Rydal Penrhos is doing everything in its power to prevent the upcoming coronavirus pandemic lockdown from causing “learning loss” in pupils.

With the Welsh Government announcing a “fire-breaker” lockdown coming into force on Friday 23 October for a 17-day period, Rydal Penrhos’ management team have already put a plan in place to ensure pupils’ learning and development is not affected by the latest measures surrounding COVID-19.

Learning loss is something that has recently been investigated and published in a report from the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) report, which detailed the impact of school closures for specific year groups so soon after the first national lockdown earlier this year.

It read: “There is no research that can show us what the educational impact of COVID-19 school closures might be. Never in our lifetimes have so many schools for so many children been closed.

“However seasonal learning and summer learning loss is well documented and shows achievement typically slowing or declining over the summer months.

“The decline tends to be steeper for maths than for reading, with some pupils returning to schools after their summer holidays having lost ground by up to two or three months, with disadvantaged children lagging behind their better-off peers.

“Even a relatively short period of missed school, for example, due to illness, will have consequences for learning development.

“But with students now facing up to six months without consistent, ongoing guidance from their teachers and the structure offered by a classroom, and with 55 per cent of teachers from the most disadvantaged areas reporting concerns that their students are learning for less than one hour each day, researchers have estimated that disadvantaged students could be facing learning losses of between four and six months.”

Rydal Penrhos has been at the forefront not only regarding COVID-19 safety measures on-site but also with online learning to ensure each pupil still get the most out of their education.

This will be further aided this week by the distribution of free iPads to those year groups who will be unable to come into school during the second lockdown, which will impact their first week back following the half-term break.

Teaching staff will also be putting on full online lessons and will be on hand to offer advice and guidance to each pupil throughout the week.

These measures are a further indication of how Rydal Penrhos is adapted exceptionally to an ever-changing situation surrounding COVID-19, going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure each pupils’ potential is maximised.

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Rydal Penrhos is now able to offer private tours to prospective pupils and their families.

For more information email admissions@rydalpenrhos.com or book online at https://rydal.wpengine.com/open-days-visits.