Gwersyllt CP

 

Finally the paper testing is over (I specify this because there are still a few computer based procedural tests to carry out). Well done to the pupils for completing these in the most sensible and calm of manners.

The new building continues to progress. Staff are visiting next week, Many meetings are taking place, including, but not solely, meetings about furniture and fancy new AV systems. The AV system in particular is going to have a huge impact on our performances in school and I look forward to seeing the pupils use the lighting and sound systems to show off the drama, dance and performances.

The building on the outside is also taking shape and you will have noticed that the fencing and outside cladding is nearing completion.

Year 1 also had a visit, much like Year 2 (and class 1 will be visiting shortly). They asked many probing questions that kept Stephen the site manager on his toes.

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When the site is complete we will ensure we have a couple of open days to allow parents and particularly our Year 6 pupils in to have a look around.

Finally we had a very special guest in to award the school prizes for the winner if the ACE logo competition. This was judged by many. A big well done to our winner and our runner up. See their work below.

 

What a miserable week (weather wise, I wasn’t referring to the testing)! Fortunately, next week has forecast much improved weather and hopefully the opportunity to go and enjoy our lovely school field.

Unfortunately, this week has been dominated by the testing but these will soon be over and we can return to relative normalcy. As I said in the newsletter, the pupils have worked hard and have done themselves proud.

Despite this, there have been a few more things that have been going on in school. Some of the Year 5/6 pupils have taken it open themselves to see to the school grounds. They are shifting a few of the stones in the area near the breakfast club entrance and plants have been purchased (A huge thank you to those involved) and will soon be added to brighten up the area. We wont want to leave come July.

Also Year 1 have managed to organise, and go on, a visit to see the new build. Many questions were asked (I think Steve the site manger feels interrogated when the pupils approach him). There will be some photos to follow.

Have a great weekend and fingers crossed for some good weather

An extremely brief blog this week to get use started – just to say welcome back to all and I hope you had a great break. I have been working away from the school for the past few days and only returned to Gwersyllt CP this Friday morning. It has been great to get back and see everybody and wonderful to see examples of the great work the pupils created in Keys stage 2 celebration assembly this morning.

In the afternoon I managed to pop around to meet regarding the new building, check everything was up to speed and, hopefully, ensure that we will be ready for the start of Sept 2019.

Looking forward to the new building we will hopefully be hosting a parents meeting to discuss the vision of the school. Please look out for letters in the next couple of weeks to give you a bit more information.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.

The final week of a Spring term has come and gone and what a busy one it was. We have had both individual and team success over the last couple of weeks and we have managed to celebrate in style. You will be aware that the Netball team were crowned champions of Wrexham. see prove below. The team celebrated on Wednesday by having a Pizza party. Well done to the team and to Miss Roberts for their hard work and fantastic endeavor.

Miss Roberts may thing twice before offering food as an incentive to win in the future 🙂

We also had Rhys taking place in the Backstroke competition. He came second ensuring himself a silver medal which he can be seen proudly sporting tomorrow. Strangely, a lot of happy humming was heard from the school office that afternoon.

I had the privilege along with Mrs Davies, Mrs Walker and Mrs Walton of taking the Harriers around the new part of the school this Tuesday. They listened to Steve the site manager intently and asked a variety of interesting questions. Some he was answering for the first time some such as, ‘Will it be ready in time?’ I am sure he hears at least weekly from the staff at Gwersyllt CP.

A huge thank you to all that came to the Easter Bingo on Friday for making it a great evening and helping the PTAS raise a whopping £801. It couldn’t have been done without everyone in the room (and a fair few that weren’t there that night. A huge thank you to the PTA and all others that helped put the evening together. We are very fortunate to have such a proactive PTA and I have lost count of the amount of things that the school are able to do simply because of their hard work, generosity and donations.

Class 3 hosted our latest trial of the New Curriculum for Wales. Parents came in to see the good work the team of estate agents had been doing in class and were given a one to one talk through of the learning that took place. With biscuits of course!

Class 2 and Kestrels had the opportunity to visit Techniquest and they learnt many aspects of the science curriculum during their time there. As always it was commented on several times about the pupils behavior.

Chester Zoo visited us on Friday and all the pupils and many of the parents had an opportunity to come and learn. It was wonderful to see the parents sharing in the pupils learning and such an interesting and varied range of topics going on across the school. Thank you to all those that came and thank you to family learning and Chester Zoo for organising this. I know the pupils had a great time.

 

And finally with the sun out it has been lovely to get the pupils on to the field. Our lunchtimes have been full of fun. Just like below.

Have a great Eater everyone!

Hi all welcome to another weekend. A reasonably busy week at Gwersyllt this week but it will pale in comparison to the number of activities going on next week at the school.

I am proud to say that Gwersyllt held a meeting in the school for the steering group of ACEs, which is an initiative looking at pupil wellbeing. Gwersyllt CP are the only school in Wrexham cutrrently leading this and Mrs O’Toole has been working hard to ensure that the school stay at the very forefront of this increasingly important aspect of school approach.

Family learning have also been looking at lots of other areas within the school and community. Please do be sure to check out the Family Learning/Family care pages to see all the hard work that is being achieved.

You have probably notice the new build has really been taking shape over the last few weeks. I had the opportunity to go around during the week and managed to grab a few photos. I am also delighted to say that a few pupil groups will be visiting next week. I have already been fortunate enough to get invited by Harriers to walk around with them next Tuesday. I can’t wait, I know the company will be good.

