A Healthy Start To The School Year

Last week each year group had a 1 hour Gugafit session. The children had a fantastic time and were motivated to make "healthy a habit" through exercise,eating 5 a day and drinking water.  

Year 3 doing their gugafit session.

12 Year 6 pupils were trained up as Gugafit  leaders. They have been running 10 minute sessions during breakfast club.  

The week ended with cycle, scoot or walk to school which raised £430. Thank you to all of the parents who (as always) supported  the school and it's pupils. 

Healthy Pupils, Healthy School ...

Healthy pupils, Healthy School … Dear Parent(s), As mentioned in the newsletter on the 17th September we are working towards becoming a healthier school and appreciate your support in this. Earlier in the week we sent the following extract from the newsletter: Our pupil, parental and staff surveys identified that we all wanted to conform to the status of a healthy school. Nursery and Reception are now having fruit provided as snack for a fee of £1 per week. Please could all parents of Yr1 - Yr6 ensure that snacks are fruit. Crisps, biscuits etc. can be provided as part of a packed lunch. Pupils having school dinners are offered a dessert daily. I would like to thank you for your support in this matter and for the many positive comments regarding pupils’ perception of fruit since the start of term. For example, a number of parents have commented that, “seeing their friends eat fruit has encouraged them to do the same”. Drinks: If your child brings a bottle to school to drink throughout the day we do ask that it contains water. If your chid is having packed lunch then squash, orange juice etc (please no fizzy pop), can of course be included and drank then. If your child has school dinners they have a squash / water option with their meal. The reasons for water during the day are; • Water will keep children hydrated and encourage better concentration. • Squash can contain a high level of sugar and too much can be detrimental to learning and in some occasions behaviour. • We can refill water containers. We appreciate your support in this matter. As a result of our partnership working with CCFC, we have been extremely fortunate to have been nominated as a Guga (Get up, get active) Fit school for the coming year. The project aims to “make being healthy a habit” and is explained in the attached information. The team will spend time with each year group on Monday and Tuesday in the main hall, culminating in a whole school assembly on Tuesday afternoon. Please could you check the timetable and ensure that you child brings their PE kit on the following day (with the exception of reception/nursery who will participate in uniform).The timetable for next Mon/ Tuesday is as follows: Monday 9.15-10.00am Year 3 10.00-10.45 am Year 6 10.45-11.30 am Year 5 1.25-2.10 pm Year 4 Tuesday 9.15-10.00am Nursery 10.00-10.45 am Reception 10.45-11.30 am Year 1 1.25-2.10 pm Year 2 Whole school assembly at 2.30 pm. To give you a little taster of what to expect when they come and visit follow this link to a video of their first visit to a school in Cardiff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frw6xJIwqGo Gugafit .com will give you more information on healthy lifestyles. We consider this a fantastic opportunity to work together to become not just a healthy school, but a healthy community. Many thanks Miss S. Harwood

Newsletter 17th September 2013

Dear Parents,

A warm welcome back!   I hope you all had a lovely summer.  Just a few dates for your diary and some important notices .

Dates for the Diary

Half term – Monday 28^th October to Friday 1^st November 2013

Mrs. Caroline Davies

As many of you are aware, Mrs. Davies sadly passed away over the summer break. Mrs. Davies taught at Pontyclun Primary for 22 years and will be an enormous loss to the school, the staff and the community.

As well as being an inspirational teacher, Mrs. Davies was renowned for producing many successful concerts and plays. She was also keen to ensure that our pupils had many opportunities to experience residential trips. She accompanied hundreds of pupils over the years on trips such as Llangrannog, Morfa Bay and Kingswood.  

I would like to thank parents, past and present, for their support over the last few weeks. All cards and messages have been gratefully received and will be passed onto the family. We have been supporting, and will continue to support pupils and staff through this difficult time. We will look to celebrate Mrs. Davies’ teaching career and the immeasurable contribution that she made to Pontyclun Primary School in the near future.    

