Residents urged not to “drop their guard” and stick to covid restrictions as Wrexham schools reopen to foundation phase pupils

Residents across Wrexham are being urged not to “drop their guard” as schools reopen to foundation phase pupils.

From tomorrow (Friday 26 February) those aged between three and seven will return to the classroom for the first time since before Christmas.

Face-to-face learning in schools had been suspended by Welsh Government, apart for the children of critical workers and vulnerable learners subject to certain criteria.

However last month the Welsh Government announced plans to begin a phased return for schools, starting with the youngest primary school pupils.

Wrexham Council had taken a more ‘cautious’ course of action compared to some local authorities in Wales and decided to postpone the reopening of schools to these age groups due to the high levels of coronavirus in the area at that time.

Due to a decrease in recent weeks – with rates in Wrexham currently the lowest in the region – Wrexham Council confirmed that schools would reopen to foundation phase pupils from tomorrow.

But people are being urged not to “drop their guard”, with Lead Member for Education, councillor Phil Wynn, urging parents and guardians to “not hang around the school gates talking to others” at pick up and drop off times.

Cllr Wynn said: “We’re very pleased to see children returning to our schools but there’s still lots of restrictions in place to limit the transmission of Covid-19 in our communities.

“We all need to remain patient for a while yet to ensure we don’t return to square one when we had the highest number of positive cases in Wales.

“Please continue to work from home where possible, wear a face mask when dropping off and picking up your child, don’t hang about the school gates talking to other parents, school bubbles apply in schools only and children should not be mixing out of school.

“We should also be mindful that we can only meet up to four people from two different households when we exercise outdoors.

“If we all do this we can hopefully see further progress being made to lift restrictions and get our older children back to school.”

Speaking last week First Minister Mark Drakeford announced that it was the Welsh Government’s intention for the all primary school pupils and some older students to return from March 15.