Coronavirus – Advice for all early years providers, schools and further education providers
The government is closely monitoring the spread of the Coronavirus and is taking action at home and abroad.

The overall risk of Coronavirus to the UK remains moderate. However, we understand that people may be concerned where there are children, students or staff returning from or visiting China.

Public Health England and the Foreign Office have issued advice for anyone travelling to the area. This can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-and-avian-flu-advice-for-travel-to-china

Latest information and advice can also be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

Please share this advice with your staff and cascade as appropriate.

Advice for parents/guardians
You should not be unduly worried about the possibility of your children catching the Coronavirus.

There is no reason why your children should not continue to attend their early years, school or further education setting as normal.

We recognise that some families or children may be planning to travel to China during the forthcoming half term period. If so, please refer to the FCO’s latest travel advice via the link above.

What action you can take
A UK wide campaign has been launched to provide clear advice on how to slow the spread of Coronavirus.

Please help to support the campaign which promotes basic hygiene practices, such as regularly washing hands and always sneezing into a tissue, to stem the spread of viruses.

You can do this by:

Displaying this poster in relevant public spaces:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e35b25740f0b609169cb52a/coronavirus-public-info-poster-2.pdf

Sharing DHSC content from the following social media links:

https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk

https://www.facebook.com/DHSCgovuk/videos/194227541968649/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dhsc_coronavirus-coronavirusoutbreak-coronavirusuk-activity-6629655670331318273-Djpu

Congratulations to Stacey Roderick, Additional Educational Needs Coordinator and teacher of psychology, for completing the Autism Leaders Award.

The award, a new postgraduate qualification designed to help raise awareness of the developmental disorder within mainstream schools, was delivered by the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Outreach Service in conjunction with the University of Wolverhampton.

We are delighted to announce we have our own qualified Autism Leader at St Edmund’s.

Mrs Gibbons, Assistant Principal, collected the award Stacey’s behalf.

https://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/news/teachers-become-autism-leaders-boost-support-schools?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialSignIn&utm_content=Stronger+Communities+-+School+Improvement

The Eco-Club took another step towards achieving their Eco-School Green Flag Award. St Edmund’s were kindly donated 30 trees to plant on the premises to help offset the carbon footprint of one our pupils companies.

The day came when the trees arrived and the Eco-Club got into action! With the help of Mr Katumba, our green fingered hero, who showed us how to plant the trees successfully, with digging a suitably sized hole and how to use compost effectively so the roots have help growing when they wake up.

In very cold conditions our Eco-Club planted all 30 trees successfully and had a great deal of fun. We all agreed that it was amazing to be part of something that will hopefully be here in years to come. It has gone towards our Eco-Schools award objective of biodiversity, which brings us very close to completing the whole award!

As part of this year’s Loyola programme, pupils from years 8, 9, 11 & 13 attended RAF Cosford for the first of two days of fierce competition to qualify for the national finals.

After a number of qualifying rounds, even pitting our two teams against each other, the year 9 team finished 2nd out of the 21 schools at the event and won two awards.

This is an excellent achievement in our first year taking part in this technically challenging competition and means they will now take part in the national finals at the end of March.

Great credit goes to Mr Morgan and the students for their hours of commitment after school to enhance and improve their design.

Students from various schools and institutions from across the city, recently gathered at the illustrious Wolverhampton Civic Hall.  For many the events of that evening would become a moment engraved in their memories for a lifetime.

A year 11 and a sixth former took on new roles, not only were they students from St Edmund’s Catholic Academy but they also became Youth Council Members. Two sixth formers returned and took on more prominent roles within the youth council, one went on to become a Wolverhampton representative for Youth Parliament while the other went on to become the Chair of Wolverhampton Youth Council.

Together these four students, and the rest of the Youth Council members, would go on to represent their school and help create a better Wolverhampton; a Wolverhampton where the future generations to come would listen intensively to the history of Wolverhampton and how it progressed to become a new city, a better city.

These students would go on to face many new adventures and in turn new opportunities would arise – let’s hope that, like the senior Youth Council members, the new members would also be able to find their voice!

By Janis Liora Tchiesso Nantchouang

On Saturday 8 February three teams took part in the West Midlands Floor & Vault Competition at Fenton Manor, Stoke-on-Trent. The U14 girls competed first and performed really well, considering for some it was their first competition at this level.

Their confidence increased enormously and they were placed 6^th overall. Well done to Millie Baggs, Lucy Connell, Amelia Roscoe, Ellie Marandola and Kylah Johnson.

Next up were the U14 mixed team who were up against stiff competition from Arden School.  Our gymnasts were amazing and they performed with extension and flair. A great performance from Ewan Cox placed him 4^th overall, just outside the medals in the individual competition. The team went on to gain the silver medal – 2^nd overall. Congratulations Ewan Cox, Pax Katanga, Karyce Johnson, Maja Ura, Gwenneth Williams.

In the U19 mixed section again, we narrowly missed the individual medals with Lysia Bayley and Josh Dodd-Matthews both gaining 4^th place overall. The team however, did St Edmund’s proud as they performed consistently well in both floor and vault and after a very tense wait for the results became West Midlands Champions. They will now represent the West Midlands in the British Schools Gymnastics Championships in May. Well done Amelia Beet, Josh Dodd-Matthews, Ben Jones, Lysia Bayley and Corrin Smith. Good luck for the Nationals!

Students and staff, on the trip to Spain, arrived safely and are looking forward to an exciting week of fun and learning.