School was a hive of activity this week but the vast majority of pictures below come from one day- Thursday.
It was wonderful to take a walk around school on Thursday morning (as it is all mornings). I have no doubt that every classroom I popped my head around the door of will have something of interest going on.
On Thursday, if you were fortunate enough to have seen the following:
Harriers pupils taking part in family learning:
Class 4 digging foundations for their planters
Class 5 creating podcasts on a variety of subjects
Class 3 creating foods from the nations in the Euros (just follow the smell)
As well as that we had Class 1 trialling new ‘mission’ activities within the classroom.
A wonderful week. And next week is gearing up to be just as busy.
It has been a busy start of the week at a busy time of year. I will try to get the information across as clearly as possible.
Transition
Last night we received a message from County informing us that all inschool and cross school transition was to be cancelled. In the first instance, this means that tomorrow’s (24.6.21) Year 6 transition to Bryn Alyn will not go ahead. This will also be the case for any other High school transitions. This is due to growing concern of Covid cases and a rise being seen across County and neighbouring counties. Year 6 pupils are to come to school as usual.
Sadly, it means that transition within school will also not go ahead. We are currently looking at alternatives to ease the move to different classes come September.
Next Year’s Classes
Over the past couple of weeks we have been finalising the groupings for next years classes. We will be sending these out next week.
Reports
Your child’s reports will be coming out to you on Friday 2nd July, they will be coming out in the normal format. However, due to the year being as it was, some of the information may be slightly reduced. I am sure you will understand why this is the case.
Testing
It has been a request by Welsh Government that schools make best endeavours to assess the pupils using the online National Reading and Numeracy Procedural tests. Over May and June, almost all pupils from Year 2 upwards have now completed these tests. As the reading reports will not be available to print and give out until September we will be sending out the feedback next term. If your child is Year 6 we will send these reports out via post.
Leavers
Mrs Jones and Mr McAteer are currently putting together something to celebrate the Year 6 pupils and their time here at Gwersyllt CP. More information will follow next week, however I would ask Year 6 pupils to save the date – 8th July2021 roughly 6pm-8pm. More will be revealed shortly.
I think that is us up to speed at the moment. Hopefully, there won’t be too many more surprises over the next few weeks.
Dear Parents/Guardians, The weekend is here and it sees the end of a busy week at Gwersyllt CP. Thursday saw the last of our Nursery induction sessions take place for those pupils who will be joining us in Barn Owls next year. Over the last four weeks Mrs Hughes and Mrs Wright have overseen 4 separate small group sessions with the pupils and the parents. These sessions have allowed the pupils to come into school and meet their teachers as well as giving the staff the first opportunity to work alongside them. As always, it was a pleasure to have them with us and we look forward to welcoming them next September into Early years.
On Thursday we also saw the first of our family learning sessions arranged through our Wellbeing team of Mrs O’Toole and Miss Edge and led by Miss Edge. This week the pupils and the parents spent a sunny morning on the field making insects and bugs with paints, plates and pipe cleaners. More of these events are scheduled to take place over the remaining few weeks of term.
Finally, the school had pencilled in sports day events to take place next week within classes. Predictably, the weather looks like it is taking a turn for the worse next week. Your child’s class teacher will keep you informed should the proposed day alter and the need to wear kit is changed to a different day. Have a great weekend.
As I’m sure you are aware this Friday signifies the end of this half term and therefore school will be closed next week and reopen on Monday 7th June 2021. The pupils and staff have a well-deserved break and hopefully come back refreshed for the final 6 weeks of the academic year. The pupils have done themselves, you and the school proud and it has been a pleasure to have them all in for the entirety of this half term.
Over the past couple of week we have tried to demonstrate the varied work going on in the classroom.
Firstly I would like to show you some of the letters I had from Class 2 last Friday. It had been a busy day but I felt I was getting attacked from all angles when this landed on my desk late on Friday afternoon.
Class 1 and 2 have been focussing on the environment, climate change and, in this case, recycling. Below are the letters sent through to me:
One of the aspects we are working on is adding more meaning to the pupils work. Creating a genuine reason for what they are doing.
Below is the reply sent by myself on Sunday.
Dear Class 2, Thank you so much for your letters on Friday, they really got me thinking over the weekend. They were full of great ideas and well though out arguments. How could I say no to any of them? It was great to hear Gwersyllt CP pupils taking such an invested part in their school and in the environment. The world needs you to improve- I hope other classes in the school follow your lead. Just to let you know- I am willing to proceed with the vast majority, if not all. your suggestions. However, I will address them one letter at a time. I will also ask a few favours in return.
To Tulisha, Ellie Mai, Owen, Kaiden, Lucas, Fearne, Osian, Nathan and Jackson.
