Issue - meetings

At the invitation of the Chair the Corporate Director of Education gave a verbal Covid update position in education and across the school estate.

The Corporate Director of Education informed Members that currently there were 584 positive cases per 100,000 population, placing Blaenau Gwent fifth across Wales in relation to Covid cases.  The level remains high but was down significantly compared to the end of the new year.  The Gwent Incident Management team agreed that the schools alert level remains in the very high risk category.  The number of cases among school children had increased up to 186 positive cases and 81 staff had been affected by Covid, that was 6.5% of the overall workforce within schools. 

Blaenau Gwent’s position with the Welsh Government categorisation on a RAG status was currently Green as most schools had retained face to face learning. However, recently four schools had introduced elements of blended learning. 

The Welsh Government Education Minister had issued a letter to all schools outlining that from 28th January, 2022 there would be a national move to alert level 0.  There would be a cautious phased and planned approach across schools moving forward. He advised that the Welsh Government had reduced the self-isolation period for positive cases to five days.

Schools were expected to continue to use the Schools Infection Control Framework in relation to local school implementation around positive cases.

Qualification Wales had confirmed plans to hold examinations for both Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 learners in the summer term.  There was an intention to adjust the examination grade boundaries to reflect that many learners had been subject to disrupted teaching and learning over the last two years and this had been broadly welcomed across the Education sector in Wales.

In response to a Member’s question, the Corporate Director of Education reassured the Member that with regard to the Welsh Government School Infection Control Framework a localised implementation was expected.  The Local Authority was supporting schools where they had to take decisions around blended learning in relation to communication with parents and health and safety requirements.  

With regard to licenses and digitally disadvantaged learners, the Corporate Director said the transition of equipment from those learners that had left education and those learners entering statutory education was being managed and running relatively smoothly.  The Service Manager Education Transformation & Business Change confirmed the process was operating smoothly and they were undertaking regular reviews.  Usage and demand for both the mi-fi units and devices had decreased considerably over the course of the autumn term as schools had sought to provide continuity of learning on site, but they were regularly monitoring the situation and working very closely with schools around implementation.