The summer holidays are well underway but with many families hit by the cost of living crisis some cannot afford to go away or even for days out. There are also worries that children may forget some of what they have learned through the school year.
Michelle Jones, award-winning headteacher at Cardiff's Lansdowne Primary, has shared her top tips for keeping younger children entertained and learning through the holidays. As a mother of two herself, and working with families of her 365 pupils she knows how the cost of living crisis is hitting household budgets, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Last spring Michelle and her deputy head, Catherine Cooper, won first prize in the St David's Awards, the national awards of Wales. The two senior leaders received the award in the Critical Key Worker category for the support they showed to families at their school during the coronavirus pandemic.
As if that wasn't enough Michelle was then awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June. The official reason listed was services to education, but the story behind that was much more.
Michelle was honoured for her work helping pupils at her school and their families during the pandemic. When Covid hit, schools across Wales found ways to deliver lessons to pupils while classrooms were shut.
At Christmas lockdowns Michelle and her daughter Nyah delivered food boxes to families who would have struggled to eat otherwise. She sourced toys which were given to children who would not have had a Christmas present.
Michelle and her staff visited to families unable to leave their homes, working through the holidays to do this. Meanwhile the mother of two was also looking after her parents and brother who were shielding as well as her own children.
"If it wasn't for my son and daughter, my husband, my sister it would have been a very difficult time to have got through because we were working seven days a week, we were available sort of 24 hours a day, seven days a week for families that needed the support," Michelle said looking back on the time classrooms were shut.
"My dad and my brother were also shielders at the time so myself and my sister were ensuring that they had shopping and dropping things off for them as well. It wasn't just sort of my school life really. My daughter she was going through A-levels, my son was in school. So the impact Covid had on everybody it was making sure that all my plates were spinning and I didn't drop anything really.
"It's one thing I'm quite good is spinning plates but times did get tough, there were tears and there were stresses throughout. As there were for everybody working on the front line. But I've got an amazing team at Lansdowne, my deputy Cath Cooper was incredibly supportive throughout, alongside all the teachers and teaching assistants at the school and I also worked really closely with a group of head teachers within our cluster. And we've been the hub together."
Read more:
Summer 2022 in Wales: 40 things to do with the family during the holiday
The two single mums helping thousands of others like themselves
Driven into poverty by saving a relative's child
The three alternative school year dates suggested for Wales
How much school meals cost in every part of Wales and the free food lottery
