Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you have all had a good week. Just a few things to mention below.

Jumpers and Jackets

As the weather gets warmer we find that the lost property collection is piling higher and higher. Through the course of the day many pupils will wish to take their cots or jumpers off if it gets to hot. To ensure that they don’t lose them if the mislay them please do put their names inside.

Bryn Alyn Information Evening for Year 4/5 pupils and parents.

Bryn Alyn has requested the use of the school hall to deliver an information evening for potential pupils and parents of the school. This is open to Year 4 and 5 parents and pupils and will allow the opportunity to learn a little more about the high school and ask some questions. 

Doors will open at 4:50pm on May 25th, the meeting will take place in the main hall. We expect it to finish no later than 5.45pm.

Please join us if you can for this session.

Other Dates:

26^th May- Jubilee celebration

27^th May-Staff curriculum day. School closed to pupils

Live Performance

It feels like it has been a while but we were fortunate enough today to have the KS2 pupils in to watch a live performance of the classic ‘The Hobbit’ tale. Staff and pupils thoroughly enjoyed this performance and came out of the hall singing it’s praises. We are already looking into another performance for this time next year.

The staff continue to work hard to make this area the best it can be and the pupils continue to enjoy using it. We are also accruing materials for it at a quick pace. Mrs Davies, who has worked hard on Jaxon’s wood from the beginning, accessed some grant money to get some intriguing new resources (see below). The grant will also cover some staff training alongside the three Level 3 Forest school practitioners who are currently accessing training.

In the News

Dosbarth 3 were in the news for their hard environmental work with PETA. See last weeks news for more info and the links below for the news.

Gwersyllt Primary School Pupils Win PETA Award for Speaking Up for Orcas

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you have all had a lovely week and have an even better weekend. Just a couple of things to update you on.

New School Intercom

Those of you who have tried to access the school during the school day will know we have a new school intercom installed. A member of staff will beep you through the gates once you have pressed the dial button. The gate which opens is the left hand gate (you may need to slide the bar across). Upon leaving can we request that visitors close the gate behind them. Many thanks.

Social Media

A couple of months ago, I wrote to parents regarding our ongoing concern about pupils in our primary school using social media and doing so, on some occasions, unmonitored.

This is an ongoing worry and we are finding that pupils are doing it at a younger and younger age. In many cases, the social media we hear about is created for children and adults aged 13 years and over. Though the school discuss these issues in class through internet safety lessons and community police sessions we can not monitor their use. 

Please do be aware of how your child may be using their phones. Previously, we have had concerns over the use of Tik Tok and the mimicking and communication channels it created but new apps are being made available constantly. Another particularly worrying app is ‘Omegle’ which randomly pair up callers around the world and allows them to talk to each other. Clearly, this is unsafe and open to misuse.

Through peers and friendship circles many children hear about apps that they don’t fully understand the details of and how they open themselves up to potential dangers. At this young age they are vulnerable and close monitoring and open communication is one way of lessening this risk.

As a school, we will do all we can to keep you informed on these aspects.

..and finally

A few lovely pictures of the pupils in action this week.

Year 3 and 4 have continued to focus on their topic of scrumdiddlyumptious this week with some wonderful bread baking being done. The smells emanating from the room was wonderful.

It has been all go in Dosbarth 5 this week. The pupils have been studying a book called Flotsam and investigating several sand covered trays. Within these trays were several hidden objects that would act as clues to whom the variety of character may be. As you can imagine there was plenty of discussion.

The class have also been using jelly babies (you heard that right) to look into sound waves. This picture and video doesn’t do the effect justice.

And every now and then I receive a piece of work that I just have to show off. This piece came from a Year 4 pupil who had spent her lunchtime in the sun drawing. I think you can agree that the pictures look great.

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Scroll down to see a few lovely pictures for the week

Jubilee day

Gwersyllt CP will be hosting a celebration day on Thursday May 26^th for the Jubilee. There will be a special menu on from the canteen, a complementary book has been ordered from Welsh Assembly Government and we are asking all pupils, if they wish, to get dressed up as someone well known from the last 100 years.

Birthday Cake

We have had some queries regarding birthday cake being brought in. We are now happy for it to come in the class but ask that you give consideration about whether it needs to be a whole cake or can be separate cakes (this makes it much easier for many of our classes).

Request for holidays

We kindly ask that holiday requests are made on the correct form which can be found on the forms section of our school website. Holidays requested without this form may well be recorded as unauthorised. 

As you are aware, the new policy means that the majority of holidays will be recorded as a ‘g’ in the register which means unauthorised holiday absence. However, it is important that the school can make this distinction wherever possible. 

Thank you in advance.

Eid

Snowy Owls celebrated in their class. They wore pyjamas, enjoyed some delicious pastries and were luck enough to receive a gift back from a special member of the class 🙂

Scrumdiddlyumptious

Many classes in the school are looking at aspects of food at the moment. Barn owls created a sandwich.

and class 2 were created a mixed salad

PETA

Finally Class 3 (Dosbarth 3) were awarded a very special certificate for their hard endeavours. They have been raising the awareness of concerns around animal welfare and, in particular, orcas. Dai iawn Dosbarth 3.

