Friday October 20th

Another wonderful week of learning and laughing together at Waunarlwydd. It was great to see so many Nursery parents join us yesterday morning to find out, firsthand, all about life in Waunarlwydd Nursery. We hope you all enjoyed!

Parent / teacher meetings have been taking place this week and will continue next week. Teachers have really enjoyed getting a chance to meet together and discuss your superstar children.

Our incredible school choir have been busy practising this week in preparation for Seion Chapel’s 150 year anniversary celebration, which will take place on Sunday 22nd October.

Reminder – Next week’s school Discos will be ticket only. If you wish to buy a ticket, please come to the school office. Diolch!

Community Friday

Your School Senedd Need You!

The children in the Senedd have decided on a project for this half term – they want to make their playgrounds brighter and more engaging. They have already received a donation of £400 from the PTA to buy new playground equipment. Diolch yn fawr! 

Now they are asking for your help. If you have any outdoor paint that you could donate to the school, they will use this to paint games, like hopscotch, onto the yard. On the afternoon of Friday 27^th October, they are also asking for parents and carers to donate some time to help them with this painting. If you are able to offer any help from 13.00 on Friday 27th October, please give the school a ring to let us know! Much appreciated!

Events in the Community

INSET DAYS

**We can now confirm that Friday 22nd December and Monday January 8th are INSET days. Children will break up for Christmas on Thursday 21st December and return in the Spring term on Tuesday 9th January.**

Dates for the Diary

(**Events involving specific classes will be sent out separately**)

Monday 16th October – Thursday 26th October – Teacher/Parent meetings

Thursday 26th October – PTA Autumn Discos

Friday 27th October – Community Friday

Friday 10th November – Remembrance Day in school

WB 13th November – Anti Bullying Week

Friday 17th November – Children in Need

Thursday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Friday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 12th December – Nursery and Reception Concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 13th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2, 3 Concert (evening)

Thursday 14th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (evening)

Friday December 22nd – INSET DAY

Monday January 8th – INSET DAY

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in making contact!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Headteacher

Friday October 13th

Shwmae pawb! Diolch am eich cefnogaeth! Mae wedi bod yn wythnos wych yn Waunarlwydd gyda ein plant hyfryd! Hello everyone! Thanks for your support! It’s been a great week in Waunarlwydd with our lovely children!

A lovely way to end a super week celebrating the Welsh language on Shwmae Day. We’ve enjoyed a fantastic day and seen some wonderful Welsh posters and pebble designs with the family video messages outstanding! Diolch!

There have been lots of other high points. The Nursery have been very busy during their second B week. They have loved playing in the birthday role play area, bathing the dolls, writing their own birthday cards, singing new Welsh songs and learning new ball skills in gym. Welly Wednesday was great fun as they re enacted the story “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”. We couldn’t end our work on “The 3 Bears” without making and tasting porridge. Reception had a super week, talking about sharing using the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’. They also loved using graphic modelling to draw a hen and their wonderful dance lesson based on ‘The enormous turnip.’

Year 1 loved looking for different types of houses during their walk around Waunarlwydd this week. They discussed what materials they were made of compared to the houses during the Great fire of London. After looking at pictures of the fire they used their colour mixing skills to create hot colours and recreate the pictures.  Another great kerbcraft session in Year 2 this week. The children have also enjoyed researching the fire of London through websites and learning how to complete their work on a new app called seesaw. Year 3 have thoroughly enjoyed learning about firefighting in the past and present, developing their use of WoW words ready for their recount and using their communication and team work skills to stay out of the lava in PE.

Year 4 have really loved becoming bakers, following a WW2 rationing recipe to make carrot biscuits. They were a hit! They have been busy in discovery time this week, using measuring scales to weigh out rationed food amounts, completing a light experiment and creating their own rationing timeline. Da iawn! Year 5 have enjoyed learning about common multiples in maths, making carrot cookies, making their own lindy hop dances in PE, researching 1940s dances, carrying out a light experiment and weighing items around the classroom to match rationed food amounts. Wow! Year 6 have had a busy week learning all about rationing. In their discovery time, they have made carrot cookies – tastier than they sound; made a 1940s dance tutorial and have presented their learning in creative ways. Nous aimons parler francais dans notre classe – we love to speak French in our class!

