ALL secondary and primary schools in the Vale of Glamorgan re-opened to pupils for the first time in more than three months on Monday, June 29.

Hub schools had catered for children whose parents are key workers, but other children were required to learn at home.

The Welsh Government’s plans for the remainder of this summer term are to give students and teachers a chance to “check in, catch up, [and] prepare” for what should be a return to more normal education in September.

Covid-19 measures differed from school to school, but included temperature checks, staggered starts and lesson times, social distancing, and limited class numbers.

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The school day at Whitmore High School, in Barry, runs from 9am to noon. Pupils are in groups of no more than 10 and remain in one classroom for the full learning session. Each week pupils have a different teacher to have a number of learning experiences and each year group are in once a week.

Staff will continue to provide home learning.

Head teacher, Innes Robinson, said: “I’ve been delighted with the day. We have been meticulously planning for a number of weeks and as usual, the teachers have been absolutely superb. It was fantastic to walk from class to class, seeing happy children learning and interacting with each other.”

Assistant head teacher, Nick Emery, added: “All the pupils knew which classroom they had been assigned and were excited about returning. It was great to see attendance being so high.”

Year 7 pupil, Milly Howell, said: “It feels good to be back, but still a little weird. It’s nice to see my friends and teachers that I haven’t seen for so long.”

Phoebe Bond said: “I’ve been really excited. I feel like the school have been preparing lots because it was really organised when we arrived as we all have our own area and there were signs on the floor to stay apart from each other.”

Willem Harrington added: “When we arrived, we washed our hands and did a survey to check how we have been feeling since school ended. We were also given a zone to stay in so that we kept our distance.”