Gwersyllt CP

Dear Parent/Guardians,

The end of the last full week of school prior to the summer break. Before I write anything else, congratulations to Nancy in Harriers who was chosen for our Happy, Shiny award this year. Your name will join the plaque with the rest of the winners.

 Just a reminder of a few events on the final three days:

Tuesday morning- Attendance and Pupil of the Term award

Tuesday 1pm- Ice cream treat for foundation phase pupils (Nursery to have equivalent in the morning session)

Tuesday 6-8pm- Year 6 leavers event on the school field

Wednesday 1pm – Ice cream treat for Ks2 pupils

School uniform

With a long break now and September a while away, just a reminder of school uniform and PE kit expectations. The following is from the school prosepectus:

P. E.

It is important for safety and comfort that pupils are dressed appropriately for P.E. as follows:

Indoor – soft plimsolls (NOT trainers), white T- shirt and black shorts.

Outdoors – trainers, white T-shirt and black shorts, tracksuit in cold weather.

Swimming – trunks/shorts (not Bermuda shorts) /one piece swimming costume

Uniform

The wearing of uniform is expected at all times. We believe that it should be smart, comfortable and easy to maintain. The present uniform is:

Winter

Grey/black skirt/pinafore/trousers and white or blue polo shirt, grey cardigan or sweatshirt.

Summer

Blue and white check/striped dress/grey/black trousers or shorts, white or blue logo polo shirt.

Sweatshirts, cardigans, polo shirts, fleece jackets and waterproof jackets all with the school logo, are available to purchase from School Trends (http://www.schooltrends.co.uk/primaryschooluniform). You are not obliged to purchase uniform with the school logo. You may purchase from other shops as long as the uniform complies with our colours.

Please put your child’s name on their articles of uniform, including shoes.

Jewellery and Make up

The wearing of jewellery is not encouraged and we recommend that it is removed for P.E. activities in accordance with Health and Safety Regulations. Make up should not be worn during the school day.

We are going to turn our attention to this in September. Over the past few years, with good reason, it had not been a priority. However, now that things have resettled, we wish for the pupils to return to these expectations. If pupils come into school not in the appropriate uniform a message will be sent home in the first instance. Please, do make an adult aware if there is a good reason for non-uniform.

Healthy schools

Also, a reminder for September that it is fruit and veg only for school snack. Drinks are to be water or milk only during the school day. We have a guide to healthy lunches avilable on the school website. However, All pupils will be universal free school meals from September onwards.

Have a lovely weekend,

Please see the powerpoint that was shown at the parents evening this week

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As we near the end of the School year we are starting to look ahead at next September. With this is mind, we hope your child enjoyed spending some time in their new class yesterday and that the information sheet they brought home about their new teacher, new class and new routine will be of some interest to you.

As you will probably know already, the class names are changing from September. They will be known as:

Dosbarth Collen – Nursery (Miss Thomas/Mrs Harrison)

Dosbarth Ceiriosen – Reception (Mrs McHugh)

Dosbarth Llwyfen – Year 1&2 (Mrs Moore)

Dosbarth Bedwen – Year 1&2 (Miss Jones/Miss Thomas)

Dosbarth Onnen – Year 3&4 (Mrs Sailes)

Dosbarth Derwen – Year 3&4 (Mrs Davies)

Dosbarth Masarnen – Year 4&5 (Mr Edwards)

Dosbarth Afallen – Year 5&6 (Mr McAteer)

Dosbarth Celyn – Year 5&6 (Mrs Jones)

I am sure we will all be scratching our heads initially with these, but I hope they will soon roll of the tongue.

Finally, Your child’s report should be coming home with them tonight. Please read through them and, if possible, send back the feedback slip.

Cofion cynnes

My Apologies for not getting this up sooner as we have much to celebrate this week.

We are however, heading into a very busy time. Sports days and unsettled weather always add difficulty and we will do what we can to get these events to go ahead.

A couple of great bits of news to share however.

Firstly, we recieved an email last week from the county welsh lead to say that the Criw Cymraeg plan that had been put forward by our pupils came second in selection from a panel. This means that the committee have won £200 for the school to use for welsh equipment and resources to help support and aid the plan but forward. I am very much looking forward to seeing what they do with this money.

My understanding is that the team have created a video that will be displayed in assembly on Friday.

