Make a Difference.

Join us to #WearRedforWalesandVelindre on Friday the 2nd February, and donate £1 to Velindre. By wearing red you’ll be showing your support for our National Rugby Teams ahead of the 6 Nations and raising vital funds for Velindre. I you would prefer to send your money in to school we will be able to donate on your behalf.

Please see the attached link:
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/wearred2024

 

As you are aware the Council agreed to carry out a consultation to review its current Home to School Transport provision for children and young people in Rhondda Cynon Taf. The proposal sets out a new Home to School Transport Policy, which maintains certain discretionary transport provision and provide mainstream English, Welsh and Faith primary school, secondary school and college transport in line with relevant statutory distance criteria. Any new policy would be implemented from the start of the 2025/2026 academic year.

The consultation originally ran from 27^th November 2023 until 5pm 8^th January 2024.

The Council recognises the significance of the proposal for pupils who use and will use home to school transport now or in the future, and the extended consultation provides a further opportunity for those potentially impacted to take part in the consultation. The Council has therefore taken the decision to extend the consultation for a further three week period running from Thursday 18^th January 2024 until 5pm Thursday 8^th February 2024.

The details of the proposal and the opportunity to respond to the consultation can be found at: Consultation on the Council’s Home to School Transport Policy | Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council (rctcbc.gov.uk)

There is no need for anyone who has previously taken part in this consultation to submit a further response unless they wish to do so.

Dear Parent/Carer,

RE: School Attendance and the Attendance & Wellbeing Service

At Tai Education Centre, we place great emphasis on the importance of attending school everyday and we are supported by the Local Authority in ensuring that we provide the best possible opportunities for our pupils. There are already a range of school based initiatives in place which help us to promote and celebrate achievements and the Attendance and Wellbeing Service (AWS) also support us in our efforts for continued improvements.  

Schools and parents have a legal obligation for ensuring registered pupils attend school regularly and the AWS is there to offer the appropriate support where there may be difficulties.  We recognise that some children may miss the occasional day due to illness or because of exceptional circumstances (which would need to be discussed with the headteacher). Other than in these special cases, your child should be attending school every day.

As part of Rhondda Cynon Taf’s drive to improve school attendance, the AWS has arranged a number of activities for the remainder of the year which are aimed at raising the awareness of attendance across communities and as part of this campaign are asking schools to support them by reminding parents to actively discourage casual and unnecessary absences from school. The following activities have been arranged:

• Wellbeing Response Visits (WRV’s) deployed across school clusters
• Meet and Greets at school gates
• Joint Truancy Operations on the Valley Lines with British Transport Police 
• Supermarket Swoops across county 
• Retail Park patrols

WRV activities are specifically designed to support schools in operating and managing their “First Day Response” procedures and will involve home visits to absent pupils, particularly if there has been no contact made to explain the absence.

Regular attendance is important, not just because the law requires it, but also because it is the best way of ensuring children get the most out of school. You need to make sure that your child attends every day and is on time. If your child is absent for any reason, please contact the school immediately to explain the absence.

I look forward to your support in achieving excellent attendance 

Yours sincerely,

M. Chadney

Head teacher