Newsletter 28/04/2010

April 29, 2010

28th April 2010. Dear Parent, There is no final date set for the Small Schools’ Cup Final at Sardis Road Pontypridd but currently it looks like the games will be held in two weeks, on either the 10^th or 12^th May. In the intervening time there will be rugby training tomorrow afternoon for the squad and Tuesday and Wednesday dinner times. Please make sure everybody has brought their kit for those times. The Drumcrazy performance and workshop for the children is due to take place on Monday, May 10^th and an amount of £3.50 per head, in order to cover the costs, is required as all children will get the opportunity to enjoy this event. Class 2 will be out on a trip tomorrow to Pencoed Environmental Centre. Gail Suillivan from the Road Safety team will be in school to present certificates to the children who took part in the cycling proficiency course. Congratulations to everyone who took part in the cheerleading event at Llantrisant Leisure Centre, where the school was third in the primary section. On Friday afternoon, Year 1 will be given audio tests by the school nurse, Cath Jones, and Class 4 will be visiting the new Dairy site to further develop the role of the school in the community. On Tuesday afternoon a poet will be visiting school to read and discuss poetry with all the classes. We are hoping to start cricket training on Thursday, May 6^th at Miskin Cricket Club. Please let me know if you are able to provide transport. Training will be directly after school. Yours sincerely, M. EmanuelHead Teacher.

Posted by school admin | Filed Under General

Small schools’ rugby final

April 26, 2010

The Pontypridd schools’ final evening has been provisionally postponed to the week of 10.5.10. Every cloud has a silver lining so this will give us more time to train for the game.

Rugby training will take place:

on Tuesdays at lunchtime for the next 2 weeks;

this Thursday after school;

Wednesday the5th of May at lunchtime.

Please help by ensuring your child has kit on the right days.

Thanks,

Mike Emanuel

Posted by school admin | Filed Under General

Kingswood 2010

April 25, 2010

Before the Easter holidays the whole of the year 6 group went on a team-building fun week to Kingswood activity centre. The main aim of this project is that the children get to spend time with children from different schools that they will be at secondary school with in September. The trip was a roaring success as usual and the children have made some new friends for September.

Posted by class2 | Filed Under Class 4

Outdoor learning

April 25, 2010

The whole school has been making the most of the good weather and they have been doing a lot of their lessons outside. Class 2 have been learning about nests and even made their own nest using feathers and sticks. The class found out how challenging this is.

Thursday was world earth day. World earth day was founded by America in 1970 and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. It is a day to inspire awareness and appreciation for the natural environment. Class 2 spent the afternoon in the woods making mud monsters. They also looked closely at variation in leaves and seeds and created artwork with natural materials.

Posted by class2 | Filed Under Class 2

Infant Summer Trip 2010

April 25, 2010

As you may already be aware, both the infant and junior department of the school will be going on their summer school trip on Friday, 9^th July. The destination for the infant trip has been decided as the Manor Farm Wildlife Park in Tenby. If your child is in class 1, 2, 5 or 6 they are eligible for this trip.

The trip will include a wallaby walk-through area, play area and other animals to see such as monkeys and flamingos. The trip will be all-day but more specific timings will be given closer to the date. We encourage children to be accompanied by an adult and little brothers or sisters are welcome to come along too. If parents are unable to make the trip the teachers going will supervise those children during the day.

We have booked two coaches for the trip and so seating is limited. Due to this, we are asking for a £6.50 deposit per person to be paid to book your seats on the coach. The total cost of the trip, including the deposit, is £11.50 per child and £14.50 per adult. The deposit and consent form below must be returned to school by Friday 7^th May. Please make every effort to make this date as we cannot guarantee your place on the trip otherwise and may have to charge an increased price to hire another coach. Do not miss your place on this year’s summer trip!

