Wales 5

[DdraigGoch]

The old one filled up before we could link a new one but here we are.

@Totallyfedup1979

Stay local?

If I’m at work which is 30 miles from home, can I shop during my lunch break?

Or do I have to travel home and use the supermarkets nearest my house?

When I travel 10 minutes out of county to bring shopping for my 90 year old grandmother, can I pop to the shop there?

Or can I mix and match a bit of everything, depending on what’s most local and convenient to me at the time?

I think stay home is redundant now and stay local is going to be a joke. The only things I’m interested in going forward are ‘stay sane’ and ‘stay a reasonable weight’.

I work 30 miles from home too so got annoyed with the stay in county guidance/rule last autumn.

@Likeindie
Thanks very much for that link. I’ve filled it in. I don’t know the name of my Dr but fingers crossed it works out okay.
Thanks again
( Mumsnet at it’s best)

I used that link too and they phoned me the very next day to book an appointment, brilliant!

My hairdresser has told me that it is looking as though they will be allowed to open from next week, so thought I would share here. I really hope gyms will open soon too.

Shops hopefully open on Monday, staff busy in some today, sorting out Xmas stuff, cleaning and reorganizing fingers crossed

pmk
Really excited about schools gradually opening up in my area. Our covid rates per 100k are so low now it looks like easing restrictions is the right decision.

Does anyone else understand what the Welsh update today was getting at? It seems very confused, the messages they are giving out, hinting one minute tourism may open up by Easter, then today saying that may not be possible due to stay local? So frustrating.

Glad the Welsh government have been sensible about the stay local and if you live rurally you can travel further to access your nearest facilities.

I didn’t watch it properly, but I think @hellswelshy that he’s hinting at a couple of weeks of stay local before opening up a bit more to tourism over Easter.
Good that he recognised it’s not ok to have us under stay local at the same time as opening self catering accommodation.

I thought what was being said about the track and trace system as well as the expansion of testing to close contacts was all positive. We had a child isolation recently and I must say the track and trace checks were very thorough.

Very excited at the prospect of a very overdue haircut!

Thanks, I thought that's what was being said but do find the way messages are delivered in the run up to the main announcement a bit woolly and vague. I need to wait until Friday I suppose, just feeling at a low ebb with it all now

I’m frustrated with it all too, I find it annoying that the stay local message will come in for the next however long; then come Easter we will open the doors to everyone in order to boost the economy. To limit everything so much, but on the premise of welcoming tourism 3 weeks later reeks of control to me.

My daughter is in KS2 and going back to school next week - we got a letter yesterday to say that school hours for her class will be 9.10 - 3.20. This is 20 minutes off the usual school day. We're in Gwynedd, is this happening all over Wales?

@Ymlaen , not happening in Ceredigion where I am, afaik

Mine is in KS1 so only usually goes for 6 hours? I honestly couldn't tell you if that's less than before.

Just checked what school are doing for KS2 and year 6 are doing 6hr30 but only 6hr10 for year 4&5.

My daughter is in year 6, and I feel she's missed out on so much school already. I'm not happy they've cut 100 minutes off the school week. I keep hearing about "catch up" etc and it seems my daughter's school is going the other way!

I’m in Gwynedd and before Christmas our reception class had ten minutes knocked off the end of the day. The reasoning was to avoid congestion at pick up time for covid, as releasing all KS1 pupils at the same time meant lots of parents bunching up etc so they staggered pick up times. Could this be why?

I’m only saying reception because that’s where DS is, I’m not sure what they’re doing with KS2 as they are let out later than KS1 anyway. I assume they’ve staggered those as well... although maybe not as most of the KS2 children walk home without a parent.

Yes, I think the reason behind it is to stagger the classes arriving and leaving, but I can't help but think that they are aiming for the least work possible!

@AlohaMolly

I’m in Gwynedd and before Christmas our reception class had ten minutes knocked off the end of the day. The reasoning was to avoid congestion at pick up time for covid, as releasing all KS1 pupils at the same time meant lots of parents bunching up etc so they staggered pick up times. Could this be why?

But if they're staggering times, that needn't mean cutting 20 minutes off of the school day. You could run Reception 09:00-15:30, Year 1 09:10-15:40, Year 2 09:20-15:50

Is it to do with planning time as well? Our school is finishing early on one day a week to allow PPA, not sure how other schools are handling it?

I absolutely get the frustration, but any school I’ve ever worked in has had much more relaxed drop off times, so bunching isn’t necessarily a problem, if that makes sense? Like breakfast club open from say 7.50am to 8.25am, then actual school drop off time anywhere from 8.25am to 8.40am and children dropped off between those times run in and parents watch them go in the gate and leave. Pick up time often looks very different with parents queuing and DC being let out in dribs and drabs/one at a time. Plus maybe extra time for cleaning!!

The above is only my experience of schools and my assumptions though, and still not minimising the loss of learning time for your DC. It could be though that those twenty minutes would have been spent in whole school assembly or something like that? I know the last school I taught in did whole school assemblies every day, and I assume those don’t go ahead at the moment, so while it seems as though there are 20 minutes less a day, they’ve actually still got those 20 minutes but are using the assembly time?

What time are they finishing that day @ImAllOut?

I agree @DdraigGoch, but they seem to have gone for the easiest option rather than whats best for the children.

@Ymlaen I'm not too sure to be honest as mine goes to wraparound and just gets picked up and taken there anyway, so I didn't look at the details too much!

Our school are doing normal school hours, but with staggered times.
8:45- 3:00, 9 - 3:15 and 9:15 - 3.30. Classroom doors are open 10 mins before and 5 mins after, which effectively gives a 15 minute window for each class when the children can go in without mixing bubbles - kids go straight into classroom instead of lining up on yard as they did pre Covid.

One way system around school for pick ups and drop offs.

Its working really well - kids are having absolutely no contact with anyone outside of their bubble while in school - lunch in classrooms, staggered play times, no assemblies etc

I've actually heard teachers say DC are getting more teaching time due to the lack of assemblies, not having to do all the lining up on the yard, one class going in at a time like they normally do.

And its actually made the school run much quicker and easier.

No assembly best idea ever

@Ymlaen

My daughter is in KS2 and going back to school next week - we got a letter yesterday to say that school hours for her class will be 9.10 - 3.20. This is 20 minutes off the usual school day. We're in Gwynedd, is this happening all over Wales?

My Year 2 DS is 9am - 3.10pm so similar times. Before Covid they were going to close at 3 each afternoon to save money but they've had to go to staggered start/finish times. All children get the same time in school over the day, but they've all lost 20 minutes per day compared to pre-Covid.