Parent/Teacher meetings – Reminder

A reminder that Parent / Teacher meetings to discuss your child’s progress will be held over the next two weeks.

Community Friday – 27th October

Our first community Friday will take place on Friday October 27th. Pupils have been putting together plans for developing our outdoor areas and if you can spare an hour or two we would love to welcome you into school to help the staff and children with their projects. Full details next week.

INSET DAYS

**We can now confirm that Friday 22nd December and Monday January 8th are INSET days. Children will break up for Christmas on Thursday 21st December and return in the Spring term on Tuesday 9th January.**

Dates for the Diary

(**Events involving specific classes will be sent out separately**)

Monday 16th October – Thursday 26th October – Teacher/Parent meetings

Thursday 26th October – PTA Autumn Discos

Friday 27th October – Community Friday

Friday 10th November – Remembrance Day in school

WB 13th November – Anti Bullying Week

Friday 17th November – Children in Need

Thursday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Friday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 12th December – Nursery and Reception Concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 13th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2, 3 Concert (evening)

Thursday 14th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (evening)

Friday December 22nd – INSET DAY

Monday January 8th – INSET DAY

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in making contact!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Headteacher

Friday October 6th

Another week full of highlights at Waunarlwydd! A big thanks to our friends at St Barnabus for hosting another wonderful Harvest visit for us! It was an exciting start to B week for the Nursery children when they had a visit from baby Mali. They learnt all about what a baby needs and were lucky enough to watch Mali having a bath. They have been doing lots of things with bears and listened to “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” before they used the story as a basis for learning about the number 3 in the woods. Their first time in the hall for gym was great fun, aiming with beanbags and throwing and catching balloons. This week Reception have loved learning their sounds with Fred the Frog and were amazing at matching objects in maths. Children loved their trip to St Barnabus and enjoyed talking about their favourite fruits and vegetables.

What a lovely time Year 1 had when they visited St Barnabas to sing their Harvest songs. Then, when back in class they thought of super wow words to make their Harvest Prayers more interesting. Saying 1 more and 1 less of a number has been the focus in maths this week. It’s been a week full of Science experiments in years 2 and 3 linked to their learning all about the Fire of London. These first hand experiences of Science in action provided the children with great opportunities to show off their predicting skills.

Year 4 have loved learning about rationing this week and have also been learning the Lambeth Walk dance. Very impressive! Year 5 have enjoyed looking at addition and subtraction in maths, making predictions in science, learning about rationing and conducting their own research, retelling a story in literacy and learning the lindy hop dance. Swimming was once again a big hit in Year 6 with the children showing great improvements. They’ve also loved their first French lesson and showed super resilience when tackling long multiplication. Gwaith wych!

Parent/Teacher meetings

Parent / Teacher meetings to discuss your child’s progress will be held during the fortnight beginning Monday 16th October. You will receive a text message next week to let you know that you can book an appointment through SQUID. Diolch!

The first PTA event of the year will take place on Thursday 26th October with an Autumn disco. Details below. All funds raised will go directly to supporting the children!

Harvest

We have celebrated Harvest this week and we’d like to say a huge thanks for all your donations which we will be delivering to Matthew’s House! Diolch pawb!

INSET DAYS

**We can now confirm that Friday 22nd December and Monday January 8th are INSET days. Children will break up for Christmas on Thursday 21st December and return in the Spring term on Tuesday 9th January.**

Dates for the Diary

(**Events involving specific classes will be sent out separately**)

Friday 13th October – SHWMAE Day (all children can wear Welsh colours)

Monday 16th October – Thursday 26th October – Teacher/Parent meetings

Thursday 26th October – PTA Autumn Discos

Friday 10th November – Remembrance Day in school

WB 13th November – Anti Bullying Week

Friday 17th November – Children in Need

Thursday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Friday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 12th December – Nursery and Reception Concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 13th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2, 3 Concert (evening)

Thursday 14th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (evening)

Friday December 22nd – INSET DAY

Monday January 8th – INSET DAY

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in making contact!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Headteacher

Friday September 29th

Another wonderful week of learning and laughing together at Waunarlwydd, full of highlights. The Nursery have started to learn a sound a week and this week has been ‘a’ week. They have enjoyed following arrows to find the apples on a tree, making pretend apple pies, hunting for different size ants in the woodland and playing with all sorts of animals in the classroom. There have been lots of accidents to sort out in the role play hospital. They also read the story ‘Avocado Baby’ and tasted avocado. This week Reception have loved thinking about what they want to be when they grow up and giving reasons why. They have talked about different emotions and used facial expressions to show those emotions. They have also created some wonderful compositions by clapping, stamping and tapping their knees.