Secondly, you may remember half a year a go I passed on the great news that our eco-committee had been awarded the eco committee bronze award. I am delight to say that the team, led by Mrs Howe and Mrs Harrison, have gone one step better and achieved the silver award. Please see the certificate below which sits proudly on our display.

I believe that the next step is now the much coveted Green flag. I look forward to seeing what September and beyond brings. Well done to the committee!

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As always it has been lovely to welcome the pupils back to school for the final half term. The weather has been fantastic and the children have been enjoying preparing for sports day and having time on the school field.

School Jumpers

The warm weather does lead to a few issues though. With school jumpers coming on and off regularly, the likelihood of them being lost or misplaced increases. Can we kindly request that all jumpers have the pupils’ names in and that if pupils do take them off they place them in their trays, bags or lockers (A conversation I have had in assembly with them). On the topic of school uniform, at the end of every term, we collect items which have been left behind, if not collected, or the items that have no name in, we take them to the garage to be reused. Please do check here on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday to see if there are any spare items to be reused or if a lost item is there.

Class Names

Just a heads up that next year we will be altering class names with the Welsh names of trees. We will send out the finalised names in the next couple of weeks so you can practice saying those names that you need to perfect. I know the staff and particularly Jo and Linda are already trying to get used to certain pronunciations.

This is something that we have been keen to do for a while as, when the school buildings joined, there wasn’t a through line, with some classes being named after birds and others having simple numbers. As we are a school proud to be in Wales we wanted to embrace this with Welsh names.

Techno Camp

We had a fantastic visit this Friday from Mr Clewitt and Bangor university. The year 5 and 6 pupils throughly enjoyed it and it is easy to see why when I took a walk into the classrooms today.

Fantastic stuff

Snakes and Magic

Our Barn Owls and Snowy Owls pupils came into a whole new world this Friday with the first of their school trip equivalent activities. The value fr money is amazin with the equivalence of four school trips happening over the next week or so.

App guides for families

This collection of guides provides parents and carers with key information about the most popular social media and gaming apps children and young people are using today.

The guides include a detailed overview of the app, outlining the age rating and key terminology. They also highlight the risks each app poses to young people and give detailed instructions on how to enable parental controls and safety settings.

This guide can also help parents and carers have a conversation with their child about a sensitive issue.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr J Moore

Dear Parents,

Before I write anything else, just a few summer pictures from our eco-committee of the good work they have been doing this year.

I am delighted to say that not only have they achieved the bronze award this year they have now put them selves forward for the silver award too. What a productive year they have had. Thank you to Mrs Harrison and Mrs Howe who lead them so expertly.

The Newsletter arrives a day early today as we school finishes for half term on Thursday rather than a Friday. We hope you all have a fantastic week ahead and fingers crossed the lovely weather continues.

A busy half term follows the break with sports days (see further down the newsletter- more information will be given prior to the events), leaving services and other classroom events and trips.

The classes will be covering the following topics before the summer break:

Barn Owls- Amazing Animals

Snowy Owls- Amazing Animals

Harriers- Mini beasts and habitats

Kestrels- Under the Sea (continuing)

Class 1- Viva l’Italia!

Class 2- The Great Outdoors

Class 3- Experiments

Year 5- Continuation of topic

Year 6- Transition

We are all looking followed to seeing the pupils back on Monday 5^th June after the break.

We are pleased to say that we now have a Facebook Page dedicated to our Families. You can find this on Facebook under the name of Family Learning/Family Care at Gwersyllt CP. Please do let us know if you have any ideas on what you would like to see here. 

We hope that you all have a good break over half term and look forward to seeing you all soon. 

Cofion cynnes

Dear Parents/Guardians,

What a way to finish the week! The pupils look fantastic in their blue, red and white clothing and by the smiles on their faces I can tell they had a great day (please see the website for photos).

The school set up some good old fashioned garden games (in the hall) for the morning so each year group could have a go on these. The afternoon consisted of party food with further opportunities to enjoy some games. Coronation activities were completed in the classrooms. All of this plus the prizes given out yesterday in conjuntion with the classes competitions has made it a couple of days to remember.

Don’t worry if your child wasn’t victorious as every pupil should be coming home today with a bookmark and book to commemorate the day. Thank you to our wonderful PTA and Elaine Swindley for organising these pieces of memorabilia.

Lates

Just a reminder that doors shut at 8.50am on the dot for pupils to enter to their classes. I have, on occasion, tried to sneak pupils in after this time but this has led to pupils not being marked in the register and parents receiving a text of absence which understandably causes anxiety. If your class doors are closed please sign the pupils in via the front reception.