Four year 5/6 pupils visited Brymbo school this Friday to take part in the cluster challenge. As always they did a great job and their behaviour was impeccable.

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Finally, the PTA met this week and finalized the arrangements for the Easter Bingo. I hope to see many of you there. Please do visit the PTA facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/gwersylltcppta/

and put forward any suggestions you may have for the Summer Fair.

A quick reminder that next week is the final opportunity for anybody who wishes their current Year 3 pupils to attend the residential at Pentrellyncymer next September.

Please vist back next week with pictures of school trips, Attendance awards and Chester zoo fun.

Apologies this week for the brief update.

First and foremost can I say a huge well done to the Gwersyllt CP Netball team who are now Wrexham champions having came top of the league over the year they took part in the finals on Tuesday to come out victors again. Thank you to Miss Roberts for her hard work and congratulations for the team. It has been well deserved over the year.

(photo to follow)

Also this week, Years 2, 4 and 6 had the privilege of a visit by PC Reeves. During these sessions the pupils learnt all about substances and how to stay safe in that regard. The school are very fortunate to receive termly visits from the police and the pupil find the lessons invaluable and engaging.

Finally, because of the good weather, the pupils managed to get on to the field on Friday. Fingers crossed we get more over the coming weeks and months for the pupils to enjoy. The Ks2 pupils are very limited in space on the yard and I am always impressed how they conduct themselves the majority of the time considering the lack of room to run.

After an extremely busy week last week things seem to have been a bit calmer in the school these last few days.  (For a reminder of the event of the week last week see this link to the leader https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/17509691.why-a-gwersyllt-cp-primary-school-was-converted-into-indian-restaurant-for-one-night-only/ )

The school and Mrs Edge hosted a Year 3/4 family event in the main hall. Thank you to all families that attended- thee will be the same event for Year 5/6 families next week.

Mrs O’Toole took 6 pupils into the community to work alongside the elderly. Today is dementia day and Mrs O’Toole could not have been prouder of the way the pupils represented the school and lent an emphatic ear to those around them at the event.

Mr Brooker took 5 boys out on Friday to represent the school in a football tournament- and as always they represented the school excellently.

Speaking of football our very own Rhys did himself proud by representing his country on Wednesday.

He was able to meet some of the plays and received a signed shirt and programme alongside many other goodies. He must be a lucky mascot as Wales pulled of a hard earn 1-0 victory, coring late into injury time. Well done Rhys!

So a quieter week, but still plenty going on.

HAve a great weekend.

 

Friday rolls along again and we have finished the 2nd week of the half term. Firstly, thank you to all those that attended Parents evening at the start of the week. It is only a short meeting but it is uninterrupted time to enable both parties to ask key questions and give important information. A second thank you to those that filled the evaluation form. We promise we will look at these and make a few changes where we can.

The week continued to be busy as the parents evenings finished. Thank you to Miss Edge and Mrs O’Toole who worked hard to create another family event. It was well attended and I know the pupils really enjoyed that quality time with those close to them in school.

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Last but certainly not least, well done to the Year 5/6 pupils and all staff who helped out at the fantastic ‘Tantalising Taj Mahal’ evening. What a great event it was. Of course, as Headteacher I felt extremely proud. More importantly was the sense of self pride the pupils must have felt having planned, organised, co-operated and pulled of this great occasion. The comments we have had in return are wonderful and extremely generous. Well done all!

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A busy week this week (first weeks back often are). Firstly, I hope everyone had a great half term and enjoyed the weather. It’s a huge pity it didn’t continue into this week, those that traveled to Glan Llyn could have done with it in particular.

I had the privilege of being there for most of the days and, despite it being largely cold and soggy, had a fabulous time. The pupil’s behavior was exceptional and was commented on through out the trip. They dived into all activities and really did themselves proud. It was wonderful to see this side of them in different environment.

A huge thank you to all that took part in World Book Day. I believe the costumes were quite something to behold. I have seen the pictures and will ensure they are placed on here on Monday.

A quick reminder that Parents evening is next week. You should have received your time slot slip from your child’s class teacher at the start of this week.

Have a great weekend.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who ran, organised, took part in, contributed to and came to the celebration event in the Foundation Phase building on Tuesday. It was a great afternoon celebrating the hard work of all involved. The pupils and teachers had worked extremely hard on their ideas, work and running of the event in order to demonstrate a small portion of what goes on in the classes. This would not, however, have been the event it was without such a positive, enthusiastic and appreciative audience. The numbers that arrived to see the pupils work was beyond our expectations. Diolch yn fawr to everyone from myself, Kestrels, Harriers and Class 1.

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As a new Headteacher I find I am experiencing many things for the first time. One of these is the Gwersyllt CP Eisteddfod. I have been incredibly impressed and proud of the efforts, motivation and talent of the pupils who have put themselves forward to perform and the dedication with which they tackled the Art and handwriting components of the celebration. The Foundation Phase Eisteddfod was a wonderful way to kick of proceedings on Wednesday morning and a welcome change of pace for me. All the pupils joined in wonderfully and, importantly, listened to each other fantastically. This, I am pleased to say, was a trait that continued all week. All the pupils were fantastic audiences for those performing.

Year 3/4 continued the celebrations on Thursday afternoon in front of Year 5/6 and the favour was returned on Friday afternoon. A great way to round of the week and the half term. All that is left to say is thank you to all the pupils, the staff and the parents for your hard work in these events and for all the hard work this half term. Have a great break.