CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER

15^th December 2016

Dear Parent / Carer

With Christmas almost upon us, I wanted to update everyone with events at school. 

 

As usual it has been a jam packed half term with interesting and exciting activities for everyone.  From thinking about soldiers on Remembrance Day to the Roald Dahl ‘Sleepover’ in Cardiff; pizza parties and cinema afternoons for Good to be Green rewards, achieving the Healthy Schools (Phase 3) award, the Christmas Fayre, fabulous concerts and visiting the Muni for the Panto or Rumble in the Jungle to meet the man in the bright red suit!

 

Our pupil groups have been very active too.  The Digital Leaders have begun working and started off by visiting Admiral in Cardiff to find out more about using social media, the Eco Council have been encouraging us all to switch off the lights more often and the Glee Choir have entertained school, parents and the community with their Christmas tunes.  The school council have begun working with Governors to raise awareness of dog fouling on the bridge leading to school.   We ask that if you are aware of local residents who allow their dogs to foul on the bridge, that the local authority is informed:

//forms.rctcbc.gov.uk/en/StreetCare/AnimalFouling/ContactDetails

 

The Eco Council are also involved in the Local Authority’s Christmas Card recycling scheme and ask that you send as many old Christmas Cards to school as possible in the new year.  PLEASE don’t just through them out…ask friends, family and neighbours so that we collect as many Christmas Cards as possible.

 

The ‘Parents’ Forum’ has had its inaugural meeting, and has been set some tasks in preparation for the next meeting in the new year.    We will keep you up to date with their work which includes considering homework, attendance etc.  Thanks also to all the parents who attended parents’ evening to discuss their children’s progress.  As always, we had a great turn out!

 

The PTA’s Christmas Fayre was again very well attended – boosted by the inclusion of the Glee Choir to entertain during the evening.  The PTA raising £713.55.  Your support of the PTA is much appreciated – as they are working hard to raise funds to support the development of the school grounds.   Monies raised from the sale of Concert tickets etc. through the school’s Private Fund is also used for the benefit of the children and will be supporting the development of the school grounds as well.

 

Our Value next half term is THANKFULNESS, perfect for the children to think about after the excesses of Christmas.  Through this, we will be considering how thankful we need to be for what we have, and remember those who are not as fortunate.

 

A number of parents of Year 1 and Year 2 children are waiting for their children beyond the school fence at the back of the school.  Year 1 and 2 parents are requested to enter the school yard to collect their children to ensure the children’s safety and for school staff to know that they have been handed over to responsible adults.

 

Attendance - This term we are absolutely thrilled that we have rewarded 68 children for 100% attendance.  This is the highest amount for an Autumn Term ever!  Spring term usually gives us the highest amount of 100% attendance pupils, so we will hopefully see this increase too.  Children with the very best attendance also received a special award in the Summer Term.

We are currently at 95% for our whole school attendance.  This is below our target set by the Local Authority of 95.4%.  You will all be aware that attendance is a core feature of the school’s Inspection process.  The school has previously had recommendations to improve attendance, and as such I ask for your continued support in sending your child to school as often as possible.  

Well done to Sycamore class who won the best class attendance of the term, and Sycamore and Beech who had the most number of children who achieved 100%.

Please note: if your child is genuinely ill, they should not attend school - it remains the responsibility of parents to inform the school n the first day of absence if a child is not well enough to attend

Tues 3^rd Jan      INSET Day – no school for children

Wed 4^th Jan      Children return to school

Mon 9^th Jan      Techniquest kits at school

Tues 10^th          Techniquest kits at school

                           PC Rob – Year 4 – Internet Safety

Fri 13^th Jan       INSET Day – no school for children

Thurs 19^th Jan   Football/Rugby after school starts back (Years 5 and 6)

Fri 20^th Jan       PTA Cake Day

Tues 7^th Feb     Safer Internet Day

Fri 10^th Feb       Proposed visit to HHS – Year 5 and 6 – to be confirmed

Mon 13^th Feb   Cultural Diversity Week

Tues 14^th Feb   PTA - Valentine Disco

Wed 15^th Feb   Show Racism the Red Card Workshops (Yr 5 and Yr 6)

                         Anti-Bullying Workshop - Accessibility Wales (Yr 4)

Thurs 16^th Feb  Year 5 – PC Rob – I didn’t think

Mon 20^th Feb – Fri 24^th Feb – HALF TERM

Mon 27^th Feb   Wythnos Cymraeg – Welsh Week

                         Author Visit for KS2

Wed 1^st Mar     Eisteddfod

Thurs 9^th Mar   Class and Group Photos

Fri 10^th Mar      Proposed CLUSTER INSET Day –TBC

 

**Welsh Government Tests are between 3^rd – 10^th May 2017.  We ask that every effort is made to ensure that pupils in Year 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are in school during these test dates**

 

We are having a slight swap around of staff in January.  Miss Baldwin will work in the Nursery until the summer with Mrs E Davies.  Mrs L Davies will return to working in Reception / Year 1, and Miss Richards joining Mr Carter in Ash class.

