TWO primary school workers from Barry have been awarded British Empire Medals (BEM) for services to the community during covid-19.

Gladstone Primary caretaker, Adam Clode and administration officer, Deborah Crow, both of Barry, received the recognition in the Queen's Birthday honours list announced, Saturday, October 10.

The announcements are usually made in June, but were delayed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Dad-of-four, Mr Clode has worked at the school for two years having formerly been a catering supervisor at Cardiff Airport.

His roles, which was a Vale hub school throughout lockdown, include maintenance and teaching pupils carpentry skills.

Mr Clode, 48, said: "I had a letter a while ago.

"I thought it was a hoax at first and then I read it and I was shocked.

"I was just doing my job and you try to help as much as you can."

Mrs Crow, 48, worked with Mr Clode throughout.

At the start of lockdown she put in place food packages for children who were eligible for free school meals.

She made up grab bags for around 50 families every day, making sure they were labelled and organised into routes for people to deliver and she moved from food deliveries to a voucher system.

She also supported the head teacher to put together 40 hampers very quickly for children and their families as extra support for people facing real hardship at a time of crisis.

Since then the number of hampers has grown to over 150 per week, across five schools.

Her nomination read: "She is the engine behind this operation - organising and resourcing fresh food, canned and dried foods as well as boxes.

"She spends three days each week singlehandedly preparing the boxes and has produced systems so the five schools involved can easily collect hampers ready for delivery.

"She changes hampers at the drop of a hat and produces more if any school needs them.

"This is all at a time when she is continuing her administrative duties within the school and has supported all staff with organising home deliveries of toys and packages for the children."

The nomination added: "Her absolute dedication to the school and community is apparent, mucking in to get the job done, such as cleaning the school and has even helped the caretaker in clearing all of the drains to stop the school from further flooding during heavy rain."

Mrs Crow said: "I didn't believe it.

"I thought it was a hoax.

"Then I had a phone call saying I hadn't responded to an email.

"It is so lovely, but you just do and I wasn't doing it for anything."