Griffithstown Primary Griffithstown Primary School is located in the beautiful area of Pontypool in South Wales. The town has lots of heavy industrial history, including railways (Pontypool Road station once had one of the largest coal marshalling yards in the UK), steelworks (BSC Panteg), gasworks (on VE day, 1945, the House of Lords was concerned with the second reading of the Pontypool Gas Bill), and the former workhouse now County Hospital. The school is set in stunning surroundings which enrich and enhance the learning and lives of the children that attend the school. This includes a school pond, built by staff and the community with the support of Keep Wales Tidy (historic environment service of the Welsh Government) and a canal jetty which leads directly onto the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal. This runs from the River Usk and Brecon feeder to the Newport Old Town Dock and Crumlin Wharf. The canal was originally constructed to transport coal, lime and agricultural products but was also used to export iron from the iron works in Blaenafon. This is now a World Heritage site, along with a section of the canal, which was granted this title in 2000. I have worked at Griffithstown Primary School for 3 years, where I have been given the opportunity to develop and expand my professional career. I currently work in Year Two and lead Professional Learning and the Curriculum for Wales 2022 across the school, which I am very passionate about. Covid 19 Teaching across the country and world has changed massively over the past couple of months owing to the huge impact of Covid 19. Griffithstown Primary School shut on Friday 20th March. This is when we began our home learning journey. Suddenly, we are no longer teaching in the routine of our own classroom and school, surrounded by children and our friends. We no longer have the usual lesson planning, classrooms to prepare and books to mark, surrounded by the smiles and kind hearts of children to cheer up any situation and day. Education, as we know it, has
dramatically changed. The work-load and long hours still remain, however, the interaction with the children is completely different, along with the planning and marking. The beaming faces of children that keeps us motivated each day is no longer lighting up classrooms, chatting, smiling, joking and laughing, making the days blissfully hectic. The children are still the smiling, happy children that we dismissed on the 20th March, but we now speak to them each day via laptops, computers and tablets. What would we have done without the advances in technology allowing us to do this? Working at a Hub School Hub schools have been set up across Wales to give childcare to key workers. In the West-Mon Secondary cluster, which Griffithstown Primary is a part of, there is one hub school. Initially we went to the hub school to meet the staff and have a meeting about the protocol and procedures in place, although this changed once the hub school opened. Owing to the number of children attending (fewer than was initially anticipated), each school in the cluster will support the hub school on a weekly rota basis. Griffithstown’s week commenced on 25th April. I was put forward to work on the Wednesday from 8am until 6pm, which I was happy to do. Although, I was very apprehensive about meeting the needs of the children, child protection and social distancing from the children and adults at the school, I need not have been at all worried. It was a relaxed day full of play and kindness. The play scheme staff, cleaners, caretakers and kitchen staff were all very welcoming and friendly. The day began at 7.30am, arriving at the school early to ensure I gained the information I needed before the children arrived at 8am. Meeting four of my colleagues there was great, we were able to catch up and exchange ideas of home learning that we had been completing, getting the day off to a great start. The children arrived at 8am, with their key worker parents signing them in and filling out the relevant forms, and the children bounced into the canteen where they had their breakfast. It was so lovely to see their innocent, smiling faces in this unnerving time, it gave me the biggest smile. Throughout the day, the children completed a range
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