 

We have also had concerns raised about parking on the yellow zigzags at the rear of the school.  Please be advised that Traffic Enforcement Officers may be patrolling in the New Year.

 

I wish you all the very best for Christmas and the New Year and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

 

Yours, Mrs Loveridge (Headteacher)

ATTENDANCE

Please find below copy of letter re: Attendance sent to families on Friday 9th Dec 2016

Dear Parent / Carer

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

As you are all aware the Welsh Government and the Local Authority have placed a strong focus on regular, good school attendance.  This is then continued at school where we are challenged by the Local Authority to meet targets, set by them, to raise levels of attendance across the whole school.  Many of you will also be aware that attendance also forms part of the school’s Inspection Criteria and was a recommendation in the previous Inspection (2012) with ‘satisfactory progress’ being judged in the re-visit in May 2015.   We aim to ensure that any future Inspections show that we have made at least ‘good’ progress!

Our target, set by the Local Authority, is 95.4%.

The school is currently below this target, even though we have not yet completed a whole term with current attendance now at 94.9%. 

In order to achieve the minimum of 95% target for every child’s attendance at school we will be introducing a new initiative which will begin at the end of this term and I would like to request your support to help us reach, and hopefully exceed, our target.

We have already started a part of this initiative:

• texts were sent out last week which let families know your child’s class attendance, as well as identifying the class with the best attendance.  This will continue on a weekly basis

As well as this, each child will have a letter sent home at the end of each term.  This will identify which ‘band’ your child’s attendance is in, as detailed below:

• Green Letter      if your child’s attendance is 95% or above – Excellent attendance – meets Welsh Government target for your child.

• Yellow Letter     for attendance 90% - 94.9% - this attendance needs a slight improvement to meet targets
• Amber Letter     86% - 89.9% - this attendance is monitored closely at school
• Red Letter           Below 86% - This attendance is a considerable cause of concern.  If improvements are not made the school has no choice but to follow Welsh Government and Local Authority procedures.

We also have a series of rewards for good attendance:

• The best class each week has an extra 10 minutes play on the following Monday
• Any class achieving 100% for the full week receives an extra treat (for example pop and biscuits etc.).   Ash class won this last week!
• Children who have achieved 100% at the end of each term receive a certificate, as well as a small prize
• Children who achieve 100% for the full year receive an amazon Gift Voucher in the Summer Term.

I hope that you find this information useful and look forward to working with you to meet our school targets.   Our Attendance Policy is available on the Parents’ page of our Moodle website.

BUSY WEEKS!!

Please check our Twitter feed, Class Dojo and Class Blog to see how busy all the classes have been over the last few weeks!

CHRISTMAS FAYRE

@Coedpenmaenpr1  Don't forget our Christmas Fayre on Thursday - straight after school. Visit Santa and join in with Christmas songs with our choir.

 

Newsletter

31^st October 2016

Dear Parent / Carer

Welcome back!  This term we continue with our work on Roald Dahl throughout the school, with Year 5 looking forward to a ‘sleepover’ at the Wales Millennium Centre to experience a number of Roald Dahl themed activities.

 

Year 6 should have received their invitations to take part in this year’s Llangrannong Residential trip.  This is open to all Year 6 pupils, although it is arranged by staff at Hawthorn High School.

Last half term was very busy with a number of whole school activities - our amazing Macmillan Coffee Morning which raised an incredible £606.71 and our Harvest Celebration where Year 3 presented a lovely assembly and shared the Harvest loaf (with thanks to Tesco Tony for the delicious bread).  Year 6 then delivered parcels to the elderly in our locality, as well as local homeless charities benefitting from your generosity.  There have also been visits by the Fire and Rescue Service as well as the Ambulance Service’s ‘Shoktober’.  A few classes visited Pontypridd Museum and Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed watching the rehearsals of ‘Oliver’ at Hawthorn High School.

The PTA’s Hallowe’en Disco was again very well attended – with the PTA raising £343.47.  Your support of the PTA is much appreciated – as they are working hard to raise funds to support the development of the school grounds.  Year 6 enjoyed a day of Cycling Proficiency – thankfully the weather stayed dry!  The end of the half term was celebrated with our Roald Dahl Day which was a roaring success – thank you so much for supporting with such wonderful costumes! 