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you had a pleasant couple of weeks and enjoyed the sunshine that finally arrived. It is a pleasure to have the pupils back with us in a busy but relatively short term.

This week is no exception, we have had bike training for some of our Year 6 pupils on Tuesday and Wednesday. Looking at biking skills and road safety. For more information on how Year 6 can now bring their bike to school please see this weeks Newsletter.

The staff were busy this week during the training day trying to sort out areas and the overall use of Jaxon’s Wood. All of the classteachers and many of the TA’s came in to work on the area, which looks greatly improved. There is still some work to go which we hope to complete over the course of the next few weeks. We also have a number of staff completing Forest school training to ensure we can use the facility as well and as much as possible.

A group of girls represent the school in a 5 a side football tournament on Wednesday (you may remember the boys went before Easter). As ever they represented the school fabulously and Mr McAteer was very impressed. They topped their group and went on to the later stages. Fantastic stuff.

Finally, and as mentioned in the Newsletter, we have put together our school manifesto (for want of a better word) it includes our vision alongside what opportunities and skills a pupil from Gwersyllt CP should have. This has been many months in the pipeline and has included ideas from staff, pupils, parents and governors. Thank you for all those that put forward suggestions.

We hope you all have a wonderful couple of weeks. As I mentioned in the newsletter, the pupils have been fantastic in an occasionally tricky term.

The website has been a quiet place over the last couple of weeks. My apologies for that. There has been no absence of activity going on.

I already mentioned the football tournament in which the pupils did so well. We have also had visits to the high school to look at the internal workings of the heart. A Fire engine has visited the school to the immense pleasure of our Year 1 and 2 pupils. We are starting to use the skills of our Year 6 pupils again to help peer learning, particularly in ICT.

But, as always the pictures paint a thousand words. So I will leave you with the below instead. Again, have a lovely break and we will see you for the summer term.

All at Gwersyllt CP

Positive Cases 

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Just a quick update regarding the change in guidance for those testing positive from Monday 28th March.

In terms of staff or pupils isolating if they test positive, whilst nobody will be legally obliged to self-isolate from 28^th March, this will move into guidance and Welsh Government have stated that they recommend a cautious approach, and strongly advise people to isolate when they are ill or test positive.  Welsh Government guidance for schools has not yet been updated.  Therefore, in the absence of updated guidance it is sensible that schools continue with the current approaches.  This includes the requirement that staff and pupils who are displaying any symptoms of illness or test positive to not come into school. 

We hope to receive guidance soon, and will communicate this to you as soon as possible. 

Many thanks,

Mr J Moore

Ukraine appeal

The local church have asked us to support the appeal below.

https://teams4u.com/ukraine-appeal/www.teams4u.com/donate

Please see the link above for information on what is accepted. It also provides the address of where to take the packages. Alternatively, the school are happy to receive boxed donations which we will take weekly to the industrial estate.

The option to donate money is also available on the site.

Many thanks

Pre ordering dinners

We are having a number of late arrivals who have not pre ordered their dinners for the day ahead. Can we kindly request that this is done when possible. If the pupil orders in the classroom when arriving on time, it is manageable. However, it can take a great deal of time up when the pupil(s) arrive at the front reception and are required to order there meal when signing in late.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Lastly we have some visiotors in our school. I am not talking about the Snowy Owls pupils.

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Phew! As I mentioned in the newsletter today – What a busy week.

Plenty going on through out the week from St David’s day to World book day and beyond. The pupils have looked great and the creative work was fantastic.

Rather than use words, I will let the photos do the talking.

Class 3 also had the pleasure of a school trip to Rhyl

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Over the past 24 hours I have had a number of communications regarding current world events and the pupils being made aware of them during Newsround. These conversations and emails have fallen on both sides of the argument, one being that it is vital that pupils are informed and aware of world events given them both the knowledge and power to understand, reflect and act on events. The other side is that these are upsetting news stories, which, for many reasons (the past 2 years being one) parents are conscious of not bringing to the forefront of their children’s minds on a daily basis. As a school we understand both sides.

Newsround has always been a child friendly, sensitive introduction to current events offering an entry point for children of a broad age range. We have watched it for a few years now and hope to do so soon. At the moment though, we have decided not to show the programme in our KS2 classes.

However, our feeling is that current information pupils may be hearing is potentially worrying and upsetting and how much the pupils know is up to individual parents. To that end I have provided a link to the daily Newsround feed (usually a 5 minute update) that parents can watch and show the pupils should they wish to.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/news/watch_newsround

Staff will continue to answer pupil questions factually and sensitively, should these questions arise.

Thank you for all your communication and understanding on this matter.

Mr J Moore