Gwent education bosses hold school safety talks

No new Gwent-wide decisions are needed on school lockdowns, education chiefs have said following a meeting last week.

Concerns about safety arrangements at schools have been heightened after two teachers and a pupil were injured at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford in April, leading to a 13-year-old girl being charged with three counts of attempted murder.

As a result the school was placed in lockdown for around four hours, with nobody permitted to leave or enter the site. In the days that followed, the Ebbw Fawr Learning Community Secondary Campus, in Ebbw Vale, was placed in partial lockdown after police were alerted of threats made – while police in Swansea made an arrest after a knife was brought to a secondary school.

Last month, Islwyn High School, in Oakdale, and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni’s Y Gwyndy campus, in Caerphilly, both received telephone calls alleging explosive devices had been placed at the schools.

Both schools were evacuated as a result – but no explosive devices were found when inspected by police.

Two borough schools evacuated over hoax bomb calls

Members of Torfaen Borough Council’s education committee, who wanted to know if Ammanford incident had prompted it to review school security, were told lockdown arrangements would be discussed when the council hosted a meeting of Gwent education directors in May.

Why is Caerphilly in Gwent?

Caerphilly County Borough was formed on April 1, 1996, by the merger of the Rhymney Valley district of Mid Glamorgan with the Islwyn borough of Gwent.

Administratively, for local services such as the police and health, the borough now falls under a wider region referred to as Gwent. This comprises the council areas of Caerphilly, Newport, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire.

A spokesman for Torfaen Council, following that meeting, said it was agreed support for headteachers regarding the management of their school sites should continue to be provided individually by the five local authorities across Gwent, which includes Caerphilly County Borough.

The spokesman said: “Support for headteachers regarding site management will continue to be supported by individual local authorities. No specific regional decisions regarding shared professional learning were taken at this monthly meeting of regional directors.”

They added regional directors meet regularly to discuss a wide range of “shared issues”.

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