January Update (11/01/2021)

Dear Parents / Carers,

As you are aware, schools across Wales have now reverted to remote learning for the foreseeable future. The situation will be reviewed by Welsh Government on 29thJanuary (to align with their three weekly review), but it seems most likely that this situation may continue until February half-term (as per the announcement in England).

Throughout this period, work will continue to be set for all pupils via Google Classroom. Teachers are communicating with pupils via the google classroom and are providing regular feedback on their work. At least once a week there are live lessons taking place for every class in each subject. We will begin making telephone calls to the parents of those pupils whose pattern of engagement are causing concern. Please encourage your child to engage fully with the work set – we are ensuring that the quantity of work is both reasonable and manageable. If you do not have a suitable device for your child(ren) to access Google classroom, please email our school mailbox address and we will ensure we pass details on to the Local Authority, and will persist in raising our concerns with respect to this situation. Pupils will only be allowed to enter a live lesson if they are signed into their HwB google classroom account.

This recent disruption to face-to-face teaching has cast further doubt on arrangements for the awarding of GCSEs for our Year 10 and 11 pupils. We are expecting further details in the coming weeks in relation to this, and hope to provide clarity to you in due course.

The number of positive cases per 100,000 in Wrexham continues to worry, and places the county in second highest in the data table produced by Public Health Wales. I am grateful to those of you who continue to provide us with details of pupils who test positive for the virus. If your child does test positive please do contact school and let us know. Our thoughts and prayers are continually with those who are suffering and in pain at this time.

Finally, a number of families are awaiting information regarding the status of educational visits and overseas residentials. I can confirm that the flights for the trip to Iceland have been cancelled by the operators, and therefore we are now in a position to commence making full refunds to parents. Unfortunately, we are still liaising with the tour operator, legal services, and our insurers regarding the Ski Trip – I do hope we can have a positive resolution regarding this trip for you soon.

I’m sure you will want to share my gratitude to the hardworking and diligent staff of St. Joseph’s who are ensuring continuity of learning at this time.

If there are any queries about this information, please do not hesitate to contact the school in the usual ways.

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr C Wilkinson