I am glad you like the paper recycling bins- hopefully this means we will be wasting a lot less. At the moment they get emptied every Friday- I hope this is sufficient. Could you do me one favour though? Could you check that every class has a scrap paper tray. Recycling can come in many forms and it would be good to know that we are using both sides of the paper before we throw it. Also, perhaps we could look at how we limit the use of worksheets in school? Every child has an exercise book, and we should be encouraging independence. It seems wasteful to be sticking paper on to blank paper. As for the crisp packets, absolutely, I love this idea! Can you sort this out for me?Plenty for you to do 🙂
To Tyler, Zac and Imogen
That was a fantastic email and I absolutely loved the data and stats you put together. Brilliant! You will be glad to know that we have started recycling the bottles in Rec and Nursery plus in Year 1 and 2. We have a further problem though. The recycling complany dont seem to pick them up. Perhaps you could communicate this to them in some form? The bin is nearly full and we will quickly run out of space. I do have another task linked to snack. I am a bit worried at the moment about the unhealthy snack that KS2 have at break times. How can we sort this out? HELP!😊
To Elizah, Brooke, Theo, Jamie, Jack and Caden
Trust you lot to pick the tricky one. We do have a lot of spare uniform and I don’t know what to do with it. Believe it or not we use to recycle it a few years ago. The problem is, we very collect it much quicker then we pass it on, so it takes up a lot of space. Is there a way around this. Perhaps we could write to parents to gauge interest. Maybe we take pre orders and pass them on as and when we have the supply and the right size. I think we would have to be careful with any pricing though- perhaps the money could go towards something that aids the environment. Could you have a think for me?
To Harry, Cole, Ben, Ava, Will, Damian and Imy
What a lovely idea! I hope you like our new Jaxon’s Wood and have had an opportunity to visit the orchard at the bottom. I believe that there are plans to plan more trees in Jaxon’s wood if it hasn’t happened already. In the orchid we have planted apple and pear trees. When these fruit we will have a lot of apples and pears. What could we do with them. I like the compost idea alot. If you could price it up and think about how we can work it for me. Who would be responsible? Where would it go so that it was out of the way but could be accessed? How long does it take? I will leave all these Q’s to you 🙂
One last favour from all of you please….. Could you write a piece for the school website? At the moment it is me droning on. It would be lovely for the parents to hear from you. What we do, What we have done, what we plan to do and some ideas and updates through out the term. For instance did you know that we recycle batteries in school- Maybe these things are messages we could put across to parents. So there you go- lots to get on with it. Maybe you will think twice about writing me letters again 😉 Keep up the great work
Aside from making the pupils think twice before they write letters to me again, hopefully this makes the work more meaningful. All the above are genuine aspects of school life that we wish to work on- It will be lovely if this change comes from the children by the children.
On a separate note, here are some photos from Early Years this week. Little Chicks treated them to a morning with exotic animals and Dozy Dave the magician. Having popped in there over the morning I can certainly say the pupils enjoyed it. Thank you to Little Chicks from me and all of Early Years.
Sorry all- I found this message in drafts and loved the photographs so much I wished to post it up, albeit late.
It is a pleasure to walk around school and see the pupils enjoying their time between 9 and 3 either inside or outside the classroom. Last Friday I posted a couple of videos of the outside areas we have and since we had such a fantastic Friday afternoon weather wise it was lovely to see the vast majority of the classes outside enjoying the grounds. Be it the school field, the yards or Jaxon’s wood, it was difficult to find a space in which there wasn’t the satisfied hum of a class having a great time.
One request from myself, Mrs Jones and Mrs Colley. On a couple of occasions recently parents have been making their child’s class teacher aware of appointments during school hours. Could we please request that this communication comes into the school office either in person, on the phone or via email. This means the correct absence code can be inputted in advance on the register and minimises the chance of you recieving a text reporting your child’s absence.Many thanks,
Another week of mixed weather, with glorious sunshine one minute and dark clods looming the next. Let’s hope that the next few weeks bring some more consistent warm weather. A much shorter piece from me today, after last week’s page and a half about the new curriculum.
Just a couple of things I would like to mention.
Masks
We sent out a text this week regarding mask wearing on the yard and will do so again next week. There are still a few without masks whilst dropping off and picking up. Please understand that this is a request from both school and County. Wales as a nation are still under strict rules and many people, understandably, still have very high anxiety levels. As a sign of courtesy, as well as an added level of protection to stop further spread of the virus, can I ask all those picking up pupils to ensure they wear a facemask on site. Thank you for your co-operation. Smart watches
Can we please ask that pupils do not wear smart watches in school. As they can be used as a form of communication (as well as a distraction in class) we would kindly request that pupils leave them safely at home. If emergency communication between child and home is needed, in a very few instances, pupils can hand their phone into the office for safe storage.