As you are aware, there were a few changes of staff in September.  All staff have now settled well into their new classes, and the children are progressing well.  Of particular note is Mrs Pugh’s appointment as ALNCo (Additional Learning Needs Coordinator) and Mrs Deverill who is leading the school’s approach to the ‘Digital Competency Framework’ – Welsh Government’s plan for developing pupils’ safe  use of digital media (tablets, laptops etc).  We welcome Miss Richards as a LSA in Reception class and Mr James and Mrs Crimmins as support staff in Holly class.

Our Value this half term is PERSEVERANCE.  Children will learn the importance of not giving up - both in their school work and in their ability to stand up for what they believe in – even when they are finding things a little difficult.  As usual, if your child demonstrates this Value at home, please let the class teacher know, so that we can celebrate your child’s achievements as a whole school.

School Development this year is focussing again on the children’s approach to creative writing, as well as working to improve basic skills in Maths (e.g recall of times tables, knowing a range of ‘number facts’ etc.)  We are working with staff to ensure our teaching is creative and motivates the children to want to learn.  We also hope to further develop the school grounds.  If you are able to offer any support to the school for curriculum areas and school development, please let the class teachers know.

As a further development this year, we aim to set up a ‘Parents’ Forum’, where we aim to invite a parent from each class to meet as a group with members of the leadership team to support school development.

Tues 1^st Nov     Flu inoculations (nasal spray) for Nurs-Y3 -  with school nurse  -  parents must be present for Nursery children

Wed 2^nd Nov    1.00pm - PC Rob – All year 3 – Friend or Foe

Parents’ Evening – Book Fayre, Hawthorn High School staff and Attendance and Wellbeing  Service present.

Thurs 3^rd Nov   11.30am - 1.00pm - Cross Country at Hawthorn High – Year 5 and 6

Parents’ Evening – RCT Attendance and Wellbeing  Service present and Book Fayre

Thurs 10^th Nov Yr5 - Welsh Millennium Centre – Roald Dahl Sleepover

Fri 11^th Nov      Remembrance Day Assembly

Yr5 - Welsh Millennium Centre – Roald Dahl Sleepover

Thurs 17^th Nov 6.00pm – Hawthorn High Awards Evening

Fri 18^th Nov      BBC Children in Need

Tues 22^nd Nov  6.00 - Shakespeare Schools Festival at the Muni

Mon 28^th Nov   Maths Workshops at school from Techniquest

Tues 29^th Nov   Maths Workshops at school from Techniquest

Thurs 1^st Dec    Christmas Fayre – straight after school

Fri 2^nd Dec        Lego Robotics with Holly Class

                         Choir singing at Nat West in Ponty (1.30pm)

Mon 5^th Dec     Key Stage 2 “Christmas at Coedpenmaen” – Coedpenmaen Chapel–1.30pm AND 6.00pm

Wed 7^th Dec     Year 1 and Year 2 Christmas Celebration in the school hall (1.45pm)

Thurs 8^th Dec    Nursery and Reception Christmas Nativity (9.45am) in the school hall

Thurs 8^th Dec    Year 1 and Year 2 Christmas Celebration in the school hall (1.45pm)

Fri 9^th Dec        (am)–Yr2–Christmas Wrapped Up! –Baptist Chapel

Wed 14^th Dec   Yr1-Yr6 – Panto at Muni – £5 per child

Fri 16^th Dec      Last Day of Autumn Term

Tues 3^rd Jan      INSET Day – no school for children

Wed 4^th Jan      Children return to school

Fri 13^th Jan       INSET Day – no school for children

** Nursery and Reception will be offered a visit to see Santa – details will follow soon**

**Welsh Government Tests are between 3^rd – 10^th May 2017.  We ask that every effort is made to ensure that pupils in Year 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are in school during these test dates**

Please take care when walking through the school car parks – remember that they are car parks and that children should be supervised at all times. Also please consider our neighbours – both with children dropping litter on their way to and from school as well as choosing where you park and the beginning and end of the school days. 

I look forward to seeing you all at our Parents’ Evenings this week.

Yours, Mrs Loveridge (Headteacher)

CREATIVE SCHOOLS - ARE YOU THE PERSON THE CHILDREN ARE LOOKING FOR??

Hazel and Sycamore classes have released their job advert for a creative practitioner to help them in their project.

Click the link to see their advert!

https://youtu.be/qI2rCiaibiE

Hallowe'en Disco

Spooky fun-filled Hallowe'en Disco 20th October - look out for the posters at school!

NEWSLETTER

5^th September 2016

Dear Parent / Carer

Welcome to the new school year at Coedpenmaen – to new pupils, new parents and new staff!  