Year 1 have been learning lots of fascinating facts about dinosaurs this week. They have made shape dinosaurs independently and were excellent at guessing the correct dinosaur when playing the ‘Who am I’ game.  After being given a description they were able to draw a dinosaur using their visualisation skills. Their favourite activity this week was pretending to be a Paleontologist and looking for dinosaur bones in the sand. Year 2 really enjoyed writing settings for dinosaurs and making harvest poems and had fun looking at types of homes we have in Waunarlwydd. Year 3 have been working hard using a variety of resources to make 2 and 3 digit numbers in maths this week. They have also been working on developing independence in their EPIC activities with the dinosaur split pins being especially popular!

Year 4 have imagined themselves as an evacuee in WW2 writing letters home to their families. There has also been huge excitement learning some dances from this period. Year 5 have enjoyed learning column addition and subtraction in maths, looking at properties of materials in science, editing evacuee letters in literacy, learning how to create a strong password and to keep personal information safe online and looking at the chronology and factors of WW2. The biggest highlight of the week for Year 6 is their visit to Gowerton school. They had an amazing morning: learning new skills; trying new things; enjoying the food; seeing old friends; meeting new teachers and settling a few nerves. Other high points of the week have been learning about the leaders of World War 2 and how the war started. 

Our wonderful PTA had their first meeting of the year this week and it was great to see some new faces. We really appreciate the hard work and dedication that this group have put into supporting the school in the past and the exciting plans in place for the future. Lara Sturgess has been elected as Chair with Claire Burns as Vice Chair and Treasurer. If you would like to know more about how you can help, please let us know. The first PTA event of the year will take place on Thursday 26th October with a Halloween disco. Details to follow. All funds raised will go directly to supporting the children.

Harvest

We will be celebrating Harvest next week and, as in previous years, will be making a donation to our friends at Matthew’s House. If you would like to send in a donation, the list of items requested is found below. Please could any items be brought into school by Thursday. Diolch!

Dates for the Diary

(**Events involving specific classes will be sent out separately**)

Monday 2nd October – Harvest trip to St Barnabus

Monday 16th October – Thursday 26th October – Teacher/Parent meetings

Thursday 26th October – PTA Halloween Discos

Friday 10th November – Remembrance Day in school

WB 13th November – Anti Bullying Week

Friday 17th November – Children in Need

Thursday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Friday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 12th December – Nursery and Reception Concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 13th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2, 3 Concert (evening)

Thursday 14th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (evening)

Friday December 22nd – INSET DAY

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in making contact!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Headteacher

Friday September 15th

A great week at Waunarlwydd School full of highlights! All the Nursery staff are delighted at how well the children have settled into morning Nursery. They have been having great fun exploring the classroom, both inside and out in the lovely weather (until the rain came). As always, the bikes have been a great hit and the children are doing really well using our balance bikes. They have been down to the woods to have a little explore, which everyone enjoyed, and painted self-portraits for our class display. It has been lovely to welcome 7 new children to the class this term who have settled in brilliantly. This week Reception have enjoyed getting to know their new routines and classroom. We have spoken about our right to come to school, learn, be safe and to relax and play and developed a class charter for us all to follow. We have started our ‘Over the Rainbow’ topic through the story ‘The Colour Monster’ and linking colours to emotions, talking about what makes us feel happy and sad. 

Year 1 have loved using dinosaur figures to count reliably and sort using different criteria. They have also completed some discovery challenges all by themselves, which included continuing a dinosaur pattern and labelling a dinosaur. They are now experts at colour mixing and have painted some superb pictures to show off their skills. Thank you for all the lovely dinosaur books you have allowed us to borrow. Year 2 are loving their dinosaur topic, using adjectives to write character descriptions. They had fun making up their own raps in Music and counting in the outdoors on their muddy Thursday walk. Year 3 have started their new topic ‘Long, long, ago’ and the children have shared their EPIC ideas for their first mini topic on dinosaurs. They have really enjoyed developing their creative skills with modelling and drawing as well as working hard on reading and writing numbers independently this week.