Have a great bank holiday weekend,

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you have all had a good week and are enjoying the bursts of improved weather we are having. Here is hoping we have it for the bank holiday weekends that are soon to arrive.

Today we have enjoyed celebrating Wrexham’s historic promotion to the National Football league. This stemmed from a wonderful leterr I recieved from Oscar in Class 1 and in my letter home I promised you (and him) I would place it up for it to be read.

Impossible to say no I am sure you agree.

Disclaimer: Just a quick message to the students, I won’t be able to agree to the requests of every wonderfully written letter but you are welcome to give it a try 🙂

I was pleased to see, walking around the school, that we have had many lovely examples of letter writing happening this week. Particularly across KS2. Letters written tot he community council to letters written to King Charles. the work in the English books is looking great.

On the subject of King Charles, just a reminder that we are celebrating the coronation on Friday 5th May and pupils can wear blue, red and white for the day. We will have a special lunch, games and some party food in the afternoon (morning for Early Years).

Competions requests for the pupils to enter should have come home with the children and prizes will be given out on a Thursday assembly.

Finally, Our Foundation Learning classes enjoyed learning about road safety this week. They had BEEP BEEP days on Tuesday and Wednesday and the pupils all took on board the important learnings of these sessions.

Have a lovely Bank hoiday weekend

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome back to everyone, It was lovely to see the pupils again on Monday morning- I hope you all had an enjoyable time off over the Easter weekend. Just a few reminders of things coming up.

Coronation

Previously, I sent you details on what would be happing for Friday 5^th in order to celebrate the coronation. It has been confirmed that we will have a special dinner on this day of Harry Ramsden fish and chips and a chocolate chip cookie. We are requesting that pupils come dressed in red, white and blue.

Sports days

Weather permitting (and all being well), We will be holding the sports days for most of the years on the week beginning 19^th June 2023. We will endeavour to get these dates to you before the half term holidays. As last year these will be split into Year 1 and 2, Year 3 and 4 and Year 5 and 6.

Healthy Eating

A quick reminder that our policy for morning snack is fresh fruit and vegetables only and water or milk in the classroom. On this topic can we also ensure that pupils are fed and ready for arrival at school at 8.40-8.50am. Breakfast club is free for all pupils from 8.20am to 8.35am to get some toast or cereal if needed. Many thanks

Alert system

Finally, We have had an email from county to make people aware that the uk government will be testing it’s new alert system on 23^rd April. Please see the link for more detail.

New Emergency Alerts system will be tested nationally on 23 April

Have a lovely weekend,

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Just a couple of heads up or reminders. And a few lovely photos to finish of the term

Coronation event – 5^th May 2023

The school will be celebrating the coronation on Friday 5^th May (Remember there is an extra bank holiday on Monday 8^th May). We will be asking staff and pupils to wear red, white and blue for this day. The staff have put their heads together and more news about class competitions (prizes to be won), party food and afternoon games will be shared shortly. The canteen will also be offering a celebration dinner especially for the event.

Universal Free School Meals

A reminder to parents of Year 1 and 2 pupils that the universal free school meals offer comes into effect from 17^th April 2023. Hopefully you should be able to book free meals for that week through parent pay soon.

It is still vitally important that you claim free school meal status if you can though. Please see the link below for how to do this.

Easter Bingo

A huge thank you to everybody who supported the bingo. From those who brought in prizes to those that joined us for the evening. We managed to earn around £600 for the school. Of course, the biggest thank you of all to our wonderful PTA who organised and ran the event.

Eco Committee

Our Eco comittee continue to do a fabulous job every Wednesday (and throughout the rest of the week of course). They have already achieved the Bronze award and are working towards the silver aswell.

Yesterday they met Shane from Keep Wales Tidy and Emma Watson Eco coordinator for Wrexham.

They talked about our ideas and how to get things moving towards our future awards, Shane is going to send information about grants etc that will help with the tasks ahead. They were really impressed with what’s already going on and they thought Jaxon”s Wood was fantastic.

 The litter pick was part of @Spring Clean Cymru

And finally, I wrote to you last week about the award the school achieved in the Wrexham/Flintshire awards winning best primary school. Today we were presented with the award which now sits pride of place in the reception area. A big thank you to all involved.

We hope you all have a wonderful break and we will see you again on Monday the 17^th April.

Many thanks for this term,

from all the staff at Gwersyllt CP