Staff have been in school over the last few weeks, making plans and preparing classrooms, as well as undertaking some updates to their training (Child Protection and awareness of Autistic Spectrum Disorders). 

We are all looking forward to our whole school projects on the Wonderful World of Roald Dahl.  We will be sharing some fabulous books and enjoying our very own Roald Dahl Day on 21^st Oct 2016.

Each class will focus on a specific novel, and this will be supplemented with other books throughout the term.

Mrs Deverill, Mrs Pugh, Ms Green and Miss Newman’s class :Danny, Champion of the World

Mr Munday and Miss Grba:  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Mr Carter and Mrs Cannon - George’s Marvellous Medicine

Mrs Vukashin and Mrs Maher - Fantastic Mr Fox

Miss Bailey and Mrs Davies - The Enormous Crocodile

I am pleased to inform you that we have again been successful in applying for a grant, this time from the ‘Big Lottery Fund’.  This grant is to be used to develop a ‘trim trail’ type activity for pupils in the junior yard.  We have a number of other applications in for other areas of the school grounds.

PARKING: Parking is an issue at almost every school in RCT!  Parents are reminded that there should be NO PARKING on the zig-zag lines at the back of the school.  Please also consider our neighbours and avoid parking across their driveways.  Car access to the school via Coedpenmaen Close should also be used on rare occasions – parents are not to use this front car park to drop children off/pick up from school and are advised to use the rear of the school when possible.  Please also supervise children carefully if walking through the staff car park.

Care for our neighbours: I would also like to remind families that I have received complaints about litter in the locality.  Please encourage your children to dispose of the litter responsibly.

I have included the initial diary dates for your information – but please regularly look at our Moodle page where the calendar will be updated regularly.

5^th Sept                      Children return to school.

15^th Sept                    Yr 6 – Cycling Proficiency

30^th Sept                    Macmillan Coffee Morning

6^th Oct                       School Harvest

       Year 3 Parents welcome from 1pm for Y3 assembly

13^th Oct                     Faces photography – individual photos

14^th Oct                     Ambulance Service workshops for pupils ‘Shoktober’.

21^st Oct                     Roald Dahl Day at school

Half Term – 24^th Oct – 28^th Oct

31^st Oct                      Scholastic Book Fair arriving at school

1^st Nov                       Flu inoculations

2^nd and 3^rd Nov          Parents’ Evening

18^th Nov                    BBC Children in Need

14^th Dec                     Year 1 – Year 6 – Panto at Muni - £5 per pupil

16^th Dec                     Last day of term for Christmas Break

19^th December – 2^nd January – Christmas Break

3^rd Jan                        Proposed INSET Day (to be confirmed)

13^th Jan                      INSET

Dates for Christmas Concerts and the Christmas Fayre will be included as soon as possible.

We have many ways of keeping in touch with what is going on at school.  Over the next few weeks, class teachers will be setting up Class Dojo once again.  This is an excellent way of keeping seeing what is happening in the classroom.  We also have our school ‘Blog’, the newsletter page on the Moodle (rctmoodle.org/cpm), as well as Twitter ‪@Coedpenmaenpr1.

Our Value this term is Friendship.  The children will learn how to be a good friend about what makes a good friend. 

Pirates of the Curry Bean - I’m sure you will all recall the amazing performance of Pirates of the Curry Bean before the Summer.  We now have a number of copies of the show on DVD.  These are available at a cost of £5.  If you wish to have a copy, please send the money to school in an envelope, clearly labelled so that we can get the DVD to you as soon as possible.

School Dinners - Please bring your dinner money in an envelope each Monday.  Local Authority auditors monitor this – we are not permitted to allow families to build up a ‘debt’ of dinner money.  Unless there are exceptional circumstances, children MUST maintain the same arrangements for lunch throughout the week.  This ensures that the kitchen orders the correct amount of food to cook as well as helps office staff with the accurate administration of dinner money. 

School Uniform :  parents are reminded that we have a very smart school uniform which we encourage the pupils to wear at all times.  There is no need to have jumpers / t-shirts with the school badge embroidered, as a plain white/pale blue t-shirt and navy jumper are also acceptable.  School ties are available from the school office if you wish to purchase one for your child.

It is always a pleasure to meet parents through our open-door policy.  Please remember, if you have any concerns you are able to discuss them initially with the class teacher (before or after school is always best to avoid teaching times).  If you needed to see me, please either pop in, or if I am not available, please make an appointment. 

As always, your help with our attendance target is much appreciated!  Unfortunately we did not meet our target last year.  Parents are reminded that the Welsh Government target for attendance for all pupils is 95%.   Your support in this is always much appreciated.

We are all looking forward to another successful, happy and busy term!!

Mrs Loveridge