In Mrs Wallace and Mrs Howells’ class a big hit has been their guided reading sessions in the morning, where they have been telling stories using story dice, completing reading eggs on the chrome books and using skimming and scanning skills when looking in our Where’s Wally books. They’ve loved it! Miss Shaw’s class loved writing and recording their own declaration of war, learning about what it was like to be evacuated and writing a letter as though they were an evacuee. They really enjoyed their discovery work to build on independent skills before presenting in a two page spread.  Year 5 this week have enjoyed learning place value in maths, writing letters in literacy, learning about light sources and measuring shadows in science. Carrying out independent discovery tasks, learning about evacuation was also a big hit! Year 6 have been loving their swimming lessons. Lots of children are developing confidence and getting out of their comfort zones. Shelter building in the woodland was a highlight – they used their knowledge of knots to help them. Even learning about negative numbers has been mentioned as a big hit!

It was great to see parents attending our coffee morning with Fran (CAMHS in-reach support worker). We hope those in attendance found the informal nature of benefit! We intend to hold similar coffee mornings each half term.

Reminder – Consent forms for nasal flu vaccine need to be returned by Thursday 28th September. Please remember they need to be returned even with a ‘No’ response. Diolch!

Online Safety – Advice for Parents

Dates for the Diary

(**Events involving specific classes will be sent out separately**)

Monday 16th October – Thursday 26th October – Teacher/Parent meetings

Friday 10th November – Remembrance Day in school

WB 13th November – Anti Bullying Week

Friday 17th November – Children in Need

Thursday 7th December – Christmas Fair

Friday 8th December – Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 12th December – Nursery and Reception Concert (morning), Year 1, 2 and 3 concert (afternoon)

Wednesday 13th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (afternoon), Year 1, 2, 3 Concert (evening)

Thursday 14th December – Year 4, 5, 6 Concert (evening)

Friday December 22nd – INSET DAY

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in making contact!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Headteacher

Friday September 15th

It’s been a great start to the new year at Waunarlwydd School with our superstar children settling back into school life brilliantly. A big thanks to all of you that attended our ‘Meet the teacher’ events this week. We hope you found them worthwhile and took away with you the key messages that Waunarlwydd is ‘Our School‘ and that we need to work as a ‘Partnership‘ with ‘Good Communication‘ as the key. We appreciate that some will not be able to attend these sorts of events due to other commitments but we will endeavour to keep everyone up to date with information.

All the Nursery staff are delighted at how well the children have settled and they have been having great fun exploring the classroom, both inside and out in the lovely weather. As always, the bikes have been a great hit and they went down to the woods on Wednesday to have a little explore which everyone enjoyed. We have also welcomed 5 new children to the class this week who have settled in brilliantly. New topics are underway in other parts of the school with Reception starting ‘Over the Rainbow’ where they will be exploring colour through stories. Years 1, 2 and 3 (Progression Step 2) have begun ‘Long Long Ago’ and children are excited to start their first mini topic, learning all about Dinosaurs. In Years 4, 5 and 6 (Progression Step 3) the topic is called ‘Your Country Needs You’. They will be exploring different topics around the era of World War 2, starting with evacuation and the impact on children. 

School Senedd

Our new school Senedd group met with Ms Williams for the first time today and have decided that this year’s focus will be on developing the wonderful outdoor spaces we have in our school. They have started planning our first project, with children across the school having input. A new addition to our plans this year is a ‘Community Friday‘ which we will hold on the last Friday of each half term. On this day we will be inviting family members to come into school to work with children and staff on our outdoor development projects. More details on this will be sent nearer the time.

Extra-curricular clubs

Our after school clubs will begin next week. You should have received a form to complete. Please ensure your child definitely wants to attend the club before completing. Clubs will run for a block of 4 weeks every half term and ALL will be held on a Wednesday. Clubs will run regardless of weather conditions with indoor alternatives provided if needed.

CAMHS in-reach

Our CAMHS in-reach worker this year is Frances Pugsley. She is able to offer support to children and families around areas such as: Worries, Low Mood, Self-esteem, Emotional Regulation, Understanding Anger and Resilience. If you would like to learn more, we will will be holding an informal coffee morning on Friday September 22nd at 9.00.