Posted by class2 | Filed Under Class 1, Class 2, Class 5, Class 6

Newsletter 21/04/2010

April 21, 2010

21^st April 2010. Dear Parent, The cycling sessions at the school have gone very well with Gail Sullivan, the instructor, complimenting the children on their behaviour and attitude. There are a couple of changes necessary for the calendar which was sent out last week. The PTA are going to be running a family furtunes night on Friday, 21^st May, starting at 7.30 pm. This event will be held at the school and promises to be a lot of fun with teams, not necessarily families, taking part in the competition the format of which is very familiar to us all. This is going to be an adults only night, with a wider range of refreshments than usual available. The date for the summer fair is moving to Saturday, 3^rd July. In order to try and stop the spread of headlice through the junior department, we will be having a seminar tomorrow afternoon from Cath Jones the district nurse. All junior children will be attending the seminar and Welsh Assembly Government leaflets on the control of headlice will be handed out to them afterwards. We hope this will help them to take some responsibility in keeping their own heads clean, but obviously the majority of this responsibility will still be yours. There will be a Head Teacher meeting at the school on Friday morning, involving all the head teachers from Y Pant Cluster. On Friday afternoon Class 4 will be collecting litter on Llantrisant Common which will help both to clean up the local environment and again raise their awareness of eco issues. Mrs. Gilheaney will be sending the next uniform order off on Friday 30^th April. If you require any items of uniform can you please fill in an order form and send it into school along with your payment. The order form is on the notice board in the main reception area. On Monday, the children who have been involved in the after school cheerleading club will have the opportunity to take part in a cheerleading competition and presentation down in Llantrisant Leisure Centre. This will run between 10.00am and 3.00 pm. The children will need to bring sports kit and a packed lunch for the occasion. On Tuesday next week, we have vision for tests for the children in Year 3. On Tuesday afternoon our link adviser with the LEA, Raynor Rees will be visiting the school. On Wednesday morning the assistamt Director of Education, Gareth Rees, will be visiting to see how the children and the school are progressing. Finally, the rugby team is due to play in Pontypridd Small Schools’ Cup Final one day next week. We have not as yet had the date and time confirmed. When we do it will be posted on the website. Can I also ask that children refrain from briniging into school any hard balls, leather etc. for use at breaktimes as these are too heavy for use on the school yard.Yours faithfully, Mike Emanuel (Head Teacher).

Posted by school admin | Filed Under General

Foundation Phase

April 18, 2010

Due to the Foundation Phase curriculum becoming compulsory for year one children as of September class 2 and 6 have started to integrate aspects now in order to prepare for September. The changes are not hugely different from what was going on in classes anyway but the focus will now be on small group tasks rather than teaching as a whole class. The set up of the classroom has changed slightly as we now have more areas for children to learn and experiment in by themselves. They include a music area, reading area and garden centre role-play area. To build up some of these areas we are asking for donations of any old pots and pans for our music area and any plants or garden things for our garden centre. The first few days have been very successful in both classes.

Posted by class2 | Filed Under Class 2, Class 6

Fun at the park!

April 18, 2010

In class, we have been reading “When we went to the park” by Shirley Hughes. As part of our work to come from this book children will be making their own miniature version of a piece of park equipment. This work will focus on their ability to adapt materials and join them in different ways. To look more closely at what they would be making the children went on a walk to the park by Llantrisant leisure centre. They had a lot of fun investigating how different things worked and then sketched the part they wanted to make in their books.

Posted by class2 | Filed Under Class 2

Gardening with class 6

April 18, 2010

As the weather has been so nice, class 6 took the opportunity to tend to their vegetable patch. As any keen gardener knows caring for a vegetable patch takes a lot of hard work. Class 2 and 6 share this patch and have been getting the summer’s growing off to a flying start. Keep up the hard work!

Posted by class2 | Filed Under Class 6

Daerwynno

April 18, 2010

Before half-term year 5 pupils had the opportunity to visit the Daerwynno Activity Centre for a day of team-building fun! They were very fortunate with the weather and so had lots of fun outside. At one point the group had to lift Mr Emanuel through a hole in a net- now there’s some strong children! It looks like they all had a fantastic day.