Dear Parent/Carer,
Thank you very much to Dr Catherine Purcell from Cardiff University, who joined us at our assembly on Friday and gave out certificates. We worked with her to help develop a road safety app last year which is now available on the app store, free of charge:
itunes.apple.com/gb/app/virtualroadworld
We have been invited to take part in some additional research about this app, and pupils in Years 3 and 4 will be receiving letters about this shortly.
All clubs are running as usual, including Inspire Fitness, which is our parent/staff fitness club run by Miss Murphy.
Welsh Fortnight is continuing this week and we will be joined on Friday by the actor Phillip Michell who will be performing ‘Dragon Tales’ for children in years 3 and 4 and then running workshops with classes 3P and 3/4B.
Tonight, the Football Team are playing away against Pillgwenlly Primary School. Good luck to everyone playing.
Tomorrow, Bryony Bromley, from Eco Wales, will be joining our Eco Team to assess them on their continued progress.
On Thursday, a group of pupils will be visiting Sycamore Ward to work on an Art project with some attendees. This is such a great project and we are very pleased to be working with the Aneurin Bevan HealthTrust on this.
Friday is a Casual Day to raise money for school funds. Children may wear their own clothes for a donation of at least £1.00. This money will be used to purchase at least one Chromebook. Each one costs the school £181.00, including licences and it would be great if we could raise enough to buy two. (We have 351 pupils in the school at the moment.)
The Digital Leaders have met with staff and decided on an order of two Chromebooks, forty headphones and six Spheros (for coding), which are all being paid for by money raised at the Christmas Fayre. We are also buying thirty BBC Microbits and these are being paid for by a special grant.
Mrs Pochkua and Mr Phillips will be joining us at our assembly on Friday to talk to pupils about Code Club progress.
Friday is a busy day for Year 3 and 4 pupils because they also have a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Ambassador visiting them to help with their project on The City of the Future.
Attendance and National Tests
The National Tests in Literacy and Numeracy will take place from Tuesday 7th May until Tuesday 14th May. Please note that no holiday will be authorized for the month of April leading up to these tests.
Office
The office phone will not be manned all the time in the afternoon after half term. Please do not ring in with messages all the time about who is collecting your child at the end of the day. Please either tell an adult at the door in the morning or send a note in with your child for their teacher. This should be sorted out before your child comes to school.
For the past few weeks, Mrs Kidd and Mrs Martin have had to pass on so many late messages, that they have been unable to do their work properly. Mrs Kidd works part- time and we don’t have any extra office staff which, for a school our size, means that they are under huge pressure in the office.
Please do not also bring in packed lunch late. All food should be brought in by children only.
Please collect your child from school on time. Some parents are taking advantage of staff goodwill by continually collecting children late.
I understand that there may be occasional problems with traffic in Newport but last week, on Tuesday, twelve children were deliberately left late in school. This is not fair to them or the staff.
If you need a child minder after school to help with pick-ups, we can give you some details. We have lot of after school meetings and the office will not always be manned so, depending on whether we have after-school meetings, it may not be possible for you to collect your child from the office and we would have to look after them elsewhere.
Dinner Money arrears – if accounts are not in credit then we may not be able to provide a school meal. If you have a problem with payment, please speak to me or the office as soon as possible. The school has to pay the cost of dinner money owing to Chartwells, which means that we have less money to spend on equipment for everyone.
School Dinners
Chartwells – Special Six Nations Rugby Menu on 21.2.19:
Hot dog/veggie hot dog, potatoes, beans and salad and cheese and crackers
Please do not send your child in with any food items containing nuts (cereal bars etc.). This is very important because we have children and staff in school with nut allergies.
Future Dates
We break up on Friday 22nd February for half term and school resumes on Monday 4th March.
Our Eisteddfod is on Tuesday 5th March.
Children may wear Welsh or home national costume, team kits or uniforms from organisations such as Brownies.
Alternatively, children can wear school uniform but with a t-shirt or top in their house colours which are:
Ebbw – Green
Severn – Blue
Usk – Yellow
Wye – Red
Parental Consultations take place on Tuesday 5th March and Wednesday 6th March. Regrettably, Miss Spray has had to change the date of her appointments because she has to attend an evening course and parents will be given a separate letter about this. A children’s DVD will be running in the nursery if you do not have any babysitters. All children, apart from Year 6, who will go in with their parents, will be expected to go there.
The Friends of St Woolos Meetings will now take place on Wednesday 13th March at 2.45pm and 5.30pm instead. You are welcome to attend either.
I hope that everyone has an enjoyable and safe half term break. School resumes on Monday 4th March.
Yours sincerely,
H Vaughan
Headteacher