BRING YOUR KITCHEN BACK TO LIFE
The two women running education in Cardiff – the new education director and the council’s deputy leader – outline their vision for the city’s schools after the pandemic. Education editor Abbie Wightwick reports
A KIND stranger who bought an elderly man an entire week’s worth of food after his card was declined at a supermarket checkout has come forward.
Derek Everett was attempting to pay for a full shopping trolley’s worth of food for him and his wife when his card was declined at Sainsbury’s in the Crindau area of Newport on Monday afternoon.
Slightly panicked, the 80-year-old was trying to deal with the problem when a woman behind him in the queue whipped her card out and paid for the pensioner’s shopping.
As reported in Wednesday’s Echo, she refused to be reimbursed and had left the area by the time an extremely grateful Derek managed to withdraw cash from a machine outside.
The story picked up interest on Twitter after Derek’s son, Gareth Everett, shared a tweet expressing his thanks and hoping the mystery good
Samaritan would come forward.
On Wednesday, Gareth said the “extraordinary lady” had sent him a private message explaining her reasons for making the gesture and that she still did not want repayment. She also said she would prefer to remain anonymous.
In response, the family has decided to donate the money to a food bank to “help spread the love and kindness”.
This is part of the touching message the anonymous woman sent to the family: “Hi Gareth hope you’re OK.
“It was myself who paid for your dad’s shopping. I was concerned your dad would go without food. You never know if anyone is struggling especially after this last year.
“I would not want to see anyone struggle not just money-wise but in general if I can do the smallest thing to help someone.
“I don’t want the money back or to be in the limelight. I didn’t do it for any of that. I did it to make sure your dad didn’t go without.
“I’m glad to know he’s OK and thank you for your kind words but there really is no need to thank me.
“Not knowing your dad’s situation before I was worried he would go without food and times are hard at the moment which is why I did and would do it again if needed for someone.
“I don’t want the money back at all.”
After returning home from the supermarket on Monday, Derek’s family discovered that the issue was not to do with any of his account balances, but was caused by an ongoing issue with transactions caused by one of his banks.
Gareth said of the message: “In light of this dad has decided to donate the money to a food bank to help spread the love and kindness this lady showed him, and help those who are genuinely in need of material help.
“I hope this amazing lady provides some inspiration for everyone to show just a little kindness to help someone else.”
TAKING over as director of Wales’ largest local education authority in the midst of a pandemic and school closures may not have been ideal timing, but Melanie Godfrey said the disruption has reaffirmed Cardiff’s vision.
The pandemic has also thrown up some small silver linings – better communication with schools, more parental engagement and more learners connected to the internet.
Tasked with leading Cardiff’s education out of pandemic Melanie, the city’s new Director of Education and Lifelong Learning is working closely with Cllr Sarah Merry, Cardiff’s deputy leader and cabinet member for education.
Both said the effects of the coronavirus pandemic have reaffirmed Cardiff’s pre-Covid commitment to make education a priority and has in fact sped up some of the aims in that.
One of those commitments is connecting all young people to the internet. While some may still not have devices or wifi at home, most do, with thousands of devices handed out during what is now almost a year of school closures.
While it could be easy to despair at the effects of lockdown on children and young people – most are unable to go into school or college, meet friends or take part in group activities – the loss of these has reinforced how vital they are and how they must be built on to come out of the pandemic successfully.
“None of our plans for education are on hold because of the pandemic. It heightens the focus on being a childfriendly city,” said Melanie, who joined Cardiff from her role as Welsh Government deputy director of education, planning and governance.
Working at the Welsh Government since 2006 she has more than 18 years’ experience in education and training, beginning her career at Newport council after graduating from the University of Sussex.
In essence Melanie is building on where her predecessor Nick Batchelar left off, but she must now take into account the effects of the pandemic and create a post-Covid vision.
“Priorities for education remain the same as in the Cardiff 2030 plan; learning entitlement, health and wellbeing, the new curriculum, the workforce and high quality working environments. That’s not changed.
“What the pandemic has done is underscore the importance of these priorities and reaffirms that Cardiff got those priorities right.”
