Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

UPDATE: June 2020
On 3rd June, the Education Minister announced her intention for schools in Wales to increase operations following the period of forced closure. The 'Check in, Catch up, Prepare' initiative will commence from Monday 29th June and will run until Friday 24th July.

'Be Kind. Stay Safe' Phased Re-Opening
Following a response from families indicating their desire to send their child to school during this time, the school is currently making its plans to provide an opportunity for face-to-face experiences in the final weeks of the academic year. Please be aware that, for health and safety reasons, capacity will be limited and students will be grouped into classes, where they will remain for the time allocated for designated year groups. Once the plans have been finalised, families will be notified. Individual allocations and groupings will be determined and communicated during the week commencing 22nd June.

Provision for childcare
The existing provision for the childcare of essential key workers in Year 7 and 8 will continue until Friday 26th June. At this point, provision for these students will revert to 8.00am until 4.30pm. Students affected will remain as part of a designated group to avoid social mixing with different students, in line with government guidance.

Distance Learning
The work for home-school students will continue for the foreseeable future. It is anticipated that a 'blended' approach to learning will continue into the autumn term. This will involve a mixture of some face-to-face teaching, accompanying remote learning. Until the end of the term, the school will continue to produce distance learning on a weekly basis. We have created a distance learning timetable schedule to help families prepare the workload for students who are at home. Work will be released to families each Sunday via this page of the website for the following week. For any questions related to distance learning, please contact Mr Davies, Assistant Head by email. 

Public Examinations Information
The school has completed the process of submitting centre-assessed grades for all examination boards. These will now be external standardised by WJEC and quality assured, independently by Qualifications Wales.

#CaldicotDoes5K Fundraising Initiative
Caldicot staff, members of the community and friends of the school supported the NHS and care services by joining the 'Can Do 5K initiative'. This involved undertaking a 5km journey as part of a walk, run, roll or cycle. Support through voluntary donations were gratefully received. With an initial aim of £2,500, the school secured just over £4,000. This was donated to

1) Aneurin Bevan Charitable Fund to help provide necessary PPE for frontline NHS workers; and
2) Age Connect, who support elderly members of the community who will be particularly affected by COVID-19.

PPE Face shields/Visors Production and Distribution
Mr Davidson, Head of Technology, contributed to the production of personal protective equipment for frontline health and social care workers. The equipment was paid for as part of a fundraising initiative led at our partner school, The Bishop of Llandaff. As a result, collectively across the two schools we were able to make several thousand units which were shared with NHS and care sectors. 

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Information about Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)
A coronavirus is a type of virus. As a group, coronaviruses are common across the world. COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan City, China in December 2019. The incubation period of COVID-19 is between 2 and 14 days. This means that if a person remains well 14 days after contact with someone with confirmed coronavirus, they have not been infected. The following symptoms may develop in the 14 days after exposure to someone who has COVID-19 infection

• cough;

• difficulty in breathing; and/or

• fever.

Generally, these infections can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, such as older people and/or those with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease. There is no evidence that children are more affected than other age groups – very few cases have yet to have been reported in children.

How COVID-19 is spread?
From what we know about other coronaviruses, spread of COVID-19 is most likely to happen when there is close contact (within 2 metres) with an infected person. It is likely that the risk increases the longer someone has close contact with an infected person.

Prevention
There is currently no vaccine to prevent COVID-19. The best way to prevent infection is to avoid being exposed to the virus. There are general principles anyone can follow to help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, including

• students/staff who feel unwell (or develop high temperature or a new cough) should stay at home for 14 days;

• washing your hands often - with liquid soap and water, or use alcohol sanitiser if handwashing facilities are not available. This is particularly important after taking public transport;covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throwing the tissue in a bin. Students, staff and visitors should wash their hands
  1) before leaving home;
  2) on arrival at school;
  3) after using the toilet;
  4) after breaks and sporting activities;
  5) before food preparation;
  6) before eating any food, including snacks; and
  7) before leaving school.

• avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands;

• avoid close contact with people who are unwell; 

• if you are worried about your symptoms or those of a child or colleague, please use the Coronavirus COVID-19 symptom checker on NHS Direct Wales. Do not go directly to your GP or other healthcare environment;

• see the latest information about novel coronavirus on the Public Health Wales website.

Social Distancing
As of 17th March 2020, we recognise the need for all members of the community to be particularly stringent in adhering to 'social distancing measures' where they meet one of the following criteria

• aged 70 or older (regardless of medical conditions);

• under 70 with an underlying health condition listed below (ie. anyone instructed to get a flu jab as an adult each year on medical grounds);

• chronic (long-term) respiratory diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema or bronchitis;

• chronic heart disease, such as heart failure;

• chronic kidney disease;

• chronic liver disease, such as hepatitis;

• chronic neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), a learning disability or cerebral palsy;

• diabetes;

• problems with your spleen – for example, sickle cell disease or if you have had your spleen removed;

• a weakened immune system as the result of conditions such as HIV and AIDS, or medicines such as steroid tablets or chemotherapy;

• being seriously overweight (a BMI of 40 or above);

• those who are pregnant.

Actions taken by the school to support the wellbeing of students and staff
School leaders have been working to establish a continuity plan in response to the pandemic. This also includes planning for delivery of activities in the situation of a forced closure and planning for a return to 'usual practice' should a short-term and/or long-term closure take place.

Actions taken by the school to support the wellbeing of students and staff
School leaders have been working to establish a continuity plan in response to the pandemic. This also includes planning for delivery of activities in the situation of a forced closure and planning for a return to 'usual practice' should a short-term and/or long-term closure take place.

Preventative measures have been introduced, including

• Establing a critical incident team to plan for all eventualities;

• Identify members of the community (student and staff) with underlying medical conditions which place them in the 'at risk' group;

• Raising awareness of the symptoms closely linked to COVID-19 and the precautionary measures through visual displays;

• Purchased additional quantities of alcohol based hand santizer and liquid soap;

• Additional cleaning of the regularly touched surfaces throughout the school day ie. door handles, hand rails etc; and

• As of 16th March 2020, all non-essential activities will be either postponed or cancelled ie. sporting fixtures and visiting speakers. This includes the scheduled Year 9 parents' evening on 19th March (a new date will be communicated after the Easter break).

In the event of a full/partial school closure (short-term and/or long-term)
The school will only close where there is direct guidance/recommendation from appropriate authorities eg. Public Health Wales and/or where there are insufficient numbers of staff available to safely deliver an education to students. In the event of a school closure, staff will not be able to access the school site. Therefore, in this situation the school will

• Provide students in all year groups (with increased support for those students preparing to sit public examinations in the summer) with online materials to facilitate distant learning;

• Provide paper-based materials for those students who do not have access to either a mobile device and/or internet (as part of the preparation phase the school will seek to identify where this is the case);

• Communicate with families/students on a regular basis to provide updates on recovery phase ie. safe return to normal school life.

Upon return to 'normal practices' the school will

• Undertake a learning audit for examination classes to identify skills-gaps in readiness for the summer series;

• Communicate with relevant awarding bodies to make them aware of any requirements for special considerations;

• Respond to any ongoing support required for students and/or staff. This may include counselling services.

Communication
Throughout the UK Government response phases to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) the school will work closely with relevant authorities to make decisions which are in the interests of the all members of the community. However, to support the safety, wellbeing and continued learning of students the school asks that all families

• Sign up to the school twitter feed @Caldicot_Sch to be able to access relevant information in the eventuality of a partial/full closure;

• Ensure that the school has the correct email address in order to maintain communication throughout the process;

• Talk to child(ren) about hygiene practices and make use of relevant sites to reduce anxiety.

Useful Information
UK Government (COVID-19)
Welsh Government (COVID-19)
Public Health Wales