Online Safety – Advice for Parents

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in making contact!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Headteacher

The weather has certainly been kind to us as we’ve enjoyed a wonderful first week back at school. Children and staff have had a great week settling into their new classes and catching up with friends. We can all look forward to an exciting year ahead. It has been amazing to see and hear all the learning and laughter across the school as new topics get underway. We are looking forward to working together as a whole school community to give the very best opportunities to the incredible children of Waunarlwydd Primary School. We have lots of exciting plans aimed at further enhancing whole school community engagement and will update you over the coming weeks.

Exciting news – new website

We have been working hard to build a brand new website and are looking forward to launching it at some point this term with the aim of further developing our means of communication. We appreciate your patience as we undertake this process.

Parents ‘Meet the teacher’

Parents/carers of children in Years 1 to 6 will have the opportunity to meet their child’s teacher and learn about routines and plans for the year. Events for Nursery and Reception parents will be arranged for later in the term.

Wednesday September 13th (14.50 school hall) – ‘Meet the teacher’ for parents/carers of children in Years 4, 5 and 6.

Thursday September 14th (14.50 school hall) – ‘Meet the teacher’ for parents/carers of children in Years 1, 2 and 3.

Reminder

We’d like to remind parents parking on Brithwen Road to make the safety of all children their priority as well as being respectful to residents. Please can you also ensure that no litter is left on leaving the premises. Many thanks for your support!

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in making contact!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Headteacher

Friday July 21st

It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the end of the year at Waunarlwydd Primary School! A massive thanks to all the staff for, once again, giving their all for the children. Huge thanks to to all our amazing families for working with us and to the governing body and PTA for their support. Without a doubt, the biggest thanks has to go to our incredible children, who have, once again, proven themselves to be a credit to Waunarlwydd and a pleasure to be around. You are all superstars!

To our Year 6 children, as they reach the end of Primary School, you should head to Gowerton with your heads held high. We are very proud of you all and Gowerton is a very lucky school to be welcoming you in September. What a way to finish with a magnificent Leavers Concert. Aim high and go for it!

To all our other children, your new teachers can’t wait to learn and laugh with you in September! You should all be very excited!

This Year we say goodbye to 3 incredible members of staff. Mrs Davies is leaving after so many years as Headteacher of Waunarlwydd and can set off on her new adventures safe in the knowledge that she has made a massive difference to the whole school community during her headship. Mr Jenkins, after 33 years at the school is heading off into the sunset, ready to travel and make new memories. He should be proud of the difference he has made to so many pupils over the years. Finally, a big good luck to Mrs Hyatt as she pursues her dream of becoming a mid wife when she starts University in September. You’ll be amazing!

On a personal note, I count myself extremely privileged to be starting my position as Headteacher from September 1st. I look forward to working together as a whole school community as we strive to make Waunarlwydd the best possible place for our awesome children to thrive!

Have a wonderful, safe and healthy Summer! See you all on Tuesday 5th September!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher

Friday July 14th

As much as we were all looking forward to our first whole school trip to the beach, unfortunately, the only option we had was to cancel. We didn’t let the weather stop us having fun and we’ve had a great day in school with discos, games and, of course, lollies and ice creams. We’ve seen two incredible assemblies this week led by Miss Tyrrell and Mrs Melen’s classes. I’m sure all those present would agree that the children were amazing.

Year 6 have enjoyed their days at Gowerton Comprehensive School during transition week and have been very busy rehearsing for their Leavers’ Concert next week. We’re in for a treat!

All the teachers have loved meeting their new classes ready for next year. As I’m sure you are now aware, we will be having straight year groups next year:

Nursery – Mrs Mcdonnell, Reception – Mrs Melen, Year 1 – Miss Tyrrell, Year 2 – Mrs Evans and Mrs Thomas, Year 3 – Mr Reid, Year 4 – Either Miss Shaw or Mrs Wallace and Mrs Howells, Year 5 – Miss Fender, Year 6 – Ms Williams.

Another massive thanks to all those that helped with and supported our Summer Fair. The astonishing amount of £3657 was raised. This will be of enormous benefit to our children and we will let you know exactly what the money will be spent on in the new year.

Children will receive their end of year reports on Monday and we are looking forward to enjoying our last week together before the Summer Holidays. A reminder that Friday 21st July is the last day in school for children.

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, don’t hesitate in making contact!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jamie Evans

Deputy Headteacher