Ysgol Gynradd Coedpenmaen - Coedpenmaen Primary School: February 2015

Coedpenmaen Eisteddfod 2015

Celebrating everybody's talents at our Eisteddfod.
Llongyfarchiadau to Maizi Parry who became Coedpenmaen' s 1st bard for her beautiful poem.
The chairing if the bard ceremony was very special!

Enterprise Troopers Show off their talents!

NEWSLETTER 13th FEBRUARY 2015

13^th February 2015

We’ve reached half term already!

This term has included a number of fun learning activities for the children. This has included birds of prey for lower Key stage 2, visiting artists (and art exhibition!) for Upper Key Stage 2, local walks for Upper Foundation Phase to send some information to Mr Carter’s Australian brother (!!) and Cats’ Protection for Nursery and Reception.

Many thanks to all the parents who joined us for our very first ‘Creative Writing’ session. It was an absolute pleasure to see how many families were able to share their time to work with their children on their stories. Hopefully, we will have a winner in the 500 words competition!

Next term we are looking forward to our Welsh Week and Maths and Science Week as well as our new themes ‘Dream for a Druid’, ‘Merlin’s Magical Creatures’, ‘Local Investigators’, and ‘I like to Move it, Move it!

Remember to check out our Moodle and Blog to keep up to date with activities in school

13^th Feb Last day before half term

23^rd Feb INSET DAY - no school for children

24^th Feb Children return to school

Welsh Week / Wythnos Cymraeg

27^th Feb School Eisteddfod

3^rd Mar Holly Class to St Fagan’s

4^th Mar PC Rob Thomas – Year 4 “T.A.S.K.”

5^th Mar World Book Day (please note change of date)

12^th Mar Sycamore Class to St Fagan’s

16^th–20^th Mar Maths and Science Week

17^th Mar Parents’ Evening

18^th Mar Willow Class to “Easter Cracked” (Temple Baptist)

18^th Mar Parents’ Evening

24^th Mar Trallwn Yr2 visit Coedpenmaen (am)

Year 1/2 to Literary Festival in Cardiff (pm)

Hazel Class to St Fagan’s

26^th Mar ‘Faces’ photography – class photographs – please send your child to school in uniform.

**Welsh Government tests for Years 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be between 5th May and 12th May 2015. Please avoid any absences during this time**

Parent Governor

Congratulations to Mrs Hayley Jones who has been appointed as your new parent governor.

Good luck to our ‘Enterprise Troopers’ team who are through to the next round. They will be competing at Coleg y Cymoedd on 25^th February 2015. Thanks to ‘Tesco Tony’ for supporting us, in this competition and throughout the school.

Reading Parents are asked to help support their children in continuing to develop their reading skills. Younger children will benefit from reading anything and everything – as well as being asked some questions about the text e.g. if they enjoyed the story and why, who their favourite character was and why etc. Older children who are confident readers will also benefit from being questioned on the text – discussing characters and settings, as well as sharing their opinions on the story, giving reasons by referring to the text.

Following the dip in attendance just before Christmas due to some quite bad chest and stomach infections and thanks to your commitment to school attendance, we have started to move towards our target. We still have some way to go … but with your continued support I am sure we can achieve the target – for the benefit of the children’s education.

Our first 100% challenge days resulted in Ash and Sycamore classes being the winners.

Well done to our winners of Seren yr Wythnos / Star of the Week. Check on the Moodle to find out who has won!

Breakfast club is open from 8.10am. each morning. Forms are available from Mrs Morton in the office if you are interested. Please note: Children MUST be signed in each morning by a responsible adult.

We still have a number of Microsoft Office codes available for those families who wish to use this free offer. Just send your email address to school and we can forward the details to you.

You may be aware that RCTCBC have agreed to make changes to Nursery Provision in schools with effect from September 2015. The school will be making plans with the Governing Body in the coming weeks and we will endeavour to keep you informed of any changes to school provision. Unfortunately, I have no further information at this time.

Have a great half term break!

Mrs Loveridge

Wythnos Cymraeg / Welsh Week

13th February 2015
Our pupils will return to a Wythnos Cymraeg / Welsh week on Tuesday 24^th February. All teachers will plan Welsh activities and pupils will be completing their competition entries in handwriting, English writing and art. Pupils will be focusing on their welsh skills in oracy, reading and writing and will even be completing numeracy based/welsh activities.

The three days will build up to our Eisteddfod day on Friday 27^th March. On this day, pupils are allowed to wear Welsh costumes (including headwear if desired) or their house colours. Pupils may also bring in home-made banners or house colour mascots if they wish. At the end of each day in this week, all pupils will meet in their ‘Houses’ to practise stage items and to support one another. Pupils may choose to audition for the following competitions: choir, solo singing, instrumental solo and a group recital. The choir involves the whole house ensuring that all pupils will take part on the big day. We are looking forward to a fun-filled Welsh week!

HALF TERM ART COMPETITION (voluntary)

Please could you help your child to complete a piece of artwork (3D model, painting, sketch, clay, collage etc.) on the following themes:

Nursery and Reception: A Max Boyce Leek or daffodils

Years 1 and 2: The Welsh Dragon

Years 3 and 4: Celtic patterns (there are lots online to look at)

Years 5 and 6: Welsh places and landscapes

Remember that every entry earns house points for the Houses and we will display all entries in the hall on Eisteddfod day. Check out the Scorch Dragon activities and comics on the following links:

http://supporters.wru.co.uk/scorch/story.php http://supporters.wru.co.uk/scorch/29759.php#.VN3CkvmsWSo

Again, we thank you all for you cooperation.

Mr Carter.

Some examples of the high standard of artwork

Coedpenmaen Gallery Success!

Last night, we witnessed a wealth of talent in Beech, Willow and Oak classes when parents came to view the amazing artwork that they had created as part of their gallery project. We were fortunate to be inspired by two visiting artists and pupils studied a wide range of art using their literacy and numeracy skills. Most paintings were sold and we thank all parents who supported this event ! Again, we are proud of our pupils' achievements. Thank you also to the teachers for working hard to help the pupils set this gallery up.