In line with today's announcement from Welsh Government regarding changes to covid restrictions for educational settings, the College will now start to move towards a position where, whilst there is no requirement for most restrictions, they will still be encouraged.

At the current time, the numbers of positive covid cases are still relatively high, and therefore it will now be up to individuals to make their own judgement in terms of whether they will continue to follow the measures.   

So what does this mean for the College?

We are continuing to work closely with the local Incident Management Team (IMT) and Public Health Wales to ensure we have the measures in place to keep our students learning and the College community safe. These currently include:

Hands - continue to wash and sanitise hands
Face - wear a face covering in communal areas (unless exempt)
Space - keep a physical distance from others

Following today's announcement from the First Minister, which outlines that cases in Wales are continuing to rise and restrictions in schools should remain in place up until Easter, we can confirm that the College will be continuing with its current covid safety measures. 

These include: 

This week, we were advised by Swansea Bay Health Board that the Regional Incident Management Team (IMT) considers the current risk level of coronavirus in Swansea Bay equivalent to the high rating on their framework.

Subsequently, the guidance from the IMT is that, although the College is not itself a high risk, all organisations – including schools – are being asked to take extra steps to help prevent the continuing spread of the virus in the wider community.

As a College, we already have a number of control measures in place, which include

I hope that you and your family have enjoyed the summer break. 
 
As our students return to College we would like to make you aware of the arrangements that will be in place from the start of this autumn term and how we will continue to prioritise the health and safety of our students whilst they are at College. 
 
Firstly, it is our intention that the majority of teaching will be carried out on a face to face basis, although we will also be looking to provide enhanced support for those learners who are having to self-islolate at home. 

The most recent announcement by the Education Minister gives us the opportunity to build on the good work of the past couple of weeks and to bring more students back for face-to-face teaching from Monday 15 March.

We are now able to bring in more vocational students in learning areas where there are outstanding practical assessments, and it also means we can bring back A Level students where preparation for assessments will need to take place.

I will explain the arrangements that we need to put in place for students below.

Last week, the Education Minister announced that a small number of vocational students would be able to return to College from Monday 22 February which, as you will hopefully be aware from my previous update, we have been planning towards for the past couple of weeks.

The students who will be prioritised for return are those needing to undertake assessments to complete their qualifications and achieve their license to practice.