Recently, we have tried to get a few images out of the great, creative work going on in the classrooms. Here are a few snaps taken this morning in our Year 5/6 classes. We have brought in a lot of DT equipment and our older Juniors have throughly enjoyed getting to grips with them.
And finally, I’ll leave you with a picture of young man who has worked his socks off this week, I promised him his big smile could be seen by all : )
Sunshine, showers, hailstones, thunder – we have witnessed just about all four seasons in school over the last few days, but that’s not stopped our children from having another terrific week of learning. Here are some examples:
We do try to make learning as creative as possible here at Gwersyllt CP and in today’s newsletter we dedicate the next page or two to news about our exciting New Curriculum which we will be trialling over the course of next year and commencing with in Sept 2022.
Please see below: Our Curriculum is Changing… As you may already be aware the Curriculum in Wales is changing. As staff we have held a number of meetings regarding this over the last couple of years, the latest being the training day last Friday. The New Curriculum will have more emphasis on equipping young people for life. It will build their ability to learn new skills and apply their knowledge more confidently and creatively. As the world changes, they will be more able to adapt positively. They will also get a deeper understanding of how to thrive in an increasingly digital world, developing digital skills across the curriculum to prepare them for the opportunities and risks that an online world presents.
The purpose of the New Curriculum is to support our children and young people to achieve 4 Core Purposes, which are:
● ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives
● enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work
● ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world
● healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society
It will have six ‘Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLE)’:
● Expressive arts
● Health and well-being
● Humanities (including RE)
● Languages, literacy and communication (including Welsh)
● Mathematics and numeracy
● Science and technology
It will also include three Cross-Curricular Responsibilities:
● Literacy
● Numeracy
● Digital Competence
The New Curriculum arrangements give more flexibility to schools to design their own curriculum that meets the specific needs of their pupils and their wider community.
At Gwersyllt CP, we want to design a bespoke curriculum that has the views of our learners, their families and the local community at its heart. A curriculum that is truly ‘Putting the Children first’ in terms of the needs and future needs on a local, national and international level.
At the start of next year we will be focussing on what all our stakeholders believe is in important for our children in these contexts and linking to the 4 Core Purposes above.
Have your say!
We recognise that, as parents, you have hopes and aspirations for your child’s time in school and their future, and we would like to harness these to help shape the direction of our New Curriculum. Over the next term we will be sending out a form for you to fill in requesting aspects of the core values above that you believe are vital in shaping the young people, and the future generations, of Gwersyllt CP. Your feedback will become an important part of discussion in September as we pin down important aspects of our curriculum moving into September 2022. More news to follow.
I quick reminder that there are a lot of offers and ideas that can be taken up on our Family Learning page. Please take the time to have a look. Click this link for more information Family Learning information
There are often ideas and extra activities placed on our school facebook page too
I hope everyone has enjoyed what seems to be the first full week of good weather we have had this year. Let’s hope this continues through the weekend and for many days as possible thereafter. During this nice weather, it is great to see so many of the pupils and classes enjoying the opportunity to get out into the school grounds. I did so myself, this week, and have posted a few videos to give an example of the outside areas we are blessed with and have cultivated.
One of these is the new bike shelter put up this week. We are fortunate to have managed to get this free of charge through the county and hope that moving forward it will allow some of the older pupils to cycle to school. We will get a message out as soon as we move forward with this.
Finally, a reminder that the school is having a training day on 7th May 2021 to look at the New curriculum. School will be closed to pupils on this day.
Welcome back to all the pupils, I hope everyone had an enjoyable break and, with restrictions lessening somewhat, the opportunity to get out a bit more and enjoy the few days of sunshine (and hail) that we had.
It has been nice to get all the pupils back into the school. The improved weather has given us the opportunity to get out and further explore the grounds we have. An opportunity that we haven’t really been afforded since we moved into the new building. Hopefully, when we open up more, we will be able to show off some of the hard work that we have put into the outside areas (A huge thank you to Mrs Davies for this). I am delighted to say that our forest school area continues to thrive and has now been named Jaxon’s Wood in honour of Jaxon. Thank you to Mrs Wynne for sorting this out and, again, we hope to sort out an official opening in the near future.
Finally, and linked to the outdoors, we are still trying to get the pupils out of the classroom and using the outdoor space as much as possible. This occasionally means that classes are using the side yard between in the second session (roughly 11am-12pm). When this is the case, we have to leave the side gates closed and ask Nursery parents to enter from the front gates. We appreciate your understanding.
Let’s hope the good weather persists. Have a great weekend.
Gwersyllt CP 