free school meals to cover the week of half term. Pupils in years 9-13 will also receive this payment for the week commencing 2nd November. Further information can be found on the RCT website.

I realise that this new lockdown is likely to cause anxiety and worry for many of you. This may be especially the case for those in years 11-13 who should be sitting external exams this year. The Education Minister has promised us a definitive statement about arrangements for exams on 10th November 2020. We will share this information as soon as we have it. 

The last eight months have been very challenging in many ways, I am proud of how the learners have resiliently responded to control measures in school and all staff have worked tirelessly to ensure the continued wellbeing and academic progress of your child.

I wish you and your families a safe and restful half-term.

Yours sincerely
Mrs C Morgans
Headteacher