Yard Improvements - You will have noticed that the Nursery, Year 2, Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 yards have recently had child friendly resources installed bringing them in-line with the fort on the Reception / Year 1 yard.  In order to promote "pupil voice" the children chose the play items and discussed with staff where to appropriately place them. The pupils chose age related items. Therefore, it is not appropriate for an infant pupil to use some of the junior equipment. In addition we can only supervise junior yards from 8.50 am. Infant yards are not supervised in the mornings as we admit pupils from 8.50am. Please could parents help the school by not allowing their children to play on any school equipment before and after school.     

 

PTA AGM - Message from the PTA  -  the PTA would like to welcome everyone back after the summer break as they  look forward to an exciting year of fundraising ahead.  The AGM is on Monday September 23^rd at 7pm in the staff room.  All parents new and old are very welcome to come along and join us for the meeting and have a cup of tea or coffee afterwards.  We would especially welcome any new members to our friendly and lively committee and are always open to new ideas and initiatives. Please put this date in your diary and we look forward to seeing you there.

Spellings - Pupils in the Juniors will still bring home weekly spelling patterns and we ask you to work on the spelling patterns with your child.  One change from last year, is that Junior children will no longer have a spelling test on a Friday. They will instead receive a spelling dictation every 3 to 4 weeks which will use the spelling patterns covered in context.

 Breakfast Club - A polite reminder - no cars are to be driven into the school grounds to drop off pupils due to safety reasons.  Please could all parents drop children at the entrance to the hall. Again, for safety reasons parents are not allowed to stay with their children in the hall.

Cars using the lanes – It has been brought to my attention that some parents have been using the lanes around the school as a shortcut. This is obviously dangerous for our pupils and other pedestrians. Please help us keep the surrounding area of the school as safe as possible by refraining from using the lanes for access.

Dinner Money - Please can dinner money be brought into school on a Monday morning inside an envelope for the attention of your child’s Class Teacher. Please ensure that your child’s name, class and the amount is clearly marked on the envelope.

Parent Questionnaires

Thank you for taking the time to fill in the Parent Questionnaires before the summer break. Your views are invaluable to us as we constantly look to evolve and improve. Two areas that we as a school would like to clarify are healthy snacks and celebrating pupils’ achievements outside of school.  

 
Healthy snack -Our pupil, parental and staff surveys identified that we all wanted to conform to the status of a healthy school. Nursery and Reception are now having fruit provided as snack for a fee of £1 per week. Please could all parents of Yr1 - Yr6 ensure that snacks are fruit. Crisps, biscuits etc. can be provided as part of a packed lunch.  Pupils having school dinners are offered a dessert daily.

Celebrating achievements outside of school - For many years we have “celebrated pupils achievements outside of school” during assemblies. This is something that we feel is very important for instilling confidence and pupil well-being. If your child has achieved success outside of school and they would like it celebrated in school we would encourage them to bring their trophies, certificates etc to school on a Tuesday (Infants) and a Wednesday (Juniors).   

Many thanks for your continued support.

Miss S. Harwood

Rugby After School

Dear Parents Please note that today's after-school Rugby has had to be cancelled due to the heavy rain we have had this afternoon. Mr Llewellyn

Jolly Phonics Presention for Reception Parents

Your children are now following the full 'Jolly Phonics' scheme. Jolly phonics will be further explained in a presentation on Tuesday 17th September at 6pm in the main hall. We would greatly encourage you to attend this meeting as we have found that parental support is essential to help your child make continuous progress throughout their Reception year. From now on at the end of each week a sound pack will be sent home. We would appreciate it if you would encourage your child to begin recognising these sounds and practise correct formation. Games such as eye spy will also encourage your child to think of the sounds in relation to words. Every two weeks your child will also bring home a word list. This will contain words that can be blended from the sounds covered in school. Appropriate reading books to share with your child will be sent home weekly. We would be grateful if you would read them to your child and encourage him/her to talk about the pictures/story and point out any sounds they have covered in school. Please feel free to include comments on how your child is reading at home as this helps us to encourage and support them in school. Many thanks and we hope to see you at this important meeting. Miss Harwood, Mrs Abel and Mrs Watkin-Carter

School Closure Tomorrow 2nd September

Just a reminder that tomorrow is a designated closure day. The school will reopen on Tuesday 3rd September for all pupils.