She concedes that “some priorities may need to be re-tested” in the light of lockdown and that some young people may need some form of “catch up” learning.
While the idea of shortening the summer holidays to provide catchup is a hotly debated topic, Melanie said Cardiff is looking at “reengaging” learners and assessing where they are.
“The first step in catch-up will be re-engaging learners. What Covid has done means that will be for all learners, not just those who are disengaged.
“Re-engaging learners will be a priority for September for all learners. Re-engagement is an issue. Covid has taken away the physicality of learning so that needs to be re-introduced.
“At school level we expect schools to set out their reengagement plans. Those will vary from school to school.
“They will need to tell us how they plan to reengage pupils and some of that may be assessing learners.
“There will be a need for additional catch-up capacity.
“The (Welsh Government) education reforms plan to look at performance data more realistically. Data needs to be used for improvement but it won’t look so much at exam results as qualifications and wider skills. “The focus will be not so much on exam results as progression. When they are back to full return schools will assess where learners are and have a plan for that and to address well being.”
Academic work is not the only part of education and young people’s lives affected by Covid, Cllr Merry points out, for that reason £500,000 activities.
“Education is not just about school it’s all those things outside school Some children are taken to extra curricular activities. We want to widen extra curricular activities and there is £500,000 for extra activities for young people in the holidays.
“The crisis underlines how important some of our priorities were. We are putting extra money into new services for provision over the summer holidays, for playgrounds and play schemes. Spending on young people is a big focus.
“You can’t predict the impact on each child, but what we do know is some families have been under enormous pressure and that’s bound to have an impact on children and young people. There will be additional spending on young people next year.”
One upside of the pandemic and school closure is that it had meant better and more regular communication between the education department and school leaders. They now hold regular virtual meetings and this will carry on post-Covid, Melanie hopes.
And while reaction to remote learning has been mixed across Wales, most families will now be more aware of what their children’s education means as they work from home. Weekly engagement figures and feedback from schools has been collated throughout the pandemic. This has helped the local education authority to see the number of pupils who are engaging with blended learning from each school, said Melanie.
Not all young people are at school is being put into
or college, of course, and the effect of the pandemic and lockdown on the lives of young people not in education or employment must not be overlooked. Although the number of Neets (not in education or training) has fallen in the city in recent years, it is still a concern.
“For those not in education or employment, Covid makes this an even more critical stage for the young. Mentoring them was a priority anyway but becomes even more critical now because of Covid challenge,” the new education director said.
The council is keen to continue working with local employers to help young people get onto apprenticeships and to get jobs in the city.
At the core of all these plans is money. Cardiff’s proposed budget earmarks millions of pounds for schools, catch up holiday schemes, playgrounds and youth and wellbeing hubs. That money is an investment in young people as well as the city’s future, stressed Melanie.
“On an economic basis Cardiff’s plans will contribute to jobs and employment but it’s more than that it’s what children and young people contribute.
“They are the foundation and future of the city. It’s important for the future of the city to prioritised education and young people.”
As people start daring to look at a postCovid world Cllr Merry cautioned it was important not to jump to conclusions about what will be needed for young people and children and what the effect of the pandemic will have meant for them.
“I don’t think we must rush to make judgements on the long-term consequences of Covid. I think we must draw breath.
“As an administration we have been really clear that education is a priority. Education is the surest way out of poverty and we can’t have a situation where a child’s life chances are set at birth.”
To that end Cardiff will keep a close eye on how learners in its schools are progressing.
“In terms of assessing our schools that requires engagement with Estyn and the school improvement consortia. There is data but there are also reports from them,” explained Melanie.
“That accountability is still there but not in the same format. When they are back to full return schools will assess where learners are and have a plan for that and a plan to address well being.”
In the meantime her department is working to help get more learners back into their classrooms. Three to seven year-olds and some college students were allowed to return from February 22 as lockdown is slowly eased. On Wednesday, the Welsh Government announced Years seven, eight and nine will now join all other age groups in a phased return from March 15
With a lot of hard work going on at schools across Cardiff – both in the classroom and behind the scenes – Melanie and Cllr Merry said they are confident school leaders are doing all they can to make the